Gen VThe first six episodes of the film are remarkably tight. The boys‘ spin-off series immediately establishes its place in the larger universe, introducing us to an entire cast of characters, a unique superhero university, and a secret conspiracy in just a few hours. Despite the relatively large cast of characters, Gen V manages to give everyone time to shine in their own storylines, giving each of them problems – both personal and super-powered – that just makes for great television. Meanwhile, all the teen drama filters back seamlessly into the conspiracy thriller, literally under the school, as the kids discover the mysteries of The Woods. But Gen V‘s final two episodes encounter a unique problem: they move too quickly.
(Ed. remark: This post contains spoilers for Gen V season 1.)
Gen V‘s seventh and eighth episodes cover a lot of ground very quickly. After Episode 6’s cliffhanger twist (that Cate has been manipulating the group this whole time), the gang discovers that Indira Shetty’s ultimate plan with The Woods is to create a virus that will kill anyone with Compound V in their system. Cate decides she’s going to switch sides completely. She kills Shetty, who had been manipulating her, and frees the children from The Woods, telling them that they are better than humans and that humans don’t deserve to live – a message that Sam quickly takes up. However, for Marie, Jordan, Emma and Andre, this is all too much bloodshed to bear, and they begin fighting Cate, Sam and the children from The Woods. As chaos breaks out at God U, those in power finally call in a little help and Homelander shows up to put a stop to everything.
If this all sounds a bit rushed, that’s because it is. What started as a carefully plotted series, full of scenes of teens working out complex (and not so complex) emotions and dealing with the moral implications of having powers, suddenly spirals into a massive CGI brawl. The massive fight feels out of step with everything that came before it. It’s exactly the kind of ending you’d expect from a Marvel movie that takes a left turn in one fell swoop just as the third act begins.
Image: Primevideo
That does not mean Gen V‘s first season shouldn’t have ended in a fight – just that it shouldn’t have ended in a fight fast. The fight should have been set up better, allowing the teen characters’ emotions room to bubble over until all they knew was how to fight their way out. It’s a bad time for the show’s first emotional shortcut. The eight-episode season forgoes the delicate pace of the show’s fantastic early chapters to rush through plot points and motivation in the second half.
But with only a few episodes left, which would ultimately make the season a very standard ten episodes, it might have been much easier to accept the way in which Cate and Sam’s systematic abuse caused them to turn to wanton violence, or why their friends couldn’t. I didn’t talk them out of it and decided to fight them instead. Episodes 7 and 8 feel like the microwave version of Gen V. They’re still pretty good, but not nearly as great as the slow-cooked setup.
The good news for the show is that the too-soon ending doesn’t take away from how great the rest of the season was. And all things considered, there are far worse problems than making people want more – Gen V is the rare show that can be improved upon more instead of less. Regardless of the chaotic madness that ended season 1, the setup for Gen V‘s second season is easy to watch and exciting to think about. The core of the heroes being trapped feels like great fodder for a prison break, and it should be fascinating as Cate and Sam have to figure out what to do now that they’re not under anyone’s thumb. Despite the sudden end to the season, this series is still filled with fantastic characters, and the dexterity of the first half of the season has given the creative team some benefit of the doubt going forward. But let’s hope season 2 gets all the episodes it needs to do the story justice.