Age of The Nerd
The Boys season three is already off to an a incredibly depraved, yet dazzling start. Within the first three episodes alone we find all the sex, violence, gore and snarky satire that we have all come to love from this series. If you thought they couldn’t outdo themselves from the first two seasons, then look out because season three is a real doozy.
This is what we love about The Boys…despite all of the outlandish and ridiculous situations that occur within the series, it is still somehow relatable. The writers do a fantastic job of keeping their finger on the pulse of current pop culture and do an amazing job poking fun at the current cultural landscape. The references and satire are always spot-on and while a lot of the blood and guts make us want to turn away, The Boys somehow always leaves us wanting more. Our jaw certainly hit the floor more than once during the course of this season, thinking ‘We can’t believe they just did that!’.
Well, believe it and there is only more to come! We recently had a chance to catch up with The Boys actor Karl Urban (Butcher) to share his thoughts on season three.
*Mostly spoiler free, may contain slight spoiler reference*
We asked Karl Urban how he felt about just how wild things got this season and he tells us,
‘I think with every single season and every script you get to that juncture where you are in some state of shock and disbelief, where as not only are we be asked to do this, but are we allowed to do this? And this season was no exception. It always provides exhilarating moments of shock. I think the strength of the show is that the shock is counterbalanced with great heart and audiences really enjoy spending time with those characters.
For all of the blood and the guts and the gore and the graphicness of it what the glue of the show is and what keeps audiences riveted to it is the characters and the depth of heart the characters have for one another. If it didn’t have that it wouldn’t connect the way the show does.”
We also asked Urban if he could speak a bit about Butcher’s inner turmoil or moral tug-of-war of sorts where he has promised to care for Ryan, but also still seeks revenge against Homelander for Becca’s death. He also gained temporary superpowers this season, so we’re curious to know what it was like to play Butcher, the temp supe and wrestling with that turmoil at the same time?
“That was one of the most challenging and fun aspects of the season was tackling the moral dilemma of that choice of whether to turn yourself into the monster in order to defeat the monster and if you do make that choice what are the ramifications. For Butcher, they are extreme, not only for him personally, but how to fix everyone else in his circle. Actually, further to that everybody in The Boys and every character in The Boys fundamentally has to make that same decision.
They are on the edge of the precipice and they have to decide if they are going to jump or not and that leads to some really interesting partnerships and that leads to fractures in long-standing relationships. It sets the course for a pretty full on climax. I really enjoyed that fact that with Butcher, there was a certain self-awareness within him knowing that what he was doing was the morally not the correct choice and putting certain pieces in place within the group of The Boys because he had an innate sense of knowing that there was not guarantee that it was going to come out right, so it’s a wonderful kind of dichotomy or landscape of different shades to play within this and obviously the aspect that I least enjoyed was playing the tragedy of Ryan. I did not like playing those scenes at all!”
The first three episodes of The Boys are currently streaming on Prime Video. New episodes will be released each Friday.
