So I finally watched the last two episodes, and boy were they bad. The finale in particular. The writing for this season has got progressively worse as the season has gone on, culminating in this terrible finale.
This show also suffers from the same affliction that a lot of shows (or movies, I guess) of this ilk suffer from. I.e., it is a lot easier to write an antagonist than it is to write a strong, compelling protagonist. Because the fact of the matter is, the antagonists are often times the more interesting and “fun” characters to watch. So what we have here is a show that’s being carried by one character: Homelander. And the writers know this, which is why they’re going to milk it (no pun intended) dry. Evidenced by the fact that the fight at the end was contrived in such a way that he could just walk the feck out of the building despite the fact that he should have been obliterated. Because it’s only season 3 guys, we got another 3 seasons in us yet. So they've basically become that which they purport to satirize.
Butcher, Hughie, MM, and Frenchie are just not compelling enough to root for. They try to flesh them out by giving them their own side stories, but they do a very poor job of it. I feel like their motivation are also muddled, or if not muddled, then certainly not strong enough for me, as an audience member, to empathize with.
So you’re (or at least I am) in this weird spot where you’ve been trained as an audience member to root for the protagonists (or I suppose anti-heroes would be more apt) to kill the bad guy. But the bad guy is the best character in the entire show by a mile.
Also, what the hell is up with the powers here? Maeve is now on a similar level to Homelander despite the show telling us the complete opposite for three seasons. Butcher, after injecting some V, can now take on Soldier Boy who’s supposedly stronger than Homelander? All over the place.
But they fall victim to the biggest trope of all - plot armor. Which has been just off the charts.
she’s stunning.