Gen V

published 2026-09-07 | tags: #backlog #tv

Season 1

I watched Season 1 of Gen V while rowing, as I watch most TV, and I really enjoyed it. It felt reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that we had a cast of characters, all of which are interesting, romantically in motion, and of course set in a school environment.

There wasn't anything in particular I can remember a few months later that I liked about Season 1, but i feel like the characters were compelling, the visual effects were good, and I appreciated that it felt like The Boys but with more local stakes instead of the end of the world.

Season 2

Season 2 of Gen V is an interesting case-study in what happens when one of your main actors passes away right before shooting. While the show does recover, it is very apparent something is off because of both how the character is written off, and the vibe of the actors on screen at the start of the season.

The character dies off screen and in the past something that never happens in any The Boys/Gen V show before or after. Unlike every other death, which is a big show with a bunch of build-up, this just... happened as the season began. It's a shock to everybody involved, and the show does a good enough job of honoring Chance Perdomo any way they can. He was a great actor, I really liked his work, and I do think the show would have been 1000x better with him around.

Ironically a character dying suddenly and off screen everybody else finding out about it randomly would be very original storytelling -- that's how people die in real life and it's something that most media gets wrong. People don't die in a big explosion... they trip and fall down the stairs, or get in a car accident, or die in their sleep.

The season takes a few episodes to emotionally recover from the shock of Chance's passing, and eventually I think does find it's footing and I think has a solid finish.

I believe this is the end of Gen V so I feel comfortable reflecting on the show in general.

While Gen V has good special effects, I would say at it's best Gen V is on par with The Boys, it suffers more from the tension in most prestige television shows which is that it both has to feel fresh and original, like a movie, but has to fill in ~6-8 hours of screen time, like TV, and it starts to feel stale by the end.

The finale is fun and exciting, but there are episodes here and there where it feels like we're spiraling, going nowhere over and over, and while sometimes characters change, they ultimately feel like they come back to the original state without having really accomplished any growth.

If Gen V were to lean into being more of a Buffy show, with a Monster of the Week (or Supe of the Week) formula, I think it would have done great, but with 8 episode seasons it's really got to focus on the main plot in a way that those shows can breathe a bit more.

Is Gen V great TV? No, but it is a totally solid exciting super-hero drama you can put on while rowing.