There are two things this series does extremely well. One, it skewers both sides of the political spectrum with hilarious accuracy and two, it manages to offer a glimpse into the reality of celebrity culture and exposing the frailty of the human condition, namely the total love of self above all else.
That said, this season is really starting to lose me. While it's upped the gore factor and offered up what is easily some of the most disturbing imagery I've seen in a show, it's really wearing thin because those two things aren't being utilized in the darkly humorous ways it was in the previous two seasons, but rather for shock factor alone. Given how bleak and nihilistic the material, you have to offset some of that darkness with levity, even if some of the gore is played for sick jokes. It's one of the few things about this show that's kept it from being a slog to watch and if I'm being honest there are times this go around where I have to make a concerted effort to pay close attention.
What really stands out to me is how homogenized all the characters have become. They're all decending into Butcher's mindset. Bleak, nihilistic, jaded, spiteful, and hellbent on revenge, no matter the moral cost or the bodycount. That used to be Butcher's character to a tee, with that tiny flicker of hope that perhaps there might be a spark of decency left in him. Now every character is filled with those same qualities. That sensibility has to be tempered with diverse motivations in order to stay fresh. It also doesn't help that some characters that should have died, didn't, which would have given motivation for the remaining ones to do and be, better. Each one of them has gone down into the mire with the attitude of "whatever it takes" to kill Homelander.
It's exhausting. Even the most optimistic of them, Starlight, Huey, and MM have all become jaded and hopeless to varying degrees. When Kimiko is hospitalized there was a while where I thought perhaps she and Frenchie might be able to go live their lives in peace, but instead they came back to the same place, only demanding some respect from Butcher. That's not exactly character growth. For a brief moment they tried to escape their pasts but then embraced their worst qualities instead of trying to rise above them. Idk. It's hard to feel a lot of empathy for a couple who murders people (even if those they kill deserve to be taken out) when they continue to sink to Butcher's level. It's as if they want his blessing to be treated as equals and somehow think they're morally superior to him despite doing a lot of the same things? The righteous indignation the group aspouses to Butcher feels incredibly hollow when they all cop to his methods in the end.
Even MM's ex wife, while on the surface it seems supportive to give her blessing as it were, for him to deal with Soldier Boy, it's equally terrible advice because she's openly supporting him potentially getting killed and leaving their daughter fatherless. If we've learned anything too, MM is the only one who's aware that his ex wife's new boyfriend is a sychophantic Homelander supporter who's trying to brainwash his little girl into the propaganda that Vought creates. It seems that dealing with Homelander is the right move for MM, but is it really when his death could potentially cause his daughter to follow her father's path for revenge?
I understand that this element is built into the show, but the premise is revealing structural fractures. It's goal is now stop evil, no matter the cost, even if it means perpetuating, or becoming evil in the process. It's about survival and not about doing good. Animals survive, but humans need hope to carry on the face of evil. The one thing stories like this never seem to consider is that some people in a situation like that might actually choose to forgive and leave, living their lives in relative peace. I know this can't be the case for every character because the story needs conflict resolution, but it would be refreshing to see at least one of them to choose to let it go and how that might affect those who choose to remain.
When the material you've got is so bleak, you've got to have some glimmer of hope. The world feels hopeless enough and if there's nothing more than death and destruction in the stories we watch, it gets tiresome.