Two years after we last joined its troubled teens in their battle against the forces of corporate tyranny, superhero drama Gen V is back for a second series of powerfully bawdy chaos. Release the penis-shaped balloons! Uncork the Ch\u00e2teau les Norks! But for pity\u2019s sake conduct your celebrations quietly: Godolkin University\u2019s clipboard-clutching new dean is in no mood for frivolity.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be real,\u201d he drawls during his inaugural campus address. \u201cThe previous human administration was full of shit. We can\u2019t trust humankind. And that is why, as your new dean, I will be preparing you for this brave new world,\u201d he continues, as the assembled superheroes-in-training \u2013 or \u201csupes\u201d, as they\u2019re called \u2013 variously gulp, whoop and clench their bum cheeks.<\/p>\n
So! New God U, new you. Specifically, new Emma (the wonderful Lizze Broadway), whose relief at her sudden release from the Elmira Adult Rehabilitation Center is tempered by the discovery that her lightly tyranny-padded seat of learning has gone full fascist.<\/p>\n
A brief recap, then, before we get our Speedos wet. The first series of this wildly irreverent spin-off of the sublime, R-rated superhero satire The Boys ended with Emma and fellow supes Marie, Andre and Jordan being stitched up by Homelander after their discovery of the clandestine, Vought-run medical\/torture facility known as the Woods. (Homelander, for those not yet au fait with The Boys, is the psychopathic superhero figurehead of dastardly corporate cabal Vought International. Think, if you can stomach it, Trump in tights.) Got it? Good. And now? Marie (Jaz Sinclair) has escaped from Elmira and is on the run. After a valiant struggle with the powers that be, Andre (Chance Perdomo), alas, was not as fortunate. (Following Perdomo\u2019s death in 2024<\/a>, the decision was made not to recast the role.)<\/p>\n Back at Godolkin, Emma and fellow releasee Jordan (London Thor\/Derek Luh) are greeted by a grinning wall of suits and forced to read to the press a Vought-approved \u201cvictory\u201d speech that turns out, perhaps unsurprisingly, to be rubbish. Jordan, understandably, is suspicious. Not least of Dean Cipher (yes, Cipher), whose densely bearded presence Jordan is convinced they spotted \u201cmore than once\u201d at Elmira. \u201cHe was a doctor or something,\u201d the bi-gender shapeshifter tells a characteristically open-mouthed Emma. \u201cAnd now he\u2019s the dean? I mean, who the fuck is this guy?\u201d Who indeed. Facts, discovers Emma, are thin on the ground. \u201cI mean, the name \u2018Cipher\u2019 is a little on the nose, honestly \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Extravagant creepiness \u2026 Hamish Linklater as Dean Cipher. Photograph: Jasper Savage\/Prime<\/p>\n