Years of failed Supernatural spin-offs led here

Pictured: Gen V (Amazon Prime Video)

// They do say that children are the future.

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By Fergus Halliday

Feb 06, 2024

2 min read

Amazon’s The Boys is a show made of inexplicably strange contrasts. It’s a superhero drama that’s mostly about the motley crew of unapologetic terrorists looking to keep the series’ various caped crusaders in line. It’s a barbed critique of capitalism and celebrity culture, but it’s also produced and distributed by Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the world.

Even if the hard R rating and semi-obscure source material keep it from cracking the mainstream in the way that Disney Plus originals like Loki have, there’s a strong case that The Boys might just be the best superhero TV show on television right now. Given that, it was only a matter of time before someone involved tried to double-dip.

Gen V is the result.

The series is something of a sequel set in the same universe as The Boys. But rather than deal with the antics of Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his gang of misfits, its superpowered drama deals with what’s taking place within the sinister halls and walls of Godolkin University.

There’s a world in which this shift from the high-stakes action of The Boys to the smaller scale of a single university campus leaves Gen V feeling tacked on and unnecessary, but this isn’t the one we live in. The first season of the series takes time to set up the stakes for each of its characters and puts in the work to make sure that you’ll care about them beyond just your pre-existing relationship with this particular world.

If the cameos from the likes of Jensen Ackles didn’t give it away, a lot of the core creative team behind The Boys and Gen V came up through Supernatural. However, for as long as that series ran— and not for lack of trying— it only ever managed to get a single spin-off (The Winchesters) off the ground and that one happened posthumously.

Gen V feels like the byproduct of all those failures.

It’s immediately arresting and it doesn’t take your attention for granted. It’s playing in the same tonal space as The Boys, but more than bold enough to carve out a niche for itself.

The first four seasons of The Boys are currently available to stream on Amazon Prime in Australia. That’s also where you’ll find the first season of Gen V.

Stream Gen V on Amazon Prime Video

Go Deep with these superpowered shows

Loki: Stream both seasons on Disney Plus
Supernatural: Stream all 15 seasons on Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Stan or 9NOW
The Winchesters: Stream Season 1 on Binge or Foxtel Now
The Boys: Stream all three seasons on Prime Video

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Written by

Fergus Halliday

Fergus Halliday is a journalist and editor for Reviews.org. He’s written about technology, telecommunications, gaming and more for over a decade. He got his start writing in high school and began his full-time career as the Editor of PC World Australia. Fergus has made the MCV 30 Under 30 list, been a finalist for seven categories at the IT Journalism Awards and won Most Controversial Writer at the 2022 Consensus Awards. He has been published in Gizmodo, Kotaku, GamesHub, Press Start, Screen Rant, Superjump, Nestegg and more.