The Boys

Amazon is a major player in new content, as judged by Fleabag and Carnival Row, which I'll be reviewing next week. I also watched The Boys, yet another look at "what if superheroes were real?" It's fun, if a bit of a mess.

The premise is that superheroes are real, but are branded, like movie stars or athletes. Their purpose is not really to save lives, but to make money for the shareholders of Vought, the company that markets them. There are dozens of them, but the elite are known as "The Seven."

The series begins when one of those seven, A-Train (the world's fastest man) accidentally runs into a woman, and the result is as if she was hit by a, well, train. Her boyfriend (Jack Quaid, suggesting Bill Hader) is devastated, and ends up being recruited by Karl Urban, who has a grudge against "supes" and wants to bring them to justice.

In another plot thread, Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is the newest member of The Seven, and she is disillusioned by what she finds, especially when on her first day she is sexually assaulted by one of her colleagues, an Aquaman-type called The Deep.

The details of the show are better than the plot. After eighty years of superhero comics, it has become more difficult to come up with new heroes (and names). So The Deep is basically Aquaman, and A-Train the Flash, and Queen Maeve Wonder Woman. But a few are amusing, such as Translucent, who can turn invisible, but he mostly uses this talent for perverted reasons. The main superhero is Homelander, a combination of Superman and Captain America. He is all smiles and sunshine in public, but in reality is a psychopath that has a disturbing relationship with the VP of Vought (a very good Elisabeth Shue). Everyone is afraid of him, and cater to him like that boy Billy Mumy played on The Twilight Zone.

The premise is great, though it borrows heavily from Watchmen and The Incredibles. And the story spins its wheels some, and after eight episodes not a lot is resolved (it was immediately renewed for a second season). It is exceptionally profane and violent (one character is blown up by a bomb up the rectum) and despite it's comic book ancestry, is decidedly not for children.

I'll probably watch the second season just to see how things turn out, although I have a sinking feeling the writers don't know where there is going.