The Boys
The Boys is an American black comedy premiered on Amazon Prime in 2019. It is now telecasting its season 5. Some sources call it as final season but we can not be sure.
The name of TV show is its worse handicap. Why they did not name it ‘The Supe’ or ‘The Super’ or something more specific. Who was at its creative lowest to name it in such generic manner. I wonder.
Have you ever considered what happens if a super hero called A-Train who is fastest runner in the world, collide with you on the road while going on a next mission? First episode of Season 1 of The Boys starts with that. A grotesque display explains it. No spoiler.
The show displays the superheros in real world conditions. It is not a dystopian world. It is rooted in real world conditions. It shows how celebrities are above law. The super humans come with super egos. Humility is not even displayed. Call them narcissistic but that is what they are. The are immortal humans with faults of humans. But they are not indestructible.
Later in the show a revelation is made that the superheros or supes are not born but are made with chemical called Compound V. The mega corporation Vought International owns them much more deeply then the Clubs that own basket ball team players. Notice the large “V” in the poster on which the characters are standing on. “V” stands for the Vought International logo. That poster does quite a bit of visual storytelling about who holds the power in the show’s world.
Common man feels betrayed by the atrocities of superheros. Victims of supes come together and form a vigilante group to vanquish the superheros. They gradually start discovering that superheros too were humans and had some failing or the other. They start a deceptive war with superheros.
Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) is the face of common man. He is supported by Mothers Milk (Marvin T. Milk) pseudo-Supe born from Compound‑V exposure in the womb which killed his mother. They are helped by a jack of all technician Frenchie who is a normal human. Then they meet a Japanese superhero, Kimiko Miyashiro who was held in captivity. She has tremendous agility, and especially rapid regenerative healing. She is hostile to humans but Frenchie makes a human connection with her. Her combat skills are second to none.
While superheros are antagonists, there is one softhearted supe who is misfit in the top ‘The Seven’ group. She is Annie January aka Starlight who has super strength like other superheros. She can project energy and light beams and disrupt with electrical shock.
The Boys start as a small‑scale revenge story and gradually evolve into a political drama of ambitions of superheros to control the destiny of the America. The conflict with the patron Corporation is natural.
What starts as a teenage revenge drama turns into a full-fledged political satire of greedy corporations jostling with politicians and controlling them by hook or crook including blackmail and murder.
The show moves with a speed but things do not happen very fast. Though there is no dull moment for the audience, the real drama moves very slowly between seasons.
The Boys is like a waking up shocker after having lived in a dream of Comic Characters. Now logic tells you why superheros do not exist and if they did, what kind of complications it will make in real world. It is an alternate reality where the comic characters come into life like humans and not like perfect comic models. The beauty here is not imagination but simplicity of presentation of human ego, greed, ambition and jealousy etc and how it drives an individual, no matter who he or she is.
Do not expect too much politics beyond action packed scenes. A good show. Just fun to watch. I will give it 3.5 stars.
Appendix :
List of Main Superheroes and Actors:
- Homelander (leader of The Seven, parody of Superman) played by Antony Starr
- Starlight / Annie January (new recruit, morally conflicted) played by Erin Moriarty
- Queen Maeve / Maggie Shaw (Amazonian warrior, parody of Wonder Woman) played by Dominique McElligott
- A-Train / Reggie Franklin (speedster, parody of The Flash) played by Jessie T. Usher
- The Deep / Kevin Moskowitz (aquatic hero, parody of Aquaman) played by Chace Crawford
- Black Noir / Earving (silent ninja-like hero) played by Nathan Mitchell
- Stormfront (introduced in Season 2, manipulative and powerful) played by Aya Cash
- Soldier Boy (introduced in Season 3, parody of Captain America) played by Jensen Ackles
- Sister Sage (introduced in Season 4, strategist) played by Susan Heyward
- Firecracker / Misty Tucker Gray (introduced in Season 4, media-savvy hero) played by Valorie Curry
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