The Amazon Prime Original: The Boys is the gritty and dark turn on superheroes that you never knew you needed. In this day and age of Superhero films taking most of the big box office sales, it’s easy to get tired of the typical goody two shoe superhero stories. The Boys seek to explore superheroes, not just as dark, but as real people. The show balances superhero fun with dark reality and it does so in a way that everyone can enjoy.

The Boys follows a set of non-superhero vigilantes, humbly known as The Boys. More specifically the show follows Hughie Campbell who is, by all means, a normal dude. Alongside Hugie is Billy Butcher: a sailor mouthed cynic whose on a crusade to murder every “Supe” on earth. Besides those two there’s a myriad of characters who join the team, including but not limited to: A drug-based weapon expert, an OCD family man, and a mute “super terrorist”. The Boys frequently find themselves in dire situations; in an attempt to bring down not only a corrupt knock off of The Justice League but the equally corrupt corporation responsible for them: Vought.

Vought acts as an interesting antagonist just because of how well it parallels the superhero antagonists. While the concept of normal people having to fight Superman is indeed terrifying; Vought being a Faceless, bureaucratic, corrupt corporation, mirrors reality all too well. This ultimately is the most impressive thing about The Boys: That for a show about evil superman, it never feels too far away from our reality. Vought does a number of things throughout the show’s first two seasons that you’ve definitely seen in real life. Everything from shady cover-ups to marketing/exploitation of diversity to shady dealings with government officials. That’s not to say that Vought manages to steal the show, however, because that title definitely goes to the show’s knock off of Superman: Homelander.

Homelander is probably the best antagonist I’ve seen on TV since Walter White. In his design, Homelander is a blatant rip off of Superman. Character-wise he shares almost nothing with Superman. Whereas Superman is friendly, peace-loving, and a human being before anything else; Homelander is a selfish, psychotic, maniac with a god complex. He is impossible to hurt physically, and could easily be classified as the strongest man in the world. Where things get interesting in this concept is the fact that Homelander is also the weakest character mentally throughout the entire show. We spend almost as much time with him as the protagonists, yet Homelander never comes off as “redeemable” or “sympathetic”. Whereas most large pieces of media(especially ones involving superheroes) try to make their villain just as understandable and supportable as the protagonist in recent years, I think a villain who is entirely unrelatable is just as compelling.

I’d like to take a portion of this review to talk about just how well The Boys does diversity. In most corporate-controlled media diversity feels like a marketing tool. Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for example, It’s diversity feels almost forced and manipulative. You never feel like they added these characters and stories because they wanted to really tell interesting stories for them, but because they knew you would buy it. The Boys, in contrast, tells interesting stories about a diverse cast of characters, while feeling true to these characters and their backgrounds. The show’s female cast are some of my favorite characters in any superhero story, and the show actively makes fun of how female diversity in superhero media is commonly only used as a marketing tool.

The Boys also has some of the best production values I’ve seen on TV. Everything from the absolutely mesmerizing visual effects to the often enthralling sound design, the show stimulates not only the literate part of your brain but also your sense of sight and sound. The sets, the costume design, the licensed music, the show had a massive budget and it shows. 

This is easily the first Amazon Prime original that is actually worth buying the subscription for. The Boys racked in eight million viewers on average per episode with this recent season. The show has a 90 percent on rotten tomatoes and was renewed for a season three before its second season was halfway through airing. The Boys is the biggest name in Superheroes this year, and it earns it. I can’t recommend it enough for just about everyone.