The Boys

The darker side of superheroes is an area that’s been explored before but not with nearly the intensity and thoughtfulness you’ll see in “The Boys.” An action-packed drama with touches of humor, this is a TV series you won’t want to miss.

Yes, it’s crass as hell and one of the most violent shows on TV right now. But deep down, when you push past the gore, sex, and horrors committed to screen, the thing that sticks with you is the show’s emotional core.

The gore factor is significantly reduced for the screen. Nonetheless it is still frequently over the top. Heads explode, eye-balls fry, a beloved sea-going mammal smashes through a windscreen. You may feel queasy at least once per episode. ... Beyond the yuck factor, The Boys offers an astute commentary on popular culture’s obsession with superheroes.

It is gleeful, violent and blackly comic, a raucous rocket full of Kryptonite.

The premise is pretty familiar “who watches the watchmen” stuff—a ragtag team of normal humans, each with their own reasons, take on the superhero-industrial complex—but the execution is unusually strong.

“The Boys” is a refreshing look at the ever-expanding world of men and women in tights. It gives Urban one of his best roles in years and keeps our interest much longer than we ever thought possible.

The series is quite enjoyable, particularly in a fast and clever first episode (written by Kripke and directed by Dan Trachtenberg) that introduces us to the show’s world.

The best part of the series is not that we recognize Homelander as a twisted, perverted Captain America knockoff. The best part is that we also immediately recognize the real-world corollary for Madelyn Stillwell, with her corporate greed, her desperation to keep this organization within her control, and her laser focus on public image.

The premise of the Amazon black comedy is never not fun, and the more we learn about this bizarro world, as the supes go on the late-night talk shows and stage team-up photo ops on various crimes, the better. ... The cast is fine, particularly Shue, who is icily effective; Quaid, whose neurotic but brave fumblings are endearing; and Urban, who is Hughie’s gonzo guide. But the real star of “The Boys” is the situation itself.

Deliciously dark...a compulsively entertaining and dark satire that sets a high bar for HBO's upcoming "Watchmen" adaptation.

Producers Seth Rogen and Eric Kripke take the edgelord premise and modernize it into something not just watchable, but worth bingeing.

It is nagging to see a show so devoted to criticizing the delusional nature of superhero culture also ignore one of its more persistent sins: diminishing women to props (not to mention using rape as a motivating tool for someone else). ... Given the top-notch special effects and sharp writing at the core of “The Boys,” there are still loads of potential within this well-realized universe.

A flashy, smartly meta, often funny and very solidly cast, the pilot leaves a bit of a bad taste. Part of that is surely intentional and accurately reflects the tone of the source material. Whether that will continue and intensify after the initial hour, the only one available to review for the moment, remains to be seen.

When you critique something, you have to have an argument beyond “it’s good” or “it’s bad.” And The Boys struggles to find that argument, largely due to the distraction of its superpowered characters. It’s an ouroboros of meta references.

The Boys’s skewering of superheroism is often clever, but as the series progresses, the more hands-off approach of Butcher’s crew can leave them with little to do, to the point where the messy, circular plotting of the finale all but leaves them sitting on their hands.

There’s a lot happening around The Boys‘ core concept, from a human-supe romance and a plan to sell superheroes to the U.S. military via Trumpian fear-stoking. There’s some serious Freudian baggage around Homelander and his handler and a number of gleefully absurd side vignettes. But none of it adds up to much, and there’s a constant sense that the show is treading over too-familiar ground when it’s not simply treading water.

Tthe tone it struck in its first outing was a dully familiar one — the sense that to transgress, alone, is enough. If this show is to actually satirize the wide-open target of superhero entertainments, it’ll need to find a second gear, and quickly.