Spoilers for The Boys ahead!
Since Game of Thrones ended last year many have wondered what show would take its place as the next widely popular, large scale television series. Could it be Westworld? The Witcher? Stranger Things? I’m here to argue that Amazon Prime’s The Boys could be exactly that and whether or not that is a good thing.
On the surface, The Boys might seem like your typical comic-book property but don’t be fooled by these cape clad heroes, they aren’t you’re friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. They aren’t even the heroes of this story. There aren’t any heroes in this story. The Boys, based on the comic-book of the same name and adapted by Supernatural’s Erik Kripke, centres on a team of outcasts who wish to take down the all-powerful superhero team known as The Seven. A team of superheroes micromanaged by the multi-million dollar corporation, Vought. It’s pretty damn good.
What follows is a hyper-violent satirical take on comic-book movies like The Avengers and Man Of Steel with the social discussions that would normally be found in the HBO Watchmen series albeit a lot less subtle and a lot less serious. But the show’s lack of subtlety isn’t a bad thing, in fact, the show’s brashness is part of the fun. It’s gruesome, exciting and very unpredictable. Just like Game Of Thrones was at its peak (seasons five and six) and that is one of the main appeals of The Boys. One minute you could be watching the characters discuss their plans to kill Homelander and minutes later one of their heads will explode. The show has fun with a concept that really shouldn’t work.
In the second season of The Boys, the steaks are raised by the inclusion of Stormfront, a superhero who also happens to be a Nazi. And by Nazi, I mean a literal Nazi from World War Two who has lived for over 80 years. Stormfront’s inclusion in this season allows The Boys to bring up subjects that Marvel and DC movies shy away from. And leads to an extremely satisfying and bloody beatdown that many shows would be too afraid to depict but would be welcome in a show like Game Of Thrones.
In its first season, The Boys was a success but wasn’t an explosive hit. But during season two the show has become one of the most popular shows on streaming. I believe this is due to its weekly release allowing for discussions and theorising to take place online, something that season one wasn’t really able to do when it was released all at once. The show has been able to stay in people’s heads for seven weeks and people are talking about it more and more.
In contrast, when Stranger Things season three was released it stayed around in the zeitgeist for maybe a week or two, the discussion quickly faded because there wasn’t anything new to talk about, everything was out there and viewers quickly moved on. The weekly release format helped make Game Of Thrones event tv, a show people would talk about at the watercooler.
I think The Boys is on its way to becoming just that. In a few years, it could become the show of a generation. But to be honest I don’t know if I want the show to become as big as Game Of Thrones. By the time Game Of Thrones ended they had everyone and their grandma watching, there was nowhere to hide if they fumbled the finale, which they did. Any slight change of direction would divide the fanbase in a heartbeat. But I think as a viewer you have to accept that if a show you love becomes more and more popular it is going to be held up to more and more scrutiny than it was in its infancy.
I hope The Boys can ride the wave of popularity and continue to improve in quality as it already has done. But when the whole world could be watching it might not have a chance to do both.
The Boys Seasons One and Two are available on Amazon Prime Video
