The Boys (2019)

Top comments

1. 

   phosamoeba

   I've only watched the first 3 episodes so far so, please, take what I say with a grain of salt... STRONG content warning on this one for sexual assault.
   
   I find it to be very telling when a main female character's (and the only one at that) storyline starts off with multiple cases of SA.
   Sure, grotesque and cynical violence are the core of the show, but when comparing the different character's arcs it feels of poor taste to see that getting hit full force by someone running at literal light speed, or having your heart ripped out of your chest by super-human strength were equally as dark-humor-icized as plain, simple, straight-forward sexual assault.
   
   This is not to say that the show is completely unwatchable and should not exist: personally I enjoyed how intense it was right out of the gate, and its over-the-top blood fests.
   Also, to give credit where credit is due, one of Starlight's scene

   the change in costume imposed on her by Vaught and the dialogue that follows

   did offer a pretty interesting take on how sexual objectification works in a professional setting.
   
   However it's yet another show that falls under the all too common trope of female characters (and there's only like, 3 of them that matter) being either fridged, SAd, and/or only there to serve a male character's storyline.

   i.e. Queen Maeve being Homelander's ex before anything else, Stillwell - who has the potential to be a very compelling character - being the object of his fantasies and A-train's ~sexy but dangerous~ girlfriend being just that.

   1 week 5 days ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   Not quite as filthy as the Garth Ennis original (how could it be?), Amazon's The Boys is still a take-down of superhero narratives full of ultraviolence and sex. A pitch black comedy about celebrity misconduct, where the stars are corporatized superheroes and the P.R. machine works double-time to make them look like heroes. The show focuses on that world though the eyes of up-and-comer Starlight, who has yet to become corrupted by stardom, but really this is the story of a group of renegades who have lost loved ones to the "supes" and want justice/revenge/to uncover the bigger conspiracy behind the company that owns them. The first episode is a bit of a difficult watch, as one female character is fridged and another sexually assaulted, but for the most part, The Boys works well. The show's equivalent of the Justice League is so powerful (and amoral), you get real tension simply from having them on screen. It's like they're weapons always about to go off. The stakes are high, the odds are impossible, so you're always wondering how the protagonists are going to get out of whatever trouble they're in, and that's a good thing. 3 years 8 months ago
3. 

   Limbesdautomne

   After a good first season, the satire ends up dropping what it seemed to denounce. The call of profit is overpowering.
   
   Read more with your genuine Frenchie, in French, on La Saveur des goûts amers. 1 year 9 months ago

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