Garth Ennis' "The Boys"


Television

1 to 50 of 62 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>

Wikipedia wrote:
The Boys takes place in "a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame" and "revolves around a group of vigilantes known informally as 'The Boys,' who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty."

Trailer

The Boys premieres July 26, 2019 on Amazon Video.

Edit: And the show is already renewed for season two.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Bummer, I won't watch on Amazon.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Yeah, I don't have Prime either (and I'm trying to limit Amazon purchases to can't-find-it-elsewhere situations).


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Hm.

On the one hand, I enjoyed the comic (as Ennis has loathed superheroes for a long time, and, like Alan Moore, that loathing works best when he just breaks his own pastiches instead of screwing with someone else's).

On the other hand...

Everything I see in these trailers, it feels like there's something missing- and I don't mean fidelity to the events/nationalities of the comics, either, there's some kind of tonal... absence.


Oh boy! Wonder if they will do MM's mom.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Cole Deschain wrote:


On the one hand, I enjoyed the comic...

On the other hand...

Everything I see in these trailers, it feels like there's something missing- and I don't mean fidelity to the events/nationalities of the comics, either, there's some kind of tonal... absence.

Agreed. The above trailer seems to want to convey "dark comedy", which is no more appropriate for The Boys than it would have been for Watchmen of V for Vendetta.


Well, there's plenty of comedy in the The Boys and it's definitely dark. Much more so than either Watchmen or V. And much less of anything else to work with, so I'm not sure where else you could go with it.

I got sucked into The Boys for awhile, but like most of Ennis's work that I've read, it just felt empty in the end. Too gratuitous. Too over the top edgy and cynical and violent and not enough point to it all in the end.


thejeff wrote:

Well, there's plenty of comedy in the The Boys and it's definitely dark. Much more so than either Watchmen or V. And much less of anything else to work with, so I'm not sure where else you could go with it.

There was..I don't know...absurdity? in The Boys, mostly in the portrayal of the superheroes. I personally wouldn't have called it comedy, but I'm playing semantics.

The trailer, though not descending into parody, seemed a little more heavily tilted toward comedy than I'd have said the comic warranted. It certainly wasn't the "dark" part of the trailer I was having issues with.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Watched the first episode and liked it. It definitely had gore, but not over the top just to be over the top. In a way, it's probably the best depiction I've seen of what would happen when a superhero hits a regular person.

I also liked that in terms of plot, the first episode mostly handles everything in the trailer (not every scene in the trailer was in Ep 1, but every bit of plot was), which leaves the rest of the season to develop the plot without it having been spoiled (at least for those who haven't read the comic, which I haven't). Looking forward to seeing the rest.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm really enjoying this series. Its forward thinking about what corporate owned superheroes would look and act like feels very on-par with what any reasonable cynic would imagine.

Sovereign Court

This show is awesome, can't wait for season 2

Scarab Sages

Hama wrote:

This show is awesome, can't wait for season 2

That final scene was a punch to the gut of a season cliffhanger.

Also, Karl Urban continues being an International Treasure. His manic Billy Butcher was definitely a highlight.


Are they actually adapting the story line from the comics or just the basic concept?
If so, how far did the season get?

Scarab Sages

Never read the comics, but skimming the wikipedia page, it looks like a pretty loose adaptation, going more for themes, tone, and feel than straight up adapted for television.

Examples:

Spoiler:
Buther's squad has already disbanded for a significant time after Lamplighter killed (female) Mallory's grandkids. Butcher brings them out of retirement once he hooks up w/ Hugh.

Compound V has been changed to basically a Superhero PCP / Steroids / Heroine mix that juices the Supes.

Hugh isn't Scottish (and Simon Pegg's Hugh's dad is struggling with a generic American accent), and works at a Radio Shack type joint before the story.

From wikipedia, the adaptation is mostly The Name of the Game and Cherry arcs.

Sovereign Court

archmagi1 wrote:
Hama wrote:

This show is awesome, can't wait for season 2

That final scene was a punch to the gut of a season cliffhanger.

Also, Karl Urban continues being an International Treasure. His manic Billy Butcher was definitely a highlight.

Oh yes, that left me with my mouth hanging open. I mean I anticipated something like that, but still.

Props to the guy who does Homelander.


Only seen episode 1 so far. gonna watch more. It looks like it is going to be a show focused on political commentary. Particularity capitalism. The nature if a rich and powerful enough celebrity can get away with anything if they throw enough money at it.

Dark Archive

thejeff wrote:
I got sucked into The Boys for awhile, but like most of Ennis's work that I've read, it just felt empty in the end. Too gratuitous. Too over the top edgy and cynical and violent and not enough point to it all in the end.

I saw an interview with the actor who played Homelander, and he mentioned that he had read the graphic novel, and preferred that it be adapted, than ported straight over, quipping that the books, as written, would turn into a show that appealed to a much more limited audience. (Adventures in Babysitting laughed when he described the target audience of such a show as 'people in prison...')

I loved the dark humor (is it laugh at Deep and all his stupid misguided attempts to save marine life gone tragically awry?), and watching it made me want to watch Banshee again, to see more of Homelander *not* being an incredible super-jerk. :)

Looking forward to a second season, and hopefully learning more about Queen Maeve and anything at all about Black Noir (who seems kind of autistic / idiot savant, at times, good at all sorts of things, except relating to people...).


Assuming Black Noir is handled here like he is in the comic, there is a Huge Secret about him, and the audience is unlikely to find out anything about him before an eventual Big Reveal.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

De-fanging Ennis works seems to be in vogue now.

C'est la vie.


Episode 2. That random thug who is way braver then I'll ever be. He saw his friend get blasted 10 feet into a car by a beam of light and thought it was a good idea to attack the person doing the blasting.

Sovereign Court

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Vidmaster7 wrote:
Episode 2. That random thug who is way braver then I'll ever be. He saw his friend get blasted 10 feet into a car by a beam of light and thought it was a good idea to attack the person doing the blasting.

I think he's just stupid.


Yeah you right.

Dark Archive

I am amused that the shallowest character possibly in that entire world calls himself 'the Deep.' :)

I guess that counts as irony, since he seems blissfully unaware of it.

Liberty's Edge

Just finished it today. Loved it, one of the best adult takes on superheroes since Watchmen IMO. I never read the comic.

Anyone else think they made Homelander's costume to remind people of the Judges' uniforms in the Judge Dread comics?


CapeCodRPGer wrote:

Just finished it today. Loved it, one of the best adult takes on superheroes since Watchmen IMO. I never read the comic.

Anyone else think they made Homelander's costume to remind people of the Judges' uniforms in the Judge Dread comics?

Ohhhh! Dredd would be mighty insulted. The Law he is but he is not above it. He has even let himself be imprisoned when he broke it.


Hazard is French in an another universe

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Season 2 to premier September 4th. First 3 minutes of episode 1 released. Link is to a online panel with the cast, first 3 minutes is towards the end.


Kind of off topic, but when are we going to see a Martial Law movie or TV show amiright?


Or how about Crossed?

Scarab Sages

The wife and I watched the first few episodes of Season 3 last Friday. Even toning down from the comics, there’s some messed up stuff.

Spoiler:
The scene with Termite was pretty F’d up.

Butcher taking out Gunpowder….ouch.

I looks like they’re going a different route with Black Noir, as that appeared to be him (or at least “a” Black Noir) in the Soldier Boy gets “killed” flashback.

Poor Hughie’s arm.

The scene with Crimson Countess exploding that dude at the fair….


The fair itself was the funniest thing I've seen in forever. Worked on so many levels...

Scarab Sages

Of all the abilities one could get….

Spoiler:
Poor Hughie had to get teleporting right of his own clothes. At least he got to punch right through some dude’s chest.

And it seems perhaps Soldier Boy IS the weapon they’re looking for. Whatever that blast of energy was, it appears to take away powers. Or at least scramble them.

Finally, it looks like maybe they’re going with the Homelander attempts a coup against the US story. No secret clone to stop him this time, so I’m wondering how they’ll work this. Maybe the aforementioned Soldier Boy.


Which I think begs the question, how did russia capture him in the first place? You can hurt some supes with just an ungodly amount of firepower (ie, see black noir's face or dragonly getting hit with a missile) but everyone seemed to think soldier boy was too high up on the charts for that to be a possibility. Did they turn the blast back on him? But that would be one of the harder things to do, requiring experiments that would require capturing him in the first place.


Maybe they had a telepath just make him go to sleep.


Thomas Seitz wrote:
Maybe they had a telepath just make him go to sleep.

The setting is one where only america has supers.

The rock scissor paper Of Brick Blaster mentalist seems to be lacking. The only mental powers we've seen this far have done physical attacks or have been very very weak relatively. (Which is why the usual plan of just have a psychic take down homelander doesn't seem to be off the table)

IRL, America wasn't the only one that scooped up some nazi scientists on the way though to berlin. Russia could have gotten a few interns, but obviously not vaught himself.


No but maybe they got one smart enough to do a work around on Vaught's formula. I dunno.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

They could have gotten him with tranqs or nerve agents, or something along those lines. We don't really know how the invulnerability works for him, or what his powers fully were yet.


True Joel. I mean so far other than a little light show/blast, he's not shown off much.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Thomas Seitz wrote:
True Joel. I mean so far other than a little light show/blast, he's not shown off much.

Well that blast seems to negate powers...bit more than a light show.

Scarab Sages

So, after Friday’s episode, it seems…..

Spoiler:
Soldier Boy’s explosive energy release not only unleashed extreme destruction, but the energy can completely remove super abilities. At least, so far, from what we see with Kimiko. So, since we don’t have Black Noir as evil clone of Homelander, I’m guessing it’ll be Soldier Boy that does him in? Then he either gets killed himself, or becomes the next major villain.

And it looks like he has some control over his explosions, but not completely.

Also, I guess the radiation he’s putting out isn’t enough to kill everyone who gets near.

The Legend scene was hilarious. Hopefully, they’ll bring the character back for more.

The musical interlude was weird, but funny.

At first, I thought Butcher might have slipped MM some V24, but what he did was just as bad.


Be quite the twist if say..Homelander lasers SB before SB gets near. Or maybe the actually team up. Sharing fascist viewpoints.


Aberzombie wrote:

So, after Friday’s episode, it seems…..

** spoiler omitted **

Not immediately anyway....

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Holy crap!

Spoiler:
The disclaimer at the beginning was hilarious.

It’s looks like Starlight has finally had enough of everyone’s crap.

Herogasm was more tame than I expected. Although that scene with The Deep - should have seen that one coming. Poor MM, and his clothing. I loved both MM and Butcher mentioning how Frenchie would be bummed he’d missed it. Plus, Soldier Boy’s comment about a previous Herogasm with Liberty.

Now it looks like Homelander has DID. Which makes him only slightly more crazy than Soldier Boy. Or at least crazy in a different way. The big fight between the two of them, Butcher, and Hughie was pretty kick ass.

I’m wondering if A-Train is dead now. Just when it seemed he might have actually learned his lesson, and maybe been put on a path to redemption. Damn, he sure did mess up Blue Hawk.

Celebrities teaming up with evil (but popular) supes to sing Imagine. That was pretty spot on.

Damn, even without powers, Kimiko is badass.

Scarab Sages

Also, my prediction on where they’re going with this:

Spoiler:
As in the comics, Homelander leads a supe coup to take over the government.

Big, final showdown - Soldier Boy and Butcher kill Homelander. Then MM finishes off a wounded Soldier Boy, with or without V24 (though I suspect with).

All this leaves Victoria Neuman in a position to become the main villain of Season 4.


You know a series is messed up when the cartoon hallucination in someones head is the one giving sane rational and moral advice.

Scarab Sages

Well, that was interesting.

Spoiler:
I loved the animated bits with Black Noir. It was a cool way to both showcase his past, and show just how crazy the damage left him.

I honestly did not see the whole “I am your father” thing coming. At least, not until they made the big deal about whatever Mindstorm whispered to Soldier Boy. I’m guessing this doesn’t mean they’ll be teaming up, otherwise none of the good guys would have a chance.

I’m glad to see Kimiko get her powers back on her own terms.

I’m really enjoying how much this whole thing is a really twisted caricature of the superhero genre, and (to a somewhat lesser extent) the real world.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Spoiler:
Would Homelander rather have the best friend he's ever had, Noir or the Dad he's always wanted...

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Spoiler:

Actually, they could have Soldier Boy and Homelander team up. They've already learned SB has PTSD, and are combing through the Soviet/Russian notes. They could put together that certain sounds/songs trigger his power removing nuclear burst, and use that to force a burst from him.

Scarab Sages

JoelF847 wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Good point. And…

Spoiler:
Frenchie figured out why the gas MM used didn’t work, so presumably they can now knock him out as well.


Great series.

I like what they did - not copy the comic plot, but they have their own storyline which is also pretty good.

1 to 50 of 62 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Gamer Life / Entertainment / Television / Garth Ennis' "The Boys" All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.