THE BOYS

                                                The Boys: Amazon's New Gem!

When superheroes abuse their superpowers instead of using them for good, The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about The Seven and Vought, the conglomerate that covers up their dirty secrets.

 
This is a tv series for everyone. It has a whole new concept or premise and the derived story is just genius and we love it for that. As simple as the story may seem, there is really nothing simple about the show, it is as complex as any tv series goes. What basically did it for viewers is having a superhero show that was not about the superheroes, or at least not about them in the good way. It was really amazing watching the heroes as the bad guys, while your regular everyday guy strived to do good.
Also, from the first peak at the show, we could see that it had a PG rating of 18+, and while that was really curious, just some minutes into the pilot episode explained why the show's setting had to be set that high. One of the reasons and probably the most important reason why it had such high PG settings was that in order to really explore the extent of the villainy of these superheroes, all of their villainous acts had to be painted graphically, and this means that the show's writers could not mince words or hold back some visuals, it was all or nothing, and the show chose to go all in.

Now, the way the story was meant to be told also posed a simple yet problematic debate; where the boys in their quest being heroes or were they just being vindictive? This also almost completely erased the very thin veiled line between heroism and villainy, and in all truth, it appeared that the Boys did cross the line sometimes whichever way we looked at it. But all of these are what made the show such a terrific watch.
That being said, let's run through the plot and structure of the show. Basically the show was structured to create and resolve. It has 8 episode and the first half of the 8 was creating the disillusion of heroism for the viewers, and simultaneously peeling the veil of heroism to reveal acts of gross villainy, while the second half of the eight sought to resolve a conflict 8 years in the making. The show's story essentially will be meaningless without factoring in what happened 8 years prior to the present events. Mallory, Butcher, Frenchie and M.M where the initial band, something had to have given them purpose, the loss of will and how Hughie's present predicaments re-awakened old desires. Interesting choice of storyline narrative, since the show basically began without a known reason, which reason was later introduced in a really smooth way, it didn't need to be grandiose, it just had to have the effect required, and it did just that.

And then the show had the brilliant idea to share with the viewing audience; what if Superheroes were created and controlled by corporations? What if they were marketed like weapons and given promotionals like goods? What lengths will the corporate entities that financed these super powered individuals go to ensure that their investments are protected, even when the actions of their investments and even those of these corporations preponderates on the precipice of villainy and heroism. These questions provided the foothold upon which the creative team and the scripting team created the conflict element for this show. This ensured that not only was the conflict element wide reaching, but the Super powered individuals were deeply wound round the conflict that it was hard to really call The Boys a group of misfits even when they crossed the line, considering that the people who were meant to be the heroes had taken upon themselves the mantle of villainous money making super powered muscle-heads who needed to be stopped or exposed at any cost.
It's a really brilliant concept to have for a show and for the conflict to be built around.
As for the entire group of actors cast in this show, they were terrific at the job. Karl Urban( Butcher) was an inspiration on screen, he basically delivered the script as though it was written for just him and none other. It was really nice to see Anthony Starr( Homelander) in another lead role once again. His character's nuances were ones that could most easily have been alien to him, considering, but it never really showed. His strengths literally shone through.
Erin Moriarty (Annie), Chace Crawford (The Deep), Dominique McElligot( Queen Maeve), Jessie Usher( A- Train) and  Jack Quaid( Hughie Campbell) all delivered stellar screen performances and we could not have asked for better.

On the lighter side of things though, what is very clear and quite funny too maybe is the striking resemblance of these superheroes to characters from DC and Marvel's respective universes. From her first appearance, Queen Maeve was a total recreation of Wonder Woman, while Homelander and A-Train were Superman and The Flash re-imaged characters.  Okay but that's on the flip side of things, something to lighten the mood and perhaps to quickly acquaint the viewer with a familiar superhero world.
As for conflict resolution, that is the one thing that really has us interested in this show. Nothing has been resolved in this first season, more or less, we feel that some characters' just have their chapters closed, the real conflict is just about to begin. This presents a lot for the show runners and the studio going forward. There is quite a lot the creators could toy with in creating content for a second season and we really can't wait to find out what plans the producers have for these characters that have survived the first season. What are the next line of actions for the opposing forces? What is Homelander going to do and what would the boys do to counter him. These are interesting propositions, plus we still have the little issue of Becca's sudden not-so-dead situation. Season two cannot come any sooner, really.

In our opinion, this show is slowly inching it's way into the top 80 percentile of the most interesting tv shows of 2019, and that's saying a lot considering the amount of really rivetting shows that have hit the air in the year already. That being said, we really recommend this show to our readers out there. It is worth the time and the money. However, be mindful of its PG rating of 18+. 

Genre: Superhero, Black comedy, Comedy-drama
Based on: The Boys by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson
Developed by: Eric Kripke
Starring:
Karl Urban
Jack Quaid
Antony Starr
Erin Moriarty
Dominique McElligott
Jessie T. Usher
Laz Alonso
Chace Crawford
Tomer Kapon
Karen Fukuhara
Nathan Mitchell
Elisabeth Shue
Composer: Christopher Lennertz
Executive producer(s): Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Ori Marmur, Dan Trachtenberg, Ken F. Levin, Jason Netter
Producer(s): Hartley Gorenstein
Production location(s): Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cinematography: Jeff Cutter, Evans Brown, Jeremy Benning, Dylan Macleod
Editor(s): David Trachtenberg, Nona Khoda, David Kaldor, Cedric Nairn-Smith
Production company(s): Sony Pictures Television, Amazon Studios, Kripke Enterprises Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, Kickstart Entertainment, KFL Nightsky Productions

FCA'S AppR: 8.3/10