SERIES PREMIERE: When Garth Ennis’ graphic novel
The Boys came out in 2006, the idea of a superhero supergroup approached as a global conglomerate – with missions, costumes, team-ups and other decisions based on corporate research and profit margins – was a bit unusual, even seditious. But now, in a world where DC Comics and Marvel characters are rolled out in ever-expanding universes on both TV and in the cinema, that cold-blooded ruthlessness and calculated greed seems sadly familiar. Ennis and co-executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who also teamed for the still-running AMC adaptation of Ennis’
Preacher comics, approach
The Boys as a sort of R-rated superhero story. There’s lots of sexual harassment among the heroic squad known as The Seven, and a new recruit, played by Erin Moriarty, is even forced, by the corporate executive overseeing The Seven, to adopt a much more revealing costume. That executive is played by Elisabeth Shue, whose acting chops were properly lauded in
Leaving Las Vegas, but who first impressed me in ABC’s
Call to Glory series long before that.
The Boys has enough bad behavior and surprise twists that it’s worth watching, but superhero fatigue is unavoidable here. The difference is, with
The Boys, the heroes in the show suffer from it too. Antony Star plays Homelander, a combo Superman and Captain America – but a hero whose inner moral code is disturbingly dark.
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.