The Boys (Amazon Video)

If you haven’t watched “The Boys” on Amazon Prime, you should. I mean it. It’s good. Especially if you’re into superhero shenanigans.

The Boys is an Amazon Prime original series based on the comic book of the same name. It takes the superhero genre and flips it on its head. Begging the question, what if superheroes were people just like you and me, but with incredible powers?

The “heroes” in The Boys are deeply, deeply flawed individuals. And that’s putting it mildly. The members of “The Seven” are a group of seven superheroes all handpicked and controlled by Vought International, a shady corporation.

To the outside world, The Seven look like lovable heroes, always around to save the day when the people most need saving. In reality, everything that these superheroes do is staged and marketed by Vought. They don’t care about using their powers to save people, they just enjoy the spotlight, and they’ll stop at nothing to protect their image. Homelander (Antony Starr), the leader of the pack, is pretty much Superman and Captain America on steroids. He’s the worst in the group because he not only actively uses his powers for evil, but he’s pretty much unstoppable.

In comes Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), a smooth talking Brit on a mission to take down The Seven; particularly Homelander. He enlists the help of Hughie (Jack Quaid), a man whose girlfriend was recently killed by a member of the Seven, and two of his old partners in crime, Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and Frenchie (Tomer Capon). The “boys” are a group of ragtag underdogs determined to expose Vought and The Seven.

The Boys is brutal. In the opening scene we’re introduced to A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), a member of The Seven, by watching him run through a human. It’s every bit as graphic as it sounds.

This show intentionally pushes the envelope with gore and vulgarity, but it never feels like it’s crude for crudeness’ sake. That said, there’s a scene in the middle of the season that involves a plane hijacking. The use of Brown people talking in pseudo-Arabic as hijackers and terrorists…I was not a fan.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the first season of this show, and I hope it comes back for a second. I’d recommend The Boys to anyone who likes comics and/or things of the superhero variety and especially folks who enjoy the darker, edgier stuff in the genre. You can watch it now on Amazon Prime.

Happy Binging!