The Boys - An Amazon Prime adaptation of the Ennis comic series

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Internet War Criminal said:
Season 1 to 5 were actually really good. Jensen Ackles carries the show and is an absolute bro. Problem is that the show was planned out for 5 seasons, but they stretched it to 15 seasons because of how just popular and how much of a money making machine it was.

There are still some great moments moving forward, but it's definitely a case of diminishing return. It's definitely the best thing the CW ever made, alongside Reaper.

The first 5 seasons are definitely better than the Boys. Most of the latter seasons, too.
Click to expand...
Ah, so he's a washed up has-been. Got it. Thanks for the information.
 
With how woke this show has gotten, I expect next season will feature an extended cross-over with Lena Dunham's "Girls".
 
Secret Asshole said:
The entire point of Soldier Boy's character (that they sadly don't delve too much into) is that he's a fraud. He never did any of those things, he's just playing at being hard. Sadly the PTSD gets just left off at the end, though I have a feeling they're not done with him quite yet.

The problem is that the writing is all over the place. It makes very little sense for the theme of 'family' and abandonment to have Soldier Boy just fight Homelander. The problem is that the writers are having a very difficult time sticking to a central theme. Do you want it political or about family? You've only got 8 hours to do it, so you've got to be really good with it. So they kind of waffle back and forth with the themes of family and fake corporate activism and politics and it comes off as weak on both fronts.

What they really needed to do was focus heavily on the family dynamic. The political angles just got in the way of things as obviously the core theme of the season was about family, both with the Boys and pretty much all of the characters. The problem is you've got a LOT of characters to do and not all that much time to do it, so you can't really spend much time on anything else. The politics just gets in the way and doesn't really have a place in this season.

It feels like they know their days are numbered or they have a limited amount of time and can't just dedicate a theme to a season so they have to squeeze as much as they can into every season or someone demanded it. Though I have a feeling everything at Amazon is going to start to get the squeeze because of Bezo's progtard fanfiction from Lord of the Rings.

But yeah, they really just didn't focus on the themes as well as they needed to so everything comes off as muddled.
Click to expand...
I agree, they should've pushed harder that Soldier Boy is a fraud. He's not to be emulated. Not because of 'toxic masculinity'. But because he's a fake egotistical asshole, far worse than Homelander's fragile mental state.

A-Train should've died killing Blue Hawk. Noir should've been the one launching Soldier Boy out of the top floor, and both Noir and Soldier Boy should've died. Neuman's plot is one I enjoy, the direction they're taking it in could be great.

I hated the fight between Starlight and Hughie all season until the end. I liked that he resolved it not as a fighter, but with his intelligence. Hughie, from the start, was always more of a smart guy than a strong guy, and I loved that about him. But trying to frame his protectiveness as 'machoness' is complete bullshit.

I still enjoy the show and season 3 overall, but I agree with many here that when they fail, they fail hard. Secret Asshole is right in that the main theme should be of family. Blood vs Found family, etc. The mocking of real world politics just feels like time wasting tbh.

Edit: For bad stoned spelling
 
Last edited:
A Beached Whale said:
I agree, they should've pushed harder that Soldier Boy is a fraud. He's not to be emulated. Not because of 'toxic masculinity'. But because he's a fake egotistical asshole, far worse than Homelander's fragile mental state.
Click to expand...
I'd say making Soldier Boy a fraud was completely unnecessary. Why not just have it so that he legit is a soldier from the old days, but his old-world views hold him back from accepting certain parts of the new world? There was no need to make him out to be a fraud, since he seems perfectly capable of fighting the Nazis, and Stan Edgar, when he told the "truth" to Homelander, said that the guy killed Germans left and right. Why not just make him out to be a ruthless killer who is actually a talented fighter and tactician? Like, imagine Homelander, but the fucker actually knows how to fight and punch above his weight because he didn't start out with a shit ton of power, and he can adapt faster than Homelander if he's fighting something that brute force can't defeat. That would be a far more threatening villain than just "HURR DURR, HE'S A TOXIC MASCULINE FRAUD!"

Shit, you can even give Soldier Boy a very strong intolerance for communists and socialists, since he fought in the Cold War. Have him react to modern-day American socialist and communist riots and protesters with a gun to the face or a fire hose blasting them.

A Beached Whale said:
A-Train should've died killing Blue Halk. Noir should've been the one launching Soldier Boy out of the top floor, and both Noir and Soldier Boy should've died. Neuman's plot is one I enjoy, the direction they're taking it in could be great.
Click to expand...
Heck, Black Noir would have made for a great addition to the Boys for Season 4. He knows Vought inside-out, and if they have to fight Vought, which would be led by Soldier Boy and his family, Noir would be the Boys' top asset, aside from his power and combat skills.

A Beached Whale said:
I hated the fight between Starlight and Hughie all season until the end. I liked that he resolved it not as a fighter, but with his intelligence. Hughie, from the start, was always more of a smart guy than a strong guy, and I loved that about him. But trying to frame his protectiveness as 'machoness' is complete bullshit.
Click to expand...
I agree. The sheer hypocrisy of them giving back Kimiko her powers while saying that Hughie should've stayed aside was nonsense. Especially when Hughie proved to be effective in distracting someone as strong as Homelander. It should have ended with Starlight giving Hughie the blue shit and training him as a superhero; that way, you still get the girl-power bullshit, but this time, it's Starlight introducing Hughie to a brand new world.

A Beached Whale said:
I still enjoy the show and season 3 overall, but I agree with many here that when they fail, they fail *hard*. @secretis right in that the main theme should be of family. Blood vs Found family, etc. The mocking of real world politics just feels like time wasting tbh.
Click to expand...
They could have made it work if Soldier Boy joined Homelander. Especially on the politics side, since Homelander is counting on the whole "keep America safe" crowd for his politics, having Soldier Boy on his side, a legit hero who fought the Nazis, would be a stunning propaganda win for him, one that could finally, with help from Soldier Boy and Victoria Neuman, allow him to get Supes into national defense.
 
Internet War Criminal said:
Season 1 to 5 were actually really good. Jensen Ackles carries the show and is an absolute bro. Problem is that the show was planned out for 5 seasons, but they stretched it to 15 seasons because of how just popular and how much of a money making machine it was.

There are still some great moments moving forward, but it's definitely a case of diminishing return. It's definitely the best thing the CW ever made, alongside Reaper.

The first 5 seasons are definitely better than the Boys. Most of the latter seasons, too.
Click to expand...
who the fuck did Bret Harrison piss off, every show he was on was cancelled within two seasons.
 
LORD IMPERATOR said:
I'd say making Soldier Boy a fraud was completely unnecessary. Why not just have it so that he legit is a soldier from the old days, but his old-world views hold him back from accepting certain parts of the new world? There was no need to make him out to be a fraud, since he seems perfectly capable of fighting the Nazis, and Stan Edgar, when he told the "truth" to Homelander, said that the guy killed Germans left and right. Why not just make him out to be a ruthless killer who is actually a talented fighter and tactician? Like, imagine Homelander, but the fucker actually knows how to fight and punch above his weight because he didn't start out with a shit ton of power, and he can adapt faster than Homelander if he's fighting something that brute force can't defeat. That would be a far more threatening villain than just "HURR DURR, HE'S A TOXIC MASCULINE FRAUD!"

Shit, you can even give Soldier Boy a very strong intolerance for communists and socialists, since he fought in the Cold War. Have him react to modern-day American socialist and communist riots and protesters with a gun to the face or a fire hose blasting them.


Heck, Black Noir would have made for a great addition to the Boys for Season 4. He knows Vought inside-out, and if they have to fight Vought, which would be led by Soldier Boy and his family, Noir would be the Boys' top asset, aside from his power and combat skills.


I agree. The sheer hypocrisy of them giving back Kimiko her powers while saying that Hughie should've stayed aside was nonsense. Especially when Hughie proved to be effective in distracting someone as strong as Homelander. It should have ended with Starlight giving Hughie the blue shit and training him as a superhero; that way, you still get the girl-power bullshit, but this time, it's Starlight introducing Hughie to a brand new world.


They could have made it work if Soldier Boy joined Homelander. Especially on the politics side, since Homelander is counting on the whole "keep America safe" crowd for his politics, having Soldier Boy on his side, a legit hero who fought the Nazis, would be a stunning propaganda win for him, one that could finally, with help from Soldier Boy and Victoria Neuman, allow him to get Supes into national defense.
Click to expand...
I agree make Soldier Boy a actual fallen hero would have been ten times better. Their have been plenty of villains in past franchises that were once heroes but turn evil that are well like and are consderied intresting the obvious one being Darth Vader.
 
How am i supposed to care about this show if when it finally comes to a climax they keep coming up with bullshit excuses to not blast homelander with the de-supe ray.
They spent all the show trying to come face to face in a fight with homelander, when for the second stupid time they can do it Butcher instead of using his powers to take Ryan away or something starts fighting with the other idiot that was about to fulfill his whole fucking mission for him, its frustrating.
This season felt like the show giving me blue balls its shit they tease you and then they don't deliver, the problem being they use the worst and laziest excuses.
And the group dividing felt so forced, all being true annoyances just to justify self sabotaging the whole purpose of what the show supposedly was about, and the filler felt like cheap tv drama
 
So I'm wondering if they're going to address Homelanders "mom"?

Think about it. Homelander as a lab experiment literally grown from a test tube of compound V had no mom. Now that the show has changed things up and Homelander now came from a cup of Soldier Boys making, well who delivered the kid? Sperm doesn't magically grow from a test tube, they'd have needed eggs and a living human or supe host to deliver the offspring.
 
Boyd McVoid said:
How am i supposed to care about this show if when it finally comes to a climax they keep coming up with bullshit excuses to not blast homelander with the de-supe ray.
They spent all the show trying to come face to face in a fight with homelander, when for the second stupid time they can do it Butcher instead of using his powers to take Ryan away or something starts fighting with the other idiot that was about to fulfill his whole fucking mission for him, its frustrating.
This season felt like the show giving me blue balls its shit they tease you and then they don't deliver, the problem being they use the worst and laziest excuses.
And the group dividing felt so forced, all being true annoyances just to justify self sabotaging the whole purpose of what the show supposedly was about, and the filler felt like cheap tv drama
Click to expand...
They tease a huge fight between Homelander and Butcher/Soldier Boy, and whenever we finally get it to some part of it, they cut away for Starlight nonsense. They even tried overcharging her and all she did was just a weak little push against Soldier Boy, then fall down like the useless sack of skin she is. The only thing she's good at is making Hughie want her like a good little doggie.

At this point, all one can do is wait to see who gets to don the most plot armour they conveniently have and that's it.
 
Sithis said:
So I'm wondering if they're going to address Homelanders "mom"?

Think about it. Homelander as a lab experiment literally grown from a test tube of compound V had no mom. Now that the show has changed things up and Homelander now came from a cup of Soldier Boys making, well who delivered the kid? Sperm doesn't magically grow from a test tube, they'd have needed eggs and a living human or supe host to deliver the offspring.
Click to expand...

Its pretty obvious Stormfront is his mom, I doubt she is actually dead (we didn't see her die, just off screen suicide) so I'm sure she'll come back in the final season. Remember, Soldier Boy also had a throwaway line about how he started Herogasm with Stormfront (under her previous supe alias), plus there is the whole OG Vought connection to Stormfront.

Fits nicely into the narrative of the writers too, "Trump wants to fuck his daughter" oh yeah well HOMELANDER FUCKED HIS MOM and the show has entered that Star Wars phase of its life where everything important only happens to like 5 people on the planet.
 
skippy said:
Its pretty obvious Stormfront is his mom, I doubt she is actually dead (we didn't see her die, just off screen suicide) so I'm sure she'll come back in the final season. Remember, Soldier Boy also had a throwaway line about how he started Herogasm with Stormfront (under her previous supe alias), plus there is the whole OG Vought connection to Stormfront.

Fits nicely into the narrative of the writers too, "Trump wants to fuck his daughter" oh yeah well HOMELANDER FUCKED HIS MOM and the show has entered that Star Wars phase of its life where everything important only happens to like 5 people on the planet.
Click to expand...
Maybe people wouldn't like Homelander so much. If I don't know the hero characters wouldn't shit
 
Noir was only killed because they couldn't kill anyone else but had to have a death in the finale. They kept A-Train, which I'm not against cause I like the actor, even if he already had the perfect greek tragedy ending by killing Blue Hawk and apologizing to Huey. They can't kill 2 black characters in a row, no can do. Also, they can't kill a "lesbian" (bisexual hardass woman that is needlessly bitchy) so the whole "Maeve survived" thing felt extremely forced. It's a cop out that made her sacrifice feel meaningless by giving her a happy ending. She might appear again as a whistleblower in a future season and that's about the extent of her character's possible utilization. At least she gets to run a farm with her lesbian girlfriend (hope it doesn't end up like the Alpaca Tranch). I'm also sure they totally won't invite over a bunch of muscular boys to rawdog them both, since Maeve hasn't been shown to do that at all while being in The Seven and is 100% pure lesbian that smells like unwashed Billy Butcher. Her survival scene was there just to make Starlight feel better about flying 2 feet in the air while being charged like an old Nokia phone from her powerless cuck boyfriend who knows how AV cables and backstage lights work.

The writers cucked the male characters into not taking temp or perma V while being completely okay with girlboss moments, even if these moments cost the lives of random SWAT members just doing their job for what amounted to 10 seconds of our heroes using Novichok on SB, which just made him angry and charge his blast at them. Sure, it did knock him out after the fall, but it felt like an absolute waste of time. At least Kimiko got to dance to Maniac and get her pseudo-boyfriend shot in the leg. I did like the scene, even if it was girlboss, but looking back on the entire leadup to it, it feels like a waste of the viewers time. Yes we get it, she can't talk and likes old songs and wants to sing, hates her powers but realizes she needs them. At least the actress can sing. I now wonder if Huey's actor can sing a full Billy Joel song well. Thing is, even if he can, the writers wouldn't let him, as he's supposed to be the "everyman", which in todays climate means a total doormat.

I also actually liked the girlboss scene of Huey powering up Starlight, not because of any "girlboss" action mind you, but because Amazon dared to show a male character use his wits to help out with brains instead of brawn. In the show's universe, if he took that last V shot, the best thing he could've done is to teleport a naked Soldier Boy through the window, resulting in a sacrifice similar to Maeve's, only Huey would have died because he doesn't have a vagina to scissor his girlfriend with. We can't have the actual main character die in what is probably the penultimate season however and we also need to teach boys, THE boys, that it's okay to sometimes (always) empower girls to do all their work for them. Because boys will be boys and girls just get it done.

It seems Kripke does give his actors some leeway into where their involvement in the show goes, as the whole Noir death was already planned for S3, but was so in a way that can keep the original Black Noir actor still playing the character, only now it's going to be an impostor/stand-in for the real Noir we saw die, played by the same actor who was in the Noir mask since S1 (Nathan Mitchell).

This is Kripke's way of keeping the actor in the same role, however he's going to be Noir 2: Electric Boogaloo and he's probably going to have the actual actor's face and voice this time because his acting skills have been unused so far in a vocal or facial way. Kripke admitted to casting the Flashback Noir (Fritzy-Klevans Destine) and have him voice animated Black-Sheep Noir just for the sole reason of later bringing back the actor under the mask (Nathan) as an Impostor Noir, as he is a different person. The reasoning is probably because Fritzy was more of an Eddie Murphy type of black guy in terms of speech and demeanor, while Nathan wasn't. Kripke needed an Eddie Murphy character lookalike black guy so he can do the whole "you fucked my movie deal" thing.

All of this a waste of Noir One's animated Pyrovision + FNAF backstory, just to later introduce someone that sounds like a new walking punchline character like the Deep. A fake Noir will never replace old Noir, regardless of him being played by the same actor. People instantly loved him after one episode of his freaky backstory being told, just to get a literal gut punch in the finale because the writers had no one else to kill for shock value. They could still bring back Noir One as it's still the same actor playing both Noir 1 and Noir 2, but use Noir 1's face and voice-actor with burn victim makeup. They can make him an ever more brainded Pyro+Deadpool type of undying character, which would be fun. Of course, he has to aid the Boys in the S4 finale to bring down Homolander, similar to the comics but not with the same "weapon designed to kill Homelander" premise. Sadly, I doubt they're doing that.
The Deep is a walking joke and I have a feeling the actor playing him is also a bit sick of it. There was a chance of redemption for his character in S2, however they squandered it to have him be the evil dumb sidekick to Homelander. He's a walking "Aquaman fucks fish" joke and the actor knows it, but can't do anything about it because it's probably his most successful role. His character's name is Kevin, which is a stereotypical name regularly attributed to idiots in Germany. If you're a Kevin, you're probably retarded. At least the guy plays it well, but I can see how he can be annoying to viewers as the only character he plays is being the shitty bad guy sidekick comic relief who is also dumb and vain as hell.

Eat fucking Timothy and then fuck Ambrosius with your mid handler wife. #justiceforthedeep

All of the things I listed here combined are the reason that the most well remembered episode of the entire show will be Herogasm, the first and so far only cool major guyboss fight between HM, SB, Butcher and Huey. It's a rare moment of the show giving the fans what they want, before giving them 2 more episodes that were made in a Vought lab for the sole purpose of pleasing the other liberals involved in this project.

And to the people saying that the show makes fun of both political sides, after watching the season I can say with confidence that it feels like an 80/20% thing. We make fun of gun control because guns are bad mkay, let the police handle everything and never outnumber them with privately owned guns so the status quo never gets questioned. Oh, let's make fun of Trump since we based our main villain on him and even if we give him some nuance occasionally, we have to remind the viewers he's the bad man just like Trump was.
This show is written by leftists and mostly makes fun of the right wind in America. The guy who gets pegged by Ashley is clearly a Tucker Carlson stand in. The mockery of the right wing is overwhelming in the Boys and the only moment they came close to mocking the left is by shedding a light on the corporate abuse of the LGBT base of people who are willing to support any major corporation, as long as it panders to them in a fake way. Oh, and they had BLM burgers. They didn't critique BLM, only shoved their initials in a scene to "mock" leftist culture. Did they really though? I think they ate one too many gender fluid tacos or BLM burgers in order to be able to see through their own hypocrisy.
 
Soulja Boy addendum:
The writers had to go out of their way to make SB a bully towards Black Noir, his team and also Huey and Butcher, a real diva that didn't care about anything except their status, drugs and lubed up grannies. However, they introduced him as an out of time soldier, a betrayed, discontinued product of his time, making him a bit of a vague non-caring dick so they can pull the carpet under you in the last two episodes, as he was somewhat relatable since he now had nothing. People like the actor Jensen Ackles because of Supernatural, a show which sadly made more women wet than the average Kiwifarmer ever could. I think this is the reason SB didn't actually use racial slurs, his "racism" was only implied at best since he lobotomized Noir with his shield and collateralled MMs family. We can't have a beloved actor go full asshole and actual racist with acting, it has to be implied by other characters and never directly addressed which is just fake nuance until the story needs him to do what he did. There is a lot of nuance in the show's villains, until it's no longer needed and we need to have Homelander or Soldier Boy commit an atrocity.

People already mentioned this, but it's funny that viewers like the villains in the show the most. Anthony Starr's acting carries the show, as the good guy is only as good as the bad guy, which makes for a great duo with Karl Urban, a severely underrated actor. People also like Soldier Boy, because he's kind of....based? Sure, he was about to kill a super powered kid, because he's a ruthless soldier and Butcher wanted Homelander dead. All those moments of him ignoring the basic morality of things, like nuking an entire orgy or almost frying a kid with his radiaton chest beam is what makes the show's writing fall short. Here, the nuance goes out the window in favor of keeping him just likable enough for you to not get pissed that he was always the unredeemable bad guy who gets betrayed and put in stasis again.
 
Power level but the surface level diet late life carlinism/welfare bill hicks level political commentary that has been bitched about for page after page aren't at all a surprise given it's part of the comic too. I mean for god's fucking sake, Mother's Milk's whole backstory and reason to exist was to be the most blunt ham fisted analogy for the urban crack epidemic, crack babies being addicted from birth and THE GOVERNMENT STARTED IT ever devised.

I'd almost be disappointed if they didn't have any in the show too.

That was early to mid 00s "counter culture" in a nut shell as we didn't have scitzo detective historians, double plus CIA reverse engineers, meta ironic unirony deep divers and youtube talking heads as the internet norm fully yet. Being able to watch something that wasn't golly gee whiz FCC'd up the asshole, that talked about raw topics and comedians saying the F word was still relatively fresh and shocking.

Transmetropolitan also dropped in that era and is the defining crown jewel of edgy but cringy and somehow representing nothing at the same time anti-everythingism.

The boys as a comic itself is a product of the tail end of that, a puerile dissection with a claw hammer of the blandy corporate cape comic and serialized hero through the lense of "What if these fuckers were as bad and flawed as our actual celebrities and heroes and corporate overlords only with tangible power to make it worse?" And it's very much through-lined with shallow 90s/early 00s stand up comic wearing a leather jacket and smoking on stage tier takes and shock jocking on not so current events due to writer to publisher to printer to store process lag, On top of the easy lampooning target rich environment of post second round of bush Jr in 2006 when the comic was launched and no doubt being written still during round one of the presidency.

I knew what to expect coming into it especially it being on Amazon of all places. And it did not disappoint on that front, it's still somewhat vague and meandering surface level shit peppered throughout that was already dated before the public's eyes were even on it. It's like complaining that grandpa doesn't know all of the details- It's written by an aging fuck who is mad about comics and current events. Filtered through execs and editors. Of course it's going to be awkward, inaccurate and dated. It's a non complaint.

What I didn't anticipate with the show or expect to make a return from the comics is the absolute lack of focus and coke head twitchy plot ADD, and complete screeching crashes to be a mainstay still despite a lot of plot character and story retcons and rewrites. It's a weird, stupor of a goddamn experience to watch something made in an era where attention spans are at an all time low and the pacing just isn't there. Where you could cut an hour down to 40 minutes and reshoot two scenes and be golden for a few episodes. Where I could blitz through the written source material faster than the filmed adapation can get the fuck on with it.


IE: Did we really need nearly 1/5th of an entire hour and change running show to be The Deep arguing and singing with Patton Oswalt voiced fucking gills on a shroom trip? Do we really need on god an entire minute of a focus shot with one sentence spoken in the duration at random whenever they artificially need tension? Do I REALLY need to see three plus minutes of slow and tortured out, made up subtitled sign language between kimiko and frenchie of softball nothing non development that we already knew and will be discarded in the next ten?

I'm not asking for Marvel school of sarcastic rapid fire quips and hard cuts. But this isn't a singular atmospheric movie with only an hour and fifty to spare. This is a full on series with an insider ignorance at the helm and in the editing room. Every meandering weak scene piles on to the final sum in a bad way instead of being able to be hand waved as a one and done experience.
 
Ukraine is Big Gay said:
Power level but the surface level diet late life carlinism/welfare bill hicks level political commentary that has been bitched about for page after page aren't at all a surprise given it's part of the comic too. I mean for god's fucking sake, Mother's Milk's whole backstory and reason to exist was to be the most blunt ham fisted analogy for the urban crack epidemic, crack babies being addicted from birth and THE GOVERNMENT STARTED IT ever devised.

I'd almost be disappointed if they didn't have any in the show too.

That was early to mid 00s "counter culture" in a nut shell as we didn't have scitzo detective historians, double plus CIA reverse engineers, meta ironic unirony deep divers and youtube talking heads as the internet norm fully yet. Being able to watch something that wasn't golly gee whiz FCC'd up the asshole, that talked about raw topics and comedians saying the F word was still relatively fresh and shocking.

Transmetropolitan also dropped in that era and is the defining crown jewel of edgy but cringy and somehow representing nothing at the same time anti-everythingism.

The boys as a comic itself is a product of the tail end of that, a puerile dissection with a claw hammer of the blandy corporate cape comic and serialized hero through the lense of "What if these fuckers were as bad and flawed as our actual celebrities and heroes and corporate overlords only with tangible power to make it worse?" And it's very much through-lined with shallow 90s/early 00s stand up comic wearing a leather jacket and smoking on stage tier takes and shock jocking on not so current events due to writer to publisher to printer to store process lag, On top of the easy lampooning target rich environment of post second round of bush Jr in 2006 when the comic was launched and no doubt being written still during round one of the presidency.

I knew what to expect coming into it especially it being on Amazon of all places. And it did not disappoint on that front, it's still somewhat vague and meandering surface level shit peppered throughout that was already dated before the public's eyes were even on it. It's like complaining that grandpa doesn't know all of the details- It's written by an aging fuck who is mad about comics and current events. Filtered through execs and editors. Of course it's going to be awkward, inaccurate and dated. It's a non complaint.

What I didn't anticipate with the show or expect to make a return from the comics is the absolute lack of focus and coke head twitchy plot ADD, and complete screeching crashes to be a mainstay still despite a lot of plot character and story retcons and rewrites. It's a weird, stupor of a goddamn experience to watch something made in an era where attention spans are at an all time low and the pacing just isn't there. Where you could cut an hour down to 40 minutes and reshoot two scenes and be golden for a few episodes. Where I could blitz through the written source material faster than the filmed adapation can get the fuck on with it.


IE: Did we really need nearly 1/5th of an entire hour and change running show to be The Deep arguing and singing with Patton Oswalt voiced fucking gills on a shroom trip? Do we really need on god an entire minute of a focus shot with one sentence spoken in the duration at random whenever they artificially need tension? Do I REALLY need to see three plus minutes of slow and tortured out, made up subtitled sign language between kimiko and frenchie of softball nothing non development that we already knew and will be discarded in the next ten?

I'm not asking for Marvel school of sarcastic rapid fire quips and hard cuts. But this isn't a singular atmospheric movie with only an hour and fifty to spare. This is a full on series with an insider ignorance at the helm and in the editing room. Every meandering weak scene piles on to the final sum in a bad way instead of being able to be hand waved as a one and done experience.
Click to expand...
I really like and agree with your post. The showrunners had two conflicting ideas in my opinion, showing the importance of family and how a father's wrong and crude methods of raising kids can create a cycle of abuse that needs to be broken up, combined with a sadly low effort uneducated politisperg pandering to their viewerbase. I refuse to call SB's behaviour toxic masculinity, as it is just a buzzword they use in interviews, when the story was actually a lot deeper than that. A man who can withstand a Cosby Cocktail is clearly based and I will take no other answer.

Another user pointed out, we're not supposed to root for SB not because he's "toxic", but because he is, was and always will be a fraud. Which made the Homelander confrontation at the end one of the best scenes of this season for me. I loved the delivery of the "you're a fucking dissapointment" line from Jensen Ackles. Because he was a dissapointment to his father, so is the needy sociopath standing infront of him, manipulating him with a grandson he's never even seen. Hesmywifesson.

This show is simply dragged down by all the political satire the writers attempt, getting in the way of the real drama that the actors are completely able to pull off, yet no one is allowed to show their full potential because lefties got Trump elected in 2016 by being retards who never shut the hell up and created their opposition all by themselves. Now, we have to suffer the endless propaganda by the "anti-establishment underdogs" that still don't understand that the establishment is now on their side and all they're doing is fueling it.
 
Corporal Lewis said:
Soulja Boy addendum:
People already mentioned this, but it's funny that viewers like the villains in the show the most. Anthony Starr's acting carries the show, as the good guy is only as good as the bad guy, which makes for a great duo with Karl Urban, a severely underrated actor. People also like Soldier Boy, because he's kind of....based? Sure, he was about to kill a super powered kid, because he's a ruthless soldier and Butcher wanted Homelander dead. All those moments of him ignoring the basic morality of things, like nuking an entire orgy or almost frying a kid with his radiaton chest beam is what makes the show's writing fall short. Here, the nuance goes out the window in favor of keeping him just likable enough for you to not get pissed that he was always the unredeemable bad guy who gets betrayed and put in stasis again.
Click to expand...
They couldn't just make Soldier Boy into a genuine soldier with retrograde attitudes towards women and masculinity; they had to make him a fraud who attacks his own progeny for not living up to a standard that he, admittedly, failed at. They can't help but overtly demonize someone who doesn't fit their politics. It really speaks to the show-writers' politics that they would throw away the obvious powerful team-up between Homelander and Soldier Boy for next season (which would have been the optimal choice to keep the normies glued to their seats) and instead just trod out the Homelander plotline again. I can't figure out why this guy is still seen as such a threat. Even fucking Queen Maeve was able to injure him; just have 12 well-trained guys take ONE dose of V-24 ambush him at night. Super Butcher did almost as much damage as Soldier Boy did against Homelander during the fight at Herogasm, so 12 of him would have been Homelander's end.

Wouldn't it be far better if they focused on the SOLDIER part of Soldier Boy? Like say, make him very tactical in the way he handles his opponents? Make him obsessed with victory? There's plenty of villains who will eschew morals for martial superiority, Soldier Boy could have easily fit into that mold due to his military background and his grey morality. Instead of making him a fraud, make him a genuine hero who had to do some evil things in order to win. Like say, he burned down a whole village because some Commie sympathizers were hiding out there, or he burned down a whole German town that some Nazi SS officer was using as a base. That way, we see someone who would be very effective whether he's friend or foe, and when he becomes a full-on bad guy due to his son convincing him to jump ship from the Boys, he'd be the kind of threat that would make their assholes clench with fear.

Homelander teaming up with Soldier Boy would have been a real threat, since not only would the guy have a purpose defending his kin, which means he'll actually have a cause to fight for and be excited about, but he can de-power anyone who threatens him or his progeny. Now, 12 guys attacking Homelander with Temp V won't make so much as a difference once Soldier Boy blasts them with his nuclear chest beam and they all turn back into normal, allowing Homelander to laser them in half. He can train Ryan to be an effective fighter, building him up to be a third super-human that can eclipse the first two in power. Not to mention the propaganda win of Soldier Boy, hero of heroes, returning to Vought and proclaiming Homelander as his son and heir. That would cement Homelander's credibility within the public, and perhaps even get him those military contracts that he's been eager to get ever since the first season. That would leave the good guys in the most desperate spot, which would have been a great build-up for the fourth season.

I mean, I can just think of an alternate scenario, kind of like the Goku Black arc from Dragon Ball Super, and imagine Soldier Boy in Goku Black's place, and Homelander in Zamasu's place. Imagine the two of them fighting together against any super-threat in-sync, almost as if they're always on the same page, using their strengths and talents together. Every battle the heroes have against them, unlike that last battle between Maeve and Homelander, will always be a life-or-death situation where any of them can die at the drop of a hat. Which means they'll have to think very carefully every time they try to engage the two superheroes, because any encounter can be their last.

Hell, if you want A-Train to have his redemption arc, having him join the Boys to make up for serving the corporate monolith that supported Blue Hawk would be a good first step. Then have Soldier Boy figure out a way to nullify/counter his super-speed and kill him. If you want to sell Soldier Boy as a racist asshole, having a black hero die by his hands would have been appropriate. Not to mention Black Noir should have survived; have him cause a distraction to help the Boys escape, then have him help Butcher and Starlight plan their future attacks against Vought. That way all that character buildup with the cartoon animals wouldn't have been wasted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom