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

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I think what bothers me with the Church and The Deep story line is that it's all setup for the next season.

It's all in the forefront in a very obvious way. The congresswoman is clearly going to be the next seasons big baddie.
 
Ok, so a couple of things:

About Stormfront and Homelander's kid not being established, it is.

1) When Butcher is talking to Edgar, the kid is basically 'pure strain', meaning he's more powerful than Homelander, IE: The only check against him. Which means he is going to be used against him. This is in contrast to Black Noir being used against Homelander. So that part is gone. Homelander is a clear insane sociopath in the show. Its less nuanced, but Homelander still is the best part about 'The Boys'.
2) Its established the kid doesn't really know how to use any of his abilities.
3) It is also established that Homelander had to learn control on his own, which means a weapon against him has no idea how to fine tune it.
4) From Stormfront's injuries, it was basically an uncontrolled heat blast, with Stormfront abosrbing a big boom for Rebecca and she likely died due to shrapnel necking her, not due to a laser cut, which would have cauterized the wound. Its not really well done, so its hard to interpret, but likely this is what was written, but Amazon didn't really crater the place like they should have to give an impression of an explosion. Someone misinterpreted the script is what I feel like honestly.

So it IS established. Its just not really well connected. So you've got the connective tissue, its just confusing. I don't have a problem with it. We didn't need knife eye, I agree, but I guess she had to do something to piss her off.

Also, Stormfront kind of had to be a 'secret Nazi', because Stormfront in the comics was HILARIOUSLY over the top. He had Nazi armbands and a Swatstika cape for fuck's sake. He was obvious Nazi. It wouldn't have worked in show form. But I wouldn't have bothered with the Hamfisted politics. Boring.

Another couple of things:

1) Mallory is a gender-bent Colonel Mallory, who was originally a member of 'The Boys'. In the comics (since everyone was jumped up on V), he was a WWII vet. Lamplighter knowingly burns his grandkids alive and the Seven gives up Lamplighter as a sacrifice. In the show, Mallory FOUNDED 'The Boys', but was not a member and disbanded after her grandkids were ACCIDENTALLY killed by Lamplighter. So, the kid is probably better off with the CIA, who the boys work for. Its weird, a show painting the CIA as a protagonist, but there you go.
2) I like the story with Butcher in the show better than the comics. It helps that Karl Urban is amazing.
3) Compound V in the comics was EXPENSIVE AS FUCK. It was 19 BILLION a shot, not 5 million. Also the US government had its own purified supply. V also varied on purity. Shitty versions could give you power for 15-20 minutes, unstable versions could make your head explode. Highly refined versions were the most expensive.
4) Jesus FUCKING CHRIST, STOP WITH THE PUSSY FOOTING WITH HUGHIE. OH MY GOD. STOP PLEASE. I cannot fucking stand this dumb bullshit, I really seriously cannot. It took 3-4 fucking issues for him to get on board, it has STILL not gotten to him on board 16 EPISODES IN. It is season 2 for fucks sake. STOP STOP STOP STOP. I CANNOT TAKE IT ANYMORE. I am fucking crying. This is the absolute WORST part of this series, hands fucking down. Why is Hughie still a fucking pussy? He has already killed a person. He's fucking a supe. So why does he still have his balls in a jar? This is, hands down, the absolute worst part of the series. Why is it resetting all of a sudden? This is the main problem with him not having V. Because it is a LOT harder to tie him to 'The Boys'. So the writers are allowed with this self indulgent trash that constantly. fucking. resets. I cannot stand it. Why in the fuck does he have ANY faith in the system still? This is easily the absolute worst part of the show. There is no growth or development with Hughie. He is the same indecisive cunt he was. Butcher, hilariously, has grown far more than he has. The Female has. Fuck, EVEN FRENCHIE HAS. Hughie has 0 growth whatsoever. He's standing still and its holding the show back. Just have them as a team already for fuck's sake.

For every one good thing this show does, it does five wrong. The whole 'head explosion supe' should have been set up before with not so many red herrings. The Congresswoman should have been in the forefront more. I do applaud the show for making women villains (Especially a minority woman a villain) in a time where 'OMG WOMEN CAN'T BE EVIL'. I also like that it walked back Ennis' shitting on religion constantly to an excessive degree. Because that got old. The Scientology fill-in was humorous, but took up too much time and is entirely pointless.

Giancarlo Espisito is always a treat to watch. I could watch him and Karl Urban chew scenery for hours. Homelander is good. Starlight is OK. They made Queen Maeve a bit more tragic, which I think was a good decision. But the entirety of the show falls apart because of Hughie. I know Hughie is supposed to be the 'everyman' and a fill-in for the audience, but really, the show needs to completely back away from him. They've squandered his growth and development. I'd rather see Karl Urban sparring with supes with 'The Boys' than dealing with any of Hughie's pussy bullshit.

All-in-all, there were maybe 2 or 3 good episodes. The problem with this season was the pointless political messaging, absolutely no growth from Hughie. Centering the show around him is a gigantic mistake. I really, honestly, cannot take another half season of Hughie trying to get back together with 'The Boys'. It would have been FAR more effective, and shown FAR more growth, if they showed him wearing a wire and he was fully committed to going whole hog with the whole CIA unit and that they were onto the Congresswoman. That would have been a FAR better set-up, and might have salvaged SOMETHING out of this season. But as it stands right now, they basically just reset everything back to Season 1 episode 4. I rate this as a 4 or 5 out of 10. Wholly mediocre with some fun moments, but absolutely frustrating shit that drags it down 2 points.
 
Secret Asshole said:
Ok, so a couple of things:

About Stormfront and Homelander's kid not being established, it is.

1) When Butcher is talking to Edgar, the kid is basically 'pure strain', meaning he's more powerful than Homelander, IE: The only check against him. Which means he is going to be used against him. This is in contrast to Black Noir being used against Homelander. So that part is gone. Homelander is a clear insane sociopath in the show. Its less nuanced, but Homelander still is the best part about 'The Boys'.
2) Its established the kid doesn't really know how to use any of his abilities.
3) It is also established that Homelander had to learn control on his own, which means a weapon against him has no idea how to fine tune it.
4) From Stormfront's injuries, it was basically an uncontrolled heat blast, with Stormfront abosrbing a big boom for Rebecca and she likely died due to shrapnel necking her, not due to a laser cut, which would have cauterized the wound. Its not really well done, so its hard to interpret, but likely this is what was written, but Amazon didn't really crater the place like they should have to give an impression of an explosion. Someone misinterpreted the script is what I feel like honestly.

So it IS established. Its just not really well connected. So you've got the connective tissue, its just confusing. I don't have a problem with it. We didn't need knife eye, I agree, but I guess she had to do something to piss her off.

Also, Stormfront kind of had to be a 'secret Nazi', because Stormfront in the comics was HILARIOUSLY over the top. He had Nazi armbands and a Swatstika cape for fuck's sake. He was obvious Nazi. It wouldn't have worked in show form. But I wouldn't have bothered with the Hamfisted politics. Boring.

Another couple of things:

1) Mallory is a gender-bent Colonel Mallory, who was originally a member of 'The Boys'. In the comics (since everyone was jumped up on V), he was a WWII vet. Lamplighter knowingly burns his grandkids alive and the Seven gives up Lamplighter as a sacrifice. In the show, Mallory FOUNDED 'The Boys', but was not a member and disbanded after her grandkids were ACCIDENTALLY killed by Lamplighter. So, the kid is probably better off with the CIA, who the boys work for. Its weird, a show painting the CIA as a protagonist, but there you go.
2) I like the story with Butcher in the show better than the comics. It helps that Karl Urban is amazing.
3) Compound V in the comics was EXPENSIVE AS FUCK. It was 19 BILLION a shot, not 5 million. Also the US government had its own purified supply. V also varied on purity. Shitty versions could give you power for 15-20 minutes, unstable versions could make your head explode. Highly refined versions were the most expensive.
4) Jesus FUCKING CHRIST, STOP WITH THE PUSSY FOOTING WITH HUGHIE. OH MY GOD. STOP PLEASE. I cannot fucking stand this dumb bullshit, I really seriously cannot. It took 3-4 fucking issues for him to get on board, it has STILL not gotten to him on board 16 EPISODES IN. It is season 2 for fucks sake. STOP STOP STOP STOP. I CANNOT TAKE IT ANYMORE. I am fucking crying. This is the absolute WORST part of this series, hands fucking down. Why is Hughie still a fucking pussy? He has already killed a person. He's fucking a supe. So why does he still have his balls in a jar? This is, hands down, the absolute worst part of the series. Why is it resetting all of a sudden? This is the main problem with him not having V. Because it is a LOT harder to tie him to 'The Boys'. So the writers are allowed with this self indulgent trash that constantly. fucking. resets. I cannot stand it. Why in the fuck does he have ANY faith in the system still? This is easily the absolute worst part of the show. There is no growth or development with Hughie. He is the same indecisive cunt he was. Butcher, hilariously, has grown far more than he has. The Female has. Fuck, EVEN FRENCHIE HAS. Hughie has 0 growth whatsoever. He's standing still and its holding the show back. Just have them as a team already for fuck's sake.

For every one good thing this show does, it does five wrong. The whole 'head explosion supe' should have been set up before with not so many red herrings. The Congresswoman should have been in the forefront more. I do applaud the show for making women villains (Especially a minority woman a villain) in a time where 'OMG WOMEN CAN'T BE EVIL'. I also like that it walked back Ennis' shitting on religion constantly to an excessive degree. Because that got old. The Scientology fill-in was humorous, but took up too much time and is entirely pointless.

Giancarlo Espisito is always a treat to watch. I could watch him and Karl Urban chew scenery for hours. Homelander is good. Starlight is OK. They made Queen Maeve a bit more tragic, which I think was a good decision. But the entirety of the show falls apart because of Hughie. I know Hughie is supposed to be the 'everyman' and a fill-in for the audience, but really, the show needs to completely back away from him. They've squandered his growth and development. I'd rather see Karl Urban sparring with supes with 'The Boys' than dealing with any of Hughie's pussy bullshit.

All-in-all, there were maybe 2 or 3 good episodes. The problem with this season was the pointless political messaging, absolutely no growth from Hughie. Centering the show around him is a gigantic mistake. I really, honestly, cannot take another half season of Hughie trying to get back together with 'The Boys'. It would have been FAR more effective, and shown FAR more growth, if they showed him wearing a wire and he was fully committed to going whole hog with the whole CIA unit and that they were onto the Congresswoman. That would have been a FAR better set-up, and might have salvaged SOMETHING out of this season. But as it stands right now, they basically just reset everything back to Season 1 episode 4. I rate this as a 4 or 5 out of 10. Wholly mediocre with some fun moments, but absolutely frustrating shit that drags it down 2 points.
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I agree with 98% of what's said here.

I don't understand why the CIA is operating on US soil, even if Ennis didnt know that was illegal in the early 2000's when he wrote it, we all know that now and everytime they show up in the show it throws me off. I'm waiting for that to become an issue and I know it wont because somehow the people writing the show don't know its illegal and the CIA can't do what they are doing.
 
Did anyone else catch the line "I can't lash out, like some raging entitled maniac. That's a white man's luxury." when Butcher is talking to Edgar? I'm curious what your all's feelings about that is given the current political situation here in the states. It annoyed me a little and I'm not white either.

Otherwise a series that started off really good and then fell to the second season is shit curse, with some decent to good scenes sprinkled throughout. The part at the end with the female sups beating on Stormfront was pretty funny though.

But Anthony Starr is still the best part of the whole series.
 
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Yeah, Edgar's "I can't lash out, that's a white man's privilege" line was stupid. The guy's probably the most powerful and wealthiest man in the world, I'm pretty sure he can do whatever the fuck he wants. It's especially ironic because he's saying it to Butcher, a white guy who was then a wanted fugitive for trying to take down a company that Edgar was the head of.
 
Bruh that death scene had me tearing up so hard like damn.

Tor Lugosi said:
Yeah, Edgar's "I can't lash out, that's a white man's privilege" line was stupid. The guy's probably the most powerful and wealthiest man in the world, I'm pretty sure he can do whatever the fuck he wants. It's especially ironic because he's saying it to Butcher, a white guy who was then a wanted fugitive for trying to take down a company that Edgar was the head of.
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When understanding these lines you have to assume a level of perspective. He is the sort of person who likes to remain firmly in control and will tell himself whatever he needs to do that. Lashing out is instability and he fears it, the line is simply his rationalisation. It's also how he rationalises all the heinous stuff he does.

Owlman3 said:
Do people forget that Stormfront in both the comics and show is supposed to be a critique on why nazis are bad? Like if you don’t agree, that’s fine, but don’t complain when it’s literally the whole point of her character and her arc.
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Some people are too obsessed with hating SJWs to be able to watch a show written about actual nazis without sperging out nowadays apparently, these niggas will watch Imperium and be like "why SJWs gotta put politics in everything smh"
 
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Tor Lugosi said:
Yeah, Edgar's "I can't lash out, that's a white man's privilege" line was stupid. The guy's probably the most powerful and wealthiest man in the world, I'm pretty sure he can do whatever the fuck he wants. It's especially ironic because he's saying it to Butcher, a white guy who was then a wanted fugitive for trying to take down a company that Edgar was the head of.
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I laughed at that. It was kind of like Edgar just fucking with Butcher. Butcher tried to use race against Edgar and Edgar just turned it around on Butcher. I just viewed it as a verbal sparring match between Edgar and Butcher. I kind of wish they did the thing from the comics where Edgar (or at least the character he's modeled after) was more terrifying than Homelander. Basically in the comics, Homelander can read your pulse and shit like that to tell if you're afraid or what have you. Even when he's threatening the Vought exec, he never gets afraid. And it really throws Homelander off.

It didn't seem like Edgar truly believed it, as if he could believe in anything but stock price. But Butcher cared, so he turned it around on him. I didn't pay it too much mind, I thought it was a smart barb to what Butcher was trying to do.
Observerer said:
The season finale was good and entertaining and I don't get why people are bitching about it. The head popper twist was cool, Becca dying was actually good, the fightscenes were good and there was a lot of character development. Also Homelander is great.
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Because Hughie is back where he was development wise in the middle of the first season and it is going to take time to get him back on the team...which we've seen twice before. We don't need it done a third time. The finale was also one of the only of a handful of decent episodes this season. It doesn't do enough to fix all of the season's problems and only ends up compounding them
 
Took me a while to distill my thoughts. This show was never smart, consistent, or realistic, even within the parameters of superhero fiction. But in the first season I was invested in the characters and their dilemmas, and I wanted to see more of them. I don't want to see these characters any more. Except maybe Homelander and Gus Fring.

As for Stormfront, I think as a society we're past the need to criticize Nazis. There's nothing more to be said about them. Nazis are so irrelevant today they had to make up a fictional immortal Nazi just to say Nazis are bad. But I liked when one of the characters called her a Kraut while beating her. Nothing reinforces the superiority of a tolerant and multiethnic society like spitting an ethnic slur as you kick a downed woman.
 
So what was the point of revealing the Congresswoman to be the one popping heads? The Church? Not even explained nor explored much, they just came and went as possible bait for Season 3 for the whole season while Stromfront and family stuff was on the very front. They could had focused the season on the established characters and growths instead of padding time for random stuff and characters. Chruch and Congresswoman could better work as a cliffhanger finale instead. I don't think Congresswoman was even foreshadowed at all or I somehow missed it.

EDIT to add: Rewatched the head exploding scene and she was looking at people right before they exploded. I'm not even sure if there's such a thing as 'too subtle' because it could be easily seen as her looking around in panic, not exploding heads- but that was defintely way too subtle to the point that I'm thinking if that's the only foreshadowing in the scene, then thats bad because that's in the middle of a shitload of red herrings and like I said could be mistaken as human nature. It just doesn't pop off for 'subtlety'.
EDIT 2: The only other foreshadowing I know of is Rainer(?) death, but Congresswoman wasn't around at that time and the scene afterwards just suddenly cuts to her in the middle of doing her news. wtf
 
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Well fuck me, I wasn't gonna watch season 3 but now I'm hooked. I'm a sucker for dumb action with a few likeable characters thrown in. The political shit is so over the top and funny, its crossed over into comedy in a way none of the other "woke" media ive seen has.
With that all said I don't see them making the obvious AOC insert character a "bad guy", they'll pussy out and half ass it if this seasons writing is any measure
 
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Enjoyed it, issues with the blocking on the Ryan-blasts-Stormfront scene aside. Was hoping Starlight would convert Stormfront's arcs into superior repulsor/plasma blasts, but lots of Kimiko and Maeve finally walloping something was nice. I'm still hoping they'll reveal a comic-accurate powerset for MM where he hulks out, but if he didn't when Noir hit him with the shuriken, I suppose he won't. The last scene with ATrain and Deep was great.
 
Dreamer said:
If you think the 3 women beating Stormfront while she's on the ground, cursing and behaving like football fans is woke then you need professional help my man
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Uhh... that's the precise and accurate definition of being woke. They fucking nailed it.

It was a good finale and season. I hope the next season is the last. This show need not continue on for much longer and I shudder to think about what will happen if it does.
 
I finished it. I stand by my 7.5 rating. But I don't know if I want to continue watching this. It all depends if I have something better do with my time when season 3 is out.
 
What a dog shit ending

Overall this season kind of sucked:
- Hughie is still just a completely intolerable pussy
- The dumb B-plots taking up 75% of each episode. By the time I thought an episode was getting interesting there was like 10 minutes of runtime left
- The dumb propaganda. It's not "how dare they make Nazis the bad guys" it's more that they wrote Stormfront to be what Twitter lefties imagine Nazis to talk like. Oh no watch out everyone, she's going to radicalize you by telling you to watch Pewdiepie! She could have been a racist without literally being besties with Goebbels.
- The final fight scene where the useless anime gf gets her neck snapped and then gets better? I get that they were going for the "girls get it done" reference from earlier in the season but every male character standing around in the background uselessly flailing like wavy tube men was stupid. Not to mention the knife in the eye thing which has been beat to death in this thread.
- The Boys are the most wanted people in the world with their faces plastered across every TV screen and they're walking around in broad daylight? Not to mention every time Annie is involved (one of the most famous and recognizable people in the world). Don't worry, they're wearing a hoodie so you can't tell who it is!

Time for nitpicking:
The writers not understanding how random small things work really takes me out of the show.
Like when the church guy says "so you'll fast track our tax exempt status?" to the congresswoman? Why would she have any say over that? Why not do the 45 seconds of research it would take to find out that religious organizations are tax exempt even without 501(c)3 status? How has this church been running for literal decades but it's taken them this long to even get this far?
The "White House" created an office of supe affairs and they're putting a sitting congresswoman at the head of it? If you're going to do that why not just have her be like the undersecretary at some other executive department? Was her being an AOC parallel really that necessary?

It doesn't bother me in entertainment that knows that it's stupid but this feels like one of those shows that tries its damndest to be so cute and clever. Those are just two examples (both from the last 5 minutes of the season) of the kinds of stupid shit that characters just spout off in every episode without a second thought.

They did all this build up for how getting into Vought tower was supposed to be the hardest thing ever but there's just a dude sized vent at street level that they just use to get straight in? Wasted too much of the episode on dumb porn jokes so now they have to rush past any actual conflict the characters might have to solve.

Edit:
Forgot about this little nug. How did Butcher's wife escape from the complex where she's been stuck and under constant surveillance for over a decade? Oh here's a convenient sewage pipe for you to walk through! Can't dedicate any screentime to that at all, gotta save it so Annie and Hughie can have two separate conversations about Billy Joel!
 
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Tor Lugosi said:
Yeah, Edgar's "I can't lash out, that's a white man's privilege" line was stupid. The guy's probably the most powerful and wealthiest man in the world, I'm pretty sure he can do whatever the fuck he wants. It's especially ironic because he's saying it to Butcher, a white guy who was then a wanted fugitive for trying to take down a company that Edgar was the head of.
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Sounds just like how black millionaire actors/atheletes talk IRL, always claiming to be so much more oppressed and held down than even the poorest whites.
 
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