Garth Ennis' The Boys on Amazon

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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,994
31,558
146
Wow, a little surprised not to find anything regarding the first 3 episodes of Season 2. Amazon is promoting the hell out of the show.

The show is getting brigaded hard on Amazon thanks to its release format, but I feel like Amazon found a good balance here: Three episodes of the current season are released each Friday and the whole season is released over the course of the month.

I personally like it, its more content than the old one episode a week format but the regulated flow of content allows the community to theorize and discuss and ruminate on what they saw; and it also lowers the odds of spoilers. With the season dump, you really are doing the community building in the year between seasons, rather than the week between episodes. Frankly I feel some of the magic of the "cooler talk" has been lost there.

Anyhow, first three episodes:

hmm, didn't know it was 3/week. Saw the release thing and was bit annoyed. "Don't you know how people watch TV now!" ....and of course, I kinda hate the binge format now because I no longer remember anything. ANYTHING. ...but 3 episodes a week, that could work. Allows the brain time to form some memory of the content rather than just dumping it as soon as you've determined it over.

Maybe I will go ahead and watch these.


I enjoyed the first season. ....can't say I remember why, though. lol.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
didnt think s2 was as good as s1.

1) stormfront's backstory was wtfbbq left field?
a) so since she was married to the nazi who founded Vought, she owns Vought?

b) since she's a nazi, why did she allow a black man to be in charge of Vought???

2) black noir's costume makes him near invulnerable?

3) wtf pimple popper
yeah, thats what im calling her till the show gives her a superhero name
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,543
9,977
136
didnt think s2 was as good as s1.

1) stormfront's backstory was wtfbbq left field?
a) so since she was married to the nazi who founded Vought, she owns Vought?

b) since she's a nazi, why did she allow a black man to be in charge of Vought???

2) black noir's costume makes him near invulnerable?

3) wtf pimple popper
yeah, thats what im calling her till the show gives her a superhero name

1) No, she doesn't own Vought. Being married to the founder of a company doesn't immediately make you the owner when they die. Her character was solid allegory of how old evils (fascism) can be dusted off and dressed up for the modern world.

2)Black Noir being Black Noir makes him near invulnerable (I mean, it's a show about super heros. Superman's cape doesn't make superman invulnerable. Unless you use Almond Joys. There is some hints that there are actually more than one Noir.

3) Neuman is a supe that can pop heads. Why and for what purpose? We'll find out it seems. She seemed to be angling for having compound V released to the public and killed the church guy when he threw a wrench in those plans.

-The show definitely has appeal and is interesting to watch, but the second season definitely upped my interest in the characters while also suffering from incredibly frustrating pacing issues.

I appreciate how the show does not take itself too seriously (Girls get it done!) while also addressing fairly serious issues (alt-right radicalization)

Homelander is an absolutely terrifying villain but I appreciated some of the humanization he (and many other supes) received this season.

Stormfront was fantastic as well, and sort of stole the show this season.

The Deep continues to be dragged through his penitence on one of the most bizzare subplots I've ever seen.

The Boys themselves also received a bit more fleshing out, thanks to Frenchie/Lamplighter arc and The Female and her brother.

Some episodes were absolutely top notch, while others were a real slog to get through with little payoff.
 
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JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
1) No, she doesn't own Vought. Being married to the founder of a company doesn't immediately make you the owner when they die. Her character was solid allegory of how old evils (fascism) can be dusted off and dressed up for the modern world.

2)Black Noir being Black Noir makes him near invulnerable (I mean, it's a show about super heros. Superman's cape doesn't make superman invulnerable. Unless you use Almond Joys. There is some hints that there are actually more than one Noir.

3) Neuman is a supe that can pop heads. Why and for what purpose? We'll find out it seems. She seemed to be angling for having compound V released to the public and killed the church guy when he threw a wrench in those plans.

-The show definitely has appeal and is interesting to watch, but the second season definitely upped my interest in the characters while also suffering from incredibly frustrating pacing issues.

I appreciate how the show does not take itself too seriously (Girls get it done!) while also addressing fairly serious issues (alt-right radicalization)

Homelander is an absolutely terrifying villain but I appreciated some of the humanization he (and many other supes) received this season.

Stormfront was fantastic as well, and sort of stole the show this season.

The Deep continues to be dragged through his penitence on one of the most bizzare subplots I've ever seen.

The Boys themselves also received a bit more fleshing out, thanks to Frenchie/Lamplighter arc and The Female and her brother.

Some episodes were absolutely top notch, while others were a real slog to get through with little payoff.
umm yeah.. kinda wondered why superman's costume doesnt get torned to shreds by a missile explosion.
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,543
9,977
136
umm yeah.. kinda wondered why superman's costume doesnt get torned to shreds by a missile explosion.

-Fair point, would have been funny to see the boys really embrace it (A-Train showing up places with his costume shredded from moving so fast, complaining about going through a pair of shoes every time he uses his power etc).
 

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,242
14,245
136
Saw both seasons. Good show, for the most part. It's use of over-the-top gore in a darkly comical manner kind of reminds me of the Dead Pool movies.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
-The show definitely has appeal and is interesting to watch, but the second season definitely upped my interest in the characters while also suffering from incredibly frustrating pacing issues.
omg pacing issues:
from Compound V being illegally distributed by a rouge VP in Vought to now being offered to make police & military into Supes to protect America.

um.. FDA approval was faster than Trump pushing a Covid vaccine from a pharma where he owns stock in
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
26,728
24,888
136
Had a good time watching both these seasons back to back. There were some clumsy moments and some pacing issues, but definitely worth watching
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,383
146
There were some clumsy moments and some pacing issues, but definitely worth watching
Yeah, the 2nd season for me seemed a little on the slow side for several episodes, but the back half of the season picked up and finished pretty strong.

This show is one of my favorites. I just wish we had a few more episodes before having to wait another year for the new season.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,543
9,977
136
omg pacing issues:
from Compound V being illegally distributed by a rouge VP in Vought to now being offered to make police & military into Supes to protect America.

um.. FDA approval was faster than Trump pushing a Covid vaccine from a pharma where he owns stock in

Compound V was being smuggled out of Vought by Homelander to create the Super Villain threat as a way to get the supes into the military.

Stormfront leveraged public fear of the threat into a public pressure campaign to have Compound V released to the public, with the aim of making sure only the "right people" ever received the doses.

The show doesnt do a good job of showing time passing between the revelation that supes are created and not born, Stormfront's secret facility to stabilize Compound V in adults, and the push to have V released to the public.
 
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JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
how did stormfront powers change from her previous self?
or she always had those powers and chose not to use them earlier in life?
 

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
31,742
48,569
136
At first I was unsure, been really tired of the super hero genre these last many years.

Have to admit though, I like this show. I think The Deep getting shit on again and again was some pretty funny comeuppance and kinda hooked me. I never read the comic so it's all new to me.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,543
9,977
136
At first I was unsure, been really tired of the super hero genre these last many years.

Have to admit though, I like this show. I think The Deep getting shit on again and again was some pretty funny comeuppance and kinda hooked me. I never read the comic so it's all new to me.

-The show has already supposedly wildly diverged from the comics so its apparently pretty new to everyone :D
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
Liked it better when the vought CEO was going to replace Homelander as the leader with stormfront.
Then it seemed like some bigwig wanted the script changed mid-season.
Thus the Nazi subplot was shoe horned in.

Uggg...
 

Skel

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
6,226
686
136
-The show has already supposedly wildly diverged from the comics so its apparently pretty new to everyone :D

Which I personally lament when I've watched it. While the book did have some issues, and the characters were mostly hollow archetype stand-ins, the shows as fundamental issues. Some of the changes make no sense and only break teh concept.. such as the Boys not having powers (except the female.. which has a name now) and how they don't work for the Government. Both of those make it impossible for them to do any real damage or even concern to the 7 and Vought.

Also does anyone really care about the Deep at this point??

Liked it better when the vought CEO was going to replace Homelander as the leader with stormfront.
Then it seemed like some bigwig wanted the script changed mid-season.
Thus the Nazi subplot was shoe horned in.

Uggg...

While it's gone so far from the books the only real connections are the names, Stormfront was always a Nazi.. Homelander v1.0 when Vought was working with the actual Nazis. Granted they leaned into preaching about memes (which are accurate) and how information has become jacked up in the US which muddied the waters on Stormfront. Though to be fair, Stormfront in the book's only real point of existing was to show how bad ass Butcher was. Past that he was a throwaway character..
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,543
9,977
136
Which I personally lament when I've watched it. While the book did have some issues, and the characters were mostly hollow archetype stand-ins, the shows as fundamental issues. Some of the changes make no sense and only break teh concept.. such as the Boys not having powers (except the female.. which has a name now) and how they don't work for the Government. Both of those make it impossible for them to do any real damage or even concern to the 7 and Vought.

Also does anyone really care about the Deep at this point??

-
... I care about The Deep... I suspect he's really there to add some levity to an otherwise brutally tough to watch show at times.

Also, although I have not read the comics, I suspect the direction they're taking the Neuman storyline is ultimately toward getting compound V released publicly with The Boys (or at least Butcher) ending up with powers. The 7 has a higher supe kill count than the actual boys do...
 

Skel

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
6,226
686
136
-
... I care about The Deep... I suspect he's really there to add some levity to an otherwise brutally tough to watch show at times.

Also, although I have not read the comics, I suspect the direction they're taking the Neuman storyline is ultimately toward getting compound V released publicly with The Boys (or at least Butcher) ending up with powers. The 7 has a higher supe kill count than the actual boys do...

Fair enough on the Deep. As for the V.. I really hope so. Without it I just can't see what they could possibly do to Vought or the Seven. This season showed that just releasing stuff to the internet doesn't mean that it'll take anything down. Vought survived the outing of V, so I'm not sure what the Boys could release that would matter.. that's if they'd survive in the first place. Noir found them once (which was odd that he could find them in the middle of no where suburbia but not where they were coming and going out of a lot) he could do it again only this time I doubt they'd stop him from killing them.
 

Denly

Golden Member
May 14, 2011
1,436
229
106
Have been catching up since the news of Jensen joining S3, have been fun. Got to give them credit to pull homelander back from the edge(and put him at the edge;)) at the end, don't see that coming.
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,543
9,977
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Its great satire and definitely one of the better Superhero critiques out there, but holy crap its so violent and difficult to watch.

Anthony Starr really ties the whole show together as Homelander. He does the "outwardly vulnerable but completely batshit insane one inch below the surface" thing so well I can't help but get anxious everytime his character shows up on screen.

Interested to see how S4 develops Homelander, especially now that he has literally killed someone in public "on fifth avenue" so to speak and his fans still love him.