TV Show Review - The Boys (Season 1)

Season: 1
Genre: Action/ Comedy/ Crime
Number of episodes: 8
Year: 2019
Starring: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Anthony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Elisabeth Shue, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Simon Pegg     
Description: A group of vigilantes sets out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.

Review: Seven superheroes. Four guys. Lots of severed limbs, broken bones, crushed eyeballs and bloody scenes. And I’m not even talking about the borderline humor, drugs and a Jesus-like appearance. It’s all very gutsy, but it made me very happy.
Where superheroes are not only dominating cinemas, TV land has also many shows focusing on people with superpowers. And you have to be really good to impress nowadays. It has to be game-changing to stand out. Luckily for us, Amazon brings us “The Boys”.
In short, “The Boys” is about a group of people who, because of the superheroes, lost something or someone in their lives. They fight against ‘The Seven’, who are the seven most famous, most idolized and richest superheroes on earth. Because being a superhero is not only about having special powers, but is mainly about the media. What is the best pose (when am I the sexiest), which charity do we support (and do we get the most money for), with which minority group am I going to be photographed, in which population groups are we the least popular, and so on. Behind this huge façade is the company Vought, which is run by Madelyn Stillwell.
In The Seven there is Homelander, the superman of this world. Nobody is stronger than him and he is charming and kind to the outside world. But deep inside, he is the worst of them all. Others are A-Train, Transluscent, Queen Maeve, Black Noir, The Deep and Starlight. Starlight, aka Annie, is new. Her biggest dream has always been to be one of The Seven. And now she’s in, only to find out the real truth behind it all.
On the other side we have Hugh Campbell, the innocent guy who loses his girlfriend due to one of The Seven. He gets in touch with Billy Butcher, who leads a small group that fights against Vought.
Karl Urban plays Butcher and he is far out my favorite character on the show. He is so good and I love his accent. He is rugged, a no-nonsense loner who has been through an awful lot. And he nails it. Anthony Starr shines as Homelander, who you just want to slap in the face constantly. He is so unbearable. I haven’t felt like this about a character since Joffrey on “Game of Thrones”.
They where a little off with Madelyn Stillwell’s character. Although the performance by Elisabeth Shue us really solid, the character doesn’t always make sense. Most of the times she is super vicious and always five steps ahead. But there are moments that she makes dumb decisions and that was out of character and didn’t make sense to me. I think the writers didn’t know what to do with her.
I love how this series looks at superheroes differently and uses these adored characters as the actual villains. And the outsiders are the actual heroes.
“The Boys” is a fantastic shows that takes the term superhero into another direction that we haven’t seen before yet. And I love it.