Muristek
The Boys: the explosive superhero show that’s become as thrilling as Game of Thrones
It’s taken a while, but this gory, swear-packed series about costumed crusaders is now so visceral it’s like a spiritual successor to the brutal shenanigans of Westeros
Big year for the TV penis. There was Euphoria, and the big hog at the centre of And Just Like That. There was the talking penis in Pam & Tommy, which frankly deserved more airtime, and the dick-puppeteering that opened Jackass Forever. And then there’s a penis in episode one of the new series of The Boys (from Friday, Amazon Prime Video), which … well, even if I could tell you what happens with and to the penis, I don’t think I could in the word count I have. It has drastically made me rethink my relationship with my own penis. Let’s just leave it at that. I don’t want to talk about my penis any more before six to eight weeks of therapy.
It is probably time for us to confront the idea that The Boys is good. I know, I didn’t see this coming either. The first series – a dark-in-a-juvenile-way show where superheroes exist, are celebrities, but also have hidden horrors – had a number of great set-pieces, a decent enough eight-episode storyline, and really relied on Karl Urban growling the C-word every few minutes. It was fine. This could be as much about the platform as the content: one thing Prime seems to have struggled with is nailing a series premise, and The Boys looked as if it might go in the bin marked “Hunters”. The Man in the High Castle had its fans, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is probably the best thing they’ve done, and The Grand Tour will always have a rabid, jeans-and-sheux viewership, but while Netflix can alchemise a hit series simply by putting it on its homepage and making the algorithm convince you that you need to watch it immediately (“You must watch the entirety of Nailed It! before everyone else alive, for some reason!”), Prime has lagged behind.
Continue reading...