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Do not let this show fly under your radar.
The Boys is a brand new Amazon Prime original series based on the comic books of the same name. Originally published as a comic book in 2006 by Wildstorm and Dynamite Entertainment, The Boys is cultivated from the minds of two prolific creators: Writer Garth Ennis and Artist Darick Robertson. Since its inception fans of the comic have been dreaming of the book getting the live action treatment and in early 2017 this looked to be a reality when news that the property had been optioned started making online headlines. Two years later, The Seven are finally making their debut but does this version hold up?
PLOT
The world is full of super powered heroics, but in America they are funded, surveilled, and commodified by a private corporation called Vought International. As with most exploitative sociological entertainment a group of standouts are identified. Referred to as the “The Seven”: Homelander, Queen Maeve, A-Train, The Deep, Translucent, Black Noir, and Starlight are just as much a force for justice as they are for apathy and corruption –mostly among themselves.
Enter Hughie Campbell. A regular man, with a regular job, and a regular girlfriend. This all changes when tragedy strikes and Hughie is propelled into a world of darkness, finding himself more connected to The Seven in a way that he would have never imagined.
REVIEW
The plot of The Boys is exactly what you would expect if we lived in a world with super-powered beings who chose to help the world but who also chose to capitalize on their god-like endowments. For one of them (Starlight) it is a dream come true and a good honest way to make a living while for others, it has become a source for praise and worship, with unlimited access to power and protection when their “chips are down” and an innocent dies in the line of duty; The Boys is sunshine and good feelings juxtaposed with extremely visceral ultra-violence and seedy, grimy, sex.
For readers of this review who are also familiar with the comic this live action version is the perfect companion. In Issue One of the comic book, the action and dialogue that centres around Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) is noticably more crass and rough around the edges, which is missing but not missed in its television counterpart. This adaptation pulls small portions of plot out of the book, rearranges them, refines them, and actually makes the story more seamless and compelling.
I want to keep this review mostly spoiler free, so I’ll end on one final note, the ultimate superhero test if you will, and the only thing that matters when a comic book movie/tv adaptation is announced and that is:
Costumes: Are they bright? Do they look like the original drawings by Darick Robertson? Will their ridiculous cape-skirt-boot combos translate off the page?
The answer, if you’re wondering … is yes. Yes they very much do!
RATING
4.8/5
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