The Boys (Amazon Prime)
 

Has anyone seen this? I keep seeing ads for it on YouTube and Twitch and was wondering if it's actually any good.

The comic was awesome and this is next on my list of binge watching.

I will doubtlessly be watching this soon. How does it compare to, say, Umbrella Academy?

I watched the first 5 eps this weekend. Absolutely loved it!! I never read the books when they were released, but always figured I'd read them one day. After watching this show I'm definitely going to track down the books.

Andrew... I have yet to watch Umbrella Academy so I can't compare the two. I will say though that THE BOYS isn't for anyone that's easily offended (Nudity, graphic violence, adult subject material, language, etc, etc). It's definitely a Hard "R" type of show.

Having read the entire comic series, and having read through some "differences between comics and show" articles online, I think I'll pass.

Sounds like a lot of changes drastically change character dynamics, all to make them more palatable and less offensive. Which flies in the face of the entire point of The Boys.

Also, the twist ending deviates HARD from the source material. I'm not on board with that.

I'd also be interested to hear a comparison. I love the Umbrella Academy comic, but couldn't get through the first few episodes of the show, unfortunately. It wasn't for me.

The Boys is a book I'm just a mild fan of, but the show looks more up my alley, oddly enough. Considering subscribing to Prime, primarily to watch this tonight. I just watched a two minute clip, on Youtube, which takes place in an airplane. It was pretty compelling.

Both shows have been critically acclaimed, so I'd be bummed, but not surprised, if I were to sit down, watch the show, and wonder what all the fuss was about.

"In Name Only" adaptation that keeps the gore and scraps the entire story while changing crucial elements of every single character. Misses the entire point of the story and tries to be "smarter" than the original material.

"By the people who made the Preacher TV show" says it all. The only people who like that show, never read the books, and the people who read the books all despise the show. Same thing here.

I love the Preacher comic but couldn't get past the first episode of the show. I can't say much about it good or bad, other then to say watching the show (obviously) felt like a completely different experience than reading the book, and it just didn't translate for me. I may check it out again someday, but I honestly forgot it existed, so maybe the reception hasn't been that hot.

I'm enjoying The Boys, three episodes in. I find the story and characters to be pretty compelling and the special effects aren't bad. I only read the first two arcs of the comic, so maybe my expectations have something to do with it as well. It's easier for me to just enjoy it for what it is. That said, I recommend it to anyone interested. Like I said, I'm an anomaly when it comes to television, in that I truly get obsessed with a few series, but very rarely end up enjoying most television shows I am exposed to.

Watched the first episode last night. I enjoyed it. I wouldn't call it TOTALLY AWESOME, but it's off to a way better start than the Umbrella Academy. Some good hooks in it.

Brutal opening with the girlfriend. Yeesh!

Did you enjoy the Umbrella Academy comic?

It pains me to say this, but I find nearly all the characters in the television show to be completely unlikable. I don't know if it's the script or the actors themselves. Probably a combination of each. I find "#5" to be quite quirky, funny, and charming, but everyone else in the series just weirds me out, in a bad way.

I skimmed through all of it after I saw the show. I appreciate the energy of it but... yikes. No, not really. It kind of seems like someone did a ton of cocaine and just wrote/drew whatever. Mutant kids, academy, adventures, blah blah.

I said the same thing. Nobody likeable on the show. I guess we're supposed to feel bad for Ellen Page's character but I didn't. Some very strange choices in that show.

I guess after like 5 or 6 episodes I sort sort of started going with the flow and getting into the overall plot and then it kind of worked for me. And when dude ended up playing Ellen Page, I didn't see that coming.

On episode 4. This is pretty awesome. Light years better than Umbrella Academy on pretty much all levels. Solid show.

I'll catch it if it ever gets an on-disc release.

Huge, huge fan of the books but this version tells an entirely different story; like, entirely different. It sounds like a decent thing on its own, but it's SO completely different from what it's ostensibly based on that I know I wouldn't be able to fully appreciate it. At some point, if all you decide to keep the same are the character names, is it even an "adaptation" anymore? It's not a unique issue to this series, but it's something that always gets on my nerves.

Again, if it gets a disc release I'll check it out once it's cheap enough. Otherwise I'd rather just re-read the books. But that's me.

Finished season 1. I really dug it! I honestly can't pick at many nits with it.

Read the comics and you might then have a bone to pick with the series. In all honesty I don’t mind the series but the comic is far superior in every way.

Finished season 2. Really loved it! Some pretty shocking stuff in it, even for me.



Wish I didn't watch the "Prime Rewind: Inside the Boys." The whole cast and the showrunner, even the host rail on and on about "the bigots everywhere," "fanboys (meaning the comic readers) can "eat a bag of dicks" and how outrageous the 2nd amendment is in the United States and how big parts of this show are a response to it.

Also Shadow with a gun.

https://c.tenor.com/IN1JxUWp714AAAAC...e-hedgehog.gif

https://c.tenor.com/Lx67kTIyZM4AAAAC...dgehog-gun.gif

Season 3 so far is fantastic. In episode 2 they literally go to a Disney-like "Inclusiveland" where everything is rainbow marketing and there's even a stand that sells "BLM BLTS."

Fantastic, fantastic stuff.

Is really nobody else watching this? Just finished season 3 and this is some of the best TV I've ever seen.

I’ve watched and it is highly entertaining stuff for sure. Season 3 finale was awesome. I do like the fact that they’ve changed it quite a bit from the comic. I don’t really think this series required a faithful adaptation of the comic.

I watched this all in one go. I like how it's a satire of modern culture and social media, and both simultaneously making fun of gun nuts, racists, ultra feminists, SJW's, basically everyone, while also being down to earth. Homelander is basically Superman mixed with Trump. Stormfront and the other girls made it obvious they don't care about feminism or women being better than men, same with Maeve not wanting to be promoted as a lesbian or LGBT icon. Basically it makes fun of everyone, which is why it works.

Anyone think Starlight in her civilian clothes sort of looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar? Her voice sounds very similar too, honestly if they ever reboot Buffy she would be a good actress to cast as her. I swear she sounded nearly identical in some episodes and looks the part too.

Homelander is the best actor for obvious reasons, he nails the role. Love how everyone is a parody of a popular superhero. Some things I've seen in this show though...cannot be unseen. I'm surprised they were allowed to get away with or show some of the things of sexual nature on this show, on amazon prime no less. Some things I'd rather not see again, let's put it that way.

The books would give you a heart attack, then.

Like I didn't see it but I highly doubt any of the chicks at Herogasm were f*cking dogs on the TV show, for example. :lol: Every time I picked up an issue of The Boys I swore I'd end up on some kinda watch list somewhere.

I'm sure the show does its own thing very well, for a TV show. I might see it one day. I do read about it sometimes but it's about as "In Name Only" as adaptations get and right now I'm not in the mood yet.

I get it, though. The show and the book, they're in the same arena but not playing the same sport, if that makes sense.

The Boys [Amazon Prime Video]
 

Has anyone gotten around to watching The Boys? I just finished the final season so far and have to say it is some of the best super hero content ever.

Homelander is such an intriguing villain to say the least and I found the majority of characters intruiging and incredibly well done. I don’t want to give anything away but this whole show is a great take on superheroes turn evil on the world.

I've heard the show is better than the comic version but cant speak to It.

Edit: Thanks to Andrew NDB for directing my shell for brains to the thread I couldnt find :)

Yes.

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=61683

Based on the little bit I've seen I strongly disagree, but to be fair the TV show is very "in name only" and the show and books go into completely different directions. They're not even playing the same sport, nor are they specifically trying to make the same points to begin with. And when they do make similar points, they approach them entirely differently.

The show seems to mostly be "better" for people who think the books were far too graphic, whereas I and others who prefer the book find the show to be a very superficial and watered-down attempt. But that's going to happen; the book was by design very anti-mainstream and aimed at a niche audience, and the show is a mainstream mass-market TV show. They can't even attempt most of the things the books covered. I will say, if people find the show to be outrageous and boundary-pushing they probably shouldn't read the book because they'd have a heart attack. The show is VERY tame compared to the book, no matter how "outrageous" it may be for a TV show.

Graphicness aside, though, I personally can't stand how most of the characters were changed for the show, not just their personalities but their entire storylines, to the point where again, they're very In Name Only. I'm impressed with how closely some of them are made to look like their counterparts in the comic but everything else about them is very, very different. It's like if someone did a Superman TV show, and Lois worked for American Airlines and Clark was adopted by astronauts and Jimmy Olsen was a pop singer. Even if they resemble the characters physically, Those Aren't The Characters.

Basically, it's one of those things where I can see why people who don't care about comics would like the show, but it's just so different in almost every single way that it annoys me they even share a title. But not everyone is going to feel that way, obviously.

It is what it is, it simply isn't for me as a huge fan of the books. It's like that Watchmen show that had practically nothing to do with Watchmen, stuff like that just bugs me. But again, that kind of thing happens. People who watch a lot of TV generally don't read, and people who fall in love with books (or comics) often find the TV and movie adaptations to be either overly simplified or missing the point. There's very little crossover between entertainment mediums, truthfully, because by definition the mediums appeal to different types of people with different standards of taste.

Thanks for sharing, I can totally see the show having a completely different overall direction than what I heard of the comics.

I've been intrigued by the Butcher vs Homelander(& any/all vs Vaught) plot and It has definitely caught my interest through some of the drama along with the solid action.

Like, in the books the entire "Why" of the conflict between those characters is entirely different. It's not a small thing, it changes absolutely everything, and the entire show is like that. Vought's motives are different, their rationale behind wanting to create "supes" is different, the timeline is different, every single character's backstories and motivations and relationships to every other character are different... they share character names/likenesses, and some of the "shock value" content. Past that it's like... well, as I said, they just really don't share much beyond those surface things. I've heard some people claim they're "technically the same" because both the book and the show go into graphic sex/drug humor but again, even the way they do that is so completely different, from motivation to execution, that they don't seem anything alike to me at all.

I can imagine I actually would have liked the show just fine if I'd never read the books before, but the book turned into one of my favorite comics ever and so any adaptation would have a high bar to clear in my mind. However, what little of the show I've seen isn't technically "bad" as its own thing and is way better and more tolerable than I'd feared, so there's that. I think it's fine in a vacuum for what it's trying to be, but I can't imagine anyone who likes the books a lot actually caring for it, same as Preacher. I know people who liked that show a lot, but anyone I know who loved the comic thought the show was awful. People who like those books would only ever be satisfied with a 1:1 adaptation, and TV and movies simply can't adapt those things faithfully.

That's when the conversation becomes about whether it's better to have an "In Name Only" adaptation that only maintains the broad strokes, or nothing at all. Everybody's going to have a different opinion on that, just in general.

Season 4 is coming.



Can't wait to see what Jeffrey Dean Morgan is going to be up to in this.

Noir is back!

They might be pivoting back to the comics with that... and this Noir will be a brain damaged clone of Homelander.

I felt like the trailer had some hints to that. A-train was holding a jar with blonde hair in it.

A-Train, The Deep, and Ashley all know Homelander killed Noir so I'd expect one of them to be at least curious how he is back.

I need to do more research I didn't recognize the two (new?) girls at the rally with Homelander / narrating at the beginning.

These 2 year breaks between seasons is so ridiculous. I assume the show will end by Season 5 because the characters are getting too old.

Someday when this show wraps up I'll finally get around to watching it beginning to end.

Homelander is such a complex character, and the whole concept of superheroes gone rogue is so refreshing. I haven't read the comics either, but the show has me hooked.

The spin-off show, Gen V, was pretty awesome too. Some good mystery and twists I didn't see coming. Love how everything just gets absolutely ****ed up in the ending.

I'm a couple episodes into the new season. I see a lot of people proclaiming that this season, the show finally goes "full woke." idk. I see it a little bit. The most glaring example is the slow burn budding romance between Frenchie and Kimiko is -- seemingly out of nowhere -- completely abandoned as she friendzones him at exactly the same moment he decides to hook up with a dude. Also, comparing how the more nuanced and "both sides" the writing handled groups in the past vs. now how anyone who isn't a leftist (a Starlighter) must be a white supremist/bigot/nazi who is probably having sex with family members, too, because they're so stupid.

So I see it. That said, I don't mind it that much because the sharp, witty dialogue and unpredictable nature of the show lets me forgive it. I can forgive a lot if there is good writing.

They've already announced season 5 will be the end.

I'm liking this season so far. They've definitely gone after the right moreso here but I wouldn't go as far as calling the show woke. To me its all just fun nuanced social commentary similar to how South Park or Always Sunny handle this sort of stuff if not a bit more straightforward than those shows.

The plot lines following Kimiko and Frenchie really aren't all the interesting to me. At least Hughie's story here seems to be ramping up with

Will be cool to see what happens. I feel confident that

Frenchie's is pure garbage. Kimiko's is meh, but if it ends with her starting to talk then it'll be worth it.

Saw the season finale. I thought it was a LITTLE weak in that it was a little slow for like a SEASON FINALE, but I was pleased. And I take it back about the Kimiko/Frenchie direction earlier... now I see where it was going. It all worked out well. I hope they stay the course.

Guaranteed if the Homelander actor wasn't making this show a phenomenon then his character would be already dead.

It was a good season but I see a lot of criticism online is this all just felt like set-up for the last season. Other than Ashley taking the serum, the vice president dying, and Butcher at the end, a lot of the characters are still in the same place as they were.

A-train is still on the fence, Ryan is still accidentally killing people and not betraying his father, all the "heroes" just go back and forth and end up back at square one, and the other villains like The Deep, Black Noir, and the new ones like Sister Sage and the Jesus girl are still just there by the end of the season.

I realize they're likely saving most of the deaths for the final season.