It was a casual recommendation that got me to this show, as otherwise I hadn't heard of it. The opening few minutes let you know the violent, dark humour that it has at its base, but the episode also throws up other ideas and themes which offer more interest. Not all of these come off, but regardless The Boys delivers a consistently strong set of episodes. The story is set in a world where superheroes are a corporate product, branded and presented and sold. While the show lets us see the impact of these "gods" being amongst us, it also plays with the pressures on them as individuals. Within this big picture we focus on The Seven, the brutally tough Butcher, and the threads that these two main thread pull together.
It shouldn't work but it does. It mixes horrifically gory violence, with pop culture comedy, with genuinely cruel twists, and yet it never feels like it is jumping around, somehow it comes over as feeling consistent. I think the fourth episode is the one that sums this approach up best, because it has that range. It delivers a horribly dark "accident", showing its impact on all those involved; it has a funny dialogue scene involving the Spice Girls; a great scene involving the tragic figure of The Deep; and it concludes with an obvious but effective reference to George Bush and 9/11. It is as funny as it is chilling - and it is a combination that a lot of the season pulls off. I wasn't totally sold on the ending, but otherwise I thought it was great.
The cast and crew all seem to get the tone too, and there are strong (albeit very different) performances across the cost - Urban being the headline of course, but Quaid, Moriarty, Alonso, Capon, and others all impress. I really liked Starr as Homelander, and he made a lot of the character which was under and around the edges. Production values are high; it has great use of music, looks great, and is incredibly violent - not to the point where it becomes meaningless though; instead it is used well for comic effect but then also manages to be menacing and affecting when it wants it to be.
It is a fine balancing act but it really gets the tone right in its mix of tough comedy, action, violence, commentary, and a solidly engaging narrative.
