My Review of 'The Boys'

I wasn't too sure if I would be interested in a superhero TV series produced by Amazon until my friends were constantly hounding me about it. There have been countless superhero TV shows and many have failed. The ones that have somehow done well are the ones on the CW network, like The Flash, Green Arrow and Supergirl. The Boys is a brand new franchise exclusive to Amazon Prime members.

So what is The Boys? I would say it's somewhat similar to a more modern day Watchmen. I loved Watchmen (incidentally they're going to have an HBO Watchmen TV show coming soon that I'm really excited to watch) so it seemed like The Boys was right up my alley. I was still worried that it would be low budget with awful effects. There's nothing wrong with low budget TV series, but for a superhero TV series, it can be glaringly distracting when watching a superhero TV show with a serious tone.

So the TV series is about a group of superheroes that are basically owned by a corporation. This corporation is all about the profits and ultimately wants to get a gigantic contract from the US military because that's where the big bucks are. So they do some shady things with their superheroes to keep up their great public image. The public eats it all up but nobody is perfect, and this includes superheroes. There's something up with these superheroes that doesn't quite jive and some of them seem to be above the law. In fact, a murder in the beginning of the series by one of the famed superheroes was the catalyst for how the whole series launches.

After watching the first season I'm happy to report that all of my worries were for nothing. I'm glad to report that they had decent production values. At least in my perspective they had proper special effects and the writing was pretty good.

The writing was so well done that I got invested with a few of the characters and that's what I want when I get into a new TV series. After all, why would you want to continue with a TV series if you don't feel connected with the characters on the show? Each character of the show is multi-dimensional. They have good sides and bad sides and in some situations you start questioning yourself if you agree with the character's actions. I loved that there were so many moral dilemmas considered whenever each of them made a crucial decision within the show.

These moral decisions throughout the show made me understand the popularity of the show. The show has a touch of reality that us as the viewers can relate to. We can base some of the issues that they have on the show with real life situations that we live in today's crazy political climate. There are a ton of real life news situations that pop up all over The Boys. It's a nice touch that we don't regularly see in superhero shows because they're usually so rooted in fantasy.

Overall, I would say that I really had a good time watching this TV series. It was fun and engaging. It wasn't too hard to binge watch the whole thing. The last superhero TV series that had me so hooked during their first season was probably Heroes season 1. We're talking only season 1 though. Heroes, I have to say, was a little more entertaining though. I hope the two don't suffer the same fate. Heroes never maintained the great story that it had in the first season. I'm really hoping The Boys will be able to keep the magic alive for second season. I will have to give The Boys season 1 an 8 out of 10. It's a must watch for superhero fans.