So I've finished The Boys.

Spoiler

Felt veeeeeery slow going, like they busted their load in the first two episodes, and after Translucent died, so did the momentum.

All in all, even though things obviously happened, I had this impression that nothing much was happening. Seemed almost like the action was limited to The Seven board room, Stillwell's office and This Episode's Rundown Filthy Room Where The Boys Are Hanging Out. Something very weird with pacing here, though I can't put my finger on it.

On the acting side, the midwestern girl next door Starlight bored the hell out of me. However, most of the cast were great. Billy Butcher had this devil-like look about him (btw am I crazy or did Karl Urban just sound like himself, as in a New Zealander, as opposed to English), Stillwell was nothing to write home about, Frenchie was awesome, Milk was good, Homelander was right up there with Billy, these two carried the show for me.

The plot was there of course, but it seems like they chose a lot of the wrong scenes to move it along. Anything A-Train did I gave absolutely no shit about and I didn't buy that character at all. He also seemed like a dumbass, so I also don't buy Homelander using him to run V all over the globe to create superpowered terrorists. Similarly, every minute the Deep/Black Black/Maeve were on screen, I was yawning.

I found it hard to buy the whole angle of The Seven literally being callous psycho murderers but apparently no one ever thought to look into them before Mallory? Ezekiel hasn't been outed by some random prick with cameras everywhere? Hundreds of people ending up dead or maimed every year and not one person ever said "fuck the NDA, I'm going to the press"? If everyone is collectively secretly scared that Homelander will vaporize them if they say a bad thing about supes, I think the atmosphere of the world would be more dystopian. I was with Billy all the way in that support group meeting.

Mallory seems to have been somewhat highly placed in the CIA. If she went and told her govt "Lamplighter murderized my grandkids ffs" not one person of consequence would take her seriously? Bleh. Seems like those dumb Abused Harry plot points in fics that are only there to add gore and "darkness" to the atmosphere but have no logical impact and only make sense in isolation.

Seriously, no one ever questions the supes? A-Train casually murders a woman in broad daylight and only a few people in the world give a shit, back to him being a celebrity like nobody's business? Irl, celebrities get more shit for tweets. Maybe I'm just not getting how the presence of superpowers shifts the scale of what people are going to excuse because we literally have Superman, but it breaks suspension of disbelief.

There were at least 2 scenes of Homelander casually murdering people in front of witnesses. No one thought "you know, this guy has superpowers, would it have been such a pain in his ass to non-lethally disable them instead of straight up murder?" Even irl, without the crutch of superpowers, killing isn't always the default approach.

Homelander/Stillwell had rich wtf potential, but in ep 8 Stillwell eats it, so no hope for exploring that further, and if there was an arc that was supposed to have taken place there, then I yawned and missed it. I mean, I understood the "Stillwell kept secrets from Homelander" thing, but it was shallow. Two intriguing moments where Homelander acted out his inner baby, then lazer eyes. The moment in ep 8 where Homelander catches that Stillwell said "miscarriage" where Vogelbob (lol at the name) said "lived all of 10 seconds" was nice, but it was too little to late.

Billy's plan to confront Homelander was dumb, and not even dramatically or amusingly dumb. The twist at the end... it's a twist allright. Billy's chief reason to hate Homelander is fake, turns out. Does that undo all the other shit Homelander has done, which Billy alluded to knowing about? No. So...?

Homelander's rant at Starlight, the way he referred to most humans as "mud people" was possibly the best moment of the show. Really cemented his superiority complex.

I won't say I regret those 8 hours (the few good moments of the show were impactful and good because of the context of the rest of it), but it hasn't left me wanting for S2. A "see it once and forget it" kinda thing, at least for now. It would take a strong recommendation from someone similarly skeptical about S1 to get me to continue watching.

The most important question was left unanswered: did Popclaw sprout claws from her ass when she killed her landlord?

 

What?

I'm not seeing any "woke" changes in the summaries.

Are you just referring to the fact that some of the cast are black?

 

Not at all. As I said, I like the casting. Rather, the interviews and summaries seem to be making Moraine the main protagonist.

Just the vibe I get. Could be wrong and I hope I am. But if they change it to where Rand isn’t the main protagonist I’ll be disappointed.

 

If it’s set up the way New Spring was, that would fit. It makes sense to have a strong lead for the ensemble to form around, and she was a strong character. Remember, halfway through that first book, they split the party. I think they’ll probably have her sit in the Wizard archetype like Kenobi was for Luke. If that’s the case, book 5 will be all the more memorable.

Both Rand and Mat held her in high regard later in life - might be something we see built up more obviously since film is a different medium than print.

 

For those that have watched The Boys, is it a darker show or is it more light-hearted?

 

Dark as fuck, though not as morally bankrupt as the comics... yet.

 

It's seriously fucked up. A lot of people hated the movie Hancock for it's portrayal of kind of a dirtbag superhero (among other totally valid reasons), but The Boys makes that look like a Disney show.

Like Wordhammer said though, it could have actually been far worse. There's actually a scene Amazon made them cut out of the show that would have been hilarious, and I hope it makes the DVD release if there's one.

Spoiler

 

Moraine was arguably the most important character in the first (two?) book(s), mostly because the rest of the crew was only barely outpacing bumbling squirrels in their adequacy, tbh. If season 1 follows book 1 - which might or might not be a good idea - then using the most knowledgeable member of the cast as a focal point makes a certain amount of sense.

We'll have to wait and see, I think.

 

I guess I always saw Moraine as a Gandalf character as opposed to a Kenobi figure. She’s not meant to be a point of view protagonist. She’s the wise sage.

She’s the guide, not the traveler.

 

Guess what just got confirmed for Disney+?

 

Shit. I might have to get Disney + now.

 

The first two years of Disney+ OC content looks like it is going to leave almost every other major streaming service thirsty for subscribers. Like, the polled interest numbers are off the charts.

Prime may remain unaffected because it is wrapped into Amazon's delivery bonuses, and they've got some big headliners in the works.

Netflix is going to really start to bleed unless they narrow their focus. They've also got a lot of big headliners coming in though, so who knows.

I expect Hulu will quickly be repurposed into a TVMA offshoot of Disney+ now tjat Buena Vista owns the controlling stake. They really just don't have anything on the table to keep themselves independent.

CBS may have merged with Viacom to offer more content, but they're just prolonging the inevitable with how much money they're bleeding. I suspect Disney or Netflix will acquire Star Trek and the valuable Viacom properties (MTV/Nick) within the decade.

Bow to your Disney overlords, media companies.

 

I don’t mind replacing the Netflix monopoly

I do mind the Disney monopoly

 

Honestly, I'm just hoping there's eventually a case where United States v Paramount is brought forward into the digital age and the IP monopolies get trust-busted.

We're still a decade or two away from such things, at minimum, but hope springs eternal.

 

We are entering the age of the internet barons.

 

Entering?

Additionally, all the internet barons are still running on top of very shady practices by ISPs - monopoly agreements with cities, unpublicized data caps, etc. Really frustrating that there's a lot of discussion on "is Google too big" or "should Facebook be split apart" and not a peep about "Comcast is screwing everyone".

 

You’re right. Entering in the wrong word. Perhaps “becoming aware” is a better phrase?

 

Based on that precedent, the media barons probably wouldn't lose their ability to monopolize content. They'd lose their ability to create their own streaming platforms.

And then we'd basically have a few dozen digital video stores barred from making their own content all vying to get streaming distribution deals from the various media companies, in the same way that movie theaters do now, ultimately charging you incrementally for every little thing you watch.

I'm not sure I like the idea of a dozen or so pay per view streaming services any better than what we have now.