Amazon's The Boys finds a new way to stand out in the slew of dark and gritty superhero stories

Vulture

The TV adaptation of the Garth Ennis–Darick Robertson comic book series has the challenge of distinguishing itself in an overcrowded field of superhero TV shows and movies. "But that sense of wide familiarity, of a culture oversaturated with superheroes, is also a necessary precondition for The Boys to exist at all," says Kathryn VanArendonk. "Like so many of its dark and gritty cohort, The Boys takes the idea of a world where superheroes are real and follows it to the logical extension of superheroes who are human. They are flawed, messy, often egotistical, cruel people who wreak untold havoc in the guise of doing great deeds." VanArendonk adds: "The Boys imagines a world where fantasy characters with superhuman powers exist and are mostly villains. But the show’s best idea is its ultimate antagonist: The ceaseless working giant of corporate capitalism and the people who enable it. Those criminals are all too real, which is exactly The Boys’ point."

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• The Boys is the first true surprise of 2019, walking a careful line between Robocop and The X-Files to deliver eight jaw-dropping hours of TV
• If you are sick to the back teeth of billowing capes, The Boys offers a sly corrective to our current era of blind hero worship
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• Showrunner Eric Kripke wants The Boys to be "the most brutally realistic depiction of superheroes"