The Boys review: Satire on superhero movies

Boys (Amazon Prime Video)

Director: Joe Mantello

Cast: Antony Starr, Jack Quaid, Karl Urban

Rating: 4/5

At a time when the audiences were overwhelmed with superhero movies, another one may have sounded like the worst choice to make.

Yet 'The Boys' Season 1 was received by audiences all around the world with much awe, for saying what no other movie said, that it would be futile to have superheroes in the real world.

In fact, the show said that having superheroes would create more problems.

So, as the show returns with a season 2, the expectations are really high. Well, there’s so much to like about it. The characters gain more depth, they get better arcs, and the encounters are more intense.

Overall, it was a treat for those already hooked on to the show. The characters showed a lot more motivation and gave reasons for the viewers to root for them.

Antony Starr’s villainous rip off of Superman, the Homelander, is one of the best performances I’ve seen in a while on TV. Antony managed to add a new tinge of emotional instability and madness to an otherwise a template villain.

That also shows the biggest shortcoming of the show -- having no great performances other than the Homelander character.

There are other obvious shortcomings. The pointlessness haunting the writers of the show from the beginning still exists. The Boys still only scratches the surface of what it could be.

This coupled with a lot of passable, short-lived characters (which is a lot of people!) takes away the fun to some extent.

But where Boys really succeeds is showing that superhero or not, humans behave a certain way and that the “responsibility” they feel with the reception of great power isn’t always as dominant as their humanity. It is a great show that you should not miss.