The Boys - An Amazon Prime adaptation of the Ennis comic series

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Second season was going well until maybe the last 2.5 eps when it felt like the writers were like “hey you guise we should probably keep saying Nazis are bad a lot so people will get that we think Nazis are bad.”

Shows lives and dies by Homelander. We started watching Banshee for him, he’s amazing.
 
I really liked season 1, I wouldn't call season 2 bad but I don't like how Homelander went from a terrifying psychopath who was legit uncomfortable to watch due to how unpredictable and violent he was to like, kind of comic-relief, like I get the exploration of the insecure and lonely side of his character because it was explored a little bit in S1 but there's so many scenes in S2 that makes him look like a bitch and makes him the butt of the joke that I feel like it kind of damages his presence.

Also, why did Stormfront have a weird thing against blacks and never mention Jews once despite being a nazi? Like, I hear this retarded critique of people saying "W-why didn't she ever say nigger?" but I'm just sitting here wondering why Jews were never mentioned at all, I don't think a nazi hating Jews would get people trying to cancel the show the same as if she said nigger.
Then she just ended up being a seasonal villain despite being severely under developed by the end of the series, does invulnerability not work on the eyes or something? If so then all supes shouldn't be that much of a threat or hard to kill, especially as celebs you could catch off-guard constantly, then she got murdered by a kid's eye beams? That was fucking retarded.

What the showrunner says is baffling though, I thought this show was a criticism and period piece of Bush-Era America, not MAGA-Country. If this is supposed to be social commentary on present-day America then it's garbage and the few things that were clearly criticism of present-day America were garbage like the whole meme and news thing. The only thing better about this season was the comedy.
 
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Atomsk said:
I really liked season 1, I wouldn't call season 2 bad but I don't like how Homelander went from a terrifying psychopath who was legit uncomfortable to watch due to how unpredictable and violent he was to like, kind of comic-relief, like I get the exploration of the insecure and lonely side of his character because it was explored a little bit in S1 but there's so many scenes in S2 that makes him look like a bitch and makes him the butt of the joke that I feel like it kind of damages his presence.

Also, why did Stormfront have a weird thing against blacks and never mention Jews once despite being a nazi? Like, I hear this retarded critique of people saying "W-why didn't she ever say nigger?" but I'm just sitting here wondering why Jews were never mentioned at all, I don't think a nazi hating Jews would get people trying to cancel the show the same as if she said nigger.
Then she just ended up being a seasonal villain despite being severely under developed by the end of the series, does invulnerability not work on the eyes or something? If so then all supes shouldn't be that much of a threat or hard to kill, especially as celebs you could catch off-guard constantly, then she got murdered by a kid's eye beams? That was fucking retarded.

What the showrunner says is baffling though, I thought this show was a criticism and period piece of Bush-Era America, not MAGA-Country. If this is supposed to be social commentary on present-day America then it's garbage and the few things that were clearly criticism of present-day America were garbage like the whole meme and news thing. The only thing better about this season was the comedy.
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Technically show Stormfront lasted a lot longer. In the original comic Stormfront was a one off gag character that lasted about ten panels for some "lul Nazis bad" jokes before being killed of gruesomely.

The show's execution wasn't perfect but they had to make it up on the fly due to there quite literally being no source material.
 
Ok, so ... In a span of two weeks, I finished both seasons.

Initial thoughts:

1. Season 1 >>>>>>>>> Season 2. Season 2's writing meandered a lot ... And I felt that some of the plotlines went nowhere and that a lot of the characters are now back to square one. Deep's "journey" in season 2 was rendered completely pointless, and I guess that A-Train's heart condition ain't even a problem anymore? And Homelander went from killing the one thing that kept him on a leash in Season 1 ... Just to find another evil skank (Stormfront) to keep him on a leash throughout Season 2? Plus, some of the characters' decisions literally made zero sense (Becca, I'm talking to you, you moron). A lot of the characters made dumb decisions in Season 2 in order to make the plot happen ... And that is definitely a problem in the writing and makes me not look as forward to Season 3, sadly.

2. The worst episodes of the entire series so far are the last two episodes of season 2. Regrettably, the show went woke. The opening segment with the fat incel in the second to last episode was cringeworthy. As was the "girls get it done" moment in the final episode. This series is supposed to be a parody of the Hollywood capeshit, and they went and copied that "girl power!" pander moment from Avengers: Endgame unironically. LOL. Okay! And the moment where the Nazi name drops PewDiePie ... Amazon, I see what you're doing, and you suck ass because of it. Plus, at the end of the day, making the plot become all about "Compound V was done by ... *dun dun dun* NAZIS!" is just ... So incredibly been-there-done-that.

3. The show is definitely crude, grisly, and explicit ... And that's fine by me. However, the humor in Season 1 was actually funny ... Whereas a good chunk of the humor in Season 2 came across as "2 edgy 4 u." The supe with the long dick ... Yeah, okay, I saw that joke coming from a billion miles away and could only roll my eyes when the punchline finally happened, for example.

4. The actor who plays Homelander deserves all of the awards. He is one of the most terrifying and unpredictable characters I've seen in a long time. I literally get tense every single time he has a scene.

5. All in all, I'm glad I watched it, but Season 3 is going to be a "make or break" moment for me on how far I'm going to get into this series. There's a lot to LOVE in the first season ... And there's a lot of positive things going on in the second season as well. However, I am already seeing the cracks in the writing, with the "on-the-nose messages" overriding actual story or character development ... If Season 3 continues this trend, then I'm going to tap out.

EDIT:
And here's a nerdy nitpick. This show's purpose is to take a dump on capeshit and superhero tropes. To my understanding, the creator of The Boys comic books has been on record expressing how much he hates superheroes and how stupidly written they are. That's fair. I crave new stories, and I felt that Season 1 of this series gave me that. I think it's fine to enjoy both the MCU and this series, you know?

That said, for a series that claims to be so smartly written compared to something like Marvel Studios, I was taken aback by the fight between Stormfront and Starlight. The first Avengers movie did it better; Thor's thunder gave extra power to Iron Man's suit, which makes perfect sense considering the science the MCU had established at that point. I thought the same was going to happen with Stormfront vs. Starlight given what has been CLEARLY established with Starlight's powers ... But then it never happened. It really bothered me, lol.
 
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Stab You in the Back said:
Iron Man has never demonstrated the ability to absorb and redirect energy.
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Not at all what I said, but okay.

I used that moment from the first Avengers movie as an example of what consistency looks like. Iron Man's arc reactor is an electromagnet. Would make sense for an electric current such as super powerful lightning to charge it, no? Given the pseudoscience established in the MCU at that point, the scene of Iron Man vs. Thor made sense.

The Boys spent two seasons of establishing what Starlight's powers are. She absorbs and redirects energy. You'd think she'd put up a much better fight against Stormfront, who literally shoots out lightning, no? What good are Starlight's powers when she's defenseless against a bad guy like that? Oh, right: The writing needed her to be weak and needed her to forget about her powers at that moment because the show needed the scene to play out in the way that it did.

My biggest issue with Season 2 is that there's a lot of "This character does _____ only because the plot needs to happen," and not because it makes sense for the character or holds any consistency for the character. Ya dig?
 
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@StarkRavingMad Homelander is amazing and I feel confident that Bezos will pony up the $$ for the publicity to get him an Emmy nom, and I am actually confident he stands a chance. Why this guy isn’t a huge star...

Anyway watch Banshee, old Cinemax show of his. I can’t remember any other one hour binge watch show managing to not bore me for 30 straight episodes, but we have stayed interested and maybe the final season will be consistent with the first three. It isn’t a master class in acting like his Homelander is, but you can see the core intellect at play in his choices and expressions. His face, it’s just incredible.
 
StarkRavingMad said:
Not at all what I said, but okay.

I used that moment from the first Avengers movie as an example of what consistency looks like. Iron Man's arc reactor is an electromagnet. Would make sense for an electric current such as super powerful lightning to charge it, no?
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No. Batteries cannot store an infinite amount of energy, and machines do not run better after power surges.
 
Stab You in the Back said:
No. Batteries cannot store an infinite amount of energy, and machines do not run better after power surges.
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This is a universe where a rich genius discovers a new element and creates a miniature power source that outputs more than it requires to run.

A guy absorbed gamma radiation and didn't die, he gained the ability to never die and turn into a large green man with super strength.

Talking raccoons, actual gods, Infinity Stones...
 
Stab You in the Back said:
No. Batteries cannot store an infinite amount of energy, and machines do not run better after power surges.
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You are nitpicking single sentences while taking out the entire context of what I am saying. I've used words like "pseudoscience" and "based on what has been established in that movie's universe" more than once in this thread.

And you've seriously yet to address any of the points I've made against The Boys: Season 2. lol.
 
StarkRavingMad said:
You are nitpicking single sentences while taking out the entire context of what I am saying. I've used words like "pseudoscience" and "based on what has been established in that movie's universe" more than once in this thread.
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Right, but there is no basis in the movie's established universe that Iron Man can absorb and redirect lightning until he actually does it. You cite is as evidence of consistency without ever explaining what its consistent with. Heck, I even went the extra step by demonstrating that its inconsistent with reality.
 
Stab You in the Back said:
Right, but there is no basis in the movie's established universe that Iron Man can absorb and redirect lightning until he actually does it. You cite is as evidence of consistency without ever explaining what its consistent with. Heck, I even went the extra step by demonstrating that its inconsistent with reality.
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I never said that Iron Man can redirect lighting, for god's sake. This is the dumbest argument ever. lol. I made my point, and I stand by my point. We don't need the MCU to take over this thread. I merely used it as an example to point out how shit I thought the writing was with The Boys season 2 finale.

And you still haven't addressed the poorly executed battle from the final episode of The Boys: Season 2, where Starlight conveniently forgets that she can, in fact, absorb and redirect energy while she's fighting a bad guy who literally zaps lightning at people.

Earlier in the same season, Starlight can't help Huey's life threatening injury because "there's no energy around her to use." And when she's held captive at Vought in the same season, she's trapped in a cell without any energy/power to use until the fire alarms go off and she can use that energy to get out.

Fast forward to the season finale: Here comes Stormfront, literally shooting lightning at her teammates, and Starlight does jack all with her powers. It. Makes. No. Sense. It's bad writing,
 
StarkRavingMad said:
Earlier in the same season, Starlight can't help Huey's life threatening injury because "there's no energy around her to use." And when she's held captive at Vought in the same season, she's trapped in a cell without any energy/power to use until the fire alarms go off and she can use that energy to get out.

Fast forward to the season finale: Here comes Stormfront, literally shooting lightning at her teammates, and Starlight does jack all with her powers. It. Makes. No. Sense. It's bad writing,
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Fine, I'll address it.

We don't know the limitations of Starlight's power. Her power is described on the wiki as follows:

/// Electricity Absorption: Annie's trademark power is that she can absorb the ambient electricity from around herself in order to fuel her powers. This allows her to blackout a small area before releasing the held energy as focused blasts of light. Currently there is no limit which has been established for how much power Annie can safely absorb or how long she can contain it within. [1] She has shown to have some degree of control over said ambient electricity as she is shown to use it for the sole purpose of disrupting electronic devices such as cracking an LCD screen on purpose. ///

We don't if there's a limit or a form to her ability to absorb energy. The wiki describes her power as that to absorb ambient energy, that is, the energy running through ordinary electronic devices, power lines, etc. Let's compare the voltage of a lightning bolt to that of a high transmission line.

/// According to the National Severe Storm Laboratory, a single lightning bolt can have 100 million to 1 billion volts, and it contains billions of watts, depending on whether it is positive lightning or negative lightning. ///

/// Transmission lines carry high voltage electricity, typically at 345,000 volts, over long distances between the power generation plant and customers. In some cases, a large industrial customer may receive electricity directly from overhead transmission lines. ///

The difference between the power of AMBIENT ENERGY and a LIGHTNING BOLT is staggering. Just because Starlight can absorb the juice from your walkman's batteries doesn't mean she can absorb a lightning bolt which is several million times more powerful. Even if she could theoretically absorb a lightning bolt, it would no doubt take lots of practice to reach that level of physical performance. Practice which she, as a relative newcomer, does not have.

In other words, you mong, it makes perfect sense for the newbie energy absorber to get overpowered by the experienced lightning shooter.
 
Are we really discussing physics in a world in which immortal dudes can fly and shoot lightning out of their buttholes?
 
Stab You in the Back said:
Fine, I'll address it.

We don't know the limitations of Starlight's power. Her power is described on the wiki as follows:

/// Electricity Absorption: Annie's trademark power is that she can absorb the ambient electricity from around herself in order to fuel her powers. This allows her to blackout a small area before releasing the held energy as focused blasts of light. Currently there is no limit which has been established for how much power Annie can safely absorb or how long she can contain it within. [1] She has shown to have some degree of control over said ambient electricity as she is shown to use it for the sole purpose of disrupting electronic devices such as cracking an LCD screen on purpose. ///

We don't if there's a limit or a form to her ability to absorb energy. The wiki describes her power as that to absorb ambient energy, that is, the energy running through ordinary electronic devices, power lines, etc. Let's compare the voltage of a lightning bolt to that of a high transmission line.

/// According to the National Severe Storm Laboratory, a single lightning bolt can have 100 million to 1 billion volts, and it contains billions of watts, depending on whether it is positive lightning or negative lightning. ///

/// Transmission lines carry high voltage electricity, typically at 345,000 volts, over long distances between the power generation plant and customers. In some cases, a large industrial customer may receive electricity directly from overhead transmission lines. ///

The difference between the power of AMBIENT ENERGY and a LIGHTNING BOLT is staggering. Just because Starlight can absorb the juice from your walkman's batteries doesn't mean she can absorb a lightning bolt which is several million times more powerful. Even if she could theoretically absorb a lightning bolt, it would no doubt take lots of practice to reach that level of physical performance. Practice which she, as a relative newcomer, does not have.

In other words, you mong, it makes perfect sense for the newbie energy absorber to get overpowered by the experienced lightning shooter.
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She's not at all a newbie energy absorber though. She's been doing supe stuff for almost literally her entire life. That's been established several times throughout the course of the show.

The only limitations we have seen with her powers are that (a) if there's no energy around to be absorbed, then she's useless, and (b) she can punch stuff hard ... But is easily overpowered by characters like Homelander and Black Noir. That's totally fine, no problem there.

The show doesn't address any limitations she has when she's actually absorbing energy, though. The show didn't even attempt to address it with her fight with Stormfront, and that's my problem. My problem isn't "Waaahhh Starlight should beat Stormfront!" Instead, it's "Hey, Starlight can absorb energy ... Stormfront is shooting out lightning and maiming everyone ... Why isn't she even trying to use her powers here?" If the show had shown her try and ultimately fail/get overpowered by Stormfront, then I'd genuinely be fine with that.

All I ask for is consistency, and the final few episodes of The Boys: Season 2 didn't give me that. Attention to detail matters. The final two episodes of the latest season were annoying to watch because I found that a lot of the characters just became stupid for no reason other than "plot needs to happen," and watching that fight with Stormfront really bugged me because Starlight was mostly just standing around trying to throw a punch at someone shooting lightning when she clearly had other options to at least try out.
 
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Hooligan Handgun said:
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Trying to apply Homelander to IRL poliics is very strange because a clear part of Homelander's entire character is that he views almost anyone other an himself as worthless, which is why he looks so confused when Stormfront starts sperging about "white genocide". He doesn't care about race, they're all just mud people he can laser.
 
I'm not very optimistic. Season 2 was one of the worst non Game of Thrones drops in quality I think I've ever seen in a TV series.
 
I'll still give it a go, best case scenario is they'll have got all the poorly disguised Trump whining out of their system between the previous season and him not being President any more, and it goes back to the core capeshit parody/critique like the first season.
 
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