'The Boys': Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg's Superhero Series Mistakes Nastiness For Edginess In Series Premiere [Tribeca Review]

What’s the record for fastest fridging in media? In this Amazon adaptation of the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic, it happens just minutes into the series premiere, giving our hero a reason to fight and establishing the show’s position on its female characters in a single gory blow. What’s frustrating is that “The Boys” appears to want to do right by its women, but it shows its true colors by treating violence against them as a joke – and not even a particularly funny one – in two scenes in its first episode.

Eric Kripke‘s series drops us into a world where superheroes are real and they make billions for the Vought International corporation through city protection gigs and licensing. But “The Boys” quickly shows us the darker side of superheroes and the collateral damage they leave in their wake. Hughie (Jack Quaid) is sharing a sweet moment with his adorable girlfriend, Robin (Jess Salgueiro), but it’s interrupted and his life is upended. Speedster A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) races through the New York City street and straight through Robin’s body, killing her instantly in front of Hughie. He’s understandably distraught and hesitant to accept the restitution payment from Vought, which makes him catch the eye of government agent Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), who is investigating the supers’ less-than-super deeds and needs Hughie’s help to get access to corporate HQ.

Meanwhile, in Des Moines, Annie January a.k.a. Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is auditioning to join The Seven (the series’ version of The Avengers or Justice League), getting ready for try-outs by lifting cars and punching through walls, while trying not to literally blind the judges with the light of her powers. This elite group of superheroes includes A-Train, Aquaman-like The Deep (Chace Crawford), and Captain America-esque Homelander (Antony Starr). When she wins a spot with the team, she soon realizes that her unselfish goal of saving the world might not be the top priority for The Seven and that they aren’t all their public image proclaims them to be.

Like the Ennis adaptation “Preacher,” this show is produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Both series share some of the same DNA in their approach to sacred institutions; “Preacher” took on religion, while “The Boys” takes on another hallowed establishment in superheroes, which feels especially timely given the annihilating dominance of Marvel at the box office. “The Boys” thumbs its nose at Disney’s version of heroes, offering something far darker and far more adult. With its irreverent humor, this is closer to “Deadpool” than “Avengers: Endgame,” but even that comparison falls short of expressing exactly how nasty “The Boys” is at times, particularly to its women. There’s something so rancid here that some scenes curdle before our eyes, expecting us to giggle rather than the gag that actually happens.

Robin’s fridging in the opening minutes is brutal (albeit beautifully done in its framing and effects work), but it’s played for laughs. Similarly, a later scene finds a character forced to give a blow job, and the framing emphasizes what we’re supposed to find funny in the crushing moment as it clumsily addresses the #MeToo movement. In a Q&A at the premiere, Kripke promised that there will be karma and comeuppance for the villains here, and there seems to be an effort to make the show more friendly to women than its source material was, particularly in the gender-swapped casting of Elisabeth Shue as the head of Vought. But despite their good intentions, these scenes demonstrate an undercurrent of misogyny in the show. It may work harder to correct this in the rest of the season, but there is a lot of ground to make up.

Even beyond these two scenes, the show’s tone is its Kryptonite, flippantly bouncing between darkness and light with less agility than its heroes display. Many scenes fall flat, but something about Urban’s Butcher makes every moment he’s on screen work. He’s perfectly cast as the rogue, and he plays well off Quaid’s character’s timidity. Their dynamic, as well as Starlight’s literal and figurative sunniness, is what makes “The Boys” intriguing, though hints at themes of the corruption of celebrity and politics point toward something that could make the show worth watching past this first episode. But it’s never quite as smart as it thinks it is, particularly in its obvious needle drops. Heart‘s “Barracuda” plays while Starlight trains, and Chris Isaak‘s “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing” scores a scene of misbehavior. I have a lot of Ke$ha in my Music app, and even I could’ve come up with these unimaginative music choices.

With superheroes now being mass culture rather than a geek niche, the timing should be perfect for “The Boys.” But if the first episode is any indication, it’s not adding as much to the conversation as it thinks it is. We need intelligent satires of superhero culture – and certainly the intersection of fame and power in the real world – that aren’t afraid to go dark in their discussion, but “The Boys” isn’t it. This episode can’t read the room, mistaking nastiness for edginess and thinking that simply showing more women on screen is progress. [C]

“The Boys” premieres on Amazon on July 26.