The Boys

This year's series cannonade continues and we have another hit that wipes its ass with all the comic and superhero movies. The Boys is an awesome dystopia that presents an original world of superheroes who don't care that much about people and don’t mind dead bodies. Karl Urban as the mercenary who despises superheroes is perfect (his wisecracks and Oscar-worthy acting), the same goes for Homelander (Antony Starr from Banshee plays the arrogant "Superman" with grace). The rest of the heroes, Starlight, A-train, Queen Maeve, the Deep and Black Noir, are rather bland. The series has great pacing, well dosed twists and turns, apt black humour, solid action, shocking violence with juicy gore, impressive visuals, and also an engaging story with an excellent finale that lures in the second season beyond belief. An eight-hour ride as it should be and a must for all superhero fans and those who don't love them. 90% (27.08.2019)

Last season's winner on the series front is back, and once again, it's the biggest series splash of the year, and probably nothing will top it. The second season is more fateful, more heated, more emotional, it's packed with iconic scenes and adds a few new characters, with Storm Front in particular being the most intriguing, a sort of female version of Homelander who plays the uncompromising racist bitch to perfection. I found the lines with The Deep, A Train and Queen Maeve a bit annoying and not very interesting, while Black Noir has minimal space again, as all the attention is focused on Homelander, Starlight and Storm Front. Maybe we'll see some new faces in the third season. Butcher is classically the most entertaining of the good guys, and his famous “cunts” already carry a similar weight to Samuel L. Jackson's “motherfucker”. The best episode are the definitely the sixth, where we get a look at the madhouse and the weird experiments of the superheroes, and then of course the fateful finale, which is packed with emotion and a decent dose of a superhero brawl we all wanted to see. The Boys takes superheroes to the next level after The Avengers, it shows what it would probably look like if they lived among us. PS: If gore looked like this in horror movies, my horror heart would be happier. Story****, Action****, Humor****, Violence****, Entertainment*****, Music****, Visuals*****, Atmosphere****, Suspense****. 85%. (13.10.2020)

Comic book fuck! Amazon's big phenomenon presents itself with a 3rd season, and as expected, it's brutal, twisted, perverse, but also smart, emotional, wacky, and damn funny. The new season brings a number of interesting surprises where the cards are shuffled brilliantly and the whole thing paces from start to finish with no significant deaf spots, though I still have minor reservations that make me unable to go for the full rating. Once again, stealing the whole show for himself is Anthony Starr, aka Homelander, who seems to have been born for this role, a wonderful prototype of a cold psychopathic bastard who has no mercy, but for the first time in the series he gets scared and it's quite a sight to behold. Alongside Homelander, Butcher also classically excels, and for the first time in the series he also becomes a full-fledged rival to his arch nemesis. Of the other characters, I enjoy Starlight and Kimiko, who provides some decent action. Of the new characters, Soldier Boy is worth mentioning, he has an interesting development and an interesting denouement. There could have been more action, but once it comes to the meat-grinding, it's incredible, R-rating driven, pushing the boundaries far beyond other TV series. The very opening gay gore scene will definitely stick in my memory for quite some time, but there are plenty of nasty and juicy deaths throughout the series as well, where a gore fan is bound to get downright creeped out. There were a few unexpected character deaths and few plot twists, making The Boys the best R-rated comic-book adaptation ever for the third time. My one criticism is the fact that it doesn't make full use of the potential of the individual superheroes. The Seven are pretty haphazard and they should change – A-Train and Deep are downright useless, Black Noir has minimal space again, and Maeve doesn't get much time here either. I wouldn't be at all upset with the recruitment of new heroes with new abilities and interesting characters, maybe something like Stormfront, which revitalized the 2nd season nicely. So we'll see next time, but satisfaction definitely prevails and no one should miss The Boys. 8.5/10. (08.07.2022)