Sunday, September 11, 2022

is "The Boys" a woke show?

Here's what I wrote in my Amazon review of "The Boys":

I see that politics is a big issue among many reviewers. Does the show have a "woke" side? Sure, and those who deny that are lying to themselves. There's definitely an attempt to paint righties as a bunch of racist conspiracy loons. But the show also criticizes the left on many occasions. It makes fun of PC culture gone rampant by showing how, for example, LGBTQ sensitivity gets commodified in things like Maeve's lesbian-themed amusement park (which was obviously not Maeve's idea; she wanted her private life to remain private). The point of the amusement-park scene was to show how the Powers That Be really don't care at all about these issues, but instead use them simply to pander to people who do care. The show also presents the idea, shared by plenty of conservatives, that government works hand-in-hand with the media to control messaging. So the right gets mocked when "The Boys" presents its parody of Jesus camps, and the left gets mocked whenever A-Train's minority status is used to help sell energy drinks and—ironically—cigarettes. 

I think the viewer can read "The Boys" however he or she wants. Maybe it's a critique of the right; maybe it's a critique of the left. Maybe it's both. I see the show, overall, as a nihilistic statement about how human beings can cram their heads up their own a-holes. Humans made the Supes, and this proved to be a Pandora's Box. Maybe "The Boys" is just a bloody, gory take on the old Frankenstein story, in which the creation escapes the control of its creator. Maybe it's a pro-right narrative about evil corporations (lefties who think regular righties love big corporations these days really haven't been keeping up with the times). Maybe it's a pro-left narrative about how power is always prone to misuse (even Hughie revels in his power when he takes Temp V). I don't know. My point is simply that people should give the show credit for being more even-handed than it might seem at first blush.

That said, the show remains watchable for me; I enjoyed the Season 3 finale, although I still wonder how one character (won't spoil this) survived that fall after Soldier Boy deprived her of her powers as they were plunging toward the ground. I'm also not sure I understand how Compound V works. For heroes like A-Train, the substance is addictive. For someone like Homelander, you receive a dose of the drug only once, and you become fantastically powerful, with no addiction. Why do some heroes seem to need regular doses of V while others need only one? And how can Soldier Boy do his explosion thing and "burn the V out" of you? If Compound V is mutagenic, does that means Soldier Boy's explosions are reversing genetic mutations? Can explosions usually do that? I didn't think so. So what gives? 

Anyway, despite the questions I have, I'm enjoying the story as a whole. Butcher is a right cunt, as he'd say, but he's got his private pain, and it seems he's got brain cancer, now, thanks to the Temp V. Homelander still roams the earth, and his son seems on the precipice of falling into the dark side. I'll be interested to see what Season 4 will reveal.



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