The Boys - Season 1

0:03 Callaroga Shark Media. Welcome back to TV in the Basement, the podcast that dives deep into the shows you love, or maybe the shows you forgot you loved. I'm your host Journey Joe Mitchell, and today we're talking about the wild ride that was season one of the Amazon original series The Boys Strap In Because Things are about to get diabolical. The Boys debuted on Amazon Prime Video in July twenty nineteen and immediately made waves for its dark, irreverent take on the superhero genre. Based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Derek Robertson, the show is said, in a world where superheroes are not only real, but corporatized, monetized, and often straight up assholes. Enter The Boys, a ragtag group of vigilantes led by Billy Butcher played with manic glee by Carl Urbin. The Boys make it their mission to expose and take down corrupt superheroes, especially those in the elite superhero squad known as the Seven. It's a premise ripe for the kind of gloriously messed up social commentary and ultra violence that Ennis and showrunner Eric Kripkey gleefully provide over the course of eight hour long episodes. Season one follows Huey Campbell, played by Jack Quaid, as he joins up with Butcher's crew after his girlfriend is brutally killed by a superhero. Driven by grief and a thirst for vengeance, Hughey becomes swept up in a larger conspiracy involving the shady Vaut corporation that manages the

1:33 Seven. The Boys assembled an impressive cast to bring its morally gray characters to life. Carl Urban as Billy Butcher, the quick tempered leader of the Boys, Jack Quaid as Huey Campbell, an electronic store worker turned amateur vigilante. Anthony Starr as Homelander, the Seven sociopathic superman analog. Aaron Moriarty as Anni January Starlight, a naive but principled new member of the Seven. Dominique mcklagot as Queen Mayve, Homelander's jaded ex girlfriend. Chase Crawford as aquatic Hero the Deep, essentially if Aquaman was a sex pest. Jesse t Usher as a train a speedster with a drug problem. Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Butcher's level headed right hand Man, Tomer Capon as Frenchy, a eccentric weapons specialist, Karen Fukuhara as Kimico the Female, a mute superhuman with regenerative powers.

2:23 Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir, a masked ninja who never speaks. Elizabeth Schu as Madeline Stillwell, a VAUD executive who manages the Seven. While season one is strong across the board, a few episodes stand out. Episode six, The Innocence, focuses on the uneasy mentor mentee dynamic between Homelander and Starlight. Homelander revealing his true sociopathic nature to her is chilling. Also features a darkly hilarious sequence where the Deep tries to save a dolphin. Episode eight, You Found Me Season finale an action packed, twist filled finale that sets up intriguing plots for season two, including Butcher's presumed dead wife being alive and the revelation that Becca's son is the product of assault by Homelander. The shot of Homelander Mayve and Stillwell callously laughing after covering up a fatal plane crash is haunting.

3:14 The role of Hue was written specifically for Jack Quaid after Kripke saw him audition for a different project. In the comics, hue is drawn to resemble Simon Pegg. Peg appears as Hughey's dad. In the show, Homelander is meant to embody toxic post nine to eleven American jingoism taken to its darkest extremes. According to showrunner Eric Kripke, the show's over the top tone is meant to be one tick past reality. Many of the show's musical choices feature on the nose lyrics that comment on the action, like playing the Door's twentieth century Fox when Huey visits a Fox News parody station. Kripke said they wanted to explore what would happen if you combined the worst of politics with the worst of celebrity and fame, and how badly that could go off the rails. When asked if starl lights harrowing storyline in episode one was inspired by the hash me too movement, Kripke said, it was more about the fact that we wanted to make sure that in this superhero world women had to navigate the same lousy reality that they have to navigate in our world. Like the comic, it's based on the boys courts controversy. By design, the pilot features an extremely graphic sequence where a train accidentally kills Huey's girlfriend by running through her at super speed.

4:28 Her death is shockingly visceral and gory, setting the tone for the show's unflinching violence. Also in the pilot, Starlight is coerced into performing a sex act on a fellow superhero to gain entry into the Seven. Some found this storyline gratuitous, but others saw it as a disturbing reflection of the exploitation and abuse that occurs in real world industries. Overall, the violence and sexual content definitely pushes the boundaries of the superhero genre, but fans and critics largely agree the graphic elements aren't just for shock vau but served the story's scathing satirical edge. For a show as gleefully depraved as The Boys, you might not expect it to be an awards darling, but season one garnered a surprising amount of critical recognition. At the twenty twenty Critics Choice Super Awards, the Boys won Best Superhero Series, beating out heavy hitters like Watchman and The Umbrella Academy.

5:20 Anthony Starr also took home Best Actor in a Superhero Series for his chilling portrayal of Homelander. The show also made a splash at the twenty twenty one Saturn Awards, which recognized the best in sci fi, fantasy, and horror. The Boys won Best Streaming Superhero Series, while Carl Urban and Aaron Moriarty won Best Actor and Best Actress in a Streaming Series, respectively. The Boys even received some Emmy love. While it didn't win, Season one was nominated for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series in twenty twenty. On the more technical side, the show's VFX team won the award for Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real Time Project at the twenty twenty one Visual Effects Society Awards for their work creating the monstrous love sausage in season two. Sure, it's a bit of a silly award, but hey, a win is a win. Individual episodes also received recognition. The season one finale You Found Me has an eight point nine rating on IMDb, making it the highest user rated episode of the series, and the episode The Innocence won Best Episodic at the twenty twenty one Hollywood Professional Association Awards. Critics generally heaped praise on the first season two, it earned a certified fresh eighty five percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

6:34 Entertainment Weekly included it on their list of the ten best shows of twenty nineteen. Several critics highlighted The Boys as a standout in an oversaturated superhero media landscape, praising its biting social commentary and willingness to subvert genre expectations. So while it may not have the prestige of some Emmy bait dramas, The Boys proved in its first season that there's room for an ultraviolent superhero ro satire to make a mark on the award circuit. It's just delightfully on brand for a show this unconventional to be recognized in some pretty unconventional categories. And that wraps up our deep dive into season one of The Boys. It's a show that's definitely not for the feint of heart, but if you can stomach the gore and darkness, it's a wickedly entertaining deconstruction of superhero tropes in American power fantasy