The Boys TV series - Karl Urban cast as Butcher

[JayzusB.Christ]

Fanny baws.

 
If it wasn't for Middenface McNulty and Irvine Welsh, I wouldn't know what you're all on about half the time 😉

[sheridan]

You got a Scotch emigre. Something weird happens to us when we leave. We sing about missing the hills and lochs of Brigadoon and use all the money we save in tax to fund political campaigns.

You don't spend it on whiskey then?

[sheridan]

Can't remember now if The Deep was in the comic.  He does seem very much like an Ennis character: A bit of a perv and a schadenfreude-heavy hard luck case.
The gills bit made me wince.

Not having read the comic, I'm now thinking of this (if you ever go to Hull, this is the best thing to do there*):




Other attractions being the museums and Spiders...

[JayzusB.Christ]

Can't remember now if The Deep was in the comic.  He does seem very much like an Ennis character: A bit of a perv and a schadenfreude-heavy hard luck case.
The gills bit made me wince.

Not having read the comic, I'm now thinking of this (if you ever go to Hull, this is the best thing to do there*):




Other attractions being the museums and Spiders...

That looks proper cool.  I hope it's called the Hull Hull.

[Mattofthespurs]

Just watched the first four episodes back to back. It's brilliant.
Not read the comic but have just ordered the first omnibus.
I have a feeling this is going to cost me 

[rogue69]

The Boys is officially more popular than any of the Marvel series


https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/16/boys-amazon-prime-officially-popular-marvel-series-rightly-10751433/?ito=article.amp.share.top.twitter

[Rately]

It was really very good, even with the divergences from the Comic, though I'm assuming that some of the stuff they cut out could be added back in over the coming season/s.

Butcher wielding the baby was brilliant stuff.

[IndigoPrime]

This was a curious one in this household. Mrs G gave up on Preacher after about three episodes. She hated it. (I haven’t finished it myself yet either.) So I was surprised she was keen on watching something else by Garth Ennis, although she didn’t realise there was any link between the series before we watched. (Context: Mrs G is a geek, but less so than I am. She also loves Dredd.) I hadn’t read The Boys, so we went in blind.

Some serious shit went down in the series as a whole, and there were some sick laugh-out-loud moments (like the baby weapon). It rattled along at a fair old lick (eight episodes and done – Doctor Who, take note, perhaps). And it – mostly – got the balance right regarding things like treatment of various characters and situations, despite unsurprisingly being a very bloke-heavy series.

So I thought I’d then go back and read the comic, and – wow. To be fair, I’ve only read the first volume so far, but it’s a hair’s breadth from Big Dave at times. It’s rampantly BIG MEN PUNCHES THINGS, sexist and homophobic. I can already see how they saw it as decent source material for a TV show, but this article nailed it for me on that TV show being superior because it knew what to leave out.

I’m sure many people here and elsewhere would disagree. But the comic feels too close to the 4chan wet dream it’s attempting to lampoon, whereas the TV show is actually pretty nuanced, despite also having regular shocking moments. So I find myself looking forward to season 2, but not terribly fussed about reading the other books lurking in my Humble Bundle archive. (Do they get better?)

[Jim_Campbell]

I’m not familiar with the original comic, so have no idea how faithful, or not, the TV series is an adaptation, but it seems to me that the thing would have worked just as well without the undercurrent of raging homophobia.

[IndigoPrime]

I finished reading the entire comic after a holiday away. I’m not sure what to say, really. There are 12 volumes in all. The first half-dozen remind me more of the Summer Offensive than Preacher (which had its own problems). It feels like teen-style excess for excess’s sake. The entire thing has a worrying undercurrent of homophobia, transphobia and sexism that feels like it stems from the product rather than the characters. Everyone’s an arsehole, too, which makes it hard to give a shit about, well, anything. Also, one major difference from the TV series – that The Boys are super-powered with V as well – rather obliterates a lot of the tension.

I will say it got better. A couple of mini-series are actually quite well written, and there are regular glimmers of knowingness within the series, but too often it then veers back to just being flat-out horrible. The last couple of volumes are hackneyed, pat, and predictable, too, in a manner I hope the TV show stays the hell away from.

Frankly, had I read the series prior to watching the show, I’m not sure I’d have bothered with the latter. I kept reading the comic in part because of morbid curiosity, but I’m really struggling to see why people like it so much. It feels like the last hurrah of the bullshit 1990s more than a brave new idea, or forging a new direction. However, I can at least see why it was optioned and remade for TV – there are some basic ideas within the comic that are really good. I’m just glad the TV people are seemingly much better writers, and knew what to leave out and what to change, in order to create something far more interesting and, frankly, palatable.

[Rusty]

It's true that the comic does have some very heavy homophobic, and racist content to it, but I'd say that it isn't done out of spite, or to be mean spirited or edgy in any way. In fact, I think it's in there to give a bit of contrast between the characters, mainly between that of Hughy and Butcher. It's mostly Butcher for a lot of his none PC colloquialisms or disparaging language. It's there too for shock value, non PC and vulgar dark humour, and also to convey a message, which is usually delivered via Hughy pulling Butcher up on his apparent prejudices towards homosexuals. I think its a necessary part of displaying Hughy's character, especially when it comes to the end. It's definitely the sort of thing best left out of a TV show, though, as it's just not necessary at all (for the screen). In fact, there are a few things in the comic that I'm not sure if they'll approach, if at all.

[IndigoPrime]

Except Hughie is also sexist and homophobic (etc) throughout, just a bit less so, and in a manner where he sometimes realises it. That he sometimes calls Butcher on his shit makes no odds to me when he’s often in the same ballpark, and it’s part of what makes me feel the production is at fault. (The series also has a lot of male gaze attitudes to women that are frankly very problematic. Preacher had similar issues.)

For me, the nadir for Hughie is late on when he boots A-Train’s head off in a rage, and then claims he’s not a monster. Right. Just a bit less of one. Anyway, despite its problems, I enjoyed the TV show. I can’t say the same or 80%+ of the comic run.

[Jim_Campbell]

It's true that the comic does have some very heavy homophobic, and racist content to it, but I'd say that it isn't done out of spite, or to be mean spirited or edgy in any way.

Can't speak to the comics, because I haven't read them, but how many episodes of the TV series have a plot point revolving around either gay sex being something that people are ashamed of and/or someone getting something inserted up their arse with disastrous/hilarious consequences? Answer: most of them. That's not a character having a reprehensible attitude of which we are supposed to disapprove, that's systemic and inherent.

[IndigoPrime]

This is far, far, far more prevalent in the comics.

[Frank]

someone getting something inserted up their arse with disastrous/hilarious consequences?