Say Hello To The Boys

In my early 20’s I watched the entire series of The Prisoner.  A lot.  It was one of those things that I was able to get a sense that beyond the fist fights and weird science fiction storylines and on my own figure out that there was a message behind the series.  Things about questioning authority in a brutal surveillance state, being an individual and thinking for yourself, and other naughty don’t question the system thoughts.  Other content I viewed would be an occasional single satirical reference and then back to the show.  The Prisoner, other than some episodes that were clearly to pad out the run to the final tally of 17 episodes, had a consistent theme.  (It was only supposed to be 6, and ironically McGoohan buckled to the authorities in the system and agreed to 17 for a full season.)

Years from now, when we’ve mutated to have our remaining dwindling population capable of withstanding temperatures in the 100 degree Fahrenheit range, scholars will be discussing current series like Severance and The Boys.  There themes being a product of current times, an updated take on old stories of ultra wealthy and powerful abuse of power modernized.

My original intent was to discuss that despite the matching gematria that Homelander in The Boys is not a stand in for Donald Trump.  This critique is fairly common.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jun/28/the-boys-homelander-trump-rightwing-fanbase

One of the beauties of gematria is that when things don’t turn out quite right on the easiest matches you get to cheat.  I didn’t feel like doing that, playing around with prime number lists or transposition of digits and fairly quickly latched on to a reasonable substitute.  The current President:

At the simplest description that doesn’t do justice to the series writers, The Boys answers the basic question of, What if Superman was a dickhead?”

As recently pointed out here, the current crop of villains are badly written, with the alarming feature of them being real life people who seem dead set on never acknowledging their gross incompetence and reveling in the damage they do to the world.  Yes, a lot of the boxes on the list are checked off.  But at the end of the day Homelander, viewed as a superhero despite being a well written arch villain, is actually competent at the superhero alter ego.  Musk and Trump, not so much.  Homelander can effectively superpower his way into killing and intimidating his way to get what he wants.  Our real life villains whose superpower is being admired for wealth through fraud and getting away with it are constantly contradicting themselves, backtracking, and making whimsical decisions that make no sense.

The Boys season 4 has not been going over well with long time fans of the show.  Somewhere along the way I should have mentioned that I’ve never watched it, not needing another monthly subscription drawing money from me relating to my entertainment budget.  The complaint being  that the show is now “too woke”.  The right wing buzz phrase for, “I hate the idea of giving a shit about other people.”  It appears to me that the show was purposefully designed, like The Prisoner, to have a definitive conclusion with a season 5 series finale coming in 2026.  For comparison you have The Walking Dead with some compelling and well written early villains that petered out into a blatant cash grab and just dragged on long after it wasn’t any real fun anymore.  The Boys could give us a spectacular season 5, with the rest of this year to tweak the storylines based on current events.  Redeeming itself from an off year.

Except nothing is going to redeem the show in the eyes of the right wing fanbase that gave up on season 4.  Their admiration of villains exposed makes them uncomfortable in real life.  The desire to do whatever they want without consequences leading them down a path where the stark consequences of unchecked power and villainy is becoming clearer.  Their real life hook (financial security), satirically written as blood, vulgarity and death by laser eye beams doesn’t change that they will never get actual superpowers the same way that their offspring have increasingly less chances of having long term promises fulfilled.  A home, a stable career, a pension of sorts in retirement.  The 7, the group that Homelander leads, has already done significant long term damage.  The poorest ending IMO would be to give him a redemption story where he sacrifices himself.  A better ending would be a Prisoner style unanswered question.  The writers have a lot of wiggle room to work with, so it’s a wait and see.

On the purely entertainment side, Antony Starr is marvelous as Homelander.  Although never seeing a full episode I have seen lots of clips.  At times sneering, totally terrifying when in full evil mode, at times the insecure toxic narcissist that more closely resembles our real life poorly written villains.  Unable to get true admiration and love because he’s incapable of doing anything worthy of being loved.  Rumor has it his audition won him the part based on his cool and nonchalant attitude.  An attitude that was so relaxed because he didn’t really think he would land the part.

https://en.as.com/meristation/news/the-boys-anthony-starr-didnt-think-he-was-the-right-actor-for-homelander-role-because-of-henry-cavill-n/#:~:text=Even%20so%2C%20the%20actor's%20representatives,almost%20out%20of%20spite%20for

No Antony, it’s a character with nuance, not just a hulking brute.  You nailed it.