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THE BOYS (S1E1) “The Name Of The Game”: Who Supervises The Supes?

THE BOYS (S1E1) “The Name Of The Game”: Who Supervises The Supes?

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THE BOYS (S1E1) "The Name of the Game": Who Supervises the Supes?

In the past decade, superhero media has swiftly taken over both the big and small screens, with almost every major network and streaming service having their own spandex-clad caped crusaders. This is something that The Boys, the new series from Preacher creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (with help from Supernatural’s Eric Kripke), both understand and struggle with.

Adapted from the Garth Ennis comic of the same name, The Boys is firmly rooted in the same sensibilities as its sister show, as the bloody inciting incident immediately clues you in on. But unlike Preacher, which remains unlike anything else on television, The Boys is treading well-worn ground. Stories that deconstruct superhero tropes are nothing new to audiences, from Watchmen‘s breakdown of how superheroes would affect the real world to the glib winking of Deadpool.

So where does The Boys land on this scale? Well, somewhere in the middle, honestly. The first episode does recognize and attempt to reckon with the dominance of superhero media in our popular culture and the corporate greed that lies beneath it, but also wants to have fun with the idea of “what if superheroes were assholes?”. It’s a bizarre mishmash that leads to some mishandling of sensitive material and a strange tonal dissonance throughout.

Setting the Stage

The episode opens with a bus ad for the latest superhero movie, before pulling back on two kids trading insults over their favorite heroes. A high-speed chase breaks out nearby, and as a truck hurtles towards these bystanders, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott, playing the show’s Wonder Woman stand-in) drops by just in time, preventing any casualties. But the bad guys are quick to hold the kids at gunpoint, causing Homelander (Anthony Starr, as the Superman analog) to intervene with a well-placed blast from his laser vision.

THE BOYS (S1E1) "The Name of the Game": Who Supervises the Supes?
source: Amazon Prime Video

The public celebrates the heroes for their actions, as they pose for photos and bask in their adoration. It’s a tidy opening that nicely establishes the relationship between the Supes (as they’re dubbed within the show) and the people, one where they act not only as protectors but are also heavily merchandised, and as we later discover, corporately backed.

Hughie and Billy

Next, we meet one of our protagonists Hughie (Jack Quaid), a young man working a dead-end job at an electronics store. He has trouble standing up for himself, afraid to even ask his boss for a raise. He comes off as smart but indecisive, a man of inaction content being stuck in his current situation. That is until speedster A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) runs his girlfriend Robin (Jess Salgueiro) off the road, leaving a bloody trail as Hughie is left holding her dismembered arms.

In a show that’s all about deconstructing superhero tropes, it’s bizarre to see such a blatant example of fridging go by without any acknowledgment of its long history in comic book storytelling. And while it’s not the most egregious thing that happens (we’ll get to that), it does demonstrate how this first episode is only half interested in digging beneath the surface of the superhero tropes.

Hughie’s naturally horrified by what happened and, despite pleas from his father (an oddly cast Simon Pegg), refuses to take a pay off from Vought, the corporation behind the Supes. Refusing to accept the company’s version of events, he seeks more than vague condolences, he wants an apology and some answers on what happened. Which just so happens to coincide with him meeting Billy Butcher (an incredibly charismatic Karl Urban), a supposed FBI agent with a distaste for Supes.

THE BOYS (S1E1) "The Name of the Game": Who Supervises the Supes?
source: Amazon Prime Video

He gives Hughie a monologue about the world of superheroes, the money which backs them up and the dominance they’ve asserted over popular media. It’s the most interesting part of a mixed episode, one that gets the closest to an actual take on the superhero genre that feels contemporary and speaks to something happening in the real world. “The branding opportunities are limitless,” says Vought boss Madelyne Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) at one point, and don’t we know it.

Billy follows that up with his plan, to get Hughie into the HQ of the Justice League Seven by agreeing to the pay off so long as A-Train apologizes in person. While inside, Hughie is to plant a bug in their meeting room to expose their lies, something he’s initially hesitant to do. There’s a Narrator/Tyler Durden vibe to their scenes, especially during a trip to the seedy nightclub where Supes blow off steam. To push him into acting on his grievances, Billy reveals video footage of A-Train flippantly joking about Robin’s death, a far cry from his regretful TV appearance earlier in the episode.

Hughie then agrees to infiltrate the building, but before we get to that we must first talk about…

Starlight and The Deep

The introduction of Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is a curious one — she’s an up and coming Supe auditioning for the Seven, with a surprising amount of earnestness given the world around her. In fact, her early scenes with her mother (Ann Cusack) may as well be from a different show to Hughie and Billy’s. It’s genuinely endearing to see her enthusiasm here, as she’s accepted into the ranks and welcomed onto the team, until the whole facade comes crumbling down.

THE BOYS (S1E1) "The Name of the Game": Who Supervises the Supes?
source: Amazon Prime Video

Late one night, she runs into The Deep (Chace Crawford, as a slimy Aquaman parallel) who, after hearing that Starlight once had a crush on him, makes an unwarranted advance. When she hesitates, he reminds her that he could ruin her, ensuring she never works as a hero again, just in case you missed the implication. And while her sexual assault is not explicitly shown, it plays as a particularly cruel beat, especially given the uncomfortable comedic moments in the scene and the immediate cutaway to a wacky Jimmy Fallon cameo. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her and Queen Maeve also have to deal with Translucent (Alex Hassell) using his powers to spy on them in the bathrooms, something which will come into play later.

Starlight is left questioning herself, wondering whether her life leading up to joining the Seven was a waste and blaming herself for what happened. This is, unfortunately, the much weaker half of the episode, as the aftermath of sexual assault is handled all too lightly, with too much of a clean resolution in too short a time. Searching for answers, she happens upon Hughie, and the two share their concerns and are given moments of introspection that push them towards their next course of action — Hughie to take Billy up on his offer and Starlight to remain on the team in defiance of The Deep.

This falls flat for several reasons — in part because it frames Starlight’s assault as a means of motivating Hughie, which alongside Robin’s fridging makes for some all-around questionable choices, but also because her decision to stay with the Seven feels like a fumbled attempt to make an empowerment narrative out of all this. Starlight’s story here is given little to no weight, while the decision to create a parallel with Hollywood casting couch stories feels misguided, at best.

Moriarty brings plenty of charm and vulnerability to the role, making you wish she was in a different show that didn’t look to exploit that for cheap shock value.

Planting the Bug and Other Loose Threads

So the plan to bug the Seven goes ahead more or less as planned, Hughie has a tense meeting with A-Train and successfully plants the device. But, when he’s lurking in the bathroom, Translucent spots Hughie dropping the device, and follows him back to the store. He attacks Hughie, but Billy comes back just in time, crashing through the window to knock Translucent down.

Director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) offers a nicely staged fight scene, wherein Billy spits blood on his invisible opponent in order to track his movements. Urban pulls off some solid physical comedy too, making the most out of the opportunity to throw himself about. Hughie uses a loose cable to electrocute Translucent before Billy reveals that he is in fact not with the FBI, and that they’re in serious trouble for killing a Supe. The two are forced together by circumstance, and ready to take on the superhero establishment.

The other plot thread of the episode concerns Stillwell offering to loan out one of her Supes to Baltimore’s mayor, who tries to leverage a better deal by bringing up a rumor about a mysterious Compound V. While we don’t learn exactly what that means, it’s enough for Stillwell to set Homelander on the mayor to silence him, downing his plane in a scene reminiscent of this year’s superhero/horror mashup Brightburn. This, along with the mystery of why A-Train killed Robin, give us plenty to go on as the show goes forward, but you do have to wonder what this is all in service of and whether The Boys can reconcile its more serious side with the comedic hijinks elsewhere in this first episode.

But what did you think of this first episode? And are you eager to find out where these mysteries lead? Let us know in the comments below! 


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