The Boys, an Amazon Exclusive series, is wonderful.

But…

It is completely insane.

Homelander has no reason, whatsoever, to remain loyal or subservient to anyone. His emotional issues and need for fame would only lead him toward complete control. Sociopaths with power do not become more controllable, stable, or pro-social. It makes zero sense that Homelander wouldn’t attempt, succeed, and take over anything and everything that he wanted.

In a world where godlike powers exist in psychotic sociopaths would be dominated by whichever god defeated the rest. Supers would establish a hierarchy among themselves and the regular humans would have no say in the matter. Non-supers would become the defacto slaves of this world run by Homelander.

Even if someone does kill Homelander then they would become the overlord of everything.

God’s have no reason not to implement their version of morality and justice. This would include their ability to control all means of production, all expenditures, all laws, and all media.

Could a benevolent god take over and allow for human rights? Why care about humans if you’re a super human? Because you have relatives and friends who are not superhuman.

The Boys is a soap opera where emotional struggles and moral quandaries are acted out and gawked at. An imaginary place where we can postulate potential outcomes, reflect on relational interplay, and test our paradigms.

The Boys is obviously partly a metaphor for the human condition. It is a satire of epic proportions where everything is a signpost to the message “Humans are corrupt, even when they do good,” which is a poignant message and one that can be exemplified a thousand times over and is through storytelling. Power corrupts. The powerful have to become corrupted to become powerful. Everyone, for the most part, compromises their values and beliefs for other values and beliefs.

The Boys reminds me of The Walking Dead. They are both gruesomely bloody dystopians that find melodrama in relationships and betrayals. The intrigue is not about the superpowers or even about what people do with power. We take all of that stuff for granted. The Boys takes it all for granted and swings for the fences.

What a writing challenge it would be to write a multiple-season television show. To try to constantly be creating suspense and resolution. To constantly be creating emotional attachments and interpersonal entanglements. And you would have to keep it all straight. You and your team of writers. The writing team must have a blast coming up with exciting new action sequences, dramatic soliloquys, and fun plot twists. But they have to keep it going. Episode after episode, it all has to make sense and flow and utilize cause and effect in a way that is believable and surprising. What a task?

The Boys is like if you took Deadpool, The Walking Dead, MisFits, Powers, and Game of Thrones and smooshed them into a different show and different actors and different names.