The Boys

Superheroes are celebrities, commercial assets and a public-relations problem in The Boys. The people selling their image have every reason to conceal what happens when the cameras are gone.

Karl Urban's Billy Butcher approaches that world with a personal grievance and very little restraint. Antony Starr makes Homelander's public charm uncomfortable to watch, particularly when maintaining it appears to require an effort. Their performances give the series a threat that survives even when the jokes become deliberately ridiculous.

The combination is abrasive: corporate satire, action and extremely graphic violence. That excess will be a selling point for some viewers and an immediate reason to skip it for others. The more interesting question underneath is what accountability could possibly look like when the people causing the damage are also the people everyone has been encouraged to admire.