The Boys has always been ‘woke’ and politically engaged

It may be best known for exploding heads, orgy parties that end in mass bloodshed and its general ultra-violence, but The Boys is also one of the smartest and most politically engaged shows currently going.

That might be surprising for anyone who has never watched the show and is only vaguely familiar with it as another superhero series. But there’s a reason why a thespian as venerated as Tilda Swinton would sign on to voice a sex octopus. Yes, you read that correctly, a sex octopus.

From the beginning, when it premiered in 2019, The Boys was in conversation with the world in which was airing. On the surface, it might seem like a satire of the then-still-dominant genre of superhero movies.

Here was a story about a group of superheroes called The Seven, whose powers mirrored that of Marvel and DC characters. Homelander, with his American-flag cape and big smile, could’ve been Captain America. The Deep, who can breathe underwater and communicate with sea creatures, may have been Aquaman. Queen Maeve was Wonder Woman and A-Train was The Flash.

But this was a corporatised form of superheroes – packaged, marketed and sold to the adoring masses who bought into this clean-cut idea of heroism and all the merch that goes with it.

The “saves” were manufactured and then re-sold as a blockbuster for maximum profit. And the corporation that owns the superheroes, Vought, loaned out their strength and skills to the military for a high fee.

It was late-stage capitalism on steroids.

The so-called heroes were a mess of foibles, flaws and outright sociopathy. Homelander, in particular, had no empathy engine, sadistically manipulating every person and situation in pursuit of power. What he wanted from that power wasn’t clear. It was power for power’s sake, as if being in charge could compensate for being unloved as a child.

At the core of the story was celebrity, the idea that fame could conjure respect and faith without proper interrogation. Familiarity didn’t breed contempt, it bred unquestioning worship.

Ahead of its fourth season premiere, The Boys showrunner, Eric Kripke, gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter in which he said he wanted to make a show about celebrities behaving badly. When he was developing the story, it was 2016, and Donald Trump was on the verge of becoming the Republican presidential nominee.

By the time the series premiered, Trump had been president for two years. The parallels between Trump and Homelander, and the world of The Boys and Trump’s USA, was unmistakable.

Kripke told THR, “When he got elected, we had a metaphor that said more about the current world. Suddenly, we were telling a story about the intersection of celebrity and authoritarianism and how social media and entertainment are used to sell fascism.

“We’re in the eye of the storm. And once I realised that, I just felt an obligation to run in that direction as far as we could.”

Season two introduced a character called Stormfront, a charismatic superhero who was a whizz with social media, seduced people to her cause by exploiting their disenfranchisement and was revealed to be a literal Nazi, trafficking in fascism and racism.

That season, which dropped during the pandemic when disinformation online around lockdowns and vaccines was more viral than COVID itself, was a blunt instrument in talking about real-world dilemmas.

The current series, which premiered last week, adds a character who would be outlandish if she wasn’t also chillingly representative of American politics in 2024.

Codenamed Firecracker, she is a brash, ultra-right-wing, conspiracy-peddling, flag-draping superhero who rails against trans people, calls women who have abortions murderers and ticks off every grievance of conservative extremists who are increasingly moving into the American mainstream.

Firecracker is not out of place in the real world. When she fronts cable news, her dialogue could have been lifted straight out of the mouths of the likes of Republican politicians such as Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Significantly, she is not an anti-hero. Firecracker is a villain. She has a backstory that partially explains where her hate comes from, but it doesn’t excuse her.

It’s never used as justification. Ditto with Homelander, who has so many neuroses. Hurt people hurt people. Yes. But it doesn’t make them not the bad guys.

Characters such as Firecracker, Stormfront and Homelander are false idols, taking advantage of angry and marginalised people, telling them who to blame for what they perceive as their diminished power, as if it’s a zero-sum game.

It’s all distressingly familiar.

For some viewers, the veneer of a violent superhero show whose bonkers set-pieces (this season, there is a scene inspired by The Human Centipede) may have obscured The Boys’ true soul.

Only now, after three previous instalments, have they realised Kripke’s show has a progressive heart and doesn’t take kindly to the ultra-right-wing.

This season, the series has been “review bombed” to a 50 per cent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The negative reviews from so-called viewers have pointed to the show’s “woke” politics, and took issue with the revelation one of its main characters is bisexual. It has a 95 per cent critics score.

Kripke wasn’t fazed.

He said, “I clearly have a perspective, and I’m not shy about putting that perspective in the show. Anyone who wants to call the show ‘woke’ or whatever, that’s OK. Go watch something else. But I’m certainly not going to pull any punches or apologise for what we’re doing.

“Some people who watch it think Homelander is the hero. What do you say to that? The show’s many things. Subtle isn’t one of them. So if that’s the message you’re getting from it, I just throw up my hands.”

The Boys is streaming on Prime Video