“The Boys” Made Me Realise Something About Myself

I am a part-time comic book fan. I don’t have shelves full of comics at home, and I don’t go out of my way to visit comic book stores whenever I venture to a place lucky enough to have them. I love graphic novels that either take on subjects and stories that aren’t the usual things you find in comics, and I enjoy comics that give a slightly askew take on beloved characters or straight out poke fun at them. For example, I enjoy Alan Moore’s various works (From Hell and Watchmen in particular), and I love Grant Morrison’s Superman and Batman series.

One of my friends has been hassling me to watch “The Boys,” the Amazon Prime TV adaptation of the notorious comic book series written by Garth Ennis. I’ve had “The Boys” on my to-read list for years because, on the surface, I thought it would be right up my alley. I haven’t read the series yet for a few reasons. Reason the first was due to superhero burnout. Due to the overwhelming amount of movies, TV, and books focused on superheroes that came out over the last 15 years, I just could not stand the thought of reading something about superheroes, even if it was taking the piss out of them. Reason the second was that my to-read list is long, and I have been enjoying other books that piqued my interest more. Reason the third was money. There is never enough to go around. So, because I had not read “The Boys” yet, I didn’t watch the TV series, because the book is always better than the screen adaptation, right? Still, my friend was insistent. “Watch ‘The Boys,’ you’ll love it,” he said. Again and again.

So I did.

I am not the kind of person that can watch entire seasons of a TV show in one day, or even in one weekend, so over the past however many weeks I have been watching “The Boys,” one or two episodes a day, give or take a rest day here and there. Now, I am all caught up (as of writing, there are two episodes left in the final season), and I have a thought.

If you don’t know, “The Boys” makes use of ultra-violence and gratuitous grossness to entertain, and I assume in today’s age of phone addiction, to try and keep your eyes on the show. I’m not just talking blood and guts here. There is a lot of that, but I’m talking gore and grossness in amounts and in ways that I have never seen in a TV series before. I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you have not watched the show and are curious, you can see this list of 9 of the most shocking scenes.

I am a horror fan from way back. I was begging my older sister to rent out the next “A Nightmare on Elm Street” movie when they were hitting the video store New Release section. I’ve purposely tried to find the most challenging movies ever made and watched them just to see what all the fuss is about (hot tip: don’t ever bother watching “A Serbian Film”). I was 17 years old when rotten.com launched. I am desensitised as fuck.

However, while watching “The Boys” now at 46 years old, I had the realization that ultra-violence maybe isn’t important to me anymore. There was a particular scene in the first episode of season 3 that was so gross, so cringe-worthy, that I actually wondered if I could be bothered watching the rest of the series. That’s unheard of for me. I have never turned off a movie or a TV show, or closed a book, because it was too gross. The thought has never even crossed my mind. Until now.

I kept watching. There were plenty of other things in “The Boys” that I appreciated. The depth of the characters, the biting satire, the way the show holds up a mirror to everything currently going on in the USA – it’s all great stuff. The ultra-violence and the gross-out moments still drew a chuckle or an “oh my god” out of me, but I realised that those moments, which once would have been basically the sole reason that I would watch a show like this, were no longer the reason that I was watching and enjoying it.

I think my taste in entertainment has matured. Maybe I have matured, in general? Hard to say, but I think the days of getting pissed off because the next generic horror movie sequel was made for a PG-13 rating are behind me. Give me character. Give me story. Give me satire. Make me think. You can keep the exploding carcasses.

Well, maybe leave one in there for me.