Damn brits with their six epi “seasons”. 
I had no knowledge of this series or the comics it was based on until this thread appeared. Many thanks to the OP for the introduction.
I watched one episode per night (I am not a binger). I thought episode four was the best one, as it contained the aforementioned dolphin scene – best in the whole series, imo - and the cheaply done, yet harrowingly effective (if slightly prolonged) Flight 37 sequence.
The main issue I had with the series is that I did not find most of the main characters sympathetic. I particularly disliked Hugh for being a consistently lying prick. I also thought his character was underwritten in terms of making his motivations clear, and that the actor failed to make him appealing.
For me, Frenchy was the best character because he had the most humanity. The Female and Starlight (after she starts understanding what she has gotten herself into) were also okay. Butcher was pretty much a one-note hardass and The Seven seemed too obviously based on DC heroes. I would have preferred more original, or at least, less well-known superhero characters (a la Watchmen). I think Elizabeth Shue was miscast in her role, but she ended up doing a decent job. Her acting in the climax of episode 8 - the bit where she meets her fate - was especially good.
Notwithstanding the show’s budgetary limitations (e.g., repeatedly using sound efx in place of visual efx to establish Homelander’s arrival), jagged editing, needless religious angle and anything else critical I have written (or might have written), the show sustained my interest, even though overall, I didn’t think it was really all that good.
I will certainly be watching season two.
Watchmen were hardly original, they were mostly all spoofs of DC or Charlton characters again, Owlman being Batman or Blue Beetle, Rorschach was The Question, Oxymanius =Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, Silk=Phantom Lady . The whole idea is that they werent original. But yes, more obscure.
Just finished this last night and generally liked it, but I think I more liked the concept than some of the particulars of how it was executed.
Pros:
- Watchmen-esque take on superheroes
- lots of great social commentary
- does a good job of portraying that our world with superheroes would actually be pretty fucked up
Cons:
- sometimes the supes looked pretty damn cheesy
- watching “our heroes” agonize over how best to torture/murder their caged captive whose worst trait seemed to consist of being a perv (reprehensible, but nowhere near the sins of the rest of the Seven and hardly execution-worthy) lost them a lot of empathy, and that was just episode 2!
- the ending felt like it came out of nowhere and I’m not sure it made much sense. No, I wasn’t surprised the kid was still alive, but the whole Billy/Becca/Homelander story seems full of holes now and how the fuck did Billy even survive that explosion, much less without a scratch, unless Homelander suddenly has truly god-like powers, pretty much in direct contravention of what they spent the whole season establishing?
- the normals seem just about as fucked up as the supes, so I guess it’s just a big fucked up world anyway you look at it?
Yeah, I get it, grim/dark, and I like me some grim/dark, but relentless grim/dark is just a bit much. I’d prefer if they pulled it back from the (suicidal) edge a bit.
I think you’re looking at Translucence in the most favorable light possible.
He’s a peeping tom. He’s got invulnerable skin. He goes around beating up or killing people who sell counterfeit 7 goods. That’s just what we know (and off the top of my head). Plus, he’s in on the whole scam, and whole-heartedly. He LOVES being a member of the most popular, most powerful group on the planet. Given his proclivities that we know, I don’t see any reason to give him the benefit of the doubt on anything else.
Wasn’t it Translucence that A-Train was talking to about A-Train killing Robin, and then laughing about her death?
I’m fairly sure you’re right about the conversation with A-Train and I’m guessing probably right about the other parts (I have to admit I found the first episode a bit weak, so didn’t pay as much attention), but I don’t think it changes the feelings about that situation too much. It was more about the “good guys”, who we’ve just started to get to know, showing a very similar level of callousness as the “evil guys” they are fighting. It’s not entirely unearned or undeserved, but it killed a lot of my sympathy for those characters and their particular style of vigilantism early.
I didn’t think this part was adequately covered. Are his eyes invulnerable? What about poison eye drops? Are his sinuses invulnerable? Stick an ice pick up his nose. Is it only his actual skin that is invulnerable?
I was fine with it, maybe because I very consciously identify with the humes not the supes. But I get what you’re saying; I don’t think you’re making an invalid point about how it affected your empathy with the Boys.
Seems to be only his outer skin; that’s why they were able to blow him up via suppository.
It seems to me that they would have asked themselves at the beginning “Where doesn’t he have skin?”
That’s one of the few things that annoyed me about the series, but it was still enjoyable to watch. Can’t wait for season 2.
I think the point is that there were no good guys. Starlight is probably the only real good guy, with Hughie coming in a distant second. This is about bad people taking down worse people.
As for Translucence, I think they had to go very, very deep to get that bomb to work. And while I know they were going for effect, it shouldn’t have blown him up like it did, instead just destroyed his insides. His skin should have held him mostly intact and he shouldn’t have sprayed everywhere. But expecting consistency in a superhero universe is a fool’s errand.
Gotta have the big bang! or people don’t fully grok what happened. Like having those huge, loud explosions in space. Or lasers that go pewpew.
Heck, the first time we meet him he causally murdered a bank robber by throwing him up in the air.
I had initially resisted watching this because I am tired of Superheroes being deconstructed. Everyone knows it is much more likely a guy with Superman’s powers would probably take over the world but when the real world sucks I want the fantasy that he doesn’t. That he’s good. But a friend suggested we try the first episode and I had to admit I was hooked. I watched the whole season over the next few days. I enjoyed it and curious to see where it goes.
FYI if you enjoyed this story I would suggest you seek out the comic series Irredeemable. It’s about a Supermanesque hero who essentially goes insane. It also has a companion series called Incorruptible about a Super villain who gains a conscience and turns good.
My thought was, “Okay, sure, his skin may be impenetrable, but it’s still flexible, right? So just drop a giant weight on him.”
Plus, I also got a personal chuckle out of Butcher’s line about how stupid Translucent was, " 'Translucent" doesn’t mean ‘invisible’, you moron!" I dealt with exactly that issue last year, when I was setting an exam. I had no idea how many people there are who don’t understand the difference between “transparent” and “translucent”.
Aye; I loved that line!
They were straight up the Charlton characters. Moore originally wrote the story for the Charlton characters but changed them slightly when DC balked at letting them go so dark.
Not knowing anything prior to viewing, my first thought when Homelander did that was, “He just killed him?!?!” Then I thought, “Superhero universe physics”, where seemingly fatal falls, injuries, etc. can be survived. By the end of the episode I was simply, “He killed the robber.”
Oh, for sure. I guess I’m just more used to these types of stories having the good/bad guys doing things that good guys wouldn’t do, but not resorting to full-on evil (except maybe as a last resort in the final act). Like killing a bad guy in the heat of battle because it needs doing is one thing; killing him after he’s been neutralized and locked up is quite another.
I don’t disagree, but as Translucent said, there wasn’t really a choice. Homelander takes attacks on heroes very seriously…fatally seriously.
OK, a simple physics question here. When A-Train ran into Hughie’s girlfriend, killing her in the process, shouldn’t he at least gotten some damage to. You shoot a person with a bullet and the bullet gets seriously damaged (except in Dallas, of course). No invulnerability as issue as A-Train has been injured.