watch it
Homelander's speech in season one after a spoiler event is based on W's speech after 9/11: https://youtu.be/zi2SNFnfMjk
I caught that too. The whole show's packed with little details and subtle and overt critiques of capitalism it's one of the best shows running right now.
I have this nagging thought when I watch it about the commodification of iconoclasm (
can't remember who wrote about this or I'd cite them- ComradeEchidna reminded me it's Mark Fisher in Capitalist Realism, ty comrade).There are clearly anti capitalist and anti fascist themes in the show, but it's making money for Amazon, which is arguably a real life equivalent to Vought. I enjoy the show, but sometimes it gives me the same vibes as Ford selling trucks with MLK Jr quotes or some t-shirt company making money with Che's face.
That's right, thanks for the reminder. I thought maybe it was Parenti but I couldn't find anything by googling the phrase.
After the
spoiler
plane crash?
In the original comic it was just straight up 9/11. I guess they didn't feel like touching on that for the show.
Also Stormfront is a not so subtle caricature of racist American cops and how their bigotry is tolerated as long as they act as tools of capital and the state.
in her moments with homelander in the 5th episode i couldn't help but think homelander is like liberalism and mainstream conservatism and she's fascism, and that their relationship is pretty much how it goes in reality between the two ideologies... like, homelander starts running into some trouble, then she goes "you don't seem to be doing well by yourself, i'll be here when you need me" lmao and indeed he eventually goes to her and she saves his sorry ass
i know it's probably just my online brain being poisoned but as soon as she said it this popped so hard in my head it hurt
Homelander is fascist imperialism. Stormfront is meant to misdirect you into thinking that fascism is new and the alt-right is a modern phenomenon, then you find out about her being one of the oldest supes.
It's always been there. In the lifeblood of america.
spoiler
I think it's implied that Vought was founded by actual nazis, so it could also be a commentary on the US taking on so many nazi scientists after WWII.
I guess I forgot that exposition, I need to brush up on my nazi lore
I think one could argue that she's also a slightly heavy handed showing of of the new age "faux feminism". She understands the system and how it oppresses, uses it to empower herself instead of say, dismantling it. When:
spoiler
Being confronted about her racism, she politely says she's not racist, just for supes. Despite the fact that the only people she's killed happened to be black people. She hides her actual racism behind fantastical racism.
Which is why the liberal answer of calling for quotas has never worked, and why studies show that women in power in traditionally sexist institutions are no better or worse than males.
Once in power to stay in power you have to act like those who are already at the top.
The only way to solve systemic institutional bigotry of any kind is to tear down and rebuild. There is no reforming decades or centuries of oppression.
Did you also yell holy shit at the screen at
spoiler
Homelander's daydream sequence during the press conference scene in ep 5?
I'm pretty desensitized but I was still shocked at how explicit a depiction it was.
Same. I can’t think of many tv characters who are scarier than homelander. And he’s clean cut and has a bright smile. It’s genius.
Yeah that's similar to how I felt about the antagonist in The Guest.
Just watched S2E5, and yeah, it's as good as it gets in terms of showing what America actually is.
I already read the comics, so I'm better than all of you idiots (although be forewarned that Ennis is like 50% good politics and 50% contrarian nonsense idiot towards queer people and people of color)
Having read (some of) the comics and watched season 1, the show is pretty different in it's tone and handling of themes.
It puts greater emphasis on political criticism (around co-opting whistle blower's messages, nationalism, military industrial complex's influence on mass media, etc) even if it also falls into some problems (characters trust the CIA although they do get sold out, that scene when a rapist is raped but it's a sad moment)
Love the show, then I saw a paid Starlight skin for world of tanks amd I needed to die from the hellworld recursion
I watched Repo Man for the first time then this right after it's the perfect combination.
I couldn't really handle the edge and the gore tbh but at least it's got some level of praxis
ugh a fucking superhero show really? how much dumb superhero shit is in it and how much of it is actually culturally relevant
I hate super hero stuff and I like The Boys, because it's kinda a parody of the other ones (I think, haven't seen many). Like, it's exactly what superheroes would actually be like if there were such a thing in America: sociopathic, managed by a multi billion dollar corporation with idpol PR that monetizes everything about them, integrated into the military industrial complex to do war crimes, etc etc
The CIA opposition to the supes seemed more like a "hey, only we're allowed to do assassinations an coups, back off our terf!" Type rivalry. Not really overt CIA apologism like most capeshit.
Haven't seen it! As I said, I try to avoid the genre, but I heard Abby Martin saying good things about this one, so I checked it out. Would love to hear other people's opinions, should I watch The Watchmen too?
Watchmen is meh. It's really libertarian, especially the movie.
Everything is extremely culturally relevant
What if superheroes did US imperialism in the middle east against super terrorists manufactured by the West but mostly just for collateral damage?
I guess The Boys is adapted from a comic I haven't read, but the show feels like it was written by people who hate superhero stories.
Anti-capeshit capeshit. It's to MCU what the Onion is to CNN.
