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From the Mouths of Fools
The Boys. Fallout. And what’s behind the guts and gore?
(Warning — possible spoilers for ‘The Boys’ and ‘Fallout’ below.)
“When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.” (Lear, Act 4 Scene 5)
Despite the buzz the show generated, it took me ages to get into The Boys. Putting it down as a blood-and-guts classic “boy show”, I figured it didn’t have much to offer me. Boy, could I be more wrong.
When an old flame finally got me to give the show a try, I was instantly hooked. Like most, I was a sucker for the dry, off-the-wall humor.
At first.
The more I got into it (both show and comics), the more I appreciated, not the wit, but the acute, oft disturbing social commentary. The Boys universe doesn’t shy away from political nitty-gritty or the dark side of social media. Quite the contrary, the creators often have their characters very explicitly draw attention to political machinations and the blatant manipulation of a public so desperate to worship something or somebody that they’ll happily kneel before monsters.
Having devoured the comics long before the arrival of the much-awaited fourth season, I’m left wondering… will the…
