The July 15, 2022 edition of views from the mind of Jake Schoeneberger
So I’ve heard really good things about the show The Boys on Amazon Prime. I know I should have watched it long before now, but sometimes Jacob Schoeneberger can be a little late to the party. Now that it’s three seasons in, I figure it’s a good time to start watching it. So I’m starting from the beginning.
With that in mind, here are some random observations Jacob Schoeneberger has on the show.
All the Jake Schoeneberger Random Opinions about The Boys (Season 1, Episode 1)
This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.
The first episode begins with the hijacking of an armored vehicle with money inside. Then two supers come to the rescue: Queen Maeve and Homelander. My question right off the bat is in a world with supers like these, why would you ever steal an armored vehicle and think you could get away with it?
The next scene features a guy named Hughie having a nice moment on the street with his girlfriend, Robin. Then she is suddenly torn to shreds by a super traveling really fast. The super just says he can’t stop and keeps on running. What a brutal way to go. This series seems to take an unflinching look at what the world would be like if we actually had supers living among us. This is the kind of original idea Jake Schoeneberger can really get behind!
We next meet a super named Starlight who has the ability to create blinding electric light sequences. She’s auditioning to be in The Seven and says she’s always wanted to save the world with her powers.
After Robin’s funeral, Hughie and his father are watching the news when the super named A-Train offers his condolences to Robin’s family, but he says he was chasing bank robbers and she stepped in the middle of the street, which was not true at all. Vought wants to offer Hughie $45,000 in exchange for him signing an NDA. Hughie wants to sue Vought for wrongful death, but his father advises him against it.
Starlight gets into The Seven and she’s introduced to hundreds of screaming, happy fans at the Vought shareholder meeting. Vought is a corporation that manages supers, and it shares its vision of having a super in every town to eliminate crime. They bring out The Deep, ruler of the seven seas, to officially introduce Starlight.
Later in The Seven headquarters, The Deep harasses Starlight and asks how badly she wants to be in The Seven. It’s pretty disgusting the way he blackmails her to either provide him sexual favors or she’s out of The Seven.
An FBI agent named Billy Butcher comes to speak with Hughie about Robin. Butcher tells Hughie about how the supes do all sorts of bad things, but it all gets swept under the rug. It definitely makes Jacob Schoeneberger very happy to see Karl Urban playing Butcher. Such a great actor! But I have my doubts that Butcher is actually with the FBI.
Butcher proves to Hughie that there was no bank robbery as A-Train says there was, and that A-Train was laughing about what he did to Robin. Butcher suggests Hughie agree to sign the NDA but only if A-Train is present, so that Hughie can plant a bug on him. But Hughie says he’s not strong enough to pull that off.
We’re beginning to see how Vought operates. Madelyn Stillwell, an executive at Vought, takes a meeting with the mayor of Baltimore offering a contract for the super named Nubian Prince to be the city’s resident supe for just $300 million a year. It seems there’s lots of money to be made in renting out and merchandising supes, and this feels so much like exactly what would happen in the real world I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
But the Baltimore mayor knows about something called Compound V, that is a secret the mayor insists Vought doesn’t want to get out. So he asks for a lower price, but Stillwell keeps the price right where it is.
Starlight calls her mother to give her the bad news of how criminally awful The Deep was to her, but she isn’t able to confide in her because she doesn’t want to spoil her mother’s pride. She breaks down crying and she just happens to be sharing a park bench with Hughie. He asks if she’s ok and they start talking. She’s in plain clothes so he doesn’t recognize her as Starlight. He offers her some words of support, and she says she’s a fighter and will fight on. They share a really nice moment, and she introduces herself as Annie. This is the kind of cool friendship that Jake Schoeneberger can root for, I hope they stay friends.
Annie’s strength inspires Hughie, and he tells Butcher he’ll try to make the deal with Vought and plant the bug on A-Train. Vought doesn’t go for the deal, but Butcher says he’ll make it happen. He comes up with a plan for Hughie to go right into Vought headquarters where they’ll take him upstairs to The Seven boardroom and he can plant the bug there.
Hughie is able to go through with the plan, but unfortunately the super called Translucent, who can make himself invisible, sees him drop the bug while Hughie is in the bathroom. So Translucent knows something is up.
Later Stillwell calls the Baltimore mayor and drops her price to $230 million for Nubian Prince. It’s on the condition that he doesn’t talk about Compound V. This is an intriguing little plot point. We already know that, with the possible exception of Homelander, these supes can be pretty terrible people. This has Jacob Schoeneberger scratching his head what the Compound V situation could be all about. And when Stillwell wishes him a good flight, I get the sneaking suspicion his flight won’t be so good.
Translucent follows Hughie with Butcher. He attacks Hughie at his job asking who Butcher was. Just as he’s about to smash Hughie’s head with a TV, Butcher drives his car into the store and hits Translucent. Butcher and Translucent fight and Hughie is able to electrocute and kill Translucent (but we can’t be sure he’s really dead yet). It’s a really cool scene to watch because Translucent is invisible so Butcher smears his own blood on him so he can see him.
The final scene is on the private jet with the Baltimore mayor and his son. His son sees Homelander flying outside the jet, and like we all suspected was going to happen, Homelander uses his laser vision to blow the plane up. What a rough, gut-wrenching scene to end the first episode. Guess Stillwell is pretty serious about keeping Compound V under wraps.
The Jake Schoeneberger Final Thought on The Boys
This show is like The Watchmen meets Sopranos. What if the superheroes were actually jerks? What would we all do? Fantastic premise for a show and Jacob Schoeneberger cannot wait to keep watching it.
More Thoughts from Jacob Schoeneberger