Review
The Boys is not set to return until 2026, but in the meantime, superhero fans looking for a similarly subversive series should check out this show with a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, which coincidentally premiered the same year as The Boys. The Boys season 5 is set to premiere sometime in 2026 and promises to close the book on Amazon Prime’s hyper-violent, ultra-satirical superhero show. Produced by Seth Rogen, The Boys has skewered the superhero boom and American politics in equal measure with a critical eye that few shows have had before.
Amazon Prime original TV shows have been hit or miss, but The Boys is a winner. It’s critically acclaimed with a 93% overall on Rotten Tomatoes, two Emmy nominations, and a massive pop culture footprint. The series picks apart the superhero mythos so brutally that it would be hard not for any MCU or DCEU fan to reconsider some of their fandom after watching the series. To be sure, The Boys isn’t the first show to consider the sinister and problematic side of superhero stories, and this 2019 miniseries may even do it better.
If You're Missing The Boys Ahead Of Season 5, Watchmen Makes The Perfect Replacement
Watchmen Is A Sequel Series To The Acclaimed Graphic Novel
With The Boys season 5 still a ways away, Damon Lindelof’s 2019 miniseries, Watchmen, is the perfect thing to watch while you wait. Much like The Boys, Watchmen turns a critical eye to superheroes and masked vigilantes. The series is a sequel to both Alan Moore and David Gibbons’ 1986 comic of the same name and Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation of that same graphic novel. The nine-episode series manages to weave together both those sources and then extrapolate something new, yet faithful, to the originals.
The series takes place 34 years after the events of the graphic novel. Dr. Manhattan has disappeared, Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) has been transported to his utopia (or prison), and Laurie Blake (Jean Smart) is a humorless government agent. Now there’s a new group of government-approved masked crime fighters working in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a racist uprising by white supremacists, the police department has taken to wearing masks to keep their identities safe while they work. As the politics in town heat up, otherworldly and metahuman events begin to occur around Detective Angel Abar (Regina King).
Why HBO's Watchmen Will Appeal To Fans Of Amazon's Superhero Series
Both Series Subvert Superhero Tropes And Have A Critical Eye Towards Vigilantism
Fans of The Boys will appreciate how Watchmen deals with the ramifications of superheroes in the real world. The only difference is that The Boys has heroes with powers that can kill vast swathes of people at a moment’s notice, while most of the «heroes» in Watchmen are just humans, save for one notable exception. The heroics in both of these shows don’t come from feats of strength or last-minute saves, though they, of course, happen; they come from regular people deciding to do the right thing.
Superheroes are not the answer in either show, and it’s the search for another solution in Watchmen that will interest fans of The Boys.
There is a strong morality in both shows, even though the heroes in The Boys and Watchmen make plenty of mistakes and sometimes appear villainous themselves. Politics also play a huge role in both shows, and people with no superhuman powers still cause chaos and wreak havoc with just the levers of government, using superheroes as a way to bring about a fascist state with one group on top and another on the bottom. Superheroes are not the answer in either show, and it’s the search for another solution in Watchmen that will interest fans of The Boys.
There's One Problem With Watchmen As A Replacement For The Boys
Watchmen Is Only One Season Long
There is one issue with Watchmen that fans of The Boys might not like. It’s only one season. If you were hoping to begin something that would kill more time between now and The Boys season 5, you’re going to need to find something else, or content yourself with searching for another new show after finishing Watchmen. The show was always pitched as a miniseries, and while the finale of Watchmen leaves the door open for more, the story Damon Lindelof intended to tell in the first season is complete.
Lindelof certainly created a world that could very easily be the setting for more seasons and shows, but there are no plans for any more seasons of Watchmen, and it’s effective with only the nine episodes. The Boys has turned into a true franchise with multiple spin-offs and seasons, a bit ironic, considering it has long lampooned that very aspect of superhero media. Watchmen has avoided that, and so if you are looking for something bigger, like The Boys, to sink your teeth into, Watchmen may not be the best replacement in that case.
