The Boys – Amazon Series: Woke Hollywood Anti-American Christophobic Absurdity

The anti-superhero series on Amazon. What if superheroes got publicists and social media?

The premise of this series is that a major private corporation manages superheroes’ careers and brand images like Hollywood celebrities. Of course, there’s big money in them thar hills and the whole “save the world” thing is just a cynical meme for exploitation by the elite.

I’m not that entirely adverse to the premise because, while I applaud the elevation of noble values that comes with most superhero stories, I have also had a deep distrust of the genre because of its tendency to replicate the idolatry of pagan religions.

Superheroes as God Substitutes

On the one hand, a superhero like Superman can certainly be a “Christ figure,” a myth that points toward a spiritual truth. But I have also observed that as our culture becomes more secular and more god-hating and anti-Christian, it is no surprise to me that superhero stories become replacements for that lost narrative. Superhero blockbusters are evidence of a deep inescapable hunger for deity. And when the Judeo-Christian god is expelled from society, superheroes function as replacements of human projections.

There is very little difference between, say the gods of the ancient world, and modern superheroes. Sometimes, they are even direct references to such (Wonder Woman, Thor, etc.). They perform the same purpose: they express and explain cultural and moral values and incarnate the pursuit of transcendence, that hunger for deity.

Humankind is “homo-religicus” or an inherently religious being. And when you cast away the constraints of the Judeo-Christian God, you do not become strictly secular, you actually construct a new mythology (religion) to fulfill those transcendent needs. You create new gods. And if you try to stay secular, ideology becomes your religion, or totalizing discourse that is your god of ultimate values: Leftism, Marxism, Socialism, identity politics all operate in this way. They are God-substitutes. They are idolatry.

And those gods are tyrants. Because human beings are essentially evil, and therefore, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In this sense, I actually found myself quite interested in the series, at first.

At first.

In fact, the story can be seen as a critique of the corruption of power and of elitist celebrity culture. That is how it is set up, before it all comes unwound…

Cult of Celebrity

In the first episode, we see a world where superheroes are literally celebrities and must therefore manage their social media likes and maintain publicity relations to manage their brand images. Their talents at “saving the world” have been monetized by a corporation and manipulated by marketing, exactly like celebrities do right now in our culture.  Exactly like Hollywood and the entertainment biz.

These storytellers were drawing from their own experience.

The analogy is inescapably obvious. The exception being that real world celebrities only perceive themselves as saviors of the world. They are not actually doing anything salvific. But their photo ops make them feel better.

And the cynicism of it all is actually quite accurate. The truth is that these superheroes are human just like anyone else, with the exception of their “God-given” talents. But they are weak, selfish, entitled, and with flaws just like anyone else. And when they are treated like gods, they begin to believe the lie and they become monsters.

So when a young new naïve superhero named Starlight joins the inner circle of “The Seven,” the seven top superheroes of the corporation, she is completely crushed by the reality that all is not sunlight in this world, and in fact, it is run by manipulative abusers. Just like celebrity cult and any elitist culture.

Her first shock is that her welcoming superhero (“The Deep” a fish man) forces her to sexually gratify him, or he will use his status to make sure she is not selected to join the team.

It is an exact replica of Weinstein’s Hollywood culture of power.

And it only gets worse, as we see each “supe” as being corrupt in different ways, drug addicts, sexual addicts, you name it. The head superhero, Homelander, the most powerful of them all (pretty much a “Superman”), has the reputation of being squeaky clean, but he is in fact the worst of them all.

The “supes” all act like Hollywood celebrities or any elitist with power. In a way, it really reinforces the Judeo-Christian notion that we are corrupt to our core, and even the highest most celebrated people in our culture are often not really good, because power corrupts.

This much is true. And I kind of agree. Celebrities are NOT the models of humanity that we should be elevating, just because they have talent.

Woke Leftism

But then the Leftism started to leak out. You see one supe refer to “the deep state,” a common term used by conservatives of the monopoly that the left has on government control. And then a TV interview with a supe who says that if citizens were allowed to carry guns, we wouldn’t need superheroes as much.

At that moment I thought, “What? That’s populism. That’s the opposite of elitism. Elitists want to have MORE gun control and we should leave it up to the supes to take care of us. That wasn’t consistent with the set-up of the story.” And I realized, uh oh. Here comes the forced Leftist agenda.

And then the “wokeness” of the series hits its stride by the fifth episode and falls apart into a hate-filled diatribe of America-hating Christophobic bitterness that typifies the lengths of self-delusion that Social Justice Leftists of Hollywood will go to try to force their square agenda of hatred into a round hole, to try to blame-shift and project their OWN darkness onto—guess who? You got it—Christians.

So, we find out Starlight was raised as a Christian, and she is to go to a Christian festival, “Believe Expo,” where another superhero is an evangelist named Ezekiel (He can stretch his body). Now you see where the sermon is going.

The bigoted clichés, the forced stereotypes of Christians and Christianity and patriotism begin to pile up like the ravings of a bitter mentally ill accuser, and we realize that the makers of this series just want to shoe hole their hatred into a narrative that doesn’t fit it, in fact, is an indictment of themselves.

In this series, better called, “The Protocols of the Elders of Christianity,” pro-American Christian faith and values are supposed to be embodied in the superheroes of the story who are in fact the celebrities and elitists of Weinstein’s Hollywood elitist culture of abuse.

Wait, what?

Stereotypes and Tropes and Cliché’s, Oh My!

So, Homelander is a blond-haired blue-eyed Aryan who wears an American flag as his cape. He obviously represents the “American greatness” mythos as being white supremacy. And, yes, he is ultimately a villain. He preaches to the American Christian crowd, justifying a military response to being attacked by foreign powers, and of course, it’s depicted as a militaristic warmongering, as if American patriotism is ackshually… jingoist imperialism! Yeah, that’s the ticket. If you support defending your country, you must be a racist! It’s both ludicrous and bizarre.

But this is how these Hollywood Leftists think. The abusive Weinstein celebrity culture that typifies Hollywood and elitism is the fault of American patriot Christians in this Leftist Bizarro World. Wow, the depths of self-delusion know no bounds with these haters.

The stretch guy superhero evangelist, “Ezekiel,” turns out to be a closet homosexual, a standard Christophobic trope, a stock character of Leftist stereotyping, on the level of “the money-grubbing Jew.” And “Everybody has AIDS!” We should start accusing Leftist anti-Christians of being secret closet Christians, and they really pray and worship Jesus and flagellate themselves at night. Anyway, Ezekiel preaches to the Christian crowd, “Jesus said, hey bro, you shouldn’t need proof. You should just believe because I say so. Because you have faith.” An attempt to paint Christians as mindless followers.

We see references to Christian heterosexual marriage and virginity mocked as naïve and worse, bigoted. Starlight concludes that this is not how she remembered the faith of her youth, and ends up repeating another cliché of non-Christians, “how does anybody know how to get into heaven? I’m not so sure you should take the Bible so literally. It also says it’s a sin to eat shrimp.”

Oh, really? So, you think the Bible says it’s a sin to eat shrimp? Don’t quote me the Leviticus verse unless you are willing to talk about real context and real meaning, not a shallow out-of-context quote to justify your bigotry.

But these are Hollywood storytellers who parrot the talking points of two-bit skepticism in their Leftist echo chamber. Starlight says, “What, if you’re gay or if you’re Ghandi, you’re going to hell? And if you have sex before marriage, that’s not immoral! That’s human. What’s immoral is the guy who shoved his dick in my face!” (That was her initiation into the Seven, as you recall).

Sorry, #MeToo, but Christians were preaching sexual propriety in relationships millennia before you existed. And you criticized us for it! You know, like you just mocked virginity moments before. Rejection of Christian sexual morals created the monster of sexual harassment culture that you created and are now complaining about.

“There’s nothing wrong with sexual immorality! Hey, why are you putting a dick in my mouth?”

Really? You don’t see the irony? You really don’t see it, do you?

But that’s the way of blame-shifters, isn’t it? Always blaming the victim or blaming Christians or blaming morality or blaming God for the evil that they do.

Starlight complains to the Christians, “It’s just how Goddamned certain everyone is around here (Believe Expo).” As if Leftists are not so “goddamned” certain that Christians and conservatives are evil racist, sexist bigoted homophobes? Excuse me, but the huge log in your eye is exposing your hypocrisy.

And please don’t try to spin this into a “critique of American Christianity, not true biblical faith,” because there is no true Christianity to counter these stereotypes in this story. That’s how bigots think. In absolutes. You, know, “those people.” Then they propose their version of Christianity which is not Christianity, but Leftism! That’s how propaganda works.

It’s such hilariously bad filmmaking. They can’t even shoot a shot of Christians in the audience waving their hands without it looking fake or forced. And they call Christian movies propaganda and fake with their biased depiction of atheists and unbelievers? This is worthy of the “God’s Not Dead” hall of fame, only it’s “God is Dead.” This is so bad, one has to say it is like bad Christian filmmaking, only it’s in a new genre, bad Christophobic filmmaking.

So, what could have been an insightful critique of celebrity worship and elitist culture without God falls apart into an absurd non-sequitur Epic FAIL of Hollywood Leftist storytellers blame-shifting their culture of abuse and power onto the Judeo-Christian worldview that they hate.

49 comments on “The Boys – Amazon Series: Woke Hollywood Anti-American Christophobic Absurdity

  • Amy Zenarosa says:

    Guess I will not be wasting my time on this show. Thanks for letting me know how bad it is.

  • I was slightly interested in watching this. But now I can see it will be a waste of time. In some sense, you have given me (and others) the gift of time!

  • Thanks, Vince.
    It gets depressing sometimes.
    But sometimes, it’s great, like the series Daredevil, which I recommend because it contains a very legit Catholic spiritual journey in there.

  • I hear some Christians claim that the anti-Christian sentiment expressed in this series are just the ranting of a very vocal minority and we don’t have to worry about their hate. But this is produced and supported by Amazon.com, one of the most powerful retailers in the world.
    Pretending that elitist Christian hate is not worth confront only allows Netflix, Amazon and Hulu to continue to produce their propaganda, influencing the culture toward anti-Christian sentiments.

  • Michael Darling says:

    Brian- love your work and especially your books. However, think of how the nephlim would have felt – great powers yet still mortal. The episode where Homelander and Meave could not save the airplane – so spin it to help themselves- showed their mortality and self centered nature – like the “men of fame” destroyed in the flood.

    The “Christian” gathering where many look to mortals as Saviors resembles Paul’s warnings. I like that even born gods they are not God. Those who look to them find flawed sinful people who are subjected to their sinful nature and have no hope as they substitute mortals for Christ. Starfire has no real faith, but looks to her own nature and experience for what only Christ can give.

    This show is modern version of pre-flood earth. “Nothing new under the Sun”.

    • I think you’re onto something with the Watchers being like superheroes in all their depravity. Like I wrote in the piece, I agree with you that it could be such a great parallel for that kind of thing.
      But they just have to turn everything into their hatred for Christians and Christianity.
      Wasted potential!

  • Michael Darling says:

    Sadly you’re right – this is Satans world so all is spun to turn people away from truth and the only source of true Salvation- Christ.

  • And those gods are tyrants. Because human beings are essentially evil, and therefore, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    What is the corrupting factor in these beings? Power or their own human nature? Which is it? Everyone has some kind of power – physical, intellectual, financial, political, sexual, emotional, professional, etc. There is no escaping this. What if the real corrupting factor is NOT power, but human nature? Even those without power can be corrupted, due to their own needs or desires. What really makes these superheroes in “The Boys” corruptible is human nature, not their special abilities. And what about the non-powered characters like Butcher? isn’t he capable of being corrupted? Perhaps by his own negative emotions? His bigotry? Will the series explore this as well?

  • You hit this dead-on. Just watched the 5th episode and I thought, “Here it comes…”, but I thought it would be nuanced with the Christian bashing. I was wrong. It was so cartoonishly bad, I had to skip through parts of it.
    It reminded me of the movie, ‘Paul’. Simon Pegg was in that, too. It had the same cartoon Christian zombie tropes in that as well. Otherwise a really funny movie.
    I notice Hollywood dances around Islam like a well trained ballerina, despite them sharing the same moral convictions they blast Christians for. Cowards.

  • Bruce Y Scheer says:

    I had the same reaction as the author of this article. As the series progresses you are being propagandized. Also the words that homelander guy used after the plane crash—identical almost to the word of George Bush at 9/11 at ground zero….very weird.

    • Good catch about the “George Bush words,” Bruce. I did not catch that. But it is predictable.

  • Anzu Ningshizada says:

    @Lee Jones,yes,human nature has a greater corrupting effect than power. But I would say its more rooted in rebellion and refusal to submit to God’s will,to pervert his natural order. This isn’t just limited to humans,those who read Brian’s novels know the Watchers and Nephilim had the same evil within them despite being “non-human” so to speak.

  • Thank you for the review. Saw the first few episodes and I totally agree with you on how they are forcing all these agendas into our throats.

  • i wish i had read this beforehand… that way, i wouldnt of wasted my time watching this antichrist garbage

  • I did, I did heed Brian’s advice and skipped the series altogether. I have little tolerance for mockers of whatever stripe.

  • Dylan j Bratisax says:

    You guys are so full of it. The show is great and it actually challenges Christian beliefs. And what do you mean leviticus is out of context? what is the context for when God says gays are an abomination and should be stoned. Christians are all the same when they see a gay couple on screen they say it’s too leftists. How about you guys get over it and learn to accept homosexuality because it’s not bad and it’s completely normal and natural. Just get over it. Not everyone is a gay in the world and not everyone has to be straight. And if you guys actually read the comic of the boys u would see how much they go into Lgbtq rights and understanding. Christians just hide behind their religion for their hatred.

    • Dylan,
      I think your response illustrates the Christophobic hatred and bigotry that I was writing about. It is an exaggerated emotional ejaculation of hatred toward Christians based on false information without an actual understanding of the Bible or Christianity. This is how bigots react. You make broad sweeping invectives about groups of people based on ignorance of the actual beliefs that you know little about. You prefer stereotypes, cliches and tropes to real people because they do not fit into your system of hatred. You promote hatred, not conversation or discourse. I see you are beyond reason, so I will pray that you will some day realize your hatred and bigotry is the opposite of love. It is rather unbecoming. Quite ugly, actually.

  • Hmm, what happened to the comment I posted last week about the term “Judeo-Christian”, Brian?

    • My website is moderated. I don’t allow everything to be printed here without discretion. I don’t remember what you may have written, but not everything is worthy of my attention. And since this is my website, well, I get the last word! 🙂 🙂 I will say that the more civil you are, the more likely you will be allowed to participate.
      God bless.

  • I only wrote that “Judeo-Christian” is an oxymoron since Christianity and Judaism have completely different theologies. I also linked to this:
    DELETED

    • I don’t know enough about that website to want to have it linked on mine. If you want to debate the issue here, I’d be happy to do so. But no links in the place of actual argumentation from you the reader.

  • “I don’t know enough about that website to want to have it linked on mine.”

    You’re not familiar with Vox Day?

  • Spot on review. They couldn’t even be creative or subtle with their disdain for Christians. It was so glaring and puerile.

    Anyway I’m glad to know that I’m hated elites, big corporations, big tech and big banks, because that tells me that I’m on the right side.

  • Uriel"s Camel says:

    Btw I like how Brian puts his location on Twitter as “Above Sheol” Nice reference to his novels!

  • I identify with the people attacked in Ep. 5, and got that far. But I have some real concerns with your critique.

    First, what comes later? I’m a little worried that you make NO references to the last three episodes. Did you watch them?

    Second, you really need an editor. Or you need to edit yourself. This is not good, in some parts:

    It’s “shoe horn”, not “shoe hole”, for example.

    “Stereotypes and Tropes and Cliché’s, Oh My!” It doesn’t really work, because it’s taking…. I shouldn’t need to explain it.

    But third and most important, the thinking is not great. If you want to argue in public, you’d better work on your chops:

    There’s no “irony” in being for permissive sex and against sexual abuse. We oppose both, and granted, one will tend to lead to the other. But THAT’S the problem, not that one is the SAME as the other. The connection is not as obvious as you suppose to someone working from different assumptions.

    The Bible DOES say it’s a sin to eat shrimp. What you seem to want to say is that that restriction is no longer applicable, and I agree. That’s not what you actually say.

    You seem more concerned with the message of the series than its artistic merits. That’s not a good look on a cultural critic, even if I agree with your basic conclusion.

    So take some time to think and write more carefully, please. You don’t serve the cause with mediocrity like this.

    • KAM,
      Thank you for your gracious concern for my unforgivable auto spell check lapse (I think I’ll keep it there just so people can see how terribly unedited I am, and, well, “not good.”)

      What do you charge for editing? I’m not sure I can afford you. You seem… expensive.

      Also forgive my elastic fun with wordplay (Or is it “word-play”?). I will just let the double irony burn without explanation.

      I would be happy to think and write more carefully if I could. But alas, you will just have to be satisfied with my careless and public mediocrity.
      (P.S. do you also offer wit and subtlety services?)

      But to answer your points:

      I have seen the whole season. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I am very aware of the nature of story arcs, and it does not change my thesis.

      It is all the irony in the world that those who promote promiscuity do not realize how it leads to the very abuse they complain about. There are no absolutes in these things so that isn’t an argument against the tendency. I never said they were the same. Straw man. And a paper one at that, not plastic.

      You are right, it is not obvious to someone with different assumptions. And that’s the point, isn’t it?

      The Bible does not say it is a sin to eat shrimp. It says shrimp are unclean. That has to do with sacred space, not a moral indecency. I almost wrote that it’s a sin to equate the two, but you might not appreciate the humor.

      Artistry does not cancel out morality. My post was about the message. I don’t have to write about everything in the world about a series, or what you may like about it.
      But in the interest of being open-minded to your suggestion, how’s this?: The Boys is a well-produced, visually interesting, well-acted, quality special effects immoral attack on Christianity by hateful bigots that tries to falsely attach celebrity abuse culture to Christianity.

  • justarandomguy says:

    Oh lol the old question about shrimp being an “abomination” pops up again. (I agree with Brian on this)

  • Phenomenal article, and great response to KAM who criticized your work! I think you really nailed it. I watched this episode and have stopped watching the show because I couldn’t stomach such ignorant and blatant abuse on Christianity. It is astonishing to see a society so stuck in their own thinking that they cannot see their own contradictions and hypocrisies. I agree with your statements about Hollywood’s blindness regarding sexual abuse. How long have they preached that it is unreasonable to ask young people to control their sexual urges, even going so far to say that it is impossible? For years they’ve preached this incessantly. And then they are surprised to find that people like Harvey Weinstein are not able to control their sexual urges. He’s just practicing what they preached. To anyone who is not truly blind, the connection is indeed quite obvious. But no! They cry. He should definitely control his urges because they are harmful to others! So, just because his urges are harmful to others, that somehow makes him magically capable of controlling them? One day our society will have to wake up and recognize the sheer absurdity of all that it preaches. They mock the Bible that has been around for thousands of years, and blindly praise their own ideas that will won’t last more than a decade, if even that long.

  • Thank you. I was really enjoying the series. When I got to the scene in episode five when Starlight gives the “it also says it’s a sin to eat shrimp” monologue, that’s when I turned it off. Such a shame.

  • I just finished the first season.

    The first two episodes I was enjoying it quite a bit. I noticed a few hiccups here and there and was getting worried. But like you mentioned, the episode where they go to the Believe Expo sealed the fate of the show for me.

    Every argument against Crhstianity was a straw man. They could have had something really great if they made it compelling. Instead they took a caricature and pushed it over. Then beat their chest with pride.

    Also the character “The Deep” has been nothing but a stand-in for “toxic masculinity” and what they hope happens to it. They want men to be raped like they were and then lose their identity and dwell in mediocrity. It’s blatant and in your face.

  • I just finished the first season.

    The first two episodes I was enjoying it quite a bit. I noticed a few hiccups here and there and was getting worried. But like you mentioned, the episode where they go to the Believe Expo sealed the fate of the show for me.

    Every argument against Christianity was a straw man. They could have had something really great if they made it compelling. Instead they took a caricature and pushed it over. Then beat their chest with pride.

    Also the character “The Deep” has been nothing but a stand-in for “toxic masculinity” and what they hope happens to it. They want men to be raped like they were and then lose their identity and dwell in mediocrity. It’s blatant and in your face.

  • I was watching and got halfway through episode 5 and quit.

    Then wondered if I was the only one who noticed the anti-Christian bigotry and so googled and found this….thanks.

  • I’m not remotely religious, so may not agree with you on all/many points. A couple of things though
    – The shrimp part of the show is pretty poorly written. It feels like a forced mockery of Christianity written by a 10 year old. If they wanted to convey that the bible has some obscure stuff in it, they could have done much better. Very lazy.
    – Your ‘thesis’ as written above seems to have more anger/animosity in it than the whole first season of the show. Dial back the hyperbole, and take the show for what it is. A fictitious world, in which some characters abuse the faith of others in order to get their own way. I think the show mocks hypocrites (not dissimilar to filthy rich televangelists in the real world) more than it does Christianity in general.

    I guess the most important thing is – if god exists then let him deal with his opposition and try to be less angry at the world. We could all do with a bit more positivity, and followers of Jesus should be leading the way on this front. I can’t picture the Jesus of the bible yelling angrily about something trivial that he didn’t like.

    • Hi ACB,
      Thanks for commenting. Sorry, I missed this for a while.

      I have found that people usually accuse others of being “angry” when they have the agenda of trying to smear someone because they feel the sting of truth in their remarks.
      That should be below you. Your claim of hyperbole also misses the whole point of the program. It is itself an exaggerated hyperbole. Me pointing that out does not make ME hyperbolic, it proves my point.

      If you allow them to mock, then you should allow me to mock as well. Don’t be a hypocrite with a double standard.

      Jesus expressed anger with the unrighteous abuse of God’s house and his people. God is not some mamby pamby lovey dovey nonsense. Attacking Christians and Christianity with hateful bigoted stereotypes is NOT trivial. If they did that with people of color, you would rightly call that racist. So, when they do it to Christians, it may be acceptable in a bigoted society, but that’s called Christophobia or religious bigotry.

  • Spot on review. I agree entirely with most comments as well. I was enjoying the series, but it kept deteriorating until episode 5 was almost unwatchable. Anti-Christian hate directed at a caricature. The episode actually could have been very good if nuanced as I have many critiques for “corporate Christianity” and mixing Christianity and patriotism to extremes, but this episode was poorly done. Thanks for writing the article.

  • Never saw it. I was told by a friend it was OK, worth a watch. Then the same friend much later told me to avoid like the plague. The wokeism was off the charts in later episodes.One of heroes made into a tranvestite ? Was that right ?
    Seems like all of the cartoons on TV at the moment are all rabid anti-christian, anti-semetic, anti-straight, andti-white-male, anti-heterosexual.
    I have enjoyed “Big Mouth” but the latest series The 3rd is absolutely appallingly done, pushing homosexuality – but not gently and well as first two series. Aggressively. Anti-Male to a ridiculous extent. I stopped watching.

    • The hatred of Hollywood for Christians is growing. But there are also pockets of positive stories such as Daredevil and Fargo.

  • Tony Kumar says:

    Same like some here was about to watch it but then i came across a youtube page called “Polite Leader” which reviewed this series and luckily i didn’t have to waste my time on this leftist anti-christian crap. God bless you and everyone

  • This show is vile, I struggled to keep watching.. but after all the Anti Jesus sentiments, I can’t keep watching with a clean conscience.

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