Trigger warning: This post includes discussion of sexual assault and murder.
Spoiler Warning! If you haven’t already seen the Amazon original show The Boys, I would highly recommend giving it a watch, but be warned because there are many graphic scenes that could make you uncomfortable. If you’re not keen on watching it anytime soon, reading a brief synopsis of each episode would also suffice. The superhero personas give an exaggerated look at how power bestowed onto celebrities through idolization can have real-life consequences. Their superpowers make them invincible just like how celebrity status makes our public figures immune to some of their wicked actions’ consequences.
A little back story for those who don’t know, The Boys is based on a premise that superheroes are much like celebrities in that they are constantly focused on their brand. Their actions are often driven by this reputation consciousness or a “clean-up” team manages damaging mistakes. In the show, most of the heroes are antagonists who often commit atrocities that are brushed under the rug because of their status. The plot is meant to show an exaggerated version of modern-day celebrity behavior that we dismiss because of their power.
These mimicries of celebrity behaviors range from theoretical ideas to blatant copies showing the absurd performances that some of our celebrities exhibit. In season three episode six, the main antagonist superheroes including The Deep, Black Noir, and A-Train, as well as other notable celebrities, come together to comfort the public in light of recent terrorist attacks by singing “Imagine” by John Lennon. It’s a direct parody of the video celebrities like Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig, and Maya Rudolph performed at the height of the pandemic. It was a poor attempt to relate with the average person experiencing these tragedies because there’s a distance in how negatively it affects them. These celebrities had the money and resources to isolate and stay safe with access to medical care, while many people fell into poverty or died from COVID-19 symptoms. Nationwide panic ensued after the terrorist attacks, but the superheroes only took damage to their reputations for inaction.
A-Train’s Turbo Rush commercial in season three episode four, endorsing his brand of energy drink, is another imitation of celebrity behavior. It’s eerily similar to the 2017 Pepsi commercial starring Kendall Jenner that shows her leaving a shoot to walk with a peaceful protest, ending with her handing a Pepsi to an officer. Jenner and Pepsi both received backlash and were made to apologize because the ad was insensitive and trivialized the Black Lives Matter movement. A-Train takes a similar route where during a shoot, he runs to stop a potential fight between a protestor and a police officer with his Turbo Rush drink. Each instance shows the ignorance celebrities embrace when it comes to current issues and the power they hold to take these actions. Both A-Train and Jenner still hold platforms with public influence, showing their behaviors, though harmful, had no effect on their status.
There are also less obvious similarities between the show and actual celebrity behavior that take a dark turn. The show opens in season one episode one with the main character’s girlfriend’s death. She is murdered by A-Train after he runs through her while on drugs. He faced no charges or reputation penalty for his actions. Real-life examples exist of celebrities killing someone with little to no punishment for what they’ve done including Matthew Broderick and the two women he killed in a car accident in Northern Ireland in 1987. He was convicted of reckless driving and was only sentenced to pay a $175 fee. After his fatal wreck, he continued to star in movies and TV shows that expanded on his fame including The Lion King, Project X, and Day Break all occurring after his accident.
The Deep’s sexual assault of Starlight in season one episode one can be compared to Harvey Weinstein’s extortion of women throughout the years he worked as a producer. The Deep pressures Starlight into engaging with him sexually without consent under the pretense that this is how you stay at the top. There’s an initial power imbalance between the two that pressures her into doing what he told. Weinstein similarly used his power as a famous producer to silence the many women he’s sexually assaulted for years before he was eventually convicted in 2020. Weinstein was a well-known celebrity, much like The Deep, who used this to hurt others for their own pleasure with consequences only occurring after the victims’ list has grown to uncomfortable levels.
Overall, celebrity status can be dangerous when put into the wrong hands of people who will use their clout as a shield to behave in ways that hurt the public. The Boys accentuates that idea by showing the extremes it can be taken to and shedding light onto ways in which it’s already happened.
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