It’s never been a better time to be a fan of television, with each year bringing forward dozens of groundbreaking, new hits. The emergence of streaming services has resulted in more prestigious programming and the necessity for a distribution channel to have their own original hit series. There are several promising originals that have premiered on Amazon Prime Video, but The Boys has turned into one of the streamer’s most popular titles.
The television and film industries have become completely consumed with superhero and comic-based content, yet The Boys stands out through its unique point of view and stark ultra-violence. Audiences can’t wait to experience the highs of The Boys’ new season in June. However, there are plenty of other heightened TV shows that will keep fans satisfied before The Boys' big, bloody return.
10 The Tick Is A Smart Satire Of The Omnipresence Of Superheroes
Amazon Prime has currently keyed into the hyper-violent superhero market, but years before this they experimented around with earnest and silly superhero fare. Ben Edlund’s The Tick has been turned into a television series on three separate occasions, all of which hold up, but it’s the two-season Amazon Prime series that deserves more love. The new take on the property puts the Tick’s partner, Arthur, front and center, which works to its advantage. The Tick isn’t filled with endless dismemberment and corpses, like The Boys, but its subversive slant on superheroes and villains is clever, hilarious, and heartfelt.
9 Misfits Is An Engrossing Character Study Where The Worst People Get Superpowers
Misfits is a very transgressive take on the superhero genre that came out of the UK in 2009 and ran for five seasons. The series looks at a group of juvenile delinquents who acquire superpowers after they experience a freak event together. Misfits is ahead of the curve and its selfish characters who thrive on violence certainly bring The Boys to mind. There are admittedly diminishing returns on the later seasons of Misfits as cast changes begin to happen, but it's a bold relic of its time that definitely achieves a similar energy to The Boys.
8 The Boys: Diabolical Expands The World Of The Boys Through Beautiful Animation
The Boys: Diabolical is an animated anthology series that tells self-contained stories that are set within the world of The Boys. There’s one installment that provides some crucial backstory on Homelander, but the rest of the episodes tell beautiful stories that stand on their own merits.
Each episode of The Boys: Diabolical turns to a totally different animation style to bring its story to life. It’s a show that animation fans can appreciate without any preexisting knowledge of The Boys, but it’s also full of the trademark violence that’s present in the original series.
7 Super Crooks Is An Exaggerated Supervillain Heist Saga
The underperformance of the live-action Jupiter’s Legacy led to the future of Netflix’s Millarverse getting shelved, but one excellent property did come out of this arrangement. Super Crooks is an anime that’s set in the world of Jupiter’s Legacy, but really doesn’t lean into any connections and exists on its own. It’s a tight heist series where washed up supervillains try to have one last day of glory as they attempt to pull off a deeply difficult plan. Super Crooks is just as violent as The Boys and its superpowered characters don’t feel far removed from them either.
6 Daredevil Is A Raw, Visceral Look Into Good Versus Evil
Daredevil's debut was such a simpler time, especially now that the television department of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in full swing. Enough time has passed that characters from Daredevil have actually reemerged in the MCU, but the Netflix series' three seasons are still far more adult than anything that’s shown up there. It’s for this reason that Daredevil still holds up so well, despite there being some padding in the seasons, and the fight choreography and violence often feels more in tone with The Boys than the MCU.
5 Doom Patrol Is Proof That Even Unknown Rejects Can Be Popular Hits
The dominance of superhero and comic book culture has allowed C-list characters to get their own TV series and feature films and become just as popular as the A-listers. There is a strong collection of DC live-action series that are quietly accumulating over on HBO Max and Doom Patrol is perhaps the weirdest of the lot.
Doom Patrol features the ultimate team of misfit outcasts and it’s brought some amazing DC characters and storylines to life. Doom Patrol will please fans of niche DC characters and content, those that like The Boys, and those who have zero interest in superheroes and just want to experience a strange, compelling story.
4 Watchmen Is A Brilliant Social Commentary That’s Filtered Through Superheroes
Watchmen and The Boys both exist in worlds that contain comparable violence, nihilism and mistrust when it comes to superheroes. Audiences were naturally hesitant of a Watchmen TV series, but Damon Lindelof’s decision to deliver a follow-up to the graphic novel rather than a straight adaptation turns into a homerun. Watchmen functions as a stunning meditation on race, politics, and the suppression and obfuscation of history. It features superheroes from the Watchmen graphic novel, as well as themes that completely mesh with the original, but it’s such a smart evolution and companion to the original.
3 Legion Gets Into The Psychology And Morality Of Superheroes And Is One Of A Kind
The three-season FX series, Legion, was developed by Noah Hawley, who’s responsible for television’s Fargo and the upcoming Alien series. Legion is one of the most mind-bending shows on television that applies a surreal and high-minded approach to Marvel's Mutant that bears more of a resemblance to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks than any other superhero property. Legion’s story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and it never compromises vision. Some consider the show to eventually get too weird for its own good, but everything has a purpose in Legion and there are few shows that are given such free rein to creatively express its ideas.
2 Invincible Is Amazon’s Perfect Bloody Companion Piece To The Boys
Invincible, based upon the comic series by Robert Kirkman, is another superhero series on Amazon Prime that eschews the typical expectations of these heroic figures as well as indulges in copious violence. Invincible begins as a tender coming of age story as Mark Grayson begins to experience superpowers in his teenage years. Mark idolizes his father and learns from him how to use his new strength, but Invincible takes a terrifying turn when Mark's father and the series' Superman surrogate turns out to be a murderous man. It's haunting, shocking, and contemplative just like The Boys.
1 Peacemaker Offers The Same Guts And Gravitas As The Boys
James Gunn made waves in the MCU with his Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but he’s had the luxury of spending time with DC. His take on The Suicide Squad is some of Gunn’s best work, but the movie has spawned a successful spin-off based upon John Cena’s Peacemaker character. Peacemaker, on HBO Max, feels more akin to Gunn’s earlier work and this quirky superhero story turns into a chilling alien invasion. Peacemaker erupts with laughs and gore, just like The Boys, and thankfully there’s more on the way.