See The Boys Perfectly Take Down The Worst Streaming Service
The Boys took to Twitter to make some jokes at the expense of Amazon Prime Video competitor HBO Max.
One of the reasons that The Boys has proven to be so popular is that it is filled to the brim with deliciously dark satire. Most of the time, that satire is aimed at the world of superheroes and everything that comes with it, including silly superhero media and the dangers of hero worship. Recently, though, the show took to Twitter to give a well-deserved takedown of the worst streaming service of them all: HBO Max.
If you’re out of the loop, HBO Max has been severely dropping off in both quality and content since the Warner Bros. merger with Discovery was finalized. This has resulted in completed projects such as Batgirl not getting released and many shows getting yanked from the streamer as a tax write-off, and this often leaves fans with no legal way to watch their favorite content. All of this has left many HBO Max users wondering why they are paying so much each month for a service that keeps getting worse, making the company the perfect target for a takedown courtesy of The Boys.
Of course, the satirical tweet in question is partially poking fun at other streamers like Disney+ and Paramount+ by naming their fictional streaming app “Vought++,” but it’s clear that HBO Max is their primary target. For one thing, the color scheme and design of the fictional app are very similar to those of HBO Max. But the real cutting remark (and the kind we’ve come to expect from The Boys) is that the fake streaming app has “eliminated 35% of our films” while charging users $119 per month.
While HBO Max itself hasn’t eliminated quite that many of its films, the streamer has notoriously removed over 80 different movies and TV shows, including some big names like Westworld. At the same time, they have not reduced the cost of the streaming service, and they still expect users to pay $9.99 a month. That used to be a great value for the sheer amount of content available, but as this tweet from The Boys team humorously underscores, that amount is still way too much to charge when the company is actively devoted to yanking your favorite shows and movies from the service.
While this takedown by tweet is pitch-perfect, we have come to expect nothing less from The Boys. Whereas the original Garth Ennis comic kept its satire aimed squarely at the world of comic book superheroes, the television adaptation has taken swipes at everything from superhero media like Zack Snyder’s Justice League to individuals and corporations using right-wing propaganda to win followers. And since The Boys is exclusive to Amazon Prime, satire aimed squarely at destroying the competition is perfectly in line with the edgy ethos of the show itself.
Only time will tell if the satirical swipes against the competition will continue in Season 4 of The Boys. Right now, it looks like that season will focus on Homelander embracing his role as an all-powerful right-wing demagogue and the efforts of Butcher and his boys to stop the mad, would-be god. And fortunately for fans of the show, they won’t have to pay $119 a month to see how this all ends.
