Cherry (The Boys)

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"Cherry"
The Boys episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 2
Directed byMatt Shakman
Written byEric Kripke
Produced byHartley Gorenstein
Featured music
Cinematography byEvans Brown
Editing byNona Khodai
Original release dateJuly 26, 2019 (2019-07-26)
Running time59 minutes
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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The Boys season 1
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"Cherry" is the second episode of the first season of the American superhero television series The Boys, based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis. It is set in a universe where most of the superpowered individuals are portrayed as corrupt individuals instead of being the heroes that the general public believes they are. The episode was written by the series showrunner Eric Kripke and directed by Matt Shakman.

The episode follows Billy Butcher and Hughie Campbell reuniting with the former's old partner Frenchie to find a way to kill Translucent before Vought can find him, much to the shock of Hughie, who continues to struggle with the death of his girlfriend, Robin. Meanwhile, the Seven's leader, Homelander, starts an investigation of his own to find Translucent after Vought's vice president, Madelyn Stillwell, dismisses the latter's disappearance.

"Cherry" was released on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on July 26, 2019. The episode received positive reviews from critics, praising the visual style, direction, performances, black humor, faithfulness to the comics, and Frenchie's introduction. However, criticism for the episode's was aimed at the writing which felt repetitive and overwritten.

Plot[edit]

Hughie and Billy escape with Translucent's body. Billy approaches his former partner, Frenchie, and tricks him into revealing his face to a conscious translucent. Forced to help Billy, Frenchie locks Translucent into an electrified cage while finding a way to kill him, and Hughie manages to cut the Supe's tracker. Meanwhile, at the Vought Tower, Stillwell deduces the Mayor's death and forces Homelander to search for Translucent.

Frenchie creates a bullet similar to Translucent's carbon skin, but the plan backfires, and Translucent's tracker becomes active, so Vought finds the location. Billy requests CIA member Susan Reynor for Translucent's files, to no avail. Later that night, Annie is forced to cooperate with The Deep over a drug smuggling case. Annie confronts The Deep, threatening to kill him should further blackmail occur. Annie stops the criminals but finds out Vought staged the coup for publicity, to her dismay. She later rescues a woman from rape but accidentally exposes her identity.

Stillwell approaches Senator Calhoun to introduce Supes into the army, but Calhoun refuses for financial reasons. Stillwell then recruits the Supe Doppelganger to blackmail Calhoun. Despite this, Calhoun assures the Supes they will be declined. Hughie approaches Translucent about Robin's death and A-Train's plans, but Translucent refutes them. Frenchie finds a way to kill Translucent and inserts C-4 explosives into Supe's colon. Now afraid, Translucent reveals that A-Train visited his girlfriend Popclaw when he killed Robin. Homelander arrives at the hideout, but Frenchie diverts him away. Translucent uses his urine to cut the cage's electricity, but Hughie interrupts his escape. Translucent attempts to manipulate Hughie into leaving, but Hughie detonates the C-4, killing Translucent.

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

An adaptation of the comic book series The Boys was initially developed as a feature-length film in 2008. However, after several failed attempts to produce the film, which caused it to be in development hell for several years, the plans for a film were scrapped in favor of a television series.[1] In 2016, it was announced Cinemax would develop the show. Erick Kripke became the series showrunner and head writer, alongside Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, who would direct the pilot episode.[2] In November 2017, Amazon acquired the rights to develop the show, announcing that they would produce over eight episodes for the first season[3] while confirming that the previously announced creative team would still be attached to the series.[4][5] The episode, titled "Cherry," was written by Kripke and directed by Matt Shakman.[6][7] The episode is titled with the name of issues #3–6 of the comic book series of the same name.[8]

Writing[edit]

Kripke considered that the character Jack from Jupiter's alien-looking design was too fantastic for the world that he and his crew were creating in the series, and that would mess with the mythology of the human characters being born with powers. Intending to keep the realism of the TV series, Kripke decided to replace it with a more human-like character created exclusively for the TV series known as Translucent, though he retains the same powers of having an indestructible skin.[9] For the character's death by being blown up from the inside, Kripke admitted that this wouldn't be probable to do in real life due to the strength of the skin that would have contained the blast, accepted it was a conscious decision he took, and commented, "Yes, you're absolutely right, the skin should have contained the blast, but then we'd have missed out on that amazing bloody explosion of 'blood and meat. Keep Your Rules in Mind, but Never Logic Yourself Out Of Entertainment."[10]

The episode also made a pivotal and major change from the comics, where Hughie kills for the first time. While the part where Hughie murders a Supe remains the same, the way the character did it is changed, as in the comics, he accidentally killed a Supe under the name of Blarney Cock in self-defense as the latter attacked him. In the TV series, however, Hughie decides to kill him on purpose after initially intending to let him go by blowing up the bomb that was inside Translucent. This major change was released by Kripke, as he and the production crew intended to increase the level of violence and gore instead of keeping the same one from the original comic book series and without any intention of toning it down.[11][12]

Casting[edit]

The episode main cast includes Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Antony Starr as John Gillman / Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie January / Starlight, Dominique McElligott as Maggie Shaw / Queen Maeve, Jessie Usher as A-Train, Chace Crawford as Kevin Moskowitz / The Deep, Tomer Capone as Frenchie, Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir, and Elisabeth Shue as Madelyn Stillwell.[13] Also starring are Simon Pegg as Hugh Campbell Sr., Alex Hassell as Translucent, Jennifer Esposito as Susan Reynor, David Andrews as Senator Calhoun, Shaun Benson as Ezekiel, Colby Minifie as Ahsley Barrett, Ana Sani as Anika, and Jordana Lajoie as Cherie.[14][15]: 57:29–57:56  Laz Alonso and Karen Fukuhara are credited for their respective characters as Mother's Milk and the Female, though neither of them make an appearance at the episode.[15] Mike Massaro makes a cameo appearance as an ESPN interviewer for the episode.[16]

Filming[edit]

The filming of the first season would take place in Toronto while the story takes place in New York City.[17] Filming took place at the exterior of the Roy Thomson Hall to emulate the exterior of the Vought International company headquarters, known as Seven Tower, while the tower was created digitally. For the tower's interior, which includes some of the rooms and the modern lobby where the company makes the fundraiser event in the episode, the filming for such scenes would take place inside the Roy Thomson Hall. The scenes that took place at the fictional in-universe Tony Cicero's restaurant where The Boys kept Translucent imprisoned were filmed in a restaurant in the district of Etobicoke in the province of Ontario.[18][19]

Visual effects[edit]

Visual effects for the episode were created by DNEG TV, Framestore, Folks VFX, Mavericks VFX, Method Studios, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies VFX, Mr. X, Pixomondo, Rocket Science VFX, Rodeo FX, and Soho VFX.[20][15]: 58:36–58:42  It was announced that visual effects supervisor Stephan Fleet would be in charge of overseeing the development for the visual effects.[21] A scene where Translucent is dumped into the back of a car, Fleet decided to keep the actor in a grey suit that he used for the fight scene in the previous episode to keep him invisible, as he considered that it was important to maintain the character's human weight.[22] For the creation of the series one of the most violent and gory scenes where Translucent explodes, the visual effects team decided to make the scene entirely practical without using CGI to capture the realism of the scene.[23]

Music[edit]

The episode features the following songs which are "Dans Ma Ruche" by Guizmo [fr], "Neat Neat Neat" by The Damned, "La Foule" by Youssoupha, and "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways.[24]

Release[edit]

"Cherry" premiered on Amazon Prime Video in the United States on July 26, 2019.[25] It was released alongside all the episodes from the season, which were released on the same date.[26] The episode, along with the rest of The Boys' first season, was released on Blu-ray on May 31, 2022.[27]

Reception[edit]

"Cherry" received positive reviews from critics. Brian Tallerico from Vulture rated the episode with three out of five stars, praising it for the episode design and performances, stating that the episode suffers from the talky superhero-philosophy dialogue, which sometimes feels overwritten and repetitive and also criticizing the episode's story, which he deemed added nothing new to the series plot. However, despite the episode's flaws, he still considered that there is still enough hope for the television series to continue.[28] Greg Wheeler from The Review Geek rated the episode with four out of five stars by stating that "With the facade of the Seven chipping away, it'll be interesting to see what direction the show takes from here but for now, The Boys delivers another progressive and well written episode."[29] Darryl Jasper from ScienceFiction.com gave a positive review to the episode and commented that the episode continues expanding the world and considered that the character's Billy Butcher past would be something interesting to follow and explore in the upcoming episodes for the series.[30]

While writing a review for Tilt Magazine, Randy Dankievitch stated that the episode takes a deft turn for The Boys, with an interesting deconstruction of the classic "villain captures hero" trope. There are also a lot of intriguing other ideas brought into play, be it the power hierarchy inside the Seven or Madelyn's larger goals of getting some of that good American defense spending money injected into Vought International.[31] Martin Carr from the Flickering Myth gave the episode a positive response to the episode to which he commented "In many respects The Boys is still getting warmed up, stretching its collective legs and establishing tone. Some have come for the guns, gore and censorship baiting excess, while most will stay for the depth, breadth and social commentary."[32]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Kit, Borys (February 10, 2012). "Columbia Pictures Drops Comic Book Adaptation 'The Boys' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 15, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
  2. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2016-04-06). "'The Boys' Drama Based On Comic Book Set At Cinemax With Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Eric Kripke, Original Film & Sony". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  3. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2017-11-08). "Amazon Orders 'The Boys' Superhero Drama Series Based On Comic From Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  4. ^ Barsanti, Sam (2017-11-08). "Amazon picks up The Boys comic adaptation from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  5. ^ Turchiano, Danielle (2017-11-08). "Amazon Greenlights Eric Kripke's Superhero Drama 'The Boys'". Variety. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  6. ^ "The Boys (2019-2023)". Writers Guild of America West. Archived from the original on July 28, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  7. ^ Hubbard, Christian (2019-08-21). "'The Boys' Director Matt Shakman In Talks To Direct Marvel Studios Series For Disney+". Full Circle Cinema. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  8. ^ Perry, Spencer (2019-07-26). "The Boys TV Series: Every Easter Egg and Reference in the Comic Adaptation". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  9. ^ McGuire, Liam (2020-09-22). "The Boys Version Of Martian Manhunter Was Too Unbelievable For The Show". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  10. ^ Averdon, Jon (2019-07-31). "The Boys Producer Explains Why [SPOILER]'s Explosive Death Defied Logic". CBR. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  11. ^ Elvy, Craig (2019-08-05). "The Boys Season 1 Makes A Major Comic Death Even More Disgusting". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  12. ^ Tejada, Andrew. "The Boys: 10 Biggest Differences From The Comics". WatchMojo. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  13. ^ Darwish, Meaghan (2019-07-25). "'The Boys' Cast and Showrunner Tease R-Rated Characters, Action & More (VIDEO)". TV Insider. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  14. ^ Marnell, Blair (2018-08-31). "Jennifer Esposito Joins the Cast of Amazon's The Boys". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  15. ^ a b c Kripke, Eric (July 26, 2019). "Cherry". The Boys. Season 1. Episode 2. Amazon Prime Video. End credits begin at 57:06.
  16. ^ "The Boys Showrunner Shares the Story Behind Season 3's Major Cameo". MovieWeb. 2022-06-04. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  17. ^ Watson, Fay (2019-07-26). "The Boys on Amazon location: Where is The Boys filmed?". Daily Express. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  18. ^ "Where was The Boys Filmed? Guide to ALL the Filming Locations". Atlas of Wonders. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  19. ^ "The Boys filming locations in Canada". Filipinosincanada.com. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  20. ^ Frei, Vincent (July 24, 2019). "THE BOYS". Art of VFX. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  21. ^ Frei, Vincent (2019-08-27). "THE BOYS: Stephan Fleet - Overall VFX Supervisor". The Art of VFX. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  22. ^ Failes, Ian (2019-08-22). "Four of the most batshit crazy VFX moments in 'The Boys'". Befores & Afters. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  23. ^ Frei, Vincent (2019-08-27). "THE BOYS: Stephan Fleet - Overall VFX Supervisor". The Art of VFX (in French). Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  24. ^ Elvy, Craig (2019-07-26). "The Boys Season 1: Every Song On The Soundtrack". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  25. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (2019-04-17). "Amazon's The Boys gets a new, NSFW trailer and a July 26th release date". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  26. ^ "'The Boys' Season 1 release date, trailer, cast, plot, renewal, and more". Inverse. 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  27. ^ Zogbi, Emily (2022-04-05). "The Boys Seasons 1 and 2 Get Blu-ray Release With Deleted and Extended Scenes". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  28. ^ Tallerico, Brian (2019-07-26). "The Boys Recap: Damage Control". Vulture. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  29. ^ Wheeler, Greg (July 26, 2019). "The Boys – Season 1 Episode 2 "Cherry" Recap & Review". The Review Geek. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  30. ^ Jasper, Darryl (2019-07-29). "'The Boys' Episode 2 Review: "Cherry"". ScienceFiction.com. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  31. ^ Dankievitch, Randy (2019-07-26). "The Boys Season One Episode 2: "Cherry" Is a Toxic Affair". Tilt Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  32. ^ Carr, Martin (2019-07-27). "The Boys Season 1 Episode 2 Review - 'Cherry'". Flickering Myth. Retrieved 2023-07-30.

External links[edit]

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