The Boys Showrunner Hates Modern TV
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke hates one of the biggest trends in modern television and it has to do with streaming.
The Boys is one of the most popular streaming shows in the world and is spinning-off new shows at a rapid rate. In many ways, the series is an antidote to the general positivity and idealism of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which itself is leaning more and more on Disney+ streaming shows to expand its narrative. However, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has some pretty strong feelings about trends in modern television, particularly when it comes it comes to streaming shows. In particular, The Boys series creator hates how streaming shows like to describe themselves as movies that just happen to last eight to ten hours.
In an interview with Vulture, The Boys’ Eric Kripke says that the tendency for the people producing streaming shows to view their series as movies also promotes the idea that episode after episode can go on without significant narrative motion. Basically, that notion you can have eight episodes stream without anything really happening with the promise that something will eventually happen because it’s a “movie.” The Boys showrunner actually used a little saltier language about it. Here is what Eric Kripke said:
The downside of streaming is that a lot of filmmakers who work in streaming didn’t necessarily come out of that network grind. They’re more comfortable with the idea that they could give you ten hours where nothing happens until the eighth hour. That drives me f***ing nuts, personally. As a network guy who had to get you people interested for 22 fucking hours a year, I didn’t get the benefit of, “Oh, just hang in there and don’t worry. The critics will tell you that by episode eight, s*** really hits the fan.” Or anyone who says, “Well, what I’m really making is a ten-hour movie.” F*** you! No you’re not! Make a TV show. You’re in the entertainment business.
It seems The Boys showrunner primarily sees this as a difference between filmmakers who started working in streaming content, as opposed to those (like himself) who got their early experience in network television. As he puts it, network television production basically requires you to keep the attention of viewers with each episode, without the safety net of it being a very long “movie” in structure.
To be fair, The Boys showrunner also says he loves streaming television for other reasons. Namely, he enjoys that the nature of streaming content production allows for more revision time and editing, while network television basically means that once something is on the air, it is done and over with. Eric Kripke had a long
g career on network television prior to working on The Boys, so he probably does have a decent perspective on the subject. He created and ran the CW dark fantasy series Supernatural for five seasons, and would later go on to create the shows Timeless and Revolution. And though he has some harsh feelings about a show being called essentially a really long movie, Eric Kripke also says he will never go back to network television after having worked in streaming. So it can’t be all that bad.
