‘The Boys’ Showrunner On The Plague Of ‘10 Hour Movies’ Explains A Lot About TV Now

The boys is a great show. Beloved by both critics and fans, it just wrapped up its third (and best) season and is looking ahead not just to a greenlit season 4, but also a spin-off, Gen V, as Amazon takes advantage of its biggest hit in the streaming age.

The boys are a hit. It may be overlooked, but it is being treated like an actual TV show. It's obvious that it's not in the current era. Eric Kripke talked about what drives him crazy about the current landscape of "prestige" faux-movie TV and why he's trying to do The Boys differently.

A lot of filmmakers who work in streaming didn't come out of that network grind They are more comfortable with the idea that they can give you 10 hours. I think that drives me crazy.

I didn't get the benefit of being a network guy who had to get people interested for 22 hours a year. The critics will tell you that Episode 8 is really bad. What I am making is a 10-hour movie. F---k you,! You're not! It's possible to make a television show. Are you in the entertainment business?

Supernatural ran for 15 seasons and 327 episodes. The point Kripke is making is that he is still using some of the same lessons even though The Boys is only doing eight episodes a season. Seven hours is not enough to prepare for a blockbuster finale. You need to keep people engaged as you go, which is why everyone is talking about a given Boys episode every week where something new and insane happens, even if the season is still following an overall storyline. It makes Herogasm stand out by itself.

Who is doing it right? There are a few obvious culprits. A lot of shows on the internet suffer from this because they are working with the binge model where no one is waiting a long time. Because they are all being watched at the same time, they feel more comfortable putting in filler.

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Even if this isn't what Kripke is referring to directly, this is essentially the entire model of TV shows, where most of the shows on Disney Plus feel like four hours of movies that have been chopped up into six episodes. It is unclear when or if that will change, but you can say that about half the shows we have seen there.

Whatever Kripke is doing, he should continue. Maybe other people should pay more attention to his philosophy.

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