To say that superheroes are “in” right now might be the understatement of the decade. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has dominated Hollywood for 15 years, and although its influence is finally starting to wane, its rivals have had plenty of time to curate a counterculture. The age of straight-laced heroes may be nearing its end, but it appears so. security guard, Boys, And invincible Equally successful are using supes to deconstruct the realities of power and abuse.
Boys Carving out his cinematic universe on this basis alone. The Ultraviolent series knows how to best subvert the superhero hegemony of the last few decades, and its attempts to bring it flush against our current dystopia have already spawned two spin-offs. This month, the evil world of Boys gets so big with the premiere of General Va college-set series that would eventually bring teen soaps into the fold (as if things weren’t chaotic enough).
As much as heroes have saturated the zeitgeist, the serialized superhero coming-of-age is still an exciting subgenre. While invincible partially fills this gap, and The X-Men prequels Kind of scratch the itch, General V His work is done for him. Hopefully the spin-off can stick the landing, but until then, Hulu’s latest Korean drama has a story that needs to be told.
Hulu is quietly dominating the genre circuit with series like The Series. Exceptional And big mouthAnd moving This trend continues. The 20-episode series is nothing if not high-concept: it straddles the past and present to tell a multi-generational story about superpowered mercenaries and their children. But it helps that the heroes of this story — as well as the villains — actually feel stronger than those that dominate other superhero blockbusters.
It all starts with Kim Bong Seok (Lee Jung Ha), a hopelessly in love high school senior who literally dreams of flying. He spends his waking moments trying to hide his hidden abilities, and his mother, Mi-hyun (Han Hyo-joo), loads his backpack with weights to keep him from floating away.
Bong-seok, whenever he’s happy, defies gravity, and the presence of a new girl at school, Jung Hui-soo (Go Young-jung), only makes it more difficult to control his powers. As he grows closer to Hui Su, they learn they have more in common than meets the eye. They’re not the only cool kids at school, either: there’s also the enthusiastic class president, Gang-hoon (Kim Do-hoon), who works with the staff to keep the peace and supervise students like Hui-soo. does.
As the series builds to their impending graduation, a silent war breaks out in the real world. An American agency is hunting Supes on Korean soil, straining relations between the two countries. Word of these murders rattles the overprotective Mi-hyun, and when moving Flashes back to the ’90s, the series’ complex plot—and Mi-hyun’s particular paranoia—starts to click.
Bong-seok, Hui-soo, and Gang-hoon form an effective trio. move’s first timeline, but their parents are equally compelling in the second. Through them, we learn about an elite superpowered black ops squadron, controlled by the Korean state and trained to sacrifice everything for the nation. As moving Back and forth between past and present, we see how their eventual disillusionment with the program fueled the tensions their children will have to deal with.
A growing appetite for past political tensions muddies the series’ hearty core, but also at its lowest points. moving is something of a trend. Disney invested a lot of money in it, making it one of the most expensive K-dramas of all time – and one of the most watched. But it’s not the crisp VFX that turned the series into an overnight sensation. While the visuals are obviously stunning (especially compared to recent efforts from Marvel and DC), it’s the lovable characters and underlying family themes that stand out. moving Watchable
Hollywood has been obsessed with cynicism for years now, and fantastic superhero dramas have embraced the trend with gusto. Features like Boys are uniquely qualified to explore societal ills through a gendered lens, but it’s only a matter of time before the grinning, blood-soaked mayhem becomes too depressing to bear.
That makes it. moving A welcome break from this new normal. It’s not afraid to be sincere, but it doesn’t skimp on pulpy thrills either. It might drag out its plot for too long, but the heroes at the heart of the series are enough to keep you coming back for more.
moving The series continues on Hulu.
Credit : www.inverse.com
