37-Episode R-Rated Superhero Series Deserves To Be As Big As The Boys

Published Aug 29, 2026, 3:32 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While it is tough to imagine any small-screen superhero satire series working as well as The Boys, one R-rated cult hit from the late 2000s deserves credit for managing this feat. Based on comic book writer Garth Ennis’s series of the same name, but with a lot of judicious changes made to its source material, The Boys is one of the most successful superhero satires of all time. A dark, R-rated five-season thriller from Prime Video, The Boys follows the titular group of vigilantes as they work to keep violent, corrupt “Supes” in check. In the world of The Boys, superheroes operate like corrupt elite celebrities, complete with the legal protection that setup implies, so it is up to admittedly unhinged characters like Billy Butcher, Kimiko, and Mother’s Milk to stop them from running roughshod over the civilian population. With jaw-dropping moments of gore and gross-out comedy that make Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead seem demure, The Boys has often been called one of the most shocking TV shows ever made. However, this sometimes overshadows the fact that the show is also a savvy, smart satire and a compelling character study, where both the heroes and villains have depth and complexity. In an era when the goofy power fantasies of Landman top streaming charts, The Boys was a smarter show than it sometimes seemed, as was its underrated cult predecessor, Misfits. Misfits Did The Boys' Entire Thing Just As Well, But Years Earlier Beginning in 2009 and lasting five seasons until 2013, Misfits was a British superhero series with a difference. The show initially followed five characters, Simon, Nathan, Curtis, Kelly, and Alisha, who are given community service and get caught in a freak thunderstorm while completing their sentence. Something supernatural in the storm grants each member of the group paranormal powers, with Curtis gaining the ability to manipulate time while Kelly can read people’s minds. So far, the show sounds pretty much identical to many other teen superhero shows, but Misfits made the most of its TV-MA rating to ensure that it certainly didn’t feel like that. With constant foul language, casual drug use, nudity, and sex, Misfits was an unapologetically R-rated mix of X-Men and Skins that pushed the boundaries of onscreen superhero storytelling. It is tough to remember, after so many successful R-rated superhero stories, that the genre used to be dominated by family-friendly projects. In the years since Misfits ended in 2013, shows like Harley Quinn, Invincible, The Boys, its spinoffs Diabolical and Gen V, 2019’s Watchmen, Titans, Doom Patrol, Legion, The Punisher, and Daredevil Reborn, as well as movies like the Deadpool series and Logan, have thoroughly normalized the R-rated superhero subgenre. Several Misfits Stars Have Become Major Names Since The Show Ended However, when Misfits was on the air, the sight of full-frontal nudity in a show about characters with superpowers was still unheard of, and the series paved the way for The Boys with its risky, no-holds-barred storytelling. Fortunately, while Misfits, like Prime Video’s aforementioned I’m A Virgo, remains one of the most underrated R-rated superhero shows, its cast has since gone on to do great things in the years since its cancellation. Simon’s actor Iwan Rheon went on to star as the unforgettable Game of Thrones antagonist Ramsay Bolton, as well as appearing in The Dirt, Vicious, and Those About to Die, while Nathan’s Robert Sheehan starred in the major movies Mortal Engines and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Sheehan also played a lead role in Netflix’s later superhero show The Umbrella Academy. Curtis’s actor has appeared in the movies Candyman and Azrael as well as the shows Dracula, Doctor Who, and Black Doves, while Antonia Thomas has appeared in everything from The Good Doctor to Tuca & Bertie. Thus, although Misfits was never as big a mainstream hit as The Boys, the superhero satire did set its stars on the path to A-list careers. Release Date 2009 - 2013-00-00 Showrunner Howard Overman Directors Howard Overman, Tom Green, Jonathan van Tulleken, Tom Harper, Wayne Yip Writers Howard Overman, Jon Brown, Mike O'Leary Franchise(s) Misfits Creator(s) Howard Overman