Forget ‘The Boys’: These 6 Series Have Much Better Action

Image via FX Published May 14, 2026, 1:18 PM EDT Sign in to your Collider account The Boys has become the defining action show of the modern streaming era. It’s impossible to ignore the cultural impact the series has had over the last few years, especially with how it taps into celebrity culture, politics, corporate greed, and people’s obsession with power. A huge reason for that popularity is obviously the show’s willingness to push things further than most mainstream superhero series ever would. Despite all the attention the series gets for its brutal and violent action, many of the fights in The Boys rely more on gore, shock value, or CGI spectacle than genuinely engaging choreography or tension. The action often feels messy by design, which definitely works, but rarely delivers the kind of visceral impact that gives weight to every confrontation. That doesn’t mean The Boys is bad at action, but there are plenty of other shows that execute it with a lot more creativity, like the six titles on this list. 1 ‘Banshee’ (2013–2016) Image via Cinemax Banshee is a hidden gem that deserves way more appreciation than it got. The series is completely unhinged right off the bat, but that’s exactly what keeps the audience hooked. The action thriller show follows an unnamed ex-con, played by The Boys actor Antony Starr, who arrives in the small Pennsylvania town of Banshee after serving 15 years in prison for stealing diamonds from a Ukrainian mob boss known as Rabbit (Ben Cross). Things take a turn when the town’s incoming sheriff, Lucas Hood, is suddenly killed before arriving, which serves as the perfect opportunity for the ex-con to steal his identity and take over the position. That makes the way for absolute chaos as Hood tries to reconnect with his former lover, Carrie (Ivana Miličević), while dealing with corrupt businessmen, violent gangs, and crime lord Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), and so much more. The story unfolds with an energy that almost feels aggressive. Banshee never pretends to be realistic, and the violence is constantly escalating. The show’s realistic fight scenes are a huge reason behind its passionate cult following. The action here never feels clean or glamorous, and that intensity only punctuates the central tension. At the same time, Banshee works because it gives the audience characters they genuinely care about. This balance between ridiculously over-the-top action and surprisingly compelling character drama makes Banshee one of the most addictive thrillers of the 2010s. 2 ‘Snowfall’ (2017–2023) Image via FX Snowfall is set during the crack epidemic of the 1980s in Los Angeles, and naturally weaves the violence of the era into its story, without ever reducing it to mere spectacle. The show follows Damson Idris as Franklin Saint, a young dealer who slowly builds a drug empire after getting involved in the cocaine trade. As Franklin rises through the streets of South Central, the show also explores how the CIA secretly helped fuel the drug pipeline through operative Teddy McDonald (Carter Hudson). On the other hand, cartel enforcer Gustavo “El Oso” Zapata (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) gets pulled into the chaos from the other side of the border. What makes Snowfall so gripping is how naturally all these stories begin to collide over time. The series might feel slow to some, but it intentionally spends time building tension to make every shootout, betrayal, and murder feel ten times more intense. Snowfall actually understands that action becomes far more effective when the audience is emotionally invested in the story and its characters. A huge part of that comes down to writing, and Franklin is easily written as one of the most compelling anti-heroes TV has ever seen. Even the supporting cast is incredibly layered, with characters constantly choosing between survival and loyalty. By the end, Snowfall becomes much more than a crime drama thanks to the show’s authentic portrayal of the consequences of power. Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor SheridanShow Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for. 🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown FIND YOUR WORLD → 01 Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind. ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly. AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed. AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing. NEXT QUESTION → 04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people. AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt. AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending. AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested. ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you. AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me. NEXT QUESTION → 09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal. AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall. NEXT QUESTION → 10 When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind. AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it. REVEAL MY SHOW → Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes. 🤠 Yellowstone 🛢️ Landman 👑 Tulsa King ⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it. You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to. You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land. You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 3 ‘Sons of Anarchy’ (2008–2004) image via FX Sons of Anarchy is a biker crime drama, but underneath that, the story is actually a tragedy about family and loyalty. The series follows Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), a high-ranking member of the outlaw motorcycle club SAMCRO, who begins to question the brutal direction the club takes after discovering writings left behind by his late father, one of the club’s founders. That internal conflict becomes the driving force of the entire show as Jax struggles to balance his loyalty to the club with his desire to build a better future for his family. Sons of Anarchy is definitely an action-heavy show, but what keeps the audience hooked is the constant unpredictability of the plot. The protagonist obviously wants to escape the cycle of violence he is trapped in, but every season pulls him deeper into the very world that he wants to leave far behind. This complexity is the heart of the show and keeps the audience invested in Jax’s journey till the very end. There’s no denying that the brutal fights and energetic action sequences are extremely cool, but it only works because it is driven by the emotional turmoil of the characters at the center of it all. 4 ‘Cobra Kai’ (2018–2025) Image via Netflix Cobra Kai is a spinoff that actually does justice to its predecessor. The martial arts series picks up three decades after Robert Mark Kamen’s The Karate Kid films, with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) no longer the golden boy of the Valley, but a washed-up adult struggling with failure and a broken relationship with his son. Things change when Johnny reopens the Cobra Kai dojo to teach a group of outcast kids self-confidence, but this also reignites his old rivalry with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). What makes Cobra Kai such a fun watch is that it fully understands the absurdity of its own world. It’s a show where high school karate rivalries are treated like gang wars, but somehow, it all works. The fight sequences are fast and dramatic, with an energy that keeps the audience wanting more. The show never tries to be as gritty as most action dramas are. Instead, it leans into dojo politics and the very real struggles of growing up. The brilliance of the show is how it keeps finding new ways to reframe the original movies and brings back familiar faces like John Kreese (Martin Kove), Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), and Chozen (Yuji Okumoto). The story also turns Johnny from a one-dimensional bully into the messy and lovable heart of the show. Cobra Kai strikes the perfect balance of corny, funny, and emotional. It doesn’t just ride on the nostalgia wave, but actually expands the world of The Karate Kid in a way that feels surprisingly fresh. 5 ‘See’ (2019–2022) Image via Apple TV+ See has one of the most fascinating premises of any modern sci-fi series, so it's unfortunate that the show doesn’t get its fair share of recognition. The story takes place centuries after a virus wiped out most of humanity and left the survivors’ descendants blind. The story follows Baba Voss (Jason Momoa), the leader of the Alkenny tribe, who must protect his adopted children after they are born with the ability to see, which instantly turns them into targets as rival kingdoms, witchfinders, and political forces begin hunting anyone connected to the ability of sight. See is different from almost every other action show out there because its characters operate by completely different rules. Since most of them can’t see, they use terrain, follow sound, and rely on instinct in a way that makes the action feel extremely physical. See doesn’t deliver a generic post-apocalyptic setting where the blindness plot is treated as a gimmick that fades into the background. Every part of society has evolved around survival without sight, and this creates a world that feels both ancient and futuristic at the same time. This unique atmosphere gives the show an energy that stays with the audience long after the credits roll. 6 ‘Quarry’ (2016) Image via HBO Quarry is easily one of the most underrated action thrillers of the last decade. The Cinemax series follows Marine Mac Conway (Logan Marshall-Green), who returns home to Memphis after serving in Vietnam, only to discover that the country he fought for no longer wants him. Mac finds himself publicly demonized for his involvement in a massacre overseas and is unable to reconnect with normal life. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he also gets pulled into the criminal underworld to work as a contract killer for a mysterious figure known only as The Broker (Peter Mullan). From there, the show transforms into a brutal neo-noir thriller where Mac has to navigate assassinations and betrayals as he tries to survive in a world he no longer knows. Now, Quarry has its fair share of explosive violence and high-octane action sequences, but all of that is grounded in real human emotion. The show constantly makes it a point to show that Mac is not an unstoppable action hero, but a man who is desperate and even exhausted. That is what gives the action so much impact. Quarry perfectly captures 1970s America and creates a mood that pulls the audience deeper into Mac’s downward spiral with every episode. Unfortunately, the show was canceled after just one season, but that doesn’t change the fact that it remains a masterclass in gritty storytelling.