I've seen ALL the superhero movies---I've been a comic book fan my whole life...I appreciate what they've done here....and the hard work on display...There are LOTS of CRAZY things going down in this series.......but junk writing is junk writing......and about half of this series is poorly written-----there's a fair bit of gore for the sake of gore, It's obvious........there are attempts at humor which fail miserably----........Karl Urban sounds like a land locked Capt. Jack Sparrow chewing scenery as hard as he can while stupidly waxing poetic about the Spice Girls----It seems like someone got really high and thought "Hmmm, What's funny? what's shocking?---Oh I know add more blood!"--------There are great performances from all of the actors, Shue, Starr, Quaid, and yes, Urban for what it's worth...But as the largest name on the marquee, His character's just annoyingly closed off and one dimensional..... basically bullet proof because of plot armor.....(oh and he can apparently sneak into ANY ROOM at ANY TIME undetected? please...).....The series as a whole plays a little like "Sin City" with it's tropes out front and big dumb ideas...(modern fame, the brainwashing of society, by the government, the Christian right, the corporations...) --- It owes a great deal to "Watchmen" of course........ the story drags on for 8 hours....and It's STILL not over........Sure, a couple things get light shed on them by episode 8.......and yes, Homelander as a character is terrifying in his own way...but there's a whole lotta cringe and not enough "Super"-----Producing comic book hero stories is no longer acceptable as a "cut and paste " affair after the brilliance of the MCU in the last few years.