Regina King starrer series, Watchmen truly created history at the Emmy’s this week by scooping the award for best-limited series. It was indeed a landmark moment at the annual celebration of TV’s most stellar shows as it witnessed a comic book adaptation win so many accolades for the very first time. It’s a remarkable era for viewers who seek escapism through fantasy, yet desire more responsible and grounded stories to consume.
With Emmy 2020 paving the way for more such stories that not only depict the events from fiction, but also explore modern-day pandemonium, here are 4 vigilante-based shows that you should check out to get that brain of yours exploding…
The Boys
The Amazon Original series traverses the viewers to the flipside of superheroes having god-like powers. At the offset, it is a show about a group of regular people taking on the rogue Superheroes and the machinery that has put them on that pedestal. Through its dark humoured lens, the series manages to dapple various themes of white supremacy, violence, corporatization and the ugly truth behind celebrity culture. The Boys Season 2 is currently streaming its episodes weekly and will premiere its finale on October 9 on Amazon Prime Video. A show that’s as diabolical as ever, it’s one that you certainly don’t want to miss out on.
Jessica Jones
Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, Jessica Jones on Netflix is not only a strong woman-led detective drama, but also a powerful story that explores PTSD in a way like never before. Shattering all definitions of trauma, abuse of power and victimhood the show gives a breath of fresh air as we see a superhero turn her back on using her powers and is not far from acknowledging the mistakes at her end.
Daredevil
Yet another gem from Marvel, Charlie Cox’s grounded portrayal of Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, is one of the most-loved vigilantes out there. With action-packed fun and a tragic story at its bay, the narrative explored themes of masculinity, poverty among others. The visually-impaired lawyer-by-day and masked crime-fighter by night, had everyone’s heart pouring in when it was sadly announced to be cancelled after 3 seasons on Netflix. So much so, that there have even been comparisons with Robert Pattinson’s upcoming The Batman along with multiple petitions being signed to revive this noir story.
The Man in The High Castle
A dystopian series loosely based on a novel by Philip K Dick of the same name, is a wildly-ambitious show that showcased an alternative history. Over four seasons on Amazon Prime Video, this show depicted complicated parallel universes of what might have happened if the outcome of World War II was different. Submerging into different narratives of human behaviour, the show seamlessly offers a variety of outlooks to the fate of humanity represented in different settings such as getting succumbed to vigilante justice and mob rule.
