'The Boys' Series Showrunner Slams Claims To Be '10-Hour Movies': 'Making a TV Show'

Compared to other comic book TV series, Amazon Prime Video's "The Boys" prefers to feel like a network show on a streamer. At least that's what showrunner Eric Kripke's journey allows, especially after three critically acclaimed seasons.

“The Boys” co-creator told Vulture that while some streaming comic book adaptations (Cough Cough, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi”) have been described as long films, it dilutes the art of episodic television – and blocks storytelling. (You may remember the debate that raged in 2019 when film publication Cahiers du Cinéma named David Lynch's 18-episode limited series "Twin Peaks: The Return" the best "movie" of the 2010s. )

"The downside of streaming is that a lot of filmmakers who work in streaming haven't necessarily come out of that network," Kripke said. "They're more comfortable with the idea that they could give you 10 hours where nothing happens until the eighth hour. That drives me crazy, personally."

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The former 'Supernatural' showrunner added, "As a network guy who had to keep people interested for 22 fucking hours a year, I didn't have the benefit of, 'Oh hang on you and don't worry. The critics will tell you that by episode 8, the shit really hits the fan. Or whoever says, "Well, what I'm really doing is a 10 hour movie 'Fuck off! No, you're not! Doing a TV show. You're in the entertainment business.'

Working with Prime Video also gave Kripke a revelation: "I never see myself coming back to the network," he said of episodic storytelling, coming from The CW with "Supernatural" is finished in 2020 after 15 seasons.

"It's the ability to do two things: write most of your scripts before you shoot a movie day, and then finish all the episodes before you air them," Kripke said. “There are logistical advantages that would be impossible to give up, because you can tell a cohesive play in a way that you simply cannot with network television. It's already aired; you threw it out the door. You are locked up. It happens all the time: We're in the middle of filming episode seven, and we realize we need a different script. We still have time to go back and shoot it for episode one and put it back together."

Kripke also serves as executive producer of "The Boys" spin-off series "Gen V" alongside Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Billed as an "irreverent, R-rated series" that's "part college show, part 'Hunger Games,'" Kripke's ongoing takeover of comic book franchises continues.

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