Hulu’s ‘The Boys’ Meets ‘Derry Girls’ Comedy Is a Perfect Weekend Binge
Taylor Vollman is a contributor at Collider. She has long quipped, “T.V. is my name, TV is my game.” Fortuitous initials aside, at the heart of a tired joke is a simple truth — she has a lifelong passion for television. And along with it, an affinity for movies, music and pop culture.
In a childhood time capsule, she had listed Friends, PB&J Otter, and Days of Our Lives among her favorite shows. But her tastes have not narrowed with age. Her viewing habits span TV Land classics, network hits, buzzy reality shows and streamer critical darlings.
Hoping to merge this passion with her love of writing, Taylor earned a bachelor’s in media arts and design with a minor in film studies from James Madison University. After working in marketing for years, she wanted to sharpen her skills and went on to graduate with a master’s in journalism from Georgetown University. Taylor has since pursued entertainment writing and reporting.
Superheroes have infiltrated nearly every format of media, from the obvious comic books to new video game releases, buzzy television shows, and blockbuster movies. Shows like The Boys leaned into the trend while subverting many of its tropes and offering biting critiques of its messaging. But the Prime Video series ended its five-season run earlier this year.
Fans of The Boys looking for another show that straddles that line can turn to Hulu’s two-season series, Extraordinary. From creator Emma Moran, the series takes on a lighter tone while exploring the impact of a world with widespread powers. Tonally, it actually ventures more into the realm of the Irish comedy, Derry Girls. Despite being short-lived, Extraordinary was well-received and earned a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Extraordinary follows Jen (Máiréad Tyers), an aimless 20-something with no real career prospects and a floundering love life. With the support of her friends and family, she embarks on a journey to unlock her power, literally. She exists in a world where people develop a superpower when they turn 18 years old, but hers never arrived. But after years of using her powerlessness as a crutch, pursuing a potential power means confronting hard truths about her own failings. She often prioritizes her own wants and allows her jealousy to take over.
Jen and her roommates live in London. She shares an apartment with her best friend Carrie (Sofia Oxenham), who can channel the dead, and Carrie’s aloof boyfriend Kash (Bilal Hasna), who aspires to use his time rewind powers as a vigilante. They soon discover Jizzlord (Luke Rollason), the stray they recently adopted, is actually a shapeshifter who has been stuck as a cat for years.
The Boys exists in a world where powered people are widespread, but not the majority. Extraordinary pushes it even further, similarly grounding its powers with a more realistic use. But with almost everyone 18 years and older having power, it’s less about corruption and more about the mundane application in work and dating. A person able to compel someone to tell the truth works in human relations, while another who can communicate with animals becomes a veterinarian. Flying people work as human taxies and even Carrie uses her ability on the job. She works at a law firm, channeling the dead to solve property disputes and other legal quandaries.
While Extraordinary veers away from The Boys’ signature gore and violence, it does still offer criticism of the genre. With powers ubiquitous among society, there aren’t Marvel-style superheroes answering some unspoken call. Instead, the show’s few attempted heroes are washed-up slackers who are just looking for a sense of purpose and don’t find themselves capable of being vigilantes. And if everyone has powers, there’s no implied righteousness among any population. Jen’s school bully, her noncommittal situationship, and even her snarky little sister all come into their powers.
While The Boys employs more satirical and dark comedy, Extraordinary emulates the humor of Derry Girls. There are obvious ties with an Irish lead and an overlapping cast member in Siobhán McSweeney. She trades in her habit for a blonde pixie, playing Jen’s mom. But more than that, Extraordinary channels Derry Girls’ tone and its ability to undercut serious topics like grief and self-worth with laugh-out-loud humor. It also makes more of a farce with its powers. While some people have the classic super abilities of strength, flight, or time manipulation, others summon sea life, have 3D printing butts, and impart sexual gratification by touch. Even the show’s resident shapeshifter functions less like the X-Men’s Mystique and more like a disoriented child.
In many ways, this is similarly a coming-of-age story, even if its main characters are all in their mid-twenties. While Derry Girls explores adolescence during The Troubles in Ireland, Extraordinary sees its leads hitting a critical point in adulthood where the trajectories of their lives remains uncertain. They must face truly growing up, not just getting jobs and paying rent. They are slowly learning to stand up for themselves in relationships, become responsible for their impact on others, and plan their futures with intention. Rollason’s shapeshifting cat best exemplifies these themes, having to literally relearn most aspects of being a human in the face of cat-induced memory loss.
Extraordinary is the perfect show for fans of comic books and superheroes looking for a new perspective amid an oversaturated genre. It explores a world overrun with powers not through someone heroic but young adults who at times exist in a morally gray area. While it was canceled after just two seasons, its short length makes it an easy option for a weekend binge. All 16 episodes, roughly 30 minutes each, are available to stream on Hulu.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.