Metro Weekly magazine: 2017-12-21 edition (PDF)
By Metro Weekly Contributor
on
December 21, 2017
The Boys are back in town for one last season, but things are a little different this time around. It's not that Eric Kripke's show has suddenly become more political towards the end of its run. The Boys has always lasered in on real-life targets with eyebeam-like precision, brutally satirizing corporate greed and celebrity culture since it debuted in 2019. But the show has now widened its scope to mock America at large. An easy target, some might say, especially given the direction of modern U.S. politics. If anything, though, it's only made Kripke's job harder.
The Boys was never one to pull its punches, not when it came to satire or actual violence within the show. But what do you do when real life catches up to the absurdities of fiction, when a maniacal villain like Homelander (Antony Starr) embodies people who are actually in power right now? Five seasons in, that's left the show's penchant for parody with very little room to maneuver within. Kind of like Flight 37, which Homelander let crash after a botched rescue attempt back in season one.
Thomas Niehaus has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of malicious use of fire after setting Pride flags ablaze in several Cincinnati neighborhoods last summer.
The 52-year-old was arrested last July following an investigation into a series of arson fires targeting Pride flags attached to homes in Clifton, Clifton Heights, and Northside.
"These actions posed a serious risk to community safety in occupied residences," the Cincinnati Fire Department said in a news release. No injuries were reported.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a new rule that would allow federally funded shelters and temporary housing providers to discriminate based on gender.
Under the proposal, homeless shelters and other housing providers could bar transgender people from single-sex facilities that do not match their assigned sex at birth.
The rule removes all references to "gender" and "gender identity" from HUD regulations, replacing them with "sex," as defined by an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last year. The order states that federal agencies will recognize only a person's assigned sex at birth on government-issued documents and for purposes of accessing government services or housing options.
