Why violent superhero shows The Boys and Invincible are banned in Singapore
Superheroes have owned Hollywood for years now. Studios like Marvel have made sure to keep their superhero offerings mostly age-appropriate, the better to get as many eyeballs on it as possible. But other series, like the Amazon shows The Boys and Invincible, have gone the opposite direction and packed themselves full of blood, guts and gore.
And now, both shows — along with many others — are banned in Singapore. Why? So glad you asked.
The Boys and Invincible, both based on popular comic book series, were all set to take over the small screen in Singapore. The Boys was returning for its third season and Invincible for its second. But according to Gamerant, both vanished from the Amazon Prime TV app in Singapore in June of 2022, just days before the third season of The Boys was to premiere.
In a weird twist, the earlier seasons were still accessible in the browser for a while afterwards before they too went poof. Now, if you’re in Singapore and itching to catch these shows, you’d have to employ a VPN. Oddly, The Boys Presents: Diabolical, the animated spinoff of The Boys, is still up and running.
Why are The Boys and Invincible banned in Singapore?
So why are these violent, graphic, and morally complex shows a no-no in Singapore? Singapore has strict censorship laws when it comes to media. Any reference to homosexuality is a no-go. Pornography is banned, and anything that could be perceived as anti-Islam is out of the question. The Last Hangover, The Last Temptation Of Christ, Cooking On High, The Legend Of 420 and Disjointed were all titles that Netflix was asked to remove in Singapore.
Things have loosened up a bit over the years, but the Singaporean government is still very restrictive when it comes to movies and TV. With their abundance of vulgarity, violence and sexual content, The Boys and Invincible were bound to raise some eyebrows. While there’s no official word on why these two shows got the ax, the writing’s on the wall.
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