IT'S safe to guarantee that a scene within the opening 15 minutes of The Boys season three will be difficult to surpass for the craziest slice of TV in 2022.
Without spoiling the surprise, let's say it involves an exploding male appendage, a superhero whose power allows him to shrink to the size of a flea and a whole lot of blood and guts.
"I've got to be honest, when I read it [in the script] I did not visualise it the same way it turned out," says US actor Jessie T. Usher, who plays speedy superhero A-Train (pictured). "I was not ready for that."
Shocking both viewers and their actors with it's outlandish action and excessive gore has been central to the success of The Boys since it debuted in 2019.
The Boys is an edgy satire of the superhero genre and how the world celebrates fame and power. The show was adapted from the 2000s comic series, and in many ways, it's a truer reflection of our society than any Marvel blockbuster.
The Boys is set in a world where a group of corrupt superheroes are idolised by the public and serve a powerful corporation known as Vought International for financial gain.
This corruption of power leads to the formation of The Boys, a group of civilian vigilantes who aim to expose and destroy the fake superheroes.
Australian actress Claudia Doumit joined The Boys in season two as congresswoman Victoria Neuman, who is attempting to control the power of Vought and its' "supes". Doumit believes the show strikes the correct balance between shock-and-awe satire and social commentary.
"It allows these horrific issues and timely issues to exist in a space that is more accessible and less judgemental," she says." You can kind of digest it easier as the audience."