Prime Video’s Sex Criminals Will Make The Boys Blush

If you thought The Boys was as off-the-rails as TV adaptations of comic books could get, well, Prime Video is apparently just getting warmed up. They've just announced their next questionable life choice: a series based on a comic called Sex Criminals. Yeah, that's the actual title, and no, the name is not subtle. If The Boys is the baseline for wild superhero TV, Sex Criminals looks poised to leapfrog right over it into territory your parents definitely shouldn’t be watching with you.

From Zombies and Superheroes to Orgasms and Crime

The person at the helm here is Nia DaCosta, best known for 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple (not to be confused with the classic zombie flick, but still) and Marvel’s The Marvels. Amazon’s snagged her to direct and exec-produce the live-action series, and frankly, I have to respect her willingness to keep swinging for the weird-fences.

The show is based on Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s comics, which first hit shelves in 2013 and ran for 31 issues before wrapping up in 2020. These guys created one of the cult hits for Image Comics, right up there with stuff like Saga. The entire premise? Two people—Suzie and Jon—hook up after a party and (mid-coitus, because of course) discover that orgasms literally stop time for them. As one does, they decide to use this unfortunate superpower combo to rob the bank where Jon works. Yes, they are literally sex-powered criminals. And just to keep things from being too straightforward, it turns out they’re not the only ones with this very specific knack.

So, What Are We Actually Watching?

If you’re worried this is just some kind of exploitative nonsense, it’s worth clarifying: Sex Criminals is not about sexual violence or anything like that. It’s all tongue-in-cheek and, honestly, pretty hilarious—think more raunchy heist comedy than gritty crime thriller. Fraction and Zdarsky’s comic is built on gross-out jokes, irreverent hijinks, and superpowers that could only come out of a local bar’s worst conversation, but there’s an actual story buried underneath. At its core, it tracks the weird, honest relationship between two people who happen to be… well, time-stopping orgasm bandits. It’s equal parts romance, comedy, and yes, relentless sex puns.

'The Boys would be the same story without all the rude moments; Sex Criminals would not.'

That pretty much sums it up. This isn’t shock value for its own sake; the superpowered sex stuff is actually the heart of the story.

What Do We Know About the Show?

Details are thin on the ground right now. From what’s out there:

• Nia DaCosta is attached as director/showrunner.
• Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky are executive producing (fans, this should be reassuring).
• The initial run will be eight episodes long.
• Amazon is prepping to show it off to advertisers at their upcoming upfronts in New York, so we’ll likely get more info soon.

That’s it for now, but based on the source material and the creative crew involved, this is probably one of the only shows that could make The Boys look downright wholesome. If nothing else, Sex Criminals is going to be unlike anything else on TV. I’ll be watching, if only to see how on earth they pull this off without enraging censors and confusing everyone’s recommendation algorithms forever.