One of the wildest of Netflix’s new shows has achieved the double-header of a perfect critical score on Rotten Tomatoes (and a very high audience score), and also millions of verified views. The series, which was initially planned to be Stan Lee’s final adapted project, took almost a decade to come to screens, but it was clearly worth the wait. Netflix added the series last week, and it’s an unconventional story, more like The Boys – only a lot milder – or Umbrella Academy than the MCU.
The 8-episode series, The WONDERfools was created by Kang Eun-kyung and stars K-pop singer Cha Eun-woo from boy band Astro. The comedy fantasy series takes place in a world of flawed supers – but more in terms of their lack of control of their powers than their morality. The central group’s unintentional use of their powers is where most of the show’s humor comes from. Released on May 15 in an all-in-one drop, The WONDERfools boasts a 100% critical score (albeit from only a few reviews), and a hugely impressive 96% audience rating, and Netflix has now confirmed that in its first few days of release, it amassed 2.7 million views.
The WONDERfools was initially announced back in 2018, but was set to be an adaptation of an original Stan Lee idea called The B-Team, which wasn’t from a published comic. The story pitted a team of B-tier supers who couldn’t control their powers in a battle against the mad scientists who gave them their powers. The option on the story wasn’t picked up until after Lee’s death, but his production company would oversee the early stages of development. That idea of flawed heroes suddenly given powers they can’t entirely control, and an eternal battle between good and evil, all feels pulled from the Stan Lee playbook, but by the time production properly kicked off, The B-Team had been renamed The WONDERfools, and Lee’s idea was no longer the basis for the series.
Here’s the official synopsis: “In the weeks leading up to the turn of the millennium, the small Korean town of Haeseong City is gripped by a series of unsettling events. People are vanishing without a trace, and an eerie new church is taking hold — a chilling echo of the horrors the town thought it had long ago buried. But for The WONDERfools’ trio of ordinary misfits, they’re more concerned with their own issues, until they wake up with newfound superpowers and discover that they’re the only ones who can save their town.”
Some of the highest praise on Reddit centers on how refreshing the superhero series is, which is certainly a positive in the current age of super-saturation. One Redditor says, “It’s so refreshing and different from the mainstream superheroes series we have. The heroes there are just a bunch of friends who act childishly and have no clue how to use their powers. Even when they do, they are flawed becaused they can’t use the powers at their will. And I find it so refreshing. Plus the comedy is so great. I loved it.” Another post praises the comedy: “I was hooked within the first 10 minutes. Loved the comedy timing and characters.”
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