Tek-Knight's Appearance On Gen V Is A Brutal Satire Of The True Crime Entertainment Machine
This article contains spoilers for "Gen V" episode 4 — "The Whole Truth."
The latest "Gen V" episode, "The Whole Truth," has finally introduced a character often mentioned on the parent show "The Boys" — Tek-Knight/Robert Vernon (Derek Wilson), one of this world's many super "heroes." In this world, Supes are mostly just media stars and Tek-Knight is no different — in fact, he represents one of the most insidious forms of entertainment out there: true crime.
He is the host of "The Whole Truth with Tek-Knight" (streaming on Vought+) and for his latest episode, he's come to Godolkin University. He's there to teach some criminology classes and film an episode about Golden Boy's (Patrick Schwarzenegger) murder-suicide in the series premiere. Of course, he's not there out of any sense of justice, but as a simple tool for his bosses at Vought — his assignment is to pick a patsy and further cover up the truth. That puts him on a collision course with Godolkin Dean Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn), whom he underestimates.
Tek-Knight doesn't have much of a costume, just a simple gray suit, but he does have powers: enhanced observation (Sherlock Holmes style) that lets him tell when people are lying through subtle body cues (sweat, micro facial expressions, etc.). He puts these powers to use onscreen by interrogating Marie (Jaz Sinclair) about Golden Boy's death. Apparently, Tek-Knight sometimes pushes so hard that his subjects die by suicide. This reflects criticism that true crime entertainment is inherently exploitative.
Crime and entertainment
The episode introduces Tek-Knight via a clip from "The Whole Truth." He narrates, "I'm Tek-Knight and I won't stop searching until I find ..." and then cue the title card. Props to the episode's creative team for perfectly capturing the feeling of a true crime documentary, to the point it doesn't even feel like a parody. Every detail is on point, from the ambient music offering just the slightest taste of foreboding to the exaggerated blue color filter on establishing shots — to the rapid cutting between different types of footage to the way Tek-Knight slowly walks towards the camera like a ghost drifting unseen through a graveyard.
The episode is broken when he fumbles one of his lines and his camera crew resets. This is no documentary, just a facsimile of one with carefully timed cuts and multiple takes of scripted entertainment. At least the camera is handheld (well, shoulder-mounted) for the illusion of authenticity.
Now, granted, true crime possesses the same draw as fiction: voyeurism. Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" said it best, comparing movie watching to spying through your neighbors' windows. For a voyeur, true crime documentaries and podcasts can be even more enticing escapism; they're murder mysteries with verisimilitude, and like a good Agatha Christie novel, you're invited to play detective yourself and try to guess who the killer is.
The problems stretch over ethical lines though; even well-researched true crime is ultimately transmuting real-life suffering into entertainment for the still-living. Writer Emma Berquist said it best for Gawker: "You shouldn't have a favorite murder." And that's just the honest true crime reporting. In "The Whole Truth," Tek-Knight threatens to "Johnny Depp" Shetty or one of her students, referencing the media circus that turned Amber Heard, a domestic abuse victim, into a supervillainess right out of a cheap soap opera.
The World's Greatest Detective
In "The Boys" comic by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson, Tek-Knight is an Iron Man parody; he fights crime with a suit of full-body armor, complete with a jetpack and armory's worth of weapons. The TV Tek-Knight is obviously quite different — the one thing he shares with his comic counterpart is a brain tumor that urges him to hump inanimate objects. Shetty blackmails him with video proof of his perversions, getting him off the Golden Boy case.
I'd argue that this Tek-Knight is closer to Batman; he is his world's greatest detective like Bruce Wayne is in the DC Universe. Even his name calls to mind "Dark Knight," one of Batman's famed epitaphs. Previously, Black Noir might've seemed like the Batman of "The Boys," but the truth is that he was always more like Snake Eyes from "G.I. Joe," from the featureless black costume to the silence. Tek-Knight is a vigilante without (obvious) superpowers but a keen mind, just like Batman.
This is hardly the first time "The Boys" has changed the source material, and here, it's done so to make a satirical point. Namely, that true crime documentarians like Tek-Knight are not the heroes we need or deserve.
"Gen V" is streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes premiering on Friday.