Henchmen is a workplace comedy about a crew of underpaid, over(and under)qualified henchmen who work for everyone from notorious supervillains to aspiring, not-so-super villain bosses—forcing them to manage PR disasters, dodge (sometimes mid-tier) superheroes, and ultimately perhaps try to unionize to get fair pay from the "millionaire and billionaire" supervillains.

SYNOPSIS:

Meet a crew of career evil henchmen who’s seen it all—dangerous villains, doomed plans, and sidekicks who can’t even handle a smoke machine. Frank, the most seasoned (and wry), leads the crew which includes the optimistic newbie Johnny, the detatched, but slick Rick, the perpetually confused Ed, and the nerdy, obsessive Stan, through the chaotic world of professional evil.

The episode kicks off with a “standard” bank heist job for the notorious supervillain IronHorn, a Rhino-inspired powerhouse whose brute strength is terrifying… but whose plans are predictable. As the crew carefully herds terrified bank staff and customers into corners, Frank reminds everyone of the two cardinal rules of henchman life: don’t kill each other, and run immediately if the boss starts monologuing. Stan tracks injury risks and KPIs on his clipboard, Johnny eagerly takes mental notes, and Ed asks the kinds of questions only Ed would ask.

The vault heist is completed when IronHorn personally smashes the door open, giving the henchmen plenty of opportunities to collect cash while dodging collateral damage from a superhero showdown a superhero arrives to do destructive battle with IronHorn. Tires screech, walls crumble, and explosions rock the city from the (largely pointless in the henchmen's view) super battle, all while the crew piles into getaway cars, shaking their heads and snickering at how absurd their bosses and the “heroes” really are as they're causing more damage to the city that the total of the stolen money.

Once the cash is delivered to IronHorn’s overworked assistant, the crew receives their meager paychecks. Johnny questions why they only got $100k each from a $50 million heist, but Frank and Stan remind him: it’s all part of the job

Back at WeHenge, a “co-working space” for henchmen, the crew decompresses. They encounter other frustrated henchmen, including a Bernie Sanders-esque labor advocate railing against villains who hoard profits, preaching that unionizing might be the only way to get fair treatment from millionaire and billionaire supervillains. They also encounter a smart, snarky henchwoman who keeps potential suitors awkwardly at bay. Johnny awkwardly flirts with her while Ed asks ridiculous questions about insurance and social media content. Amid the chaos, the team also experiments with Henge, the henchmen dating app, debating whether it’s acceptable to match with a superhero’s hench and whether “violent roleplay” belongs in a bio.

The episode culminates with the team assisting the newest aspiring supervillain: Skullington, a skull-and-monocle-wearing wannabe with pre-revenue gadgets designed to “activate evil followers.” They attempt a city-wide PR stunt by spray-painting his logo and deploying tech that… fails spectacularly. A mid-tier hero, Echo Sentinel, arrives, politely asks for a selfie with livestreaming evil-for-clicks influencer Trent who joins their evil crew, and then easily paralyzes Skullington for the cops, leaving the henchmen to pile into their van, shaking their heads and lamenting the incompetence of yet another villain.

By the end of the pilot, the audience sees the absurd, chaotic, and oddly endearing world of professional henchmen: underpaid, over(and under)qualified, and responsible for cleaning up the messes of supervillains who are either millionaires, billionaires, or just delusional wannabes. With Frank’s calm leadership, Stan’s obsessive metrics, Rick's cooler aura, Ed’s clueless commentary, and Johnny’s naive enthusiasm, the stage is set for a workplace comedy where the heroes are flashy, the villains are incompetent, and the henchmen are the ones truly surviving—and laughing—through it all.

HENCHMEN