A Super Disappointment
The Boys Season 4 continues from where the previous season and Gen V left off. With congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) rising in political power and Vought maintaining their influence under Homelander (Anthony Starr), the titular team led by vigilante Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) needs to act fast. Their efforts are turned on their head when they find out about a virus that can kill supes. With the threat of supes taking over America, Hughie (Jack Quaid) and the rest of his team are stuck between several extremes as tensions mount.
Building… Building… Building…
For the previous season, the biggest criticism levied against it was the season did not end with any major changes to the status quo and only kept building up to an eventual, bombastic payoff. This season, however, made the same mistake. For the past few seasons, they began and ended with Vought, a powerful, respected corporation encroaching on government control. It is the same case here, with Vought’s status remaining unchallenged. Contrast this with season 2, which clearly showed that the corporation wasn’t immune to public outcry and had to be shrewd to keep up its PR. Now, the company remains omnipotent even as its infrastructure gets foiled repeatedly.
The next major problem with the season is pacing. Virtually all big “wham” moments are confined to the final episode. While it was a bombastic moment, these events would work better if they were spread out between episodes. On the flip side, this season contains many disparate plotlines. Every major character has an entirely separate arc, with each one running independently. By the end of the season, most amounted to nothing and did not connect to the main plot.
Most of the season revolves around the election campaign for Robert Singer, a character who ultimately contributes little to the story himself and is little more than a puppet for Neuman. As Gen V was intended as a spinoff, fans won’t be confused when the virus subplot is established. Ultimately, however, this season was hardly more than a collection of side quests tying up loose ends before a finale that passes at a breakneck pace.
A Superpowered Cast
In general, most of the characters have stagnated with little development or went nowhere. Frenchie gets a new love interest, Colin, who vanishes halfway through the season. Additionally, Kimiko starts and ends brooding about her trauma under Shining Light without advancing or developing much as a character. Marvin retreads his struggles with OCD as an arc from the previous season. As for Hughie, the writers mistook tormenting him further for giving him proper development. The one character who had a proper arc was Butcher himself, who is pushed further towards insanity by his enigmatic ally Kessler, played by the legendary Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
This brings us to the series mascot himself, the Homelander. Once again, Anthony Starr gives a phenomenal performance of the all-powerful madman, especially in episode four. However, his arc is no different from the previous two seasons, as he only builds up to his eventual breakdown while being manipulated by those around him. Once again, Homelander’s son Ryan starts and ends in his “dad triangle” with his father and Butcher.
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This new season gave audiences two newcomers: the genius Sister Sage and the conservative Firecracker. Sister Sage herself is touted as the “world’s smartest woman,” meaning she is only as bright as the writers, as her distinctive schemes will always supposedly go “according to plan.” As for Firecracker, she is little more than a weaker version of Stormfront with less of the depth that made her a hateable villain.
Most of the main characters’ material conditions are the same as when they began the season. Therefore, this season ends with a weak impact on the show.
Heavy-Handed Writing
The Boys has always been a deeply political show, with no shortage of allegories and parallels to real events. However, this season has become more on the nose while having less depth. Villains sprinkle their dialogue with off-hand references to real-world conspiracy theories, setting an unrelated event on January 6th, and even mentioned teaching “critical supe theory.” However, these references rarely factor into the plot or are elaborated upon. Regardless of one’s stance, these scenes add little to the show’s message or have meaning in-universe.
Speaking of politics, the elephant in the room for this season was its finale, featuring a presidential assassination attempt airing days after the attempt on Donald Trump. The title had to be changed as the episode opened with a disclaimer. The satire is best when it sticks to satirizing superhero stories, such as mocking the huge plans for the “Vought Cinematic Universe” and having completed films be sealed away as tax write-offs. Furthermore, much of the series’ shock value, such as The Deep’s “antics,” has grown stale.
However, the worst mistake of the season by far goes to how the show handled Hughie’s plotline. Without getting into details, Hughie has something downright terrible happen to him twice in a row, and it is played for comedy the first time while he’s victim-blamed the second time. It’s far and away the most tasteless thing done by the show. Given the sensitive nature of many of the series’ subject matters, all these blunders make the season seem especially clumsy.
The Boys Are Back in Town?
As shown by massive series’ such as Game of Thrones, a bad ending can ruin a series’ legacy. Unfortunately, The Boys appear to be making the same mistakes. The show’s main plot has slowed to a halt while breaking into pointless distractions. The characters, once brilliant studies into archetypes of the genre, have lost sight of their original purpose. Worst of all, the once-layered writing of the series has been replaced by shallow commentary and tasteless events. While controversial and satirical works are important, they must have a clear message to serve a purpose.
The Boys (2024) Season Four Official Prime Video Trailer
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Author
Hanna Zabski is a current undergraduate student at Marist College majoring in Media Studies and Production with a concentration in Film and Television. She is incredibly passionate about the entertainment industry and storytelling, and hopes to one day pursue a career in this field.