Antony Starr and Cameron Crovetti in "The Boys." Credit: Jasper Savage / Prime Video
When The Boys first premiered in 2019, it seemed like the perfect in-your-face antidote to superhero fatigue. Not only did Eric Kripke's Prime Video series send up the pop cultural oversaturation of caped crusaders, it also took satirical swings at corporations, politicians, and the corrupt interplay between the two.
As the U.S. political landscape grew worse and worse in the years since, The Boys worked overtime to match real life's outrageousness. The series also faced the challenge of topping its own levels of gore and sexual chaos. These constant escalations are how we get The Boys' unfortunate fourth season, a dour eight episodes that suck most of the fun out of the show and replace it with lackluster satire and shock value.
The Boys Season 4 picks up in the wake of Homelander's (Antony Starr) murder of a civilian at the end of Season 3. The incident -- for which Homelander is now on trial -- has further stoked division among U.S. citizens, with Homelander's diehard supporters squaring off against those who want regulation of supes. The similarities between Donald Trump and Homelander have never been subtle, but thanks to the inclusion of a trial storyline and Homelander's throngs of red baseball cap-wearing fans, the comparisons have never been clearer. Add in a presidential election and mentions of a certification on Jan. 6, and you're looking at a season of The Boys that feels closer to real life than ever before.
But in hewing so close to real life, The Boys' political satire and references grow lazy. A Homelander supporter threatens Annie's (Erin Moriarty) Starlight House project in a muddled take on the "pizzagate" conspiracy. A politician repeats former Missouri Congressman Todd Akin's reprehensible "legitimate rape" comments verbatim. And in one of the show's most bewildering jokes, secret supe politician Victoria Neumann (Claudia Doumit) makes a joke about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- even though she's the show's AOC analog. Satire shouldn't just mean copying and pasting from our world, nor should it mean throwing sloppy references at the wall. Where's the sharpness here, the actual twists on our lives?
To its credit, many of Season 4's bigger satirical set pieces stick the landing. Superhero conglomerate Vought's own version of Disney on Ice proves hilarious, even introducing us to a new Christmas earworm. Elsewhere, a visit to conspiracy theory-laden event TruthCon provides ample laughs -- although an explicit scene there involving clones just feels like the show half-heartedly meeting a raunch quota.
That sense of a quota exists throughout the season, both in terms of sex and violence. Rarely are these gags earned, or even any fun. As the show grows darker, these trademark bouts of shock grow more and more punishing. In particular, a drawn-out sequence involving Homelander confronting his past is torturous in more ways than one.
With The Boys struggling to find more exaggerated ways to prove how bad Vought and Homelander are (as if we could forget), most of the scenes involving Vought and the Seven suck the life out of the season. Even the addition of new supes Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) and Firecracker (Valorie Carter) can't shake things up; Sage's role as Smartest Person in the World is frustratingly thin, while Firecracker is just another right-wing caricature with an unhealthy devotion to Homelander.
It's a relief, then, that the Boys themselves mostly have more compelling storylines. As they prepare to strike down Vought, Homelander, and Victoria Neuman, our titular team is more fractured than ever. Hughie (Jack Quaid) is dealing with a family crisis; Butcher (Karl Urban) has six months to live and is using them to try and rescue young supe Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) from Homelander's clutches; Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) is struggling with the pressure of keeping the Boys together; and Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) must confront demons from their pasts like Homelander.
Each of the Boys' struggles come with their fair share of poignant emotional beats -- a welcome respite from the show's larger scale conflict. Here, they struggle with questions of redemption and forgiveness. Are these things even possible for them, after all they've done? And in the case of Ryan, can Butcher save him before he does anything he'll have to atone for?
Some of these storylines feature some ridiculous twists and turns, but for the most part, they resonate. Better an overdramatic reveal with actual consequences than The Boys' millionth send-up of Tucker Carlson.
Unfortunately, it's the latter approach that tends to win out this season.
