This review of The Boys Season 4 was made possible by screeners of all episodes courtesy of Prime Video.
The Boys are back for the fourth season, with a nimbler and not-so-subtle political satire, yet a stronger story and well realised characters. The entire season feels like a gyrating top, skittering out of control, fully taking a form of apocalypse-turned-into-cocktail party by the finale. While the season begins with high stakes, the finale quadruples the stakes, widening the scope of the story yet feeling a bit constrained complemented with the fact that showrunner Eric Kripke retracted his statement of Season 5 being the final, so for better or worse, The Boys are here to stay for a while.
Continuing the tradition, the showrunners don’t shy away from poking at the current state of pop-culture, be it taking a dig at Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav or showcasing the tomfoolery of chronically online conspiracy geeks. Some elements of the political satire act as a knife, sharp enough to kill and nimble enough to spare, while a significant amount of political satire is a bit too-on-the-nose, enjoyable on the surface level but hollow on the inside.
The satire aims to cover as many issues as possible, but as they say, go in pursuit of several hares at once, and you will not secure a single one. However, just like Season 3, the satire rises to a peak whenever it is character driven.
This is probably the most emotionally powerful season of The Boys yet, with an intersection of many facets of character dynamics and inherent emotions. The season starts off with Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) addressing a political event, a vomiting Butcher (Karl Urban) facing the side-effects of V24 abuse and an ageing Homelander pissing. The season confronts many of these characters with their past. We learn more about the not-so-humble beginnings of Frenchie, Kimiko and Starlight.
Even though certain beats in the Frenchie-Kimiko subplot feel repetitive, the bonding between them feels stronger. Hughie endures purgatory this season, often resulting in a comical output, his relationship with his Dad, Starlight and family is tested throughout the season, forming one of the strong emotional cores of this season.
Confronted with his past, in the most contrived way possible, is Homelander with an even frantic need to belong. Homelander might be ageing physically, but he’s still in an adolescent phase mentally. Antony Starr is incredible in this season as well, seamlessly he depicts Homelander’s heightened emotional intensity with meritocratic attitude, craving for peer approval and validation, novelty seeking and need to love and be loved.
This season is crucial in shaping, with great suggestive power, the kind of person Ryan is going to become. A kid torn between compassion, discretion and disgust for both Homelander and Butcher.
Butcher himself is staring directly at the face of death this season, more reckless and even more vulnerable than ever, trying to do the right thing, whatever that is. His is an arc of gaining detachment, not to be submerged by but rather to ride the wave of empathy.
I may not have been an A-Train guy, this season sure made me one. An incredible season for A-Trainers, just about time for everyone to board the A-train.
Despite the flaws, The Boys remains one of the most entertaining shows out there. With a multitude of characters indulging in multitude of nasty activities, the violence in the show is even more inventive and not just limited to exploding dicks like Season 3. Even the non-watchers know that gore is a window dressing for The Boys—even though the strength of this show is its story—the gore this season can even excite the one desensitized to it.
The new characters are a welcome addition. Firecracker (Valorie Curry) catapults the entire aspect of manufactured lies, fake news and conspiracy theories to new heights, i.e. showcasing the TV worlds insinuating themselves into real world to polarise the latter; Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) feels more like a plot device, however this new Vought Sherlock Holmes is a threat to be reckoned with; Web Weaver (Dan Mousseau) is the closest butt-web-shooter one could get; Derek Wilson is back as Tek Knight after Gen V, and trust the writers with what they have cooked with this character, you won’t be disappointed. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the real mensch of this season.
All the guest appearances are brilliant. Between his assophilic tendencies and octopussy adoration, The Deep (Chace Crawford) has some deep turmoil in choosing between the two this season. I think Chace Crawford doesn’t get enough praise for the amount of humour he brings into the show. As for the Gen V connection, it’s not as heavy handed as one might expect but it certainly does reward the viewers who are familiar with those characters.
The weakest part of Season 3 was its finale, Season 4 overcomes that issue by delivering a very powerful finale, with lots of emotions and quite a few unexpected deaths. The finale is large in conception and certainly large in spirit too, my only concern for the show is the uncertainty with the number of seasons it’s going to take to reach a conclusion. The satire is not quite as sharp as it used to be in earlier seasons.
This season does not really transform any nook or cranny of the superhero satire, rather at times it ends up becoming the very thing it is satirizing. It’s not that big of an issue yet but it will be once it stretches beyond its elastic limit. I hope for this show to not fall into the cyclical narrative patterns, it should rather aim to be helical, and Kripke claiming to have an ending in mind fills me with hope. The best thing one can do now is to put faith in writers to stick the landing of this endlessly entertaining show without overstaying the welcome.
The Boys Season 4 stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Antony Starr as Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie January/Starlight, Jessie T. Usher as Reggie Franklin/A-Train, Laz Alonso as Mothers Milk, Chace Crawford as Kevin Moskowitz/The Deep, Tomer Capone as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko, Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett, Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman, and Cameron Crovetti as Ryan Butcher. Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan also join the cast this season, which will premiere on Prime Video on June 13th, 2024.
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