Season 4 of The Boys just landed in a hot soup with a flood of negative reviews. The social satire that has long relied on Karl Urban’s Bucther-led group’s quest to oust the superpowered group of Homelander, seems to have let loose its underlying subtlety as it goes full aboard with political commentary mimicking real life, likely shooting itself in the foot because of it.
The penultimate season opened with Antony Starr’s supe facing an existential crisis and dealing with his realization that he cannot bend the world according to will just yet. Moreover, his insistence on crafting a new societal order with him and his kind of genetically superior beings being on top and humans reduced to “toys for our amusement,” has led him to seek dire measures such as recruiting new faces and stirring public sentiments.
Interestingly, all of those reflect recent American political turmoils and the show is openly admitting that it was always planning for this scenario, dividing audience sentiments.
Eric Kripke does not plan on holding back despite The Boys facing negativity
Since its live-action debut in 2019, The Boys has always followed a narrative of portraying a dark and satirical outlook on the prevalent superheroes in pop culture. Unhinged in violence and gore, the show has usually stuck to subtly criticizing and parodying large corporations, politics, and the influence of power. Yet, season four disregarded that hidden nature as it openly referenced real-life controversial events, leading viewers to accuse it of becoming too political.
In a surprising revelation, showrunner Eric Kripke, in talks with Variety, admitted that they always planned to take this direction and that the current narrative is a mirror for the state of the American Union.
We sort of lucked into a show whose metaphor is really about the moment we’re living in, which is the cross-section of celebrity and authoritarianism. And so once we realize that, we’re like, ‘Well, we have to go all the way.’
The prime highlight of its increased political showcase is the introduction of two new characters – Sister Sage and Firecracker. Scenes such as the former pulling the strings from behind the scenes to cause chaos at a rally and the latter being openly far-right and based on a real-life politician have brought the ire of the public, especially the conservatives.
Fans call out the declining storyline in Season 4
The politically charged atmosphere may not be the only thing working against the favor of The Boys. Its main story has become slow-paced and has made several unwarranted deviations. The sidelining of Butcher is inconsistent, the actors have put on confusing appearances, the character arc for Frenchie has side-stepped, and overall, the shock factor and pull of the writing have diminished, as per a summary of the sea of constructive reviews from viewers.
Amassing a measly 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, the current season of The Boys has undeniably left a large section of its viewers upset. While it may be a subject to review bombing because of its politically charged story and revamped character arcs, there is definitely a notable drop in writing quality compared to the show’s previous seasons where its outrageously gory scenes came balanced with a sense of direction that is largely missing from season 4.
Nah it just is no longer a good show anymore as they stray farther away from the source material. Keep pretending that the show is good but it's the last season for a good reason. They ran out of ideas and it shows.
— @AI_EmeraldApple (@AI_EmeraldApple) June 18, 2024
The show is weaker this time and it’s made some changes to the rules of the universe. Homelander isn’t supposed to age like normal humans for starters.
And the overt political tropes plus gaying Frenchie makes the show much less cool.
— steve anderson (@blitziod) June 18, 2024
Conservatives always knew the show had a depiction of them.
Season 4 simply crossed into state propaganda levels of political bias, and it’s really overwhelming.
Speaking for myself as a fan of the show and a conservative.
— Just.A.Guy. (@ElephantOpin) June 18, 2024
This season genuinely sucks, idec if I see myself get made fun of by the show, they make fun of everything. This season is just boring and has no more wow factor.
At one point an innocent character we all know in the show gets killed by Homelander and I felt nothing.
Then I…
— Sir Truthski (@Yeayeawtvpal) June 18, 2024
its not that. the plotlines this season are weak and not entertaining. they killed/wrote off the most interesting characters and are forcing new ones that we really dont care about
— ＳＬＡＮＤＲ ＳＺＮ ☠️ (@im_right_though) June 18, 2024
Or it’s just not as good as other seasons?
— vydil (@vyydil) June 18, 2024
Regardless, the show has managed to sit well with the critics and has even kept up with the ambitions of Eric Kripke. The latter, additionally, has ensured that the upcoming episodes will take a positive turn with the sixth one reportedly packing a punch. Brushing aside criticism, the showrunner is hopeful of ending the show on a high with a fifth season.
The Boys is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
