The Boys (Season 5)

⭐ 4/10

Woof, what an actual dumpster fire of a final season. I've been conflicted about this show, its obsession with disgusting deaths and being as verbally raunchy as possible, but was always fascinated by this heroes as the bad guys thing, especially Anthony Starr as Homelander. He is so terrifying, or at least he was until this season.

They clearly didn't know how to end this. The show always satirizes current day, but this goes beyond satire to just copying. Every hot-button thing you can think of is squeezed in here, we get it, the bad super heroes are like Republicans! And then Liberals are now "Starlighters", being thrown into internment camps for unclear reasons, just a really lazy photocopy of the polarization we see in American politics today. There is this writer in the show who writes movies, and he shows up a couple times to say meta lines about how difficult finales are, can't give everyone what they want. Give me a break, what a cop out veiled as meta-comedy. Just so lazy.

Homelander just isn't scary anymore? I think they are trying to convey that these powerful bullies are weak people who thrive on attention and fear, so when Homelander hits his breaking point he becomes a sniveling baby instead of, oh ya, the most powerful person on the planet! I can't say I want more carnage, but this guy should be nuking the world! So many characters with plot armour escaping his wrath inexplicably, when he can kill anyone whenever he wants. Every time he is on screen you used to feel dread, and now its just repetitive therapizing of what actually makes him bad. A total fumble. See that photo above, the way they advertised this season? Nothing even close to that ever happens.

The kills are still nasty, but even worse, there is a character who can't speak all series how now can, and all she says is the dirtiest things possible. They try to be funny, she learned to speak from TikTok! But is that how everyone speaks there? Also, she has been speaking sign language for 4 season, she knows how people talk! Insanely stupid choice for a bunch of raunchy jokes that don't land. Another terrible character is the smartest human alive. It's like introducing time travel, everything she does, every mistake she makes makes no sense because she knows everything! So many plot holes and nits around this character, what a bad idea.

I never thought this show was super deep or nuanced, but it had ideas. For instance, the main plot in this season is Homelander convincing himself he is God, and the church growing around that idea. They wrote this before Trump posted himself as Jesus, and its actually a great idea, a natural progression of that character, kind of neutered by the fact that we are sort of living through that. Even still, for a guy who thinks he's God he doesn't take a lot of all-mighty actions like he could. But ya, the ideas here are gone. I always loved Chace Crawford as the boot-licking Aquaman copy, and this season he's doing a bro podcast. So lazy, doesn't actually expand on his character, just says oh if this guy was alive right now what would he be doing, and they have him do that.

Apparently there is a spinoff coming, and this season sets some of that up? I certainly won't be watching. I started this show on a whim, had a multi-hour airport delay and basically watched the first season in a day. I don't regret watching, and the show as a whole had some memorable moments and ideas, but overall I would recommend not bothering with it.