"The Boys Season 4" A Steady March To The End

 

    Jesus, I was rereading my review for The Boys Season 3, and frankly it was kind of awful. I guess I wasn't too picky, and am still not, so I still enjoyed it, but I don't think it was deserving of the 78 score I gave it in the first place. That score should go to this season, which I think did a significantly better job at doing what season 3 wanted to be (even if everyone loves Soldier Boy, me included) even if it suffers from the same things that ruined season 3 for me in the first place. I will say this though, even if it does suffer from trying to have all these different storylines going on at once and thus leaving little room for anyone in this 8 episode season, there was a clear direction and purpose. Everything in this season was necessary as leadup  towards a next season, which should be the final season, and I thank God this show didn't devolve into the "gone on for too long with five different spinoffs" show that it easily could have become.

    Just because there was a clear direction in this season doesn't mean I think everything was executed well. In fact, I'd argue the removal/killing of many characters in this season frankly felt kind of rushed. I mean with Mallory it definitely felt like the writers really didn't know what to do with her character. She only shows up in the final episode and it's only to remind viewers she actually has a relationship with Ryan/Homelander so she can be a catalyst for change for both characters. A-Train abruptly leaves at the end of episode 7, and never shows up again, so I'm kind of hoping we'll see him because I feel like while his arc was resolved there's definitely more they could do with him so maybe he'll come back next season. And should I even begin to talk about Neuman? I mean she was set up to be this big bad who might turn on Homelander, but is also a threat to the boys, just for her to kind of unceremoniously die to Butcher? I mean I could go on, Hughie is shown to have all of this trauma, especially around being raped and it's just kind of shoved under the rug after being set up as this big reveal? Kimiko and Frenchie's storylines pretty much take a backseat and kind of resolve themselves in the background as soon as the episodes start to ramp up. It's just a lot happening at once, and I don't think any of them are happening very gracefully.

    Though, I suppose one could argue grace was never a virtue of this show, or it's source material. Speaking of which, I'd like to discuss Butcher and his newfound powers. I actually like the fact that he has powers, I'm going to be honest I really enjoyed the fights they had this season, and it reminded me that despite being a show about superhero's/black ops, there's hardly any fighting at all, which needs to be remedied. Everyone brings up how in season one "the boys" not having powers forced them to kill superheroes in inventive ways, like sticking a bomb up translucent's ass, but at this point all that creativeness is out of the door. The boys are just being manhandled at every single turn, and it doesn't help that Starlights powers aren't working, so its basically Kimiko vs the world. I mean MM pulled out this giant gatling gun, just for it to do absolutely nothing against Noir. At this point, I think I would prefer it if the Boys had V at this point. I mean all they're doing is kills for the shock (like Tek-Knight and his sex dungeon), so I think it would be more entertaining if the boys had some firepower.

    I know I just did a lot of complaining about this season, but there are indeed things it did well. Both me and my friend did not see the big Butcher reveal coming at all. In fact, the only sign I noticed of him talking to himself was when he ended up scaring the runner. As someone who generally dislikes how overused the "talking to someone you feel guilty about" in your head trope is with television, especially Netflix shows, this one genuinely took me by surprise, in a good way. Also is it bad that I enjoyed Stan Edgar returning? I know people always joke that Giancarlo Esposito is typecast but I forgot how much I liked him until he came back, even if it was just for one episode. I'd also have to say that for the most part I enjoyed Sage, but to be honest she acted pretty out of character for the final episode. I feel like for a character who "predicts everything in advance" she needs some sort of weakness, which I presumed would be her pride. I'm not calling her a Mary Sue, but what exactly was her plan? How was her botched Starlight assassination plan actually a good thing? Why did she just  waltz back in at the end and gleefully tell Homelander that everything is going swell, instead of festering at home still being mad he won't trust her/dismissed her for Firecracker. On a side note I understand why they had to have all the Boys become wanted for this big comeback episode next season, but it makes little sense to how they were recorded killing Neuman, or to just have Neuman go so unceremoniously. 

Final Score: 76/100

    Look, for as many flaws as this game might have, I can still say without a semblance of a doubt that I am absolutely excited for this final season that's going to come. And I suppose that's good enough for a show that felt like it was beginning to lose its vision by the end of last season. I do wonder if there's any way they could make the show any more heavy handed with their critique of conservatism and corporations, I mean the finale is literally set on January 6th, how much more obvious could you make it. I do hope now that they've wrapped up everyone's sort of little arcs we're not too focused on having all of these different side stories for the final season. It would simply be too little too late, and would just make everything feel more rushed. I can't wait to see what they come up with though, and hopefully this show ends with a bang.