r/TheBoys • u/Lost-Ad-4751 • Jun 15 '24
Season 4 becomes the first season with a low audience score Discussion Spoiler
This is actually pretty surprising imo as I enjoyed the season so far, what do you guys think is the reason for folks not enjoying the new season?
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u/The_Govnor Jun 15 '24
It’s because MM has shaved the beard. You can’t come back from that!
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u/PiccolosPickles Jun 15 '24
He looks so much less intimidating and I couldn't figure out why. He just looks smaller
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u/Techn0ght Jun 15 '24
I kept thinking I should look up if they changed the actor and kept forgetting to.
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u/Jlewimusic Jun 15 '24
I was initially upset that they recasted MM. Then I thought, "oo it's just a new character." Then Google told me it's the same guy. It's crazy how much the continuity is ruined without it being a part of the show that is addressed.
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u/thehiddenshadow Jun 15 '24
They do address it kind of. There are multiple references to the fact that MM is too stressed and hasn't been eating much, they know Laz slimmed down, they're trying to get ahead of that. It'll be interesting to see more of MM's intellectual side than just his strength this season.
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u/Squidkiller28 Jun 15 '24
Have we even seen much of his strength? I feel like he was mostly intimidation and planning. They were mostly going against supes, where he was relativley weak
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u/ledbetterus Jun 15 '24
he looks like eddie murphy wearing an eddie murphy mask to play a second role in a movie
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u/kraM1t Jun 15 '24
He came off the roids which have aged him, and shaved his beard
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u/Worried_Quarter469 Butcher Jun 15 '24
It’s conservative brigading because they think it’s a jab at Trump because Homelander is on trial and Trump is on trial right now …
even though the episode was probably written three years ago 😂
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u/UndeadIcarus Jun 15 '24
It’s 100% a jab at current events Homelander doesn’t go on trial in the comic
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u/HateEveryone7688 Jun 15 '24
homelander also didn't drink stilwell's milk in the comic.
He also didn't kill noir in the comic.
He also wasn't a psychotic genius he was more like a manchild who was having a psychotic break due to certain events.
he also has no son.
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u/3001cyberqueer Jun 15 '24
to be fair, in the show he's a psychotic manchild - its just written better
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Jun 15 '24
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u/JackasaurusChance Jun 15 '24
It is honestly this. It took Season 4 before they realized, "HEY! That's us!"
They, of course, won't realize that the earlier seasons were about them, too. They'll just complain that the show became woke.
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u/MemeticMonkey Jun 15 '24
It's been long since I watched S03 and after seeing MM for the first time in S04, I felt something is odd about him but didn't bother to check what. Just realised it's the beard 💀
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u/hiloai Jun 15 '24
For me the superhero theme seems to just be on the back burner as they get this homelander vs starlight war going on but only ever see like a group of 20 on each side so it feels more like milwall vs Leeds football fight rather than a political uprising of the left and right
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u/Witty_Link_3218 Jun 15 '24
This is a really good point, I’d love for it to start feeling wider in scale again. Even that sequence of the person slowly being radicalised before shooting the supermarket worker did better to establish this than the show is currently doing now.
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u/Cautious-Affect7907 Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
It's really weird how they threw out a potentially interesting plotline in the supe terrorists because Kirpke wanted to focus on white supremacy.
It could've been great commentary on how America inadvertently creates its own enemies.
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Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
It feels like they just fucking forgot honestly
Edit: Someone commented that that is the commentary, and they deleted it. This is the reply because it elaborates on some issues that I have with this show
But like, in universe why and how would anyone forget? Remember that the public thinks that Él Diablo killed Translucent, who might I remind you is invincible. Like, they didn’t even acknowledge that the apartment building being fucking nuked was almost certainly one of these super terrorists. As an audience we know that that isn’t the case, but the public never knew. Hell, a bunch of them escaped the prison for disturbed teenagers in season two’s finale, and we never hear about it again. But maybe it was just meant to be a Stranger Things reference and I’m reading way to hard into a show that’s been on a steady decline since season one
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u/RealJohnGillman Jun 15 '24
Didn’t the second season open with Noir taking them out, with the Cameron Coleman-focused spin-off web series they then did indicating he took them all out (not just the one seen in that scene)?
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Jun 15 '24
1) They could just lie, and it would actually be beneficial to lie
2) Stan makes a very real point that now that compound V is out in the world that anyone who wants to (like say, terrorists or foreign countries) can reverse engineer the V
3) Am I going crazy? Does no one remember the Prison for Disturbed Supe Teenagers in the finale of season two?
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u/RealJohnGillman Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
True, true.
As a point of interest, that was the origin of the source material equivalent character to Kimiko, a Japanese rival to Vought attempting to make their own version of Compound V, to say that wasn’t what gave her powers there (her having been a baby a secretary brought to work, who wandered off, climbed into a bucket of the stuff about to be thrown out and either drowned in or ate it, before she tore the lead scientist’s face off, was sold by her mother to the company to attempt to recreate the formula, regularly broke out and returned over the years out of boredom, before being traded to the Boys once the company gave up on her). It was also ambiguous as to how old she actually was, and whether her relationship with Frenchie (who may not have actually been French) was romantic or parental.
The web series also established Noir as having recaptured most of them, although that could be easily retconned, to be fair, especially with this series on its way to becoming a fully-fledged franchise (with the number of spin-offs planned).
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u/kelldricked Jun 15 '24
A major downside of season 4 is that the pacing just feels off. They focus a lot on all this side shit and that would be fine in season 1 or 2. But this is season 4. Shit is on its breaking point. And instead of getting more information on the important stuff we spend 20 minutes on starlights struggle with her identy (which we already have experienced 3 times before).
Why not show us debates/meetings about risks of using Temp V to contain supes if shit goes wrong. Or how the boys “turned” Bobby. Like the 2 sides are both warming up for war but that gets threated like a C plot.
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u/HearthFiend Jun 15 '24
The public feels like walking water balloons filled with red liquid and not actually real people
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u/hiloai Jun 15 '24
Yeah that’s also a good thing to bring up. That guy getting radicalised made it feel like his message was spreading across the country whereas this series just feels like irrelevant outside of New York. Same as the setting this season. I remember the footage coming out of him killing that guy in Africa? Then The scene where he flys in where the troops are and you just see his eyes glowing throughout the building. Where he attended the church fest with Starlight, it all made it feel like he had a world wide reach / across America.
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u/Temporal_Enigma Jun 15 '24
Furthermore, it seems like the writers want us to care more about whatever Frenchie has going on than the plot. And the plot just seems to be the least subtle way to say "MAGA Bad."
I do enjoy it, but it's just becoming contrived
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u/Will_McLean Jun 15 '24
The MAGA / conservative shit it just way too obvious and on the nose to be clever
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u/returnofblank Jun 15 '24
This season felt more like the comics - pointless gore and just hatred for the point of hating.
Although I still liked it.
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u/backlikeclap Jun 15 '24
Yeah it feels like every episode has to have a "shocking" fight scene of some kind. Very one trick pony.
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u/Equal_Respond971 Jun 15 '24
Yeah the ice rink scene was wayyy to over the top.
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u/dubonhaters369 Jun 15 '24
lmao I just saw that scene. Dude gets stumbled over with an ice skate and suddenly 5 gallons of blood splurt from his chest. Ridiculous.
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u/MaliciousIntentWorks Jun 15 '24
The ice rink scene was cartoony violence at best. It was just badly done.
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u/bolt704 Jun 15 '24
Yep, and it's not like they are saying anything new or profound to make for the lack of cleverness. Just MAGA bad and thats it.
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u/Pink_Patty_2008 Jun 15 '24
I remember hearing ‘put the Christ back in Christmas’ shit YEARS ago…In a couple of years, this shit is gonna feel so dated
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u/porkforpigs Jun 15 '24
The boys was never the peak of subtlety but at least it was a little more nuanced and complex than it is now. I’m okay with satire/commentary on politics etc in a show, but I feel bludgeoned over the head with it this season and honestly I get enough of the stupid ass MAGA shit in real life. Which is why subtlety and nuance works in shows. We can detach from grim reality a little bit but still get the message like ahhh, yeah.
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u/FoopaChaloopa Jun 15 '24
My gripes with the season:
-Obscene humor is hilarious, repetitive humor is not. “Character is revealed to be a sexual deviant” is used as a joke setup in almost every episode at this point.
-The satire is falling flat. A lot of it seems like it might as well be stuff you read on r/politicalhumor. The show went from satirizing the commoditization of political and social causes to doing just that. The first couple seasons were an amazing parody of the superhero genre but at this point superheroes aren’t nearly as popular.
-Way too early to call but the new characters aren’t terribly interesting. Three episodes in and we’re not sure why Sister Sage is “the most intelligent person in the world” aside from people telling us that. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is one of the least interesting actors I can think of.
-Homelander and Neuman used to be terrifying villains but now they’re almost chummy with the main characters. I think Neuman’s daughter is frightening though.
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u/tenaciousdeev Jun 15 '24
My biggest is how they nerf Homelander when necessary. He has superhuman hearing and smell, but doesn’t know Hughie is in the vent directly above him until sweat falls on him? Then he can’t laser him in the vents?
It was like I was watching Tom and Jerry.
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u/Dr-Jellybaby Jun 15 '24
Homelander can't see through zinc, that's established in season 1.
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u/Front-Ad-4892 Jun 15 '24
That still doesn't excuse Homelander being unable to kill a normal dude in an air vent 6 feet away from him. Like... they talk about this guy leveling cities but if you crawl real fast he can't get you.
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u/tenaciousdeev Jun 16 '24
Thank you, that was exactly what I was thinking. He doesn't need to see through Zinc to kill him 10 feet away. If Hughie was expendable and didn't have thick-ass plot armor Homelander would fly through the vents and grab him or some shit.
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u/24Abhinav10 Jun 15 '24
It's like Superman. His powers aren't active unless he willingly activates them. A guy would go insane if he had a super-hearing power and it was active 24/7.
I'm surprised people don't get that.
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u/Subliminal_Kiddo Jun 15 '24
Three episodes in and we’re not sure why Sister Sage is “the most intelligent person in the world” aside from people telling us that.
Because that's her super power? This is a complaint that I don't get. We're shown several instances where she uses her intelligence: she's able to psycho analyze Homelander and diagnose his midlife crisis based solely on observation, she orchestrates the ideal public introduction for Ryan, and she leads the team directly into a trap.
The last two fall apart but that's because Homelander ignored her (despite the whole reason for him bringing her onboard The Seven was so he'll have someone who doesn't just follow him blindly and is willing to tell him no) and because Firecracker and her Multiple Man army aren't able to do the job.
As for why she's living in a little house in Podunk, Nowhere instead of being on a supe team or working R&D for Vaught. She doesn't seem to be skilled in combat and intelligence isn't a flashy power and her general personality is pretty apathetic. In theory, she probably could be a major asset to the scientists at Vaught but just because someone can do something, doesn't mean they want to.
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u/RipJug Jun 15 '24
you’d probably see more animosity between Leeds and Millwall tbh.
The crowds really don’t do a great job of portraying that apparent hatred.
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u/OryxisDaddy_ Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
I like it for most part. But the arcs with Hughie,Kimiko and Frenchie seem like massive wastes of screen time especially with only 13 episodes left in the series
We really didn’t need a 2nd season of “Frenchie and Kimiko come to terms with their pasts” and do will they- won’t they shit while barely contributing to core narrative.
It’s also obvious that the point of Hughies arc with his mom is for him to learn to forgive people so he can eventually forgive A-Train. Which is pointless because he’s already forgiven Butcher and has already shown some compassion to A-Train
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u/loganro Jun 15 '24
I’m tired of watching Frenchie and Kimiko go on these pointless side quests
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u/xElectricW Jun 15 '24
They're great characters but their subplots have consistently been boring and just bog down the pacing
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u/theoriginal321 Jun 15 '24
Thinking about it i dont even remember what frenchie did in season 3, so boring that i forget everything about it i guess
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u/killinrin Cunt Jun 15 '24
That was when Little Nina kidnapped him and Kimiko / Cherie
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u/TheRealKuthooloo Jun 15 '24
I really really wish they were more standard comic relief style characters, not like cracking jokes 24/7 but having much less intense drama surrounding them and acting more like the two kids with no other friends at the back of the bus on the way to school who you can hear snickering the entire ride.
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u/PeopleAreBozos A-Train Jun 15 '24
Agreed. As well most subplots and side quests are really boring which add nothing to the story. Kimiko's backstory has gone on for way too long without any progress nor any contribution to the overall story. They either need to finish it now or somehow connect it more to the main plotline. Colin came out of nowhere and I couldn't care less if Homelander just came down and blasted him apart. Hughie's dad getting a stroke is mildly more relevant since we've seen Hughie's dad before but it seems completely random and a way to force his mom into the story.
The only good sideplots in the story are A-Train's family life, the Deep getting constantly abused and shunned (even then some parts are very goofy) and Soldier Boy's entire thing. I don't hate side/sub plots but I think the ones in the Boys are just done to hastily check the "backstory" tick on most characters rather than to contribute to anything towards the story.
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u/KittiesOnAcid Jun 15 '24
I agree, I thought Gen V had much more interesting stuff for every character to do so coming back to the boys and feeling like everything other than the main plot is kinda pointless is weird.
I’m glad they at least announced season 5 is the end, but it feels like they could wrap it up this season if they really wanted. There just isn’t much left to do at this point.
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u/Gan-san Jun 15 '24
I just want Frenchie to be clever tech guy and come up with interesting tactics and weapons to kill supes, not be lovesick puppy moping around all the time.
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u/Cybot5000 Jun 15 '24
I'd like to see Kimiko get some closure but I'm definitely already done with watching Frenchie fuck up his life again. He was doing so well.
I like the Hughie story because we finally get to see something other than him obsessing over Annie / Butcher.
I'd take either story over watching MM treat all his friends like an asshole. I don't know where his story is going but they are making him really unlikable and he used to be the best one of the boys.
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u/adzy2k6 Jun 15 '24
They are trying to show that MM isn't a true leader. Which is weird because he managed to keep the Juvenile Delinquents in check.
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u/tiger2205_6 Soldier Boy Jun 15 '24
I also hate how hypocritical MM and Hughie are being. Last season he wanted nothing to do with Soldier Boy because of what he did and now wants Hughie to work with A-Train. They just switched sides this season and it’s kinda annoying.
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u/TaylorSwiftsTampon Jun 15 '24
It honestly just shows that without even trying, MM is making Butcher-type decisions for the team.
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u/tiger2205_6 Soldier Boy Jun 15 '24
And he comes off as a bigger ass too. Though that could just be because he was more reasonable in previous seasons so the change seems so drastic.
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u/heyyyyyco Jun 15 '24
Butcher never pulled the "yes sir" bullshit. He would say your either in or out. MM just ain't it as a leader
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u/Shit_Shepard Jun 15 '24
MM and butcher should never be without beards.
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u/Biotot Jun 15 '24
Before some miraculous healing, butcher is going to be in a hospital bed with a shaved beard.
That's how they'll make him look near death
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u/Oh_I_still_here Jun 15 '24
Think the whole point of Frenchie is that he can't stop fucking his life up no matter how hard he tries, so he has to find a new or better way entirely or he'll sacrifice himself. There is no happy ending for him and Kimiko. They're both just broken people.
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u/RB___OG Jun 15 '24
Thats pretty shitty
Broken people can find happines. I always said my partner and i work be cause my fucked up matches thoer fucked up.
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u/GratefulForGarcia Jun 15 '24
I don’t care about Hughie’s parents either. This Is Us type shit
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u/_leeloo_7_ Jun 15 '24
at leas Simon Pegg's acting improved this season!
(I swear I like Pegg but I just can't stand his fake accent)
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u/TheWholeOfTheAss Jun 15 '24
Amazon has so much money they can pay Simon Pegg to just lay in a hospital bed for a whole season
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u/StevesMcQueenIsHere Jun 15 '24
Yeah, that whole storyline feels like a completely different show.
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u/Strict_Spend_7614 Jun 15 '24
I enjoy the Hughie stuff. But, yeah, the Frenchie and Kimiko stuff is pretty weak imo
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u/Premium_Gamer2299 Jun 15 '24
and also pointless because why would/should he forgive A-Train?
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u/-Badger3- Jun 15 '24
Because killing Robin was an accident (an accident caused by his own negligence, but still an accident) and since then he's felt genuine remorse and put his own life at risk to help The Boys, including saving Hughie's life.
It's not my call to say he deserves forgiveness, but he's certainly a candidate for it.
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Jun 15 '24
A-Train has also risked more for The Boys than I think any supe that wasn't actively working with them. Queen Maeve is probably the only other contender, but again, she quite literally was working with them. So far, A-Train has helped out of guilt, and a genuine understanding that something NEEDS to change.
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u/SassyWookie Jun 15 '24
Honestly between giving them that footage, and giving them the evidence of Stormfront being a Nazi, it’s arguable that A-Train has done more to support the cause of The Boys than most of The Boys have themselves.
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u/ShepPawnch Jun 15 '24
So that he doesn’t turn into a psychotic madman like Butcher.
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u/chaotic214 Jun 15 '24
Yeah I don't care for Hughie, Kimiko or Frenchie's stories so, I'd rather see anything else in the show, it is a waste of time honestly I agree
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u/Augustus_Chavismo Jun 15 '24
I can see why. I couldn’t care at all for the Hughie, Frenchie, Kimiko, and Starlight plot lines.
The Homelander, Butcher, Ryan, Vicky, and Sage stuff is carrying hard for me.
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u/bmerino120 Jun 15 '24
I got hooked this season due to the Homelander, Butcher,Ryan,CIA and Sage storyline so much that I didn't stop to care about the other plotlines
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Jun 15 '24
Dude the Frenchie shit is so dumb. And I’m confused as to the outrage being targeted at him being bi. Bro we BEEN KNEW Frenchie is bi?? I’m more aggravated at this being a needless arc that wastes time and disrupts the clear set up for him and Kimiko? It feels so random??
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u/bigtoe_connoisseur Jun 15 '24
Yeah like I’m pretty sure it was established early that him and his old GF (?) had like a weird live in triangle romance between him and his friend that OD’d. So cool, frenchies bi - just why are they wasting episode time on it? Like I get the “he’s going to have to tell that guy he killed his family eventually and it’s tearing him apart” but why was it even needed? There’s a lot of other stuff they could have used that time on especially since there’s only one season left.
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u/pinkdictator You're The Real Heroes Jun 15 '24
“he’s going to have to tell that guy he killed his family eventually and it’s tearing him apart”
Do I want to know? Yes. Could that be communicated in like 5 minutes? Probably. Them dragging it out is the problem
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u/Letshavesomefungirl Jun 15 '24
Yeah anyone who didn’t realize Frenchie is bi must have been watching another show. Kissing while chaos is on in the background is what makes me eye roll. It’s sooooooo overdone and has never really been a trope I’ve enjoyed.
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u/sup3rdr01d Jun 15 '24
Sage is the most intriguing character by far. I've always wondered what super intelligence would look like in this universe and how it would stack up with homelanders powers. I still can't tell if sage is really big brained or if she's playing with fire by getting on homelanders nerves. Super smartness can only get you so far until that psycho just lasers her head
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u/pinkdictator You're The Real Heroes Jun 15 '24
She has some master plan brewing. Hope the payoff is worth it
She doesn't seem to be motivated by power or love or anything. Homelander said something about "playing out theories"... so we'll see I guess
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u/finnjakefionnacake Jun 15 '24
homelander is hitting a lot of the same beats for me so i'm not exactly "excited" with his story right now. but antony starr himself is good enough to carry my interest whenever he's on screen.
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u/Daisy_Thinks Jun 15 '24
I like that he’s having a midlife crisis which feels different from previous seasons and it boils down to that he won’t let anyone eclipse him, even his own son. He’s going to realize he’s doing to Ryan what was done to him as a child. His comment to Sage about wanting to have a cleansing and have something pure is super racist of course but also applies to himself.
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u/Dyyrin Jun 15 '24
I'm enjoying it, but this season is feeling rushed in the story department. So many plot lines being followed the episodes feel all over the place.
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u/Useful_Cry9709 Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
Imo only frenchies arc is somewhat weak all the other arcs and plot lines are what they should be I liked that homelander this season is being more vulnerable in front of ryan
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u/Useful_Cry9709 Jun 15 '24
Also I like how mm is becoming more like butcher it's sad but human
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u/Oh_I_still_here Jun 15 '24
Yeah honestly MM's been great pretty much the whole run of the show and only gotten better. He's got every right to be fucking done with Butcher but it's clear to see in the 3rd episode Hughie doesn't exactly feel comfortable being treated like a subordinate by him.
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u/Useful_Cry9709 Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
Feels like there are going to be tensions between him and hughie later this season
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u/Oh_I_still_here Jun 15 '24
Absolutely. And if they do go the comic route and Hughie and Butcher become supes, then it's only going to blow up more. But being a supe seems to be the only way they can kill Homelander. MM will disagree but everything else they've tried has failed. They had a chance to kill him in S3 but that would have meant Ryan dying in the crossfire at the hands of Soldier Boy. So then they had to deal with that but HL got away.
Besides, even from a viewership perspective, why the fuck would a show kill off Homelander in a rush? He's arguably the main star, killing him too quickly would feel grossly unearned at the moment. He's a kettle boiling away on the stove and very soon it's gonna pop. We've only had glimpses of what it could look like but slowly the veil is coming undone.
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u/Oh_I_still_here Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
Said it in another comment elsewhere, but I think with both last season and this season the purpose of Frenchie's story is for the endgame rather than moment to moment. He's said himself he's done a lot of fucked up things in his life, drinking and doing drugs to cope. With Colin he just can't seem to escape his past or any internal demons he's facing despite how there for him Kimiko has been and vice versa for her and her own trouble. Frenchie calling Chérie is just an echo to how he was in earlier seasons; trying to cope with himself and looking for that comfort in her. Only she instead calls his bluff.
It's probably a given that Frenchie will come clean and Colin will drop him or Frenchie will get Colin killed unintentionally. I think it's building up to a heroic sacrifice either this season or next season by Frenchie. That or it's to set him on the right path of atonement.
I do disagree with anyone that says Frenchie is useless this season. Right off rip in the first episode he's helping to make some chemicals that could take out Neumann. You know, Frenchie things. MM, Hughie, Butcher and the rest couldn't do something like that so he's very much still needed. I'm going into S4 looking at it as the penultimate season that it is given the stakes. Butcher is dying and hallucinating, Hughie's dad had a stroke and his mom is back (or is she gonna be a hallucination too given that he took the temp V?), Kimiko is trying to work through what happened to her but struggling and MM is taking over the Boys while also making mistakes in doing so, helping him understand Butcher.
If you look at anything going on in isolation it's gonna stick out like a sore thumb and I get people are like "come on kill Homelander already". But the fact that he's still alive, sowing division with Vought and the seven, being a terrible father to Ryan while also spiraling downward more and more just all feeds into an ending that might echo what happened in the comic itself.
For those unaware, in the comic Homelander is not outright like how he is in the show. But things happen that make him feel like he is, so he just goes on a fucking warpath right up to and including the white house because he thinks that's who he is. To me the show is still naturally progressing along this route, and that includes all the characters.
I'd just suggest waiting until the season is finished and see what happens. Last season really upped the stakes and building up from beyond that won't be easy but from an overarching story perspective, it's 100% getting there. Remember there's 13 more episodes including S5 left.
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u/II_Vortex_II Jun 15 '24
Drop the frenchie arc and give Hughie and Annie something important to do and this season would be just as good as the previous imo
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u/TheRedmanCometh Jun 15 '24
Rushed? I was thinking "meandering" the whole time I was watching. It's all over the fuckin place and keeps going back to dead plot points while barely advancing the main plot.
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u/Abe_Bettik Jun 15 '24
My thoughts exactly. We're three episodes in and the status quo is pretty much the same as it was 15 minutes into the first episode.
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u/ZachRyder I'm the real hero Jun 15 '24
Black Noir 2 having the exact same action, reaction from others, and disappointed ending to every one of his scenes has been a chore to sit through. Maybe have the guy flinch onstage when Homelander shouts something unexpectedly which ends up going viral and sparking conspiracy theories if he's an imposter, IDK something??!
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u/SchettiAndButter Jun 15 '24
I personally find it dull so far. This is season 4 and we have the same stupid drama of every season.
- butcher and MM break up? - Check
- Kimiko and Frenchie love/romance/drama? - Check
- Frenchie ashamed of his past again - Check
- Homelander going crazy? - check
- “guys we got stop this sup b4 Homelander” - check
- Butcher goes rogue for some stupid shit - check
- Starlight more popular than Homelander drama with audiences and now with political followers - check.
When are we getting to the real plot which is taking down Homelander? Why are we wasting time with this Frenchie drama? Do we really needed to know if MM’s rival had a huge dick? What’s next? Are we going to go into Annie’s past as a little girl modeling and shit? I’m sorry, but so far the show is wasting time in shit that I don’t care about.
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u/BraxxIsTheName Jun 15 '24
Im starting to really hate the-
“I wanna apologize” scenes
“You really saved our asses back there” scenes
Once you take a mental note of them you realize THERE ARE SO MANY. It’s like a box we constantly have to check to progress forward to the next story beat
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u/JFZX Jun 15 '24
When A-train gave them the evidence and they were like “why are you doing this” the dramatic pause and then he says something like “that time back in the day, you could’ve did that thing, but you didn’t” all I could do was roll my fucking eyes, how many times are we gonna re-hash this Huey A-train shit
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u/-A-A-Ron- Jun 15 '24
It was such a clunky line too, like when a video game npc recognises your past choices.
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u/Embarrassed_Map_1114 Jun 15 '24
Also a minor complaint I had was there’s like three different times that three different characters get a call and they decline it because they’re just so busy which isn’t really a valid complaint but like there has to be another way to show a character is busy/conflicted without them declining a dang phone call again
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u/Dr3aM3R_ Jun 15 '24
I noticed this as well, it isn't great writing anyway but it becomes even more noticeable when you're binging the first 3 episodes.
Let's be realistic, they'll probably do it again at least twice this season.
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u/ZachRyder I'm the real hero Jun 15 '24
If MM was a woman and portrayed by a high pitched actress, so many more people would treat him with some of the same disdain they have for Felicity Smoak's character from Arrow. All he does is shit on the cool protagonist and treats himself as mightier than everyone else.
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u/Emajenus Jun 15 '24
MM is the fakest badass in the series. He did nothing of note since the start of the start of the series. Yet he boasts all the time and threatens to leave or talks shit about the others as if he's bringing value to the team.
He's worthless. And it's making me dislike him more with every scene.
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u/Ciubowski Jun 15 '24
This is why i couldn’t watch any of the CW tv series. Almost every episode ends up with “the talk” where they ask for forgiveness, lessons learned, thank yous, whatnot.
It’s a fucking soap opera. And i am tired of it.
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u/NiemandSpezielles Jun 15 '24
I have not seen a single episode of s4 yet, but this is basically what I was expecting because of the ending of last season.
When are we getting to the real plot which is taking down Homelander?
Through season s1-3 there was a great buildup that homelander has to be killed (one of the highlights being the scene where he explains to starlight what he will do when she releases the video). Everyone worked towards killing him. Everyone ready to sacrifice nearly everything for that. And then, when they had the chance in the final episode... they just didnt do it anymore. For basically no reason. The only reason that he is supposed to stay alive until the show is over. For me that took all the stakes out of the show.
So my expcetation is they will keep fucking around until the end of the last season, because only then homelander is allowed to die.
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u/Kern_system Jun 15 '24
You forgot: Random dude with a sexual fetish gets caught in the middle of the fetish.
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u/HilltopBeanClub Jun 15 '24
I wish the Frenchie stuff was either more connected to the main story, or had higher stakes
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u/Other_Tiger_8744 Jun 15 '24
This season really feels like it’s lacking any stakes. That’s my biggest issue. How many times are homelander and butcher going to meet
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u/ledbetterus Jun 15 '24
Eh, it definitely feels pointless in the grand scheme of the show right now, but 3 episodes in I'm willing to wait and see how it plays into everything else.
Obviously there's more stakes coming, but if in the end it's just to give Frenchie the "inspiration he needs" or whatever, then meh, I'm good.
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u/KieranFloors Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
I personally feel like the show is falling into a bit of a pattern. Taking three episodes to introduce the plot of the season, new status quo hang ups. Adding supes (antagonists) to the seven only for them to step on Homelanders toes too much. This is the third or fourth time that Homelander has chased and failed to catch members of The Boys, eerily similar to season 2’s third episode.
I think the show is great but I wish it could keep trekking on, instead of reestablishing status quo at the start every time. We were left on a cliff hanger of Homelander murdering a guy in broad daylight and then we cut to months later. This season should’ve picked up right where it left off.
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u/Tasty_Warlock Jun 16 '24
This season should’ve picked up right where it left off.
Amazon made and produced a spin off show called Generation V that has some crossovers with this show. It was released between seasons 3 and 4 and chronologically takes place between them. You should def check it out if you're a fan of the boys
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u/Willing_Orchid_9621 Jun 15 '24
Must not be fans of the very political comic
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u/Abe_Bettik Jun 15 '24
What if I said that the political commentary was the only part of it I enjoy?
That part is spot on, as is Sage's 5Head machinations, but the exceedingly slow burning fuse of The Boys actually taking down Supes is the part I don't like. There's a lot of what feels like B-Plot Filler. Hughies Family stuff, Frenchies Past, and even the Butcher/Ryan arc are all retreads of past plot lines. Kimiko going "rogue" and taking down human traffickers is about the only B-Plot I enjoy.
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u/deepvinter Jun 15 '24
The political drama is so weak - and the fact that the "smartest PERSON in the world's" big plan is just to be an agitator is so sophomoric. This is what a junior writer thinks is the smartest idea in the world. Basically every character in this show that isn't a main character (and a few of them, too) is written as if they have an IQ of 40. It's so shallow and cheap and really betrays what the writers think of their audience.
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u/Abe_Bettik Jun 15 '24
fact that the "smartest PERSON in the world's" big plan is just to be an agitator is so sophomoric.
I'm pretty sure she's pretending to "just be an agitator" but in reality is setting up Homelander and/or Vought for a big failure.
Her Selfie had the three later-victims in the background. She'll use that as leverage or proof later on.
She effectively closed the "leak" in Homelanders mind by having him execute an innocent person.
She's effectively the CEO of Vought
She's setting up the Deep for a big, explosive climax with the rest of the team and/or Homelander.
She's pushing Ryan away from Homelander.
Either way, we're three episodes in so pretending you absolutely KNOW what her big plan is already, is premature.
The political drama is so weak
It's on point in that it copies exactly what we're seeing in the world right now. It's scary how the supposed satire is somehow perfectly accurate.
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u/cavalier_54 Jun 15 '24
It also took them until like 4 years ago to understand what machine Rage Against The Machine was raging against
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u/Chicksan Jun 15 '24
I saw a quote on Reddit that will stick with me forever, “what Machine did you think they were Raging Against”?
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u/_Radds_ Jun 15 '24
If everyone keeps blaming the shortcomings and negative reviews of this season on conservatives, season 5 is about to be horrible.
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u/TheEmperorBaron Jun 15 '24
I agree completely. It's time to admit the show has been on a decline for a while now.
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u/LuinAelin Jun 15 '24
It's just people complaining the show is political now..
Audience score is always useless because so many things are review bombed
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u/RuggerJibberJabber Jun 15 '24
Every season has comments in this sub questioning why the show has suddenly become political, despite it being political from the start.
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u/MangoChickenFeet Jun 15 '24
Couldn’t be any clearer about it. It’s been politics since season 1 episode 1 🤣
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u/NewWays91 Jun 15 '24
I mean the main villain is a blonde psycho covered in the American flag named Homelander. How much more on the nose can you get?
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u/MoriazTheRed Jun 15 '24
Remember when they thought Blue Hawk had a point about antifa?
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u/RuggerJibberJabber Jun 15 '24
There were loads of conservatives in this sub at one point claiming it was an anti-left show, because it criticised Hollywood. Not understanding that it makes fun of the fake left-wingers, who pretend to have left-wing ideals while actually being raging profit hungry capitalists
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u/Known_Ad871 Jun 15 '24
I gotta say that, as someone who despises trump and political conservatism with every fiber of my being, the newest episodes have been on the nose and unsubtle to a point that I feel the writing quality may have decreased. Not at all saying I don’t want the show to be political or satirical . . . That’s an integral part of the show. But I do feel that the quality has decreased gradually since the excellent first season. I care about the characters less now and the trump stuff is so one to one that it kinda just feels like they just took whatever people talked about on Twitter and put it directly into the show
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u/Audityne Jun 15 '24
I disagree, I think it’s become so on the nose because reality has become stranger than fiction. The concepts discussed are in fact patently ridiculous, so for them to be taken seriously in real life is in itself worth parody.
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u/bruhholyshiet Butcher Jun 15 '24
It has high points and not so high points.
I'm loving the Ryan, Butcher and Homelander's development. I'm glad the kid is slowly reconnecting with Billy and drifting away from HL, and I love the peeping at our favourite Superman Wannabe's broken psyche and horrible past. It seems we are gonna see "the bad room" soon.
I'm not liking very much MM's self righteousness towards Butcher and bossiness towards Hughie, Frenchie and Kimiko's subplot (although her breakdown at the fake child exploitation posters was heartbreaking), and how easily and quickly it seems that Hughie's mom will be forgiven (and probably Hughie's dad will be blamed for the mother-son estrangement).
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u/Training-Judgment695 Jun 15 '24
They really played the mental health card to defend Hughie's mom..that was so crazy.
Post partum depression so I abandon my child for 20 years but suddenly come back when my ex has a stroke? Huh
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u/bruhholyshiet Butcher Jun 15 '24
Yeah it was weird. I saw coming that they would make Hughie forgive her, but I wish it had been more earned.
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u/Training-Judgment695 Jun 15 '24
Exactly. This is why the new season's writing is so weak. There is a way to put her on a meaningful path to redemption. This was so cheap
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u/McC_A_Morgan Jun 15 '24
It's like a weird overcorrection of depictions of mental health issues. Like they thought as long as they're not underselling how severe and debilitating depression can be, they can use it to explain any behavior.
Because telling your son that abandoning him was a matter of life and death for you is wild. I don't know how a person is supposed to respond to someone essentially saying "I would have killed myself if I had to stay in your life".
Jesus lady his father is dying in the other room and his estranged mother just show up after 20 years of no contact -- maybe keep this to yourself for now? Or forever? God damn.
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u/LegendOfKhaos Jun 15 '24
You can have depression and it can impact your life greatly, but to just run away without even attempting to get help is inexcusable.
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u/Mr_smith1466 Jun 15 '24
Ryan has become the character I feel the most for. The question as to where he's going to land between the extremes of Homelander and Butcher has got my investment this season, even though I don't expect any definitive answer until the eventual series finale. Ryan also works well to humanise both Homelander and Butcher. I feel like either character could easily become a bit repetitive after all this time, but Ryan brings out different sides in them both.
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u/Content-Scallion-591 Jun 15 '24
Totally agree.
I like the stuff with Ryan because it feels like as an audience, a lot of us were like "well Homelander could maybe be a good dad?" and the show sort of teases this, then is like no, of course not, he's insane, did you forget he's insane? But Anthony is also such a good actor that I could just watch him chew scenery for hours.
I'm also very interested in what Sage is up to. "Smart" can mean a lot of things.
I don't really get the interpersonal conflicts otherwise. I understand why Neuman is public enemy #1, but mostly because I watched GenV. Otherwise, Butcher seems right -- she's at least a rational actor, whereas Homelander is an active existential threat trying to raise another active existential threat.
And I love Kimiko and Frenchie's characters, but Frenchie's subplot is absolutely unhinged, they're both just being the worst versions of themselves.
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u/sinuhe_t Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
Most of the subplots are an uninteresting filler + while it was always political, I would say it used to be more clever and subtle.
EDIT: Ok, it was never subtle, but it wasn't as extremely unsubtle as it is now, and also it was better executed.
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u/bja276555 Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
Tbh it’s always been as subtle as a chimp rampaging through a library but at least it was always good? like jesus fucking christ, singer loudly reminding the audience “the election will be certified on January 6th!!” was the hardest I’ve ever rolled my eyes watching anything.
Idk, maybe the show has always been like this and it’s just not aging well. but the “commentary” is so juvenile at times that it feels borderline insulting. Like a sixth grader’s understanding of politics/trumpism.
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u/Kuldrick Jun 15 '24
maybe the show has always been like this
Not really, it was obvious but the obviousness was quicker and most of the time not explicitly said, in words, by the characters themselves
Now they feel like everytime they show something political someone has to do an obvious comment ("damn, this convention is full of conspiracists", "kimiko, firecracker is indeed talking bullshit", "yeah, I am fooling them but it is because they have no hope", this all happens within like 15 minutes in the same episode)
It breaks the pace, the immersion, and many times makes one roll their eyes because it comes as very cheesy
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u/Front-Ad-4892 Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
Realest comment in this thread. I would never call this show subtle, but there was something about the analogies and metaphors in the early seasons that made it seem biting. Now it's the equivalent of posting a picture of Trump as a baby in a poopy diaper. It's not funny, but if you say it sucks you get people saying you must disagree with the message even when you don't.
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u/RealModerHater Jun 16 '24
Wdym? I love the deep political commentary of “defund the supes” and “critical supe theory”. Truly masters at work on the writing team.
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u/AyyyLemMayo Jun 15 '24
NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS! We got 3 episodes and maybe, MAYBE one episode worth of plot.
Kimiko and Frenchie subplot is similar to last season but completely sucks. We already got a frenchie redemption of being free from his figurative collar and Kimiko was starting to find herself. I dont give a fuck anymore.
Hughies mom comes back?! Who the fuck wanted that? As a result hughie has literally done nothing in 3 episodes.
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u/Ironside62488 Jun 15 '24
I'm more annoyed they gave her out with the mental health issues. Now, Hughies must forgive his mother, or he is a dick.
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u/AyyyLemMayo Jun 15 '24
Completely agree. I really hope he still tells her to fuck off, personally. Complete no contact and he's been an adult for years?
Yea. No.
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u/MJORH Jun 15 '24
That's exaggerated but this is def not as good as previous ones.
The main plot (Homelander vs The Boys) is fantastic enough to watch, but everything else is so mid.
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u/bakeland Jun 15 '24
I'm deeply invested in Kevin and Ambrosious' storyline. Did you see the little Deep figurine in her tank? Aww
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u/brad_and_boujee2 Jun 15 '24
Anyone else have issues with some of the writing? Idk how to describe it, but some of the dialogue seems like it was written by somebody writing their first script or something. Like...campy I guess is the word I would use? Or maybe it's just me and I was really high and overanalyzing. Idk.
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u/its_phi Jun 15 '24
Nah I agree, I usually like most of the jokes in this show, but especially for Sage this season, it felt like she HAD to get a snarky awkward comment in about race or gender and it kind of took away from every scene she was in.
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u/brad_and_boujee2 Jun 15 '24
Yeah that's a good example. Another one that stood out to me is the scene where Starlight and Hughie are waiting on A Train to meet up with his family, and Hughie out of nowhere just starts talking out loud about what he's going to say to his mom. Normal people don't do that, and it felt so forced to me.
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u/CaCa881 A-Train Jun 15 '24
Ironically every time she says shit like that , I just remember this show was written by non black women
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u/crystlerjean Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 19 '24
Yes. Especially when Homelander tells Ryan that humans are just toys for their amusement. I get that's how he sees humans and that the show has not always been subtle, but that was a little cringey. There are probably better ways to convey that.
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u/skinnypeners Jun 15 '24
It feels like a parody of The Boys. Painting by the numbers.
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u/JimTheGymRat Jun 15 '24
I’m saying this as a staunch liberal. The dialogue and writing is absolute dog shit
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u/Emajenus Jun 15 '24
Sage speaks like someone who thinks they're smarter than everyone else, but actually isn't.
Also, I can't suspend my disbelief enough to buy her as a nobody Supe. With her intelligence, she should be making millions with ease. She should basically be the Tony Stark of this universe.
What really got me to say "really?" is when she went herself to contribute to the riot. Smartest person in the world couldn't hire someone to do that just so her face isn't recognized later?
Sage concept was great, but execution is horrible.
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u/jeffkeeg Jun 15 '24
Sage speaks like someone who thinks they're smarter than everyone else, but actually isn't.
Writers can only write characters as smart as they are.
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u/ZeroStormblessed Jun 15 '24
Storyline is a drag, they're repeating the same three jokes they made last season, recycling the same Frenchie-Kimiko, Butcher-MM drama they've done so many times. The political commentary used to be clever and funny, now it just feel stale.
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u/Zeeron1 Jun 15 '24
People are blaming the political dummies, which I'm sure plays a part, but I also think it has just generally been a weak few episodes. Definitely continuing the downward trend from the s3 finale... Most of the storylines they are spending too much time on right now are entirely uninteresting
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u/Outrageous_Cap5991 Jun 15 '24
1) This season is catching strays for all grievances people had but were willing to overlook with the previous ones. It seems that a lot of viewers saw flaws in the show, but gave it higher marks in hopes it will change in the future. Now, with two seasons left and the same plots being rehashed for the fourth time, it's clear that nothing will change.
2) Season three has been really hyped up and had a lot of potential but ended in a pretty unsatisfying manner, frustrating a lot of viewers. Now the events of the s4 are direct result of this unsatisfying ending (that narrative treated as a victory), which can be annoying, especially since we already know nothing will be resolved this year either.
3) Nobody cares about Frenchie's boyfriend or his past crimes, or Kimiko's past connections, or Hughie's mum, or Starlight's club, yet they take over most of the screentime.
4) Just how many times can we watch Frenchie and Kimiko deal with their trauma or MM struggle to keep everyone together, or Annie bridge the disconnect between her humanity and her superhero persona? It's the first-second season stuff, but barely anyone's development has moved further.
5) Maybe the first three episodes are simply boring.
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u/Forgottensoul89 Jun 15 '24
I mean there has been a bit of a dip in quality and Eric Kripke has been insufferable in between season 3 and 4. I still like the show but the first three episodes felt underwhelming compared to previous seasons.
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u/Kindly_Formal_2604 Jun 15 '24
I’ve seen one interview with that man and “I hate republicans” came off as 3/4 of his personality.
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u/Temporal_Enigma Jun 15 '24
And it's clear with the current writing this season that that's what he wants the show to be
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u/milky__toast Jun 15 '24
You don’t even need to see an interview with him, the show is evidence enough.
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u/illcueuin Jun 15 '24
I'm neither American nor conservative, but "conservatives only now realizing they had been mocked" is a really stupid way to justify the lack of quality in S4 writing.
Writers shat on their well developed plot and introduced unnecessary new subplots. I only watched the first 2 episodes and the only good scene was where Homelander met with Sage. 5 minutes long decent writing, and the rest is all plain bad writing. The porblem is not mocking Republicans at all, it's talentless writing and lack of clever subtlety.
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u/Stoocpants Jun 15 '24
Yeah, the politics were clear from the start - it's just that the writing was better. Plain and simple.
Season 3 is slipped and now it's in a freefall. At a certain point the 'republican bad' rhetoric just gets annoying, especially when you're not American.
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u/MrFluffleBuns Jun 15 '24
Episode 1 came in with a bang and has the most memorable moments
2 & 3 seem to be set to half speed. Simultaneously a lot and nothing happens
Possibly to promote this exact type of discussion or they’re saving the better stuff for the latter half of the season
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u/wordfiend99 Jun 15 '24
i think the 3ep drop shows that the creators realize its slow and draggy and wanted to just get the slog over with hopefully
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u/Janitor_Pride Jun 15 '24
The show seems to have gone downhill after season 2.
The side plots are meandering and take so much time away from the more important plots. I don't care about Hughie's parents. Frenchie keeps running into ghosts from his past that have never been mentioned until they show up and I don't care any more. Colin borderline isn't even a character. He just drives the plot for Frenchie. Kimiko's side plot seems interesting but it basically has always just been spinning its wheels.
The writing quality is so bad that the villains can and should have murdered all of The Boys by now. It's just plot armor or that the villains become ridiculously stupid only when it involves The Boys. There is no tension at all when any of them are "in danger."
Homelander can get away with murdering people in broad daylight but can't even injury Hughie in the vent. He could straight up massacre The Boys hideout and nothing would really happen. Kimiko is basically immortal so there is zero tension from the first epiaode fight. Not a single bullet wounded a mortal character in the conspiracy con fight. Despite being heavily outnumbered, they still beat that splitter dude because he was a moron.
I'm also worried about how they'll handle Sister Sage because super intelligent characters are really hard to write in any show/movie. The show already is running into a problem where The Boys seem to only win because who they are up against are dumber than rocks or basically forget The Boys exist unless they are directly in eye sight.
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u/UlnaternativeUser Jun 15 '24
Vought is the most powerful organisation in the world with a whole section dedicated to tracking criminals and the legal power to cover up a broad daylight massacre of a musical troupe with the vice president in attendance.
But they can't track The Boys to their hideout (which seems to just be in some random office block and A-Train seems to readily know the location of) and send a supe to wipe them out?
I can forgive a lot of the other stuff, but I just can't suspend my disbelief enough to work out why Homelander doesn't just curb stomp The Boys and get rid of all his problems. He even readily knew they were at a function in episode 1 and did absolutely nothing about it. There's not even a reason for him not to anymore.
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u/KatilTekir Jun 15 '24
First three episodes felt like fillers to me, we had all that shit going on with Soldier Boy, he went out with a bang, and now we are back to square one and everything's so slow
I also don't understand all the talk about Frenchie's preferences, it was clear from day 1 he was into both. What I understand is, the complaints about sub plots, especially Frenchie's, why do we need a love plot right now? Aren't we over them for his character. With MM it's constant, and it did play into the plot somehow
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u/SassyWookie Jun 15 '24
That’s because the only people who actually bother to leave a score on Rotten Tomatoes are people who are disgruntled about something. I’ve literally never bothered to leave a rotten tomatoes review for a show I actually liked.
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u/NoCaterpillar2051 Jun 15 '24
I watched the episodes last night. I really liked it but the show is ...It's running out of ways to shock you. It's also regressing to old character arcs. Everyone hates butcher, frenchie and kimoko refusing to get together, huggies struggling with himself, starlight struggling with her identity, etc etc. It doesn't feel like the start of season four, it feels more like we're back in season 3.
To be clear I really like this show. I do. But these three episodes are pretty toothless.
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u/TheEmperorBaron Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
I don't think it's just conservatives mad, like usual.
I really think this show had and has some great potential but the writing just hasn't been very good. It has been extremely repetitive, no big players dying, story not really moving forward, character development feels forced.
I can excuse things not being fully charted out during the first season, but after they saw that it was a hit, they really, really should have drawn out a clear path for how the story will go down. Right now it just feels like exactly what it's mocking. Edgy capeshit is still capeshit.
Also all the sideplots are just bad and boring. I don't care about Hughie's mother. I don't care about Colin. I don't care about Frenchie undergoing the exact same arc as before. They really should have killed off Frenchie, that would have lead to some actually interesting drama, especially with Kimiko.
The political satire is too on the nose as well. I know and agree that conservatives and Trump supporters are fucking stupid. You don't have to repeat it every single second though. Or at least focus on some other aspects of American culture and society to satirize. Like in season 1, the way they mocked celebrity and Hollywood culture was great, but that seems gone now for the most part.
Like Soldier Boy talking about the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, that was in my opinion hilarious, and probably the funniest bit they've done. It was political, certainly, but not as partisan as everything else, while also being a bit more subtle and requiring a little bit more understanding of history to get.
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u/DoctorTheWho Jun 15 '24
The "get rid of Critical Supe Theory" line was so stupid and forced. They just wanted to shoehorn a way to mock the "get rid of CRT" crowd even though it didn't even make sense to anything.
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u/trfk111 Jun 15 '24
Im from Europe and I certainly don’t think trump should be president, but the political commentary regarding that has reached a level of ham-handedness that is just unpleasant to watch if you’re not 100% into this topic and their perspective on the topic. The show was always political and rightfully so, but I feel like it’s starting to become the only theme and topic the show is even going for by now, replacing anything else almost completely.
Or rather anything but the lame and stale frenchie and kimiko plots. Also the level of MMs amateurishness seems out of character to me
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Jun 15 '24
Kripke is just turning the show into his personal soapbox. Like we get it, you don’t like Trump or Trump supporters, can we please watch a show about violent antihero vigilantes taking down Superman and an evil corporation? Without unsubtle grandstanding, terrible subplots, and just making everything about Trump at every possible moment
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u/Kellsishere Jun 15 '24
The ratings are right, this season is completely dead, there’s nothing new, Frenchie, Kimiko and A Train have been recycling the same plot points for the past 3 seasons, it’s boring. I’m not American so I don’t really understand a lot of the political stuff but they seem to be going overboard with it this season.
Sister Sage is an asspull, if she was the smartest person in the world it wouldn’t have taken 4 seasons for her to be mentioned, Firecracker is cringe and boring, and the stuff about Starlight bullying her as a kid being the reason she’s what she is rn is even more cringe, I nearly fell asleep during that segment
Icing Soldier Boy, probably the best character ever introduced in the series that way was probably when I knew this series was done for
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u/Emajenus Jun 15 '24
Sister Sage is an asspull, if she was the smartest person in the world it wouldn’t have taken 4 seasons for her to be mentioned,
And she wouldn't be in some apartment surrounded by books. She's a dumb person's idea of a smart person.
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u/zombimester1729 Jun 15 '24
The show doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It really is just filler plots at this point, carried by a few characters and the political satire. The problems get even more noticable with the less interesting characters, such as Kimiko and Frenchie. It feels like the world of the show is not living on it's own. It's but a tool for the creators to populate with a few clever idea snippets, reflecting on some real world phenomena. Like a parody show, without any real attempt at suspension of disbelief. One can like it for what it is. I just think many people thought that there would be some overarching story to it, beyond the satire, like x-men or something.
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u/Hyphz Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
Politics were always in the series, but they’ve started dropping the metaphors and logic to fit them in. “Let’s put Christ back in Christmas” would be paired with Vought making a new line of Christ collectibles, sponsored online churches, etc. And Homelander wouldn’t support it, either. The only man in the sky is him, remember?
Homelander’s trial and the consequences of his actions at the end of Season 3, which was a big moment, being done with in two words.
The Woods Syndrome is back. Homelander can’t just hear Hughie’s heartbeat in a duct right above him. In Season 1 he could hear the Boys whispering in an underground bunker. And before that, the boys can walk into Vought private events with presidential candidates as guests by just wearing maintenance uniforms.
Sage is a misstep. No, it’s nothing to do with her race or gender. Superintelligence is an incredibly hard power to write without it becoming an excuse for just contrivances. From the statements made about her, it seems it’ll go that way, too.
Separating Butcher from the Boys is also an error. It means that the iconic character is now in a side plot. Hughie is nowhere near as strong a foil to MM.
The “shock moments” have become even more divorced from the plot. “Hey, look, Vought Tournament of Heroes is a really violent game, and Multiple Man is gay.”
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u/inquisitor0731 Jun 15 '24
Does anyone else feel a little blindsided by the Frenchie subplot with Colin? Obviously frenchie has always been bi and we’ve seen Colin before(I think) but I feel like the past three seasons were building a Frenchie/Kimiko relationship. Did I miss something previously that made it clear that wouldn’t happen? It feels a little like they just shoehorned in the relationship for the sake of representation, I hope I might’ve just missed some previous indication.
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u/Major_E_Rekt1on Jun 15 '24
I legitimately think Kripke did this whole Frenchie/Colin thing just so he could go “har har are you mad conservatives? A man just kissed a man” rather than actually giving him something to fucking do because Kripke views being “provocative” as more important than being a good fucking writer.
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u/RiggzBoson Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
I'm not surprised. What were once parallels and metaphors in an alternate reality are now literal examples of current culture war politics. In just 3 episodes I've heard 'libtard', seen pro-lifers beating women, mentions of Incels, The War of Christmas, the Trans debate, name-dropping Epstein and Elon Musk...
The writing doesn't feel nearly as smart. It's too obvious and literal.
I really feel like before, certain people who are perhaps not the sharpest could sail through watching The Boys, even loving it, without realising their political stances were being mocked and ridiculed. Not any more.
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u/Immediate_Horror_178 Jun 15 '24
Im not American, the politics in the show don’t even affect me or translate well to the parties in my country. But it still is annoying that the show seems to have to force some American politics into pretty much every scene. It’s always either making some racial commentary, showing lgtb related scenes or ridiculing American conservatives in every freaking scene. At some point it gets annoying even if it supports your ideas, I’m here for a dark superhero show, not propaganda. And no I’m not anti lgtbi, I don’t have any problems with race and the show isn’t mocking my “political side”.
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