The Boys Season 4 Review: A New, Great Season Full of Surprises Old Formulas and New Phases
Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Chace Crawford, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell
Director: Philip Sgriccia, Frederick E.O. Toye, Eric Kripke, Catriona McKenzie, Shana Stein
Streaming Platform: Prime Video
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)
From 13 June 2024 on Prime Video, the 8 episodes of The Boys Season 4, the fourth season of the TV series created by Eric Kripke and based – not exactly faithfully, but certainly in the spirit – on the comic of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, published by DC Comics. Two years ago, at the release of the first episodes of the third season, we expressed our doubts about this series which, however spectacular and compelling “in its own way”, gives the impression of never really pursuing its narrative path, which instead it seemed stuck in a loop. In other words, like in that 1980 Japanese cartoon The Time Raiders (or in many other anime of the time, but this came to mind), in every season the good Boys come up with a plan to defeat the bad supers of Vought led by Homelander/Patriot, who in turn study a plan to conquer the world. In the end, the good and bad guys are always there, ready for the next battle, and so on (and so on). The Boys are back in town. Prime Video has tried not to make us miss the most violent, rambling, and politically incorrect band of anti-heroes in history with a more than appreciable spin-off series, Gen V.
Still, it is undeniable that the rough and foul-mouthed charm of Billy Butcher and his boys (and girls) don’t fight. If we want to be completely honest, even the crazy, dazzling wickedness of Patriota has its reason, a dichotomy that, going beyond the simple separation between good and evil, is preparing to return to the scene with the fourth season of The Boys. Mindful of reading the inspiring comic created by Garth Ennis, one certainly could not expect Prime Video’s production to be politically correct. When most of the time due to commercial merits, a series is elected as the flagship of a larger project linked to the imagery it generated, then not only do its nature, its purposes, and its ambitions change, but above all its prerequisites. This can open up a whole new list of risks and possibilities and the challenge then becomes finding a new way to manage the editorial metamorphosis and integrate it with the original corpus. In any case, spectators must understand that they face a completely new creature.
The Boys Season 4 Review: The Story Plot
And so, as at every beginning of the season, we are always here: The Boys are still part of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, Patriot (Antony Starr) is head of Vought, and Victoria (Nadia) Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is preparing to become the deputy of the new US president Robert Singer, who knows about the literally “mind-blowing” powers of his deputy, even if they are theoretically secret. Among our heroes, the situation is not the best. Frenchie (Tomer Kapon), whose sexual tastes we will learn more about, tries to drown unpleasant memories in drugs instead of talking to Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), who is also dealing with her past. Butcher (Karl Urban) took too much temporary Compound V last season to keep up with Soldier Boy and now has a late-stage brain tumor. Hughie (Jack Quaid) faces a family problem and can’t get help from Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty), while Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) tries to pick up the pieces of his family after his ex-wife has left the new partner, who also liked their daughter Janine but was a crazy Homelander fanatic (who also applauded when Homelander killed a protester in front of Ryan).
And by the way, little Ryan (how well done Cameron Crovetti; if you haven’t seen him, catch up on Goodnight, Mommy) is still with his dad Homelander, who would like his heir to start taking his first steps in his career as America’s savior, even if the child is not so enthusiastic about it. Deep/Abyss (Chace Crawford), who still lives with his beloved pulp (or pulp? What is the feminine form of octopus?), also has problems at home, the new Black Noir (but it’s still Nathan Mitchell), and finally also A- Train (Jessie Usher), uncomfortable in an increasingly openly racist Vought. And poor (crazy) Ashley (Colby Minifie) won’t fare well either when she’s sidelined by newcomers Sage (Susan Heyward) and Firecracker (Valorie Curry).
The new season of The Boys couldn’t have come at a better time. The world of comics dominated by the two giants of the genre, namely the MCU and the new universe of DC Comics, is in a phase of profound renewal, allowing the birth of new interpretations of the genre, an element in which The Boys shows itself to move with an ‘explosive personality. After the events of the third season, the focus of the story of this new narrative arc revolves around the figure of Ryan. The biological son of Homelander and Butcher’s wife, Becca, the boy is in an unenviable situation. On the one hand, Butcher would like to keep him safe, more out of a sense of duty towards his deceased wife than anything else, on the other Patriot sees in the boy an extension of himself, a mere tool with which to prolong his mythology. A focal point around which some of the plots of the first six episodes orbit, which see Ryan as a cornerstone, especially in his relationship with Patriot.
The Super is increasingly out of control, lording it over the Seven and Vought, while publicly enjoying his celebrity, resulting from popular acclaim of his publicly demonstrated ferocity. On the contrary, Butcher and The Boys are clearly in difficulty. Billy is increasingly weakened by illness, while The Boys find themselves having to face not only Patriot but also the political rise of Victoria Neuman, who is increasingly heading towards the vice-presidency of the United States. Supporting them, albeit indirectly, is a segment of public opinion that accepted Starlight’s message, which decided to leave the Seven to oppose Patriota. A fight that does not involve monster powers but political refinements, a long-distance confrontation played in a dirty, political way.
The Boys Season 4 Review and Analysis
As already said, therefore, the first advice we can give you to fully enjoy this fourth season of The Boys is to resign yourself to a narrative approach that does not follow a straight line (but not crooked or zigzag either) but rather goes in a circle, to enclose and in a certain sense protect its scheme. Repetitive but also spectacular. Having made peace with this, we give you another suggestion, less about the method and more about merit: if you want to follow The Boys Season 4 without missing anything and, consequently, with full awareness of who is who and who does what, you must not only rewatch (or at least review, if you prefer) the ending of The Boys Season 3, but also have full knowledge of what was shown in the finale of the first season of the spinoff Gen V, released a few months ago, and if you have time left over also take a look at the animated series Diabolical.
Some characters return, others are mentioned, key moments to remember, and scenes from the new season can be grasped and fully understood only if you come prepared to watch. Because The Boys won’t go too far, but its circular universe is constantly expanding and you better keep up if you don’t want to be overwhelmed like Hughie’s girlfriend in the first episode… The Boys has long found the formula with which to be appreciated by its audience and is based above all on the reshuffle of the extreme irony of the comic and the reversal of the classic tones of the superhero story. The best thing about this season (like last) risks once again being everything that revolves around this little game, from the plot ideas to the sideshows for their own sake. Therefore, everything that contributed to creating the imagery on which the success of the series is based, also as a brand.
The political plan has been grafted onto this and has now taken on a life of its own and in this new season it supplants the story itself, which tries to survive through the further exploration of the backgrounds (some already extensively explored among other things), but only succeeding at times due to the lack of outlets. The fourth season of The Boys for large stretches seems to run in circles, while it talks about incels, woke culture, and conspiracy theories takes aim at the contemporary propaganda clash in the USA and tries to rewrite the profile of its faces, looking for the crisis of each of them at any cost. All with the elephant in the room of the virus (another reference to the current world) which demands to be called into question despite a narrative development which instead, also due to merits achieved in the field, wants to take the time to expand its universe, seek new ways to challenge the spectator. It’s a shame because he always stops a little before doing it, even though something juicy happens, aware of the fact that what keeps the show going are the biggies: Butcher and Patriot, brought to the stage once again impeccably by Urban and Starr.
In its fourth season, we can say that the ambition of The Boys has become that of constituting a distorted but more possibly truthful mirror of real society, overshadowing the intention to tell a story with unassailable logic. A pop phenomenon that wants to become an increasingly social treatise (sometimes even intimate), which however continues to work best only when it remembers where it started. This doesn’t mean that what it has become should be thrown away, on the contrary, it is increasingly difficult for it to keep everything together and function properly. Ultimately, the balance will be the same as in previous seasons. This is precisely one of the key elements of the new season of The Boys. It is clear how the writing room has made the poisonous currents of the American alt-right its own, building a new character as the voice of this faction, Firecracker. The presence of the presidential elections and the ugliness of some of the ugliness of recent American social history become integral to the plot, which also chooses to take some liberties compared to the paper original while preserving its spirit.
Kripke and his staff are particularly attentive in this aspect, constructing a sequence of events that does not limit itself to keeping the level of the horizontal plot high, but presents itself as a crazy, hyperkinetic, and delirious chain of situations that further develops each single character, playing sublimely with the possibilities of the superpowers of some characters. Above all, showing its most sordid and crazy applications, thanks to scenes that exceed every limit of decency, which make death almost a banal inconvenience, sharpening the profound separation between Super and normal. Whether it is obvious manifestations of powers or dialogues with ruthless and disturbingly truthful tones, the preview of the first six episodes of the fourth season of The Boys leaves the feeling that the series wants to push itself further and further, breaking through every previously respected limit.
In terms of spectacularity, this means seeing bloody and limitless fight scenes, in which the ‘heroes’ seem to give in to a feral dimension of brutal ferocity, made even more evident by a series of dialogues that allow an irreverent irony to emerge, a vehicle ideal for showing people driven to a life-like god on earth that masks impalpable but evident slavery. Narratively, the new season takes proper care to develop the contrast between The Boys and the supers. Not only publicly, following Starlight’s decision to go into open conflict with Homelander, but also in private, both with regards to the figure of Ryan and the lives of the characters. Broken loves, surrogate relationships, and unpleasant family members are ingredients that, although permeated by the dialectic of the series, cannot fail to be every day and easily assimilable by the public.
It almost seems like a coincidence that The Boys deals with a presidential race in the year in which the USA returns to the polls, but this choice embodies a precise moment in contemporary American life, which the plot of the series develops and concretizes with a spectacular synergy between politics and mission, between power and struggle for an ideal of justice that now seems corrupt beyond all hope. The war between Butch and Patriot, between Boys and Vought becomes an all-out fight, with a high level of hemoglobin and bad language, with faces tense with fake smiles and overshadowed by expressions of obsessive determination. Never before has it become more complicated to identify good and bad (assuming this division exists!), with surprising changes in the barricade that surprise and risk upsetting otherwise perfect plans. At least, on paper, but we all know that for The Boys there are no perfect plans, only perfect disasters. The Boys Season 4 convinces, excites, and conveys the sensation that the series still has a crackling, irreverent vitality also thanks to a cast that is always on board and which, for this new season, is further enriched.
Current affairs – as demonstrated by the staging of the controversy between “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” promptly brought to the stage – is always the focal point of how The Boys tells us the reality of the world. A world where superheroes are bad, live off marketing and good guys have to stoop to their level. Maybe even surpassing them in malice. The boundaries in The Boys are always very thin and this is also why the series is so compelling. The tension will grow episode after episode, as Victoria Neuman (Claudia Domit), whose secret was revealed to us last season, continues to advance her political career. Annie (Erin Moriarty) will try to put aside her past as Starlight, while Hughie (Jack Quaid) will have to deal with his own life.
The same thing that Patriot (Antony Starr) will do, who will finally reveal to us why he became the monster we know. Without, of course, ever justifications: here we are shown the reasons, never the justifications. And it’s another great reason to love another great season that will keep you glued to the screen. As usual, The Boys moves on two levels. One is that of the main mission, which is to defeat the enemy. Their own enemy: each side, the 7 and The Boys, has one. The other level is the personal one, with different issues in the background relating to all the characters. And we will do it while the series pushes the limits as always, and while it speaks openly to us about woke culture, product placement, and double standards. All openly, without mincing words, and censorship. In pure The Boys style.
The Boys Season 4 Review: The Last Words
In the review of the fourth season of The Boys, the Amazon original series created by Eric Kripke, we told you about a series that has profoundly changed compared to its original form. This new act comes after the show has acquired a new positioning at an editorial level and has the task of integrating the spinoffs and raising the bar. In doing so it aims to delve deeper into the characters and its political side, trying to become a social treatise to the detriment of the story it tells, sacrificing a bit of coherence and effectiveness, aware however of the fact that they are its big shots and consolidated formulas to support it.
The Boys Season 4 Review: A New, Great Season Full of Surprises Old Formulas and New Phases - Filmyhype
Director: Philip Sgriccia, Frederick E.O. Toye, Eric Kripke, Catriona McKenzie, Shana Stein
Date Created: 2024-06-13 19:55
4
Pros
- - Promising first episodes
- - Well thought out plot
- - Politically incorrect but with style
- - New ambitions mean new challenges.
- - Patriot and Butcher always on the shields.
- - The search for reading the contemporary at all costs.
- - The old formulas are always effective for entertaining and consolidating the imagination.
Cons
- - Some scenes are a bit excessive even for The Boys
- - Firecracker is a difficult character to manage
- - The plot is occasionally put aside and runs in circles.
- - Some further character insights are superfluous.
