It’s important to hand it to “The Boys.” Manufacturing on Season 4 of the Amazon motion satire wrapped over a 12 months in the past, with its launch delayed by subsequent strikes within the leisure business. (Season 3 aired two full years in the past, in the summertime of 2022.) The premiere nonetheless manages to be nearly uncannily well-timed, with characters ready on a verdict from the breathlessly publicized Manhattan trial of a polarizing political determine. Granted, the determine in query is Homelander (Antony Starr), the psychopathic Captain America kind who serves because the sequence’ archvillain, not a sure former — and presumably future — president. However the trial’s topic is a transparent allusion to an notorious Trumpism. When Homelander eye-lasered a protester for throwing a plastic bottle at his son, he primarily shot someone in the midst of fifth Avenue. And within the ever-cynical world of “The Boys,” Homelander loses about as a lot assist for it as his real-life inspiration.
As developed by showrunner Eric Kripke from Garth Ennis’ namesake comics, “The Boys” has at all times been a political allegory. (It additionally takes swipes at well-liked tradition, the military-industrial complicated and capitalism writ giant, a ridiculously broad remit to match the attain of sprawling conglomerate Vought Worldwide.) For the reason that introduction of Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), a head-exploding superhero who poses as a progressive congresswoman making an attempt to control Vought, this side of the present has solely grown extra distinguished. However Season 4 marks probably the most central this parallel model of American authorities has ever been to the core story, with all eight episodes unfolding between the election of anti-“supe” presidential candidate Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) and the vote’s certification on — brace your self — January sixth. Unsurprisingly, that makes the season the darkest installment but of “The Boys,” which already consists of sufficient gore to make “Sport of Thrones” appear like “My Little Pony.”
Mentioned bleakness already makes Season 4 a troublesome watch, however “The Boys” has to stability its tone with a few steep challenges to its storytelling. One is incorporating the occasions of spinoff “Gen V,” an excellent coming-of-age drama that now should migrate off its faculty campus and merge into the mothership. The opposite is the world constructing required of a narrative line pushed by mass actions and transfers of energy. “The Boys” has an iron grip on its standpoint, a caustic cynicism directed typically rightward at massive enterprise, scaremongering fascists, leisure as propaganda and truth-resistant zealotry. However because the stakes rise and franchise growth continues, “The Boys” has a much less regular deal with on these newer points of its rising mission.
Singer’s victory, with Neuman as his VP-elect, intersects with different developments within the present’s grasp narrative. After dosing himself with the experimental drug Temp V, a short-term model of the proprietary chemical Compound V that Vought makes use of to create its heroes, exiled anti-supe squad chief Billy Butcher (Karl City) now has solely months to stay. This prognosis provides Butcher a desperation solely enabled by the looks of his ex-CIA comrade Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a person much more militantly dedicated to the trigger than he’s. Homelander has taken custody of Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), his now-teenage son conceived by way of the rape of Butcher’s late spouse, and brought on two harmful new lieutenants: Firecracker (Valorie Curry), a true-believing QAnon kind with an InfoWars-style podcast, and Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), whose super-intelligence threatens to stability Homelander’s impulsive megalomania. In the meantime, Starlight (Erin Moriarty) has give up Avengers-esque group the Seven and are available out publicly in opposition to Vought, drawing the ire of Firecracker and her frenzied followers.
These diversified threads, which don’t even embody numerous crew members of the namesake crew scuffling with guilt from their traumatic pasts, already make the season really feel much less centered than its quick predecessor, which centered on antagonist Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). Then, about midway by, Butcher abruptly pronounces the existence of the anti-supe virus that drove the plot of “Gen V” — a game-changing, status-quo-shifting improvement that’s relegated to a sudden exposition dump. Characters from “Gen V” additionally cross over with little introduction, an infusion of lore that’s disorienting in its personal proper and tough to stability with cracks concerning the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s seemingly infinite, interconnected phases. With its personal extra-textual context, “The Boys” is not in as prime a place to punch up.
The introduction of the virus ties into bigger points with speaking the bigger affect of main shifts throughout the present’s world. Sure bylaws of Compound V have at all times felt a bit handwaved: some supes will be killed by pure means, whereas others can’t; some supes cross on their talents to their youngsters, whereas others don’t. When placing humor and momentum first, this tendency barely registered. In spite of everything, “The Boys” got here from comedian books, a medium that not often values continuity. However with politics within the foreground, such fuzziness turns into more and more troublesome to disregard. Homelander’s acquittal contrasts with the election of a liberal, anti-supe president. Starlight’s condemnation of Vought is surprisingly gentle on particular accusations and appears to have little affect. Years after the general public discovered superheroes are manufactured by way of Compound V, supes are nonetheless mentioned like they’re inherently completely different from common individuals and never an injection away. (“Gen V” was extra stable on this level, however that specific theme didn’t survive the transplant.) It’s exhausting not to need extra element on political dynamics with Neuman a heartbeat — or reasonably, a head-pop — away from the Oval Workplace, however “The Boys” is mostly too busy with subplots and spectacular motion to fill us in.
With out such specificity about its personal universe, “The Boys” as an alternative will get ever nearer to ours. Figures like Elizabeth Warren and AOC canonically exist on “The Boys,” and in lieu of inventing outrageous positions for its fictional conservatives, the writers merely insert acquainted ones like “Jewish house lasers” and “professional rape.” The tactic is kind of efficient, displaying how seamlessly the circus in Washington blends right into a panorama the place the Aquaman analog has intercourse with an octopus. It additionally amplifies the existential dread of watching America descend into potential autocracy, simply on Amazon Prime in lieu of CNN.
“The Boys” balances this heart-sinking sensation with its typical aptitude for lewd, impolite comedy and an ear for inane company messaging. Amazon itself will get a nudge when a bloody combat spills over right into a “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”-themed bat mitzvah; a push to advertise variety within the Seven is dubbed “Black At It.” However whereas the present started primarily as a parody of oppressively dominant superhero franchised, it’s turn out to be an indictment of an overlapping sequence of methods and the noxious ideology that underlies them. Season 4 begins to indicate the pressure of that effort, each on the viewer’s tolerance for despair and the sequence itself.
The primary three episodes of “The Boys” Season 4 will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday, June 13, with remaining episodes streaming weekly on Thursdays.
