Note: This review contains some mild spoilers for season 5 of The Boys.
Back in 2019, The Boys burst onto the scene by having a supe burst through an actual person. This year, we have the fifth and final season, and it is an absolutely wild ride to an explosive end. While there are a few elements that feel rushed, there are enough satisfying and profoundly explicit deaths to make it an enjoyable farewell to this series. And it shows yet again that trying to write satire in the age of Trump is a near impossibility.
As we start season 5 of The Boys, Hughie (Jack Quaid), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) are stuck in a Freedom Camp, a concentration camp for those who support Starlight. They are being held to lure Annie (Erin Moriarty), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) out of hiding. Homelander (Antony Starr) is obsessed with universal love and admiration, finding even a meme posted years ago to be a personal affront.
This need for adoration is amplified when Homelander believes he is visited by an angel who tells him that he is God. The bulk of this final season is about Homelander’s desire to get V1, the formula that was given to his father, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), which made him immortal. Against that, we have the Boys who are trying to keep him from getting it and becoming even more powerful and dangerous than he already is.
But the season has far more going on than Homelander’s Godhood and Butcher’s insatiable need to destroy all supes. Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) is a supe and also the Vice President, married to Oh Father (Daveed Diggs), the new minister in charge of Samaritan’s Embrace. Firecracker (Valorie Curry) is struggling with her genuine devotion to Homelander and her genuine devotion to her Christian faith. The Deep (Chace Crawford) has gone full Joe Rogan, hosting a misogynistic podcast with Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell). And Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) is trying to manage Homelander while trying to figure out how to get the solitude that she craves.
For as many characters and storylines that season 5 of The Boys had to manage, Eric Kripke and the rest of the team did an admirable job. That is not to say that the final season is flawless. There are some serious Deus Ex Machina-type moments in this season that, while necessary for the plot, feel so contrived as to be frustrating. And #Justice4GenV feels like it could be trending after an absolutely nothing-burger that they turned out to be. Two seasons of a television show in which Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) learns to control her Very Strong Powers being reduced to a pep talk with Annie, is one of the most disappointing aspects of the show.
But aside from some issues, this final season of The Boys manages to wrap up the overwhelming majority of the stories that it has been telling over the past seven years, while also giving long-time viewers a little bit of fan service. We see the return of The Legend (Paul Reiser) in a really wonderful episode. Kripke reunites the main trio from Supernatural in episode 5, titled “One-Shots,” with Misha Collins and Jared Padalecki joining Jensen Ackles for one of the funniest scenes of the season. We get more Billy Joel and The Spice Girls. We get some really great scenes with Terror and his Homelander doll (RIP Bentley Alexander – you were, like all dogs, the best boy).
Once again, the series has some exceptional performances. While Antony Starr continues to be one of the most snubbed television actors, this year, that snub will go to Valorie Curry, who gives an absolutely spectacular turn as Firecracker. The Marjorie Taylor Greene stand-in (her non-supe name is Misty Tucker Gray) gives an absolutely amazing performance in “One-Shots.” Curry’s ability to clearly show the conflict that she is experiencing between her devotion to Homelander and her faith results in one of the most impressive scenes of the season. As someone who has watched people I love twist themselves into pretzels to align their faith with their support of President Trump, even as he literally posts photos of himself as Jesus, it was incredibly affecting to watch her performance.
In season 1, The Boys primarily explored how we look to superheroes for entertainment and a kind of moral compass. It was an interesting look at what might happen if someone had near-absolute power. It skewered the way that corporations will use progressive ideas as long as they are profitable, but have no interest in actual equality. Over time, it evolved to focus more on the increasing political divide in America, showcasing that perhaps we already have a class of people with near-absolute power and access to wealth that most can’t even begin to imagine. And while not everyone is fully corrupted by these things, most are.
The Boys has been an uncomfortable show at times. It is all about shock value, with graphic sex and violence littering nearly every episode. It has a strong tendency to set up impossible situations, then yadda yadda over how Butcher and the gang overcome those obstacles. It has treated some serious consent violations as punchlines. But it has also been one of the most consistently funny and punchy satirical shows at a time when it is nearly impossible to satirize real life. This final season might not be perfect, but it’s a hell of a fun time, and I’ll miss it when it’s gone.
The Boys Season 5 is now streaming in full on Prime Video.
Learn more about the show at the IMDB site for the title.
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