Season 3 of The Boys was, to put it simply, a disappointment for me. I was a big fan of the first two seasons, as they created a fascinating world that created a genuinely interesting world with characters I was passionate about and a story I was invested in. Unfortunately, its 3rd season lacked the kinetic energy and tension that made the first two seasons so special. The story barely progressed, and if that wasn’t enough, the end of the season essentially hit a reset button too! It felt as though all the stakes that had been established in the first two seasons were thrown out the window. The show establishes early on how dangerous Supes are, but in later episodes of the show, they become less and less of a threat and seem fairly easy to deal with. Adding to my growing concern about the state of The Boys was Eric Kripke’s comments about the show possibly running for more than 5 seasons. This is a show that has already begun to feel a bit bloated (truly, had it been paced better, the show could’ve ended in 4 seasons), and I absolutely could not see it going past Season 5. Thankfully, the show has announced that it will be concluding with season 5, which I hope will be a satisfying send-off to this mostly superb superhero show. So where does Season 4 sit? 

Well, it is thankfully an improvement over Season 3, but it also doesn’t hit the highs of the first two seasons for a few reasons. However, I’d rather begin with the reasons why this season works. For one, Season 4 really flew by thanks to its pacing and its largely enjoyable humour (when it’s not trying to be provocative, more on that later)! Though the character writing can be hit or miss, when it hits, it hits hard. The visual effects are also quite great and feel almost seamless thanks to how naturally they’re integrated.

Additionally, though it almost seems redundant because of how obvious this praise is, Antony Starr is still giving a phenomenal performance in this show. The idea of an “Evil Superman” is somewhat overplayed in media, but this show allows Starr the opportunity to bring so much depth to the character that a lesser show might not have allowed him. Episode 4, “Wisdom of the Ages” allows Starr to give possibly his best individual performance yet in the show in an episode that humanizes Homelander as a character by delving into his backstory and giving a brilliantly dark explanation as to why he is the way he is. The unfortunate downside of Starr’s performance is that he overshadows almost every other performance on the show. The cast is great, of course, but nearly every actor pales in comparison to the greatness of Starr as Homelander.

One of the only actors who doesn’t feel overshadowed by Starr is Chace Crawford. Admittedly, Crawford is giving a completely different performance to Starr as The Deep due to how hilarious and impossible to take seriously his character is. It’s amazing to me that Crawford was able to take a character that I disliked and found kind of irritating in the early seasons and made him into a great comedic foil that consistently got some good laughs from me. 

The rest of the cast members generally have some strong material that is sadly mixed with some really weak material. This is felt the worst with Jack Quaid’s Hughie. “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son” has some really powerful emotional moments for Quaid as Hughie comes to terms with the choices he has made, but then the following episode “Dirty Business” barely addresses this significant moment in his arc aside from minimal lip service at the very end. In this same episode, Hughie spends most of the episode being the butt of the joke and placed in a position which is treated largely as a joke instead of the serious issue it is. This also continues into the last two episodes, where Hughie gets victim blamed after not having the full context of a situation, which left a sour taste in my mouth and felt bizarrely out of character for the character blaming him. 

This season, while also progressing the arc, does not do as much as I would like it to do. Multiple characters in this season end the season in a way that doesn’t feel completely earned or justified. Rather, their endings felt like the result of writers trying to find excuses to keep these characters around even if the show would be better off if it killed more of its characters after they served their purpose. 

Another problem this season (and honestly the show as a whole) has is its ugly and unappealing cinematography. The show is often just various shades of grey (possibly upwards of 50, I’m not sure) and that doesn’t allow for many “iconic shots” that most other shows do have. The show is also leaning into the shocking gross-out humour that the comics were known for, which is a problem. It feels like The Boys is trying too hard at times to showcase weird sex-related scenarios in an attempt to be edgy which in turn makes the show feel childish. 

My last major issue comes from the season finale, which left a bit to be desired personally. The finale does that classic TV trope of having several major events happening in the last few minutes, which has caused many people to leave the episode excited for what is yet to come and overlook the rest of the episode. There are some decent moments in the finale but on the whole, it just fell into the traps I mentioned previously of not being willing to kill off more characters and just having some bizarre moments of characterization.

Still, at the end of the day, the positives of this season definitely outweigh the negatives for me. I’m eagerly anticipating the next season of The Boys, though I am glad it is also the show’s last.

8/10