Prime Video’s bloody, diabolical superhero series is back for its penultimate season and it’s going to be one of unrest. Here’s our review of the first three episodes of The Boys season 4.
Spoiler warning! These reviews are spoiler-free for the week in question, but will discuss previous seasons and episodes in detail.
The Boys season 4, which debuts on Prime Video today, is somewhat overshadowed by the announcement that Eric Kripke’s popular superhero series is coming to an end with season 5. It’s almost impossible to look at the new episodes without focusing on how they contribute to the finale, the swan song of the entire series.
Season 3 ended on an explosive note as Homelander (a never-better Anthony Starr) blasted one of Starlight’s followers with his laser eyes, killing them. To his – and our – surprise, the crowd didn’t fear him, there was no panic. Instead, they embraced and celebrated him as a hero.
It would be ridiculous if everything The Boys has done recently didn’t feel so true to real life. The new season, which sees superheroes being one of the key questions in the presidential election, often hits almost uncomfortably close to home and the effect is chilling.
As we’ve come to expect, The Boys season 4 begins with a bang – a very violent, bloody bang. Granted, it’s pretty impossible to match the mayhem at season 3 opener where a guy “downsized”, entered a guy’s penis, only to sneeze, causing himself to blow back up again and… well, I’m sure you remember. But season 4 doesn’t hold back when it comes to the violence, but things feel very different at the beginning of the season. It feels, at first, a little slower, a little more calculated, which isn’t a bad thing.
It’s also set to be the most politically charged season of The Boys yet. Kripke and his team have always excelled at toeing the line between brutal and comical, while inserting some potent human drama in the midst of it, but season 4 poses a whole new challenge with such an explicitly political narrative. Judging by the first three episodes, Kripke is well up for the challenge.
These opening episodes really set the main themes in motion; Homelander and Butcher (Karl Urban), both dealing with existential crises of their own, are battling over the affection of Ryan. Ryan, who is just coming to terms with his own powers, is torn between his biological father and the man who has sworn to protect him.
Elsewhere, Hughie (Jack Quaid) discovers his dad (Simon Pegg) is in the hospital and is forced to deal with an old family drama after the arrival of a surprise guest. This season also sets out to explore Frenchie’s (Tomer Capone) sexuality and violent past as he’s torn by his deep devotion to Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) but also finds himself desiring new guy Colin (Elliot Knight). A-Train (Jessie T Usher) is also starting to have doubts about Homelander and The Seven.
The Boys has never been a show that trades in subtlety, but in season 4, things are more heightened than ever. Homelander is in the dock for his murderous actions and the trial has eerie, pointed similarities to Donald Trump’s ongoing legal battles, not to mention that Kripke plants a direct reference to 6h January into the dialogue. There’s also TruthCon, which is just a mass gathering of conspiracy theorists.
There are also a few new additions to the cast introduced in the first three episodes. Firecracker (Valorie Curry) is a QAnon type hatemonger while Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), the smartest woman in the world, is a phenomenal addition to the roster as someone who becomes Homelander’s ally, but is also able to challenge him in a way no other supe has been able to.
Based on episodes 1-3, The Boys season 4 is just as deranged as the previous runs. A particularly nasty action sequence features a cardboard cutout of Tony Shalhoub is set to Hava Nagila. There’s also a healthy dose of sexually explicit material, one scene involving a guy who can multiply himself. We’ll leave you to figure out the rest…
We’ll be back next week to dive into episode 4, which marks the halfway point in the season.
The Boys season 4 episodes 1-3 are streaming on Prime Video now with new episodes streaming weekly.
