By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Since it began in 2019, The Boys (which adapts the demented Garth Ennis comic of the same name) has done an excellent job of skewering franchises like the MCU and the DCU. Long before the term “superhero fatigue” entered the public lexicon, this show revealed the problems inherent in movies and shows focusing on tights and flights. In short, the show’s thesis is that obsessing over superheroes is infantile, revealing a desire to let someone powerful control us rather than take responsibility for our own messy lives.
Of course, “messy” is how many fans described Season 4 of the show, one which focused more on horrific spectacle than subversive comedy. Fortunately, the fifth and final season kicked off with a bang, effectively resetting its creative focus even as it breathes new life into characters that have grown old and stale.
Not every joke hits its mark, of course, and not every character change is for the best. Plus, if you hated the show’s increasingly political bent, you’ll despise how Season 5 goes all in on political allegory. But if you have loved The Boys since the beginning, you’ll enjoy this final season premiere that returns to form and easily sticks its superhero landing.
The Inevitable Time Jump
Season 5 of The Boys rejuvenates the show through the oldest television trick in the book: the inevitable time jump. Taking place one year after Season 4, the premiere finds our titular heroes in some very dire straits.
Hughie, Frenchie, and Mother’s Milk have been captured and placed in an internment camp overseen by murderous supes. Miko has been deported, while Starlight carries on a one-woman rebellion against Homelander’s hegemony. Butcher has largely lain low, but he comes out of hiding and gets the gang back together when he learns that his buddies in the internment camp are about to be executed.
For the most part, this time skip works very well: it showcases how Butcher has disappeared even deeper into the all-consuming rage that drives him while illustrating how Starlight has increasingly become like Butcher, one moral compromise at a time.
That compromise and Hughie’s interment trauma (including regularly seeing camp friends beaten and blown apart) threatens to put a wedge between the two young lovebirds. Plus, the jump makes it easier to accept that Homelander has become even more deranged, ready to imprison or outright kill anyone who so much as makes fun of him on social media.
Arguably, the most surprising effect of the time jump is that the mute and murderous Miko has learned how to talk. This becomes an unexpected source of humor, as she does a hilariously weird job of expressing her thoughts and basically has no filter (“listening to you talk makes me want to kill myself”). The change adds some much-needed levity to certain scenes, but it undeniably changes her character for the worse. Instead of being a silent assassin with the soul of a poet, she’s now a TikTok-obsessed girly-girl, albeit one with a healing factor that even Deadpool would envy.
Getting The Band Back Together
While The Boys has always skewered the conventions of superhero media, the show is often at its best when it leans into tried and true tropes. The Season 5 premiere episode “Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite” effectively blends together two beloved storytelling tropes: a prison break and a “getting the band back together” story.
They blend together very well, as Butcher getting his old team back together helps restore their old dynamic while illustrating how much each character has changed. Meanwhile, the jailbreak provides a great climax filled with unexpected moments, including the tragic redemption of the show’s earliest villain.
If this sounds a little too by the numbers, don’t worry: the second Season 5 episode, “Teenage Kix,” takes the story in some very unexpected directions while cranking The Boys’ gross-out humor up to 11. This episode reveals a Catwoman-like character that has her own litterbox and a rocky superhero who has turned into a man-mountain thanks to nonstop wanking.
On a more sober note, this episode also features the return of Soldier Boy. His presence threatens Homelander’s delicate psychological state while ramping up the existential threats facing our favorite antiheroes.
Are The Boys Truly Back In Town?
It’s an open secret that Season 4 of The Boys was a low point of the series. If you’re someone who was disappointed by that season, you are likely curious as to whether or not Season 5 has fully turned the ship around. The honest answer? It’s really too soon to tell.
The first two episodes are quite solid and easily on par with the best that the fourth season had to offer. However, with six episodes left to go, there is still time for the show to (as Butcher might say) make a bollocks of things.
As a fan of The Boys from its days as an ultraviolent comic book, though, I’m cautiously optimistic for this fifth and final season. The actors are clearly bringing their A game: Antony Starr has never been more quietly menacing as Homelander, and Karl Urban has never been so loudly dangerous as Butcher.
These first two episodes are just foreplay for the final showdown between these two, with some strong hints that Butcher may ultimately prove more dangerous than any of the evil superheroes he puts down. Will Season 5 ultimately end The Boys on a high note or just devolve into the raunchiest train wreck in all of streaming?
Either way, true believers, I’ve bought the ticket, and I’m more than ready to take the ride.
