REVIEW: ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Continues To Lay It On Thick

With an impressive amount of blood, guts, and snapped bones, The Boys Season 4 doesn’t wait to ease the audience into the current situation. For better or worse, The Boys operates at its own speed and cadence, leaning heavily into current political imagery with a dark, superhero flare as the titular characters try to stop a possible doomsday-style event.

In its latest season, the series manages to develop its morally conflicted to downright monstrous characters while deepening the lore of its world. Season 4 wants us and the characters to remember one crucial point — the “Supes” are less a team of rescuing, law-enforcing heroes than media puppets. However, they’re puppets whose threat is immeasurable with the wrong leadership.

It’s what makes the start of The Boys Season 4 so troubling because the titular group, in typical fashion, is a bit of a mess. Made up of Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie (Jack Quaid), Starlight/Annie (Erin Moriarty), Mother’s Milk/MM (Laz Alonso), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Frenchie (Tomer Capone), The Boys aren’t as divided as they’ve been in the past, but it’s a close thing. Mainly suffering from a lack of organization, we watch as they stumble throughout missions.

This year’s threats are looming not just because of Homelander’s (Antony Starr) continued reign as unofficial head of Vought. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is inching ever closer to the Oval Office while under Homelander’s control. Considering he publically murdered a man in Season 3, this makes work tricky for Neuman.

While she’s ambivalent mainly towards the violence itself, it’s bad optics for her and her team. Neuman remains one of the more fascinating characters in the series, as she brands herself so well in public as a speaker for the people while hiding her powers and injecting V into her daughter. Her ultimate goal is worth the cost it takes to get there.

Also, threatening the members of The Boys is one of their own, with Butcher becoming more of a liability. This time, though, it’s due to the V he took in Season 3, which has ravaged his body, leaving him with less than a year to live.

Homelander and Butcher continue to be funhouse mirror images of the other, as both, in their way, contend with death and aging and what it means to leave a mark on the world. Both see Homelander’s son, Ryan, as a means to correct course. Butcher looks to make amends and save him from Homelander’s clutches, while Homelander himself sees him as a chance to relive his greatest hits.

One of the most significant narratives of The Boys Season 4 is the personal struggles each character carries with them. It’s less in-house fighting with the group — though it’s there — and more the fact that life continues even as they try to save the world. People still get sick and fall back on addictions, and the past will always be there to catch up with characters in the least opportune moments. How the characters deal with these issues is where the show gets its emotional heft.

Unfortunately, not every individual storyline is as interesting as the last, and, as is always the case, the series is at its best when all the characters interact. Frenchie and Kimiko are endlessly engaging characters, and Fukuhara and Capone imbue them with charisma and chemistry. Their scenes together are full of humor and shocking sweetness, kindred spirits, and chosen family. But their side plots aren’t as actively gripping, primarily as they rely on newly introduced characters.

Though they fare better than Starlight, who continues to be one of the weaker elements of the series. It’s a shame since so much of the show hinges on the belief that she is the type of Supe that the rest should aspire to be like. But while some shows understand how to highlight goodness without dullness, The Boys can’t quite manage it. It’s helped a little by introducing a layer of human complexity to her character when someone from her past appears, but compared to other characters, it all is too surface-level.

Hughie continues to have some of the strong side plots, though that’s mainly due to him being our defacto protagonist and, arguably, a more human character. His vulnerabilities are relatable, and Quaid continues to inject Hughie with the right amount of hapless, infectious charisma. We watch him tirelessly try to help those around him, from his father to Starlight and Butcher. A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) is another character whose inner turmoil continues to produce profound moments in the series, getting some of his most exciting moments in Season 4.

Where The Boys Season 4 loses some of its momentum is in the larger storyline. While there’s nothing wrong with poking fun at the conspiracy theorists of the alt-right or punching down on bigots, the show lays the symbolic imagery on a bit thick. The series has never been one for subtlety, but delicacy could make the message even more indicting. It works as much as it does because the Supes, or, really, Homelander, don’t have a political side in the game. He’s apathetic to the plight of normal humans and only hopes to stoke the fire to gain greater control.

But the background fighting between sides makes for some grating moments. There’s a new character whose voice of said alt-right group is abrasive and obnoxious to the point of being intolerable to watch. The show doesn’t need to be apolitical. But it would be a better series if it learned how to introduce these divides and current news-inspired moments with tact so as not to solely be stripped from the headlines sequence. Instead, it gets loud and tired and doesn’t offer much to say about the MAGA-inspired groups it’s drawing from, using the imagery simply for the sake of easy drama.

The Boys Season 4 is always at its best when it relies on the ensemble dynamic. With some of the most grotesque moments of the series so far, which will undoubtedly have some on high alert as we wait for the following hyper-violent sequence, the series continues to lean into the bold moments fans love so much. There are still the requisite frustrations that come with the series, from forced character drama to unsubtle allegories. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s tireless entertainment — with an emphasis on the “tired.”

The Boys Season 4 premieres June 13 with episodes 1-3 on Prime Video.