REVIEW: ‘The Boys’ Season 5 Is An Appropriately Epic Victory Lap

When The Boys premiered its first season in July 2019 on Amazon Prime Video, its incisive satire felt like a righteous blow to the superhero-worshipping monoculture that had never been more popular in the wake of Avengers: Endgame. Now, as The Boys Season 5 is gearing up to premiere, the culture it was pointedly a response to is in an odd spot. After a series of underperformances, with a couple notable hits in the mix, the biggest name in capes- the Marvel Cinematic Universe- feels like it’s winding down.

The forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars look to be a belated victory lap for the once inescapable franchise. Therefore, it feels fitting that its satire is coming to an end. After a mostly stellar run, The Boys Season 5 looks to wrap up the hyperviolent superhero-skewering saga while it’s still on top. Of the episodes provided ahead of the season premiere, it’s more than safe to say that creator/showrunner Eric Kripke has accomplished the mission. The Boys Season 5 is exciting, crude, well-acted, and politically potent television that feels fresher than ever. 

The Boys Season 5 takes place in a United States where Homelander (Antony Starr) and his superhero group The Seven rule with an iron fist. Sympathizers of anti-Vought, ex-Seven revolutionary Starlight (Erin Moriarty) are sent to prison camps or worse. It’s up to Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his band of rogues known as “The Boys” to take down Homelander with a nuclear option: a virus that could wipe out all Supes, even those who are sympathetic to their cause. However, Homelander has an ace up his sleeve – his father, legendary Supe Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles).

The Boys Season 5 wastes no time in establishing its reality and getting things going.

Right out of the gate, The Boys Season 5 maintains momentum befitting of a speedster like Jessie T. Usher‘s The Seven member A-Train. Eric Kripke opens the series in a distinctly dystopian United States, where Homelander’s grip has never felt more pervasive. There is no wasted space in any of these episodes.

Every character and every ongoing storyline is serviced and built upon in a satisfying manner. Furthermore, all of the hallmarks of The Boys are here: the gross-out humor, the searing political commentary, and the bone-crunching superhero action are all here, executed to the highest level. 

Truly, there hasn’t been a season of The Boys this tightly written since the first. Eric Kripke and his team of writers and directors have a firm grasp of tone that shows a significant improvement from the strong yet muddled last season and the disappointing second season of Gen V. There’s still time for fun and games, of course, but in the home stretch, The Boys Season 5 knows it’s time to take things more seriously. That’s because, more than ever, The Boys is clear-eyed about the perils of fascism and how it’s currently infecting every aspect of life in the United States. 

This time, things are more serious and the writing reflects that tone.

The Boys Season 4 seemed content to reference ongoing political unrest in a more clumsy, “We’re going to have Homelander repeat the things the President is currently saying” sort of way. The Boys Season 5 is less concerned with garish, meme-like recreation of specific topical moments and more interested in the current feeling.

Kripke and co. not only recognize how widespread bigotry and injustice are, which is here represented by the anti-Starlighters and The Seven, but they also recognize the danger and fear that comes from speaking out. Through the superhero satire, The Boys Season 5 paints a picture of a country where truth has been eroded, the cruel have gotten into power, and the price for speaking up could be your life.

There is no ironic detachment here, even among the myriad jokes about the body and its fluids, including buckets of blood. The Boys Season 5 portrays, and feels like, a desperate struggle against an insidious evil. The cast has never been better. All of these characters feel fully lived-in to the point that singling out any particular performance is difficult.

Antony Starr commands the spotlight in The Boys Season 5.

Of course, the one who deserves special praise is Antony Starr as Homelander. Outstanding doesn’t cut it. With his searing rage hiding a deep insecurity, Homelander is one of the greatest television villains of all time, and Antony Starr has given the definitive television performance for the 2020s. After being sidelined heavily last season, Erin Moriarty brings new life to Starlight.

Valorie Curry is another easy highlight, with her Firecracker revealing complex layers. Jensen Ackles brings much of the comedy this season, a turn much improved over his notable, though slighter, work in Season 3. Out of the new cast, Daveed Diggs makes a huge impression as the scene-stealing Oh Father, whose religious ties add an extra dimension to Homelander’s manipulation of the public. 

Everything that the show has been building towards comes to a head and it is earned.

Being the final season, The Boys Season 5 is expected to wrap things up in a satisfying manner for the series, which means a shocking one. The season does an excellent job in that department. Expect shocking reveals and characters dropping like flies. More than anything, though, The Boys Season 5 firmly bring everything that the show has been building towards to a head.

In its first season, The Boys drew a connection between our worship of superheroes and our ignorance of suffering caused by those at the top in the service of believing a comforting fiction. The Boys Season 5 takes this theme to its natural conclusion by showing that we need to dismantle our own comfort to build a better world. In the process, The Boys ends as one of the greatest superhero television shows of all time. It’s been a hell of a ride.

The Boys Season 5 premieres its first two episodes on Prime Video on April 8, with new episodes releasing on Thursdays.