‘The Boys’, the series created by Eric Kripke and based on the comics by Garth Ennis, began as the wildest and most transgressive parody of Marvel and DC superheroes, and little by little it has evolved into a political reflection to which reality is about to overcome. Like the real world, the Prime Video series had been flirting (in the form of satire) for some time with fascism, totalitarianism and even Nazism, and with its season 4 ‘The Boys’ takes the step towards fake news, conspiracies and the most extreme and manipulative populism, becoming (also like the real world) much more terrifying.
The end of season 3 of ‘The Boys’ laid the foundations for what we were going to find in these new chapters. Let us remember that the radicals threw a bottle at Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), Patriot’s son (Antony Starr), and he responded by bursting it with his laser gaze, murdering him in front of thousands of witnesses. However, far from showing rejection, the feverish mass broke into shouts of joy and approval at the bewildered smile of the superhero, who begins to realize that his authoritarian and repressive acts have no consequences (quite the opposite). And that’s where we are.
The fourth season of ‘The Boys’ momentarily forgets to laugh at superheroes, losing the tradition inherited from ‘The X-Files’ of the “monster of the week” in which each episode surprised us with a new character with the strangest powers and extravagant, and focuses on mocking Alex Jones-style hustlers and the most shameless Trumpism, although the level of unreality we live in today makes any parody fall short. Politics insists on overtaking the wildest series on the right, but it maintains its punk identity. ‘The Boys’ continues to be the mainstream series that dares everything, from the most twisted sexual orgies to the most explicit violence, imagining the most creative ways to mutilate, torture and massacre dozens of humans, you knew and even animals to the delirium of the most perverse minds. That is, ours.
However, the ability to surprise has been diminishing with the passing of the episodes since the series premiered in 2019, and the plot of this new installment feels like a prologue for the final battle, in the fifth and final season. The new characters, Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and Sage (Susan Heyward) don’t quite make an impression like Stormfront or Soldier Boy did in previous seasons, and the incorporation of Jeffrey Dean Morgan is little more than testimonial (even misleading). Patriota has a completely flat arc and the character of Butcher (Karl Urban) has been blurred to the point of being unrecognizable in the last episodes of the season, so the weight, in reality, falls on delving into the development of the ‘ opening acts’ Hughie (Jack Quaid), Anie (Erin Moriarty), Frenchie (Tomer Capone) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), which is a success, and in small appearances and cameos that continue to provide the flashes of madness and hooliganism that characterizes the series, and that makes ‘The Boys’ continue to be an oasis of television transgression on a par with masters like ‘South Park’.
The end of season 4 of ‘The Boys’ (don’t worry, it’s not a spoiler) only confirms that this batch of chapters has been nothing more than the prologue to the great final battle. The electoral campaign before the general elections.
Score: 7/10
The series of… those who still want to laugh satirizing the rise of political sindios with the most brutal humor on TV
You will like it if… you are one of those who enjoy humor as if it were coffee: the blacker the better.
Not for you if… you’re in a Telegram group plotting against what the media/government ‘don’t want you to know’.
Fran Chico is an expert in cinema and series, specialized in cultural dissemination and film criticism. He is a recognized critic on Rotten Tomatoes and Filmaffinity. Although his favorite genre is horror, the same thing tells you about the new blockbuster from Marvel’s MCU and about an auteur film to claim from the festival circuit. There is no series from Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+ that escapes its radar, delving into the catalog of each platform to recommend and analyze its best content.
Fran has been writing in Fotogramas for more than a year, but his beginnings date back almost two decades ago in film forums and blogs such as Planeta Claqueta or Moviementarios. He was founder and part of the board of directors of the digital publication of film criticism and analysis Revista Mutaciones and a member of the Association of Cinematographic Informants of Spain (AICE), the organization that awards the Feroz Awards, as well as a voter for the Blogos de Oro al indie movies. After completing the Master of Film Criticism at the Madrid Film School (ECAM) taught by Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, he has collaborated and/or covered film festivals such as San Sebastián, Sitges and Filmadrid as a specialized press for more than 10 years, along the way interviewing relevant directors, actors and actresses from the national industry such as Penélope Cruz, Carlos Saura, Ana de Armas, José Luis Cuerda or José Sacristán and internationally such as James Wan, Edgar Wright or Dario Argento.
His knowledge and experience have led him to be a film video blogger for Fnac Spain and director and host of the podcast Holocausto Zinéfago, with more than 150 programs broadcast and available in which cinema and humor are mixed from a unique and original.
