The fourth season of The Boys It begins with a campaign event heading to the White House. The protagonist, a candidate for the vice presidency, is a woman with a practical power: bursting heads with her mind. Behind her is the narcissistic and sadistic Patriot, a superhero with such a degree of popularity that he has been able to kill a man in cold blood in the middle of the street and, immediately afterwards, be cheered by his fans. In The Boys They have never been around little girls. The new episodes (Amazon Prime Video released the first three on June 13, followed by a new one every week) raise the tone of the political and social satire that characterizes the series created by Eric Kripke and based on the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.
“This is a more intense and more political season. We have a superhero one step away from the White House and we address a lot of political issues, but also everything that people like about The Boys, a lot of humor, exploding body parts, blood…”, lists Eric Kripke in a video call interview at the end of May. Those brutalities gore, its irreverence and its strong satirical side make this superhero story different from the rest. Which of those aspects, the gore Or does politics give more headaches to its scriptwriters? Kripke laughs at the question: “I’m actually terrified of what happens in the real world. We live in a world where satire is in the news every day. I would say that what gives me the most headaches are the characters, revealing new facets of them while staying faithful to their psychology.” Kripke, who two days before the premiere of this season announced in Once we have that, we already say, ‘come on, what crazy things could happen that would help explain that trip?’ What’s keeping me up at night isn’t how to make another penis explode, it’s, ‘I have to figure out where Butcher’s mind is right now.’”
The political aspect of the series takes on more prominence in the fiction and also more relevance as it becomes a mirror of reality with the election year in the United States. Since its beginning, the series has been a reflection of a tremendously polarized society. This breeding ground is more steamy than ever in a season that in its first stages shows a trial of Patriota that divides the population: at the exit of the courthouse, staunch followers await him on one side of the fence and, on the other, dozens of detractors. It is inevitable that the recent trial of Donald Trump comes to mind.
For Kripke, this polarization is one of the serious problems of today’s society and has an explanation: “We try to show that this division where there is an us and a them, and they are the devil and must be destroyed…, in reality it occurs because we are being manipulated by much more powerful forces that are using millions of dollars and artificial intelligence algorithms to turn us against each other because it is economically beneficial to them. I am progressive, and I don’t have problems with a person because he is right-wing. My problem is that we are both being conditioned to think that the other is our enemy instead of our neighbor. That is very dangerous and happens because, one, it generates more money: the angrier you are, the more time you spend on the internet. And two, authoritarianisms need you to feel that way because then you don’t look at them critically. “We are being manipulated to hate each other, and that is hateful.”
The characters that are incorporated in this season help take that political satire a little further. Two superheroines join the group of The Seven. Sister Sage (actress Susan Heyward) is the smartest person in the world, but as an African-American woman, her ideas have never been taken into account and her frustration levels are extreme, making her extremely dangerous. The other superheroine is Firecracker (Valorie Curry), a reflection of the media that spreads far-right messages and the expansion of conspiracy movements. Kripke does not hide the reference to politician Kristi Noem, vice presidential candidate with Donald Trump: “We have a vice presidential candidate who talks about how, when she returned home, she shot one of her puppies. And somehow it seems like that’s okay, that it doesn’t matter if someone is a gun-carrying lunatic,” says the screenwriter. This season’s latest major addition allows series creator Kripke Supernaturalwhich was on the air for 15 years, reunited with actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the mysterious CIA analyst Joe Kessler.
Some critics describe The Boys as one of the series with the greatest political content currently broadcast. The accentuation of this political nature was, for its creator, the natural path with the directions that the plot was taking and because it is also reflected in the original comic. “In addition, we knew that we would broadcast very close to the election year in the United States and it seemed to us that it was appropriate that the plot also included an election or that the trial of Patriota be included. We saw many of those things coming.”
Speaking of the Patriot trial, Kripke reacts with irony when asked about the similes between the ruthless character played by Antony Starr and Donald Trump: “How can it occur to anyone that Patriot is a satirical version of Donald Trump? How dare you…? “Of course he is!” He laughs as he gestures exaggeratedly. “It’s a very strange phenomenon, and by the way, it’s not just Trump, there are a lot of people around the world, unfortunately, who follow that model. “The idea of being a celebrity and wanting to be an authoritarian dictator is something very new and very scary.”
The US elections next November have opened the door for Trump’s return to the White House. His previous mandate gave wings and content to humorous programs such as Saturday night Live, but it made things more complicated for some fictions, whose screenwriters recognized that their work was more difficult in a world in which reality constantly surpassed fiction. Could Trump’s return be good for The Boys by offering them extra material? “Trump’s return would be horrible for everyone. For The Boys and for everyone. If there’s one thing we highlighted in season four, it’s that maybe it’s not a good idea to have a malignant narcissistic baby as president. If we help a couple of people come to that conclusion, it will be great.”
If there’s one thing we highlighted in season four, it’s that maybe it’s not a good idea to have a malignant narcissistic baby as president. If we help a couple of people come to that conclusion, it will be great
Eric Kripke
Kripke assures that the scriptwriters of The Boys They have total freedom from the platform and the studio, Amazon and Sony: “We censor ourselves much more than they censor us. As impactful as the series may be, I never want it to seem like something happens for free, that we do something just because we can. I want to be able to explain to the actors with a straight face why we put them in such an absurd situation. And the answer can’t be ‘because it’s fun.’ It has to be ‘because it’s part of your character’s story or it’s a part of the world we haven’t seen before.’ “If it doesn’t follow that criteria, we won’t do it.”
In a series where anything can happen, it’s no surprise that Kripke confesses that what he enjoys most is writing the character of Deep (played by Chace Crawford). “He is so blindly stupid that he allows you to write a little sillier things and relax more. The other characters are more complex, and you have to analyze the decisions they make, but Deep… You know, he just wants to fuck an octopus and go to parties. He is a marvel.”
Superheroes have been dominating the screens for years, both film and television. For Kripke, the quick explanation of this phenomenon is “that they make money.” But he also observes a certain exhaustion in the viewers. “Marvel movies are very, very well made, I’ve seen them all. They are great films, very entertaining and fun. The public’s hunger was such that they have grown a lot. But now I think they’re starting to get tired. And there the responsibility lies with people like me. I have to make sure that I give the audience things that they haven’t really seen before and couldn’t find anywhere else,” he concludes.
You can follow EL PAÍS Television on x or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
