Chatter Box Film

There will be a three episode premiere on June 13, however Prime Video has provided us with all eight episodes of The Boys season 4 to review.

Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) returns once again to go up against the supes at Vought, although, the previous season has taken a toll on his health. The stakes are very high for most of the characters, where this involves their plans they have to tackle the supe issue and it’s going to take all of The Boys and more to do this. There’s also a much heavier focus on politics this season.

Every episode is filled with chaotic moments and it’s certainly not short on being able to entertain in that aspect! The pacing of this season is however much slower and the episodes are messy.

The Boys season 4 is without a doubt not holding back on how disgusting these new episodes can be. There was never an episode that didn’t leave me repulsed this season; with some of the strong sexual themes, violence and gore. There’s weird things happening as usual in exchanges between the different supes characters.

Each episode continues to bring that jaw-dropping shock factor and sometimes this does seem like its done for the sake of having it. There’s also the usual satire, as well as parody sprinkled in. It’s still a part of the identity of what makes this show fun and off-the-chain to watch!

Although, season 4 does dial up the satirical takes on current events both politically (reflecting on the state of America) and culturally to the point where this may ‘rustle a few feathers’ with some of the people watching; especially when certain celebrities/politicians and ideologies are so blatant and directly mentioned.

It’s impressive how jam-packed this season is; with being able to successfully give so many of the usual characters a decent amount of focus/screentime over eight episodes on both sides of the supes and The Boys.

There’s still plenty of story for Annie January/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid). One of my favourites is an emotional and heartbreaking episode 5 involving one of these characters and this episode is absolutely manic.

As well as bringing in Valorie Curry as Firecracker and Susan Heyward as Sister Sage, who have both been incredible additions to the show for driving the plot forward, and they are both outlandish characters.

There was so much momentum and energy built up from Anthony Starr’s performance as Homelander from the previous seasons, and with Gen V‘s shocking ending however this season seems like a slower and grueling burn for the character. It doesn’t mean that he’s not up to his usual violent antics, he’s still a lot more unhinged in that regard! And I enjoy the continued homage to Willem Dafoe’s Goblin in certain scenes. There’s a deeper focus on his attitude and behaviour mentally this season.

Also, seeing how the father and son dynamic plays out between Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and Homelander is an interesting watch.

Overall thoughts

I found each episodic storyline to be fun and choatic, however the overall story arc for this season was feeling quite dragged out, especially if you’ve already watched the plot of Gen V season 1; which season 4 of The Boys partially addresses and continues on from.

The final episode is quite a rollercoaster of crazy things crammed in and the end felt rushed to quickly prepare the show for a fifth season.

It’s not the strongest season… the previous season was better written and action packed compared to this, where there was a compelling story happening, with more interesting character interactions, much classier done jokes and vulgar scenes are handled better.

Showrunner, Eric Kripke also just announced that season 5 will be the final season of The Boys.