The Boys TV Series

[Totenkindly]

For Eric Kripke, ‘The Boys’ Was Always About Trumpism

As the showrunner grows his darkly comic satire into a franchise — and spoofs a certain trial and presidential election in the new season — he says he’s fine losing the viewers who just figured out his social agenda: “Go watch something else.”

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[The Cat]

For Eric Kripke, ‘The Boys’ Was Always About Trumpism

As the showrunner grows his darkly comic satire into a franchise — and spoofs a certain trial and presidential election in the new season — he says he’s fine losing the viewers who just figured out his social agenda: “Go watch something else.”

www.hollywoodreporter.com

I did not realize that was supposed to be a secret? It sort of screams it from the rooftops from the first ep. Kinda like the ending to the prestige. The film literally holds your hands and points out the ending in almost every scene.

 

[Totenkindly]

I did not realize that was supposed to be a secret? It sort of screams it from the rooftops from the first ep. Kinda like the ending to the prestige. The film literally holds your hands and points out the ending in almost every scene.

Yeah, ain't it freaking mind blowing how some people continue to miss the point???

Kind of like accusing x-men or star wars of "suddenly going woke" when this was what it always was?

 

[The Cat]

Yeah, ain't it freaking mind blowing how some people continue to miss the point???

Kind of like accusing x-men or star wars of "suddenly going woke" when this was what it always was?

It's like showing up to a Wes Craven movie staring Daniel Day Lewis and expecting there to not be blood. Oh there will be...there will be...

 

[The Cat]

I think a lot of people have these sorts of conversations in the mirror with their darker half.
They just dont have super powers.
Yet.​

 

[Totenkindly]

Rewatching Season 3, with the new season 4 coming quickly.

Highlander frustrates and scares me. He's terrifying. Most people in the show recognize that he hasn't killed them yet because he's either bored, or it would reduce his appeal, or he wants them to suffer more than mere death would allow, or he recognizes that he could kill them at any time so why bother right this moment when they might be useful later?

He's such a loose cannon.

 

[The Cat]

Rewatching Season 3, with the new season 4 coming quickly.

Highlander frustrates and scares me. He's terrifying. Most people in the show recognize that he hasn't killed them yet because he's either bored, or it would reduce his appeal, or he wants them to suffer more than mere death would allow, or he recognizes that he could kill them at any time so why bother right this moment when they might be useful later?

He's such a loose cannon.

Homelander has allowed me to add a whole new layer of tension throughout all of Greek Mythology. I have to imagine people got a very similar vibe from Zeus.

And that's only the stuff they're showing on television and in comics, what they show alludes to a whole lot of unholy whatthefuck going on that the audience isnt privy to.

 

[Totenkindly]

Finished Season 3 before I left on vacation, since I just couldn't remember how everything ended. Mostly things were semi-reset

• Temp V caused brain damage, so no more temp powers for the Boys... Hughie stopped shooting up in time, but Butcher has only months to live
• Soldier Boy went back into stasis this time in the hands of the US gov (or Voight? unclear).
• All of Payback team was killed, I think, including Black Noir
• Neumann took the VP spot and is now the US VP.
• Annie quit The Seven and took on her public civilian identity instead, throwing her costume in the trash.
• Maeve is essentially powerless (due to choosing to take the brunt of Soldier Boy's last blast) and is missing an eye that Homelander gouged out of her head, but also now is just a normal human living in quiet solitude with Elena (her on again, off again ex). I hope Maeve lives out her remaining days in happiness. She might have actually taken Homelander in that fight, although I think he was also holding back a little.
• Kimiko got her powers back
• Butcher was upset and said some really horrible things to Ryan, which results in Ryan going with Homelander when the latter finally tracked him down.

Now in Season 4, Homelander is feeling his age -- he's been collecting his white pubes in a jar, and he's been overhearing about all the digital effects needed to get rid of his skin folders. He's trying to invest in the future by setting up Ryan to be the future of America, while also inserting himself in Ryan's promotion to get more attention himself.

Season 4, Homelander's in a weird place because of this, and also because he has realized just killing everyone he doesn't like won't make his life any better and get him the validation he wants necessarily. He's also disgusted because everyone's scared of him and he can't get any straight answers from anyone -- no real advice, no real input, everyone just caters to whatever he asks. He proves this point by demanding that the Deep blow A-train in front of him, and Deep is really hesitant but goes to comply and everyone else is really uncomfortable too -- and so this is the opening to introduce Sister Sage.

Sister Sage is a supe whose power is being the smartest person on the planet. She's written and acted really well, in such a way that he wins Homelander's respect by telling him exactly what she thinks in a very blunt way but also in a way that doesn't lead to him killing her. She's the dissenting voice of reason he's been looking for, so much that she's invited to join the Seven. And so far, she's been proving herself to be smarter than everyone else in the room in carrying out an agenda to embody Homelander's vision of the future of the country and world. She's as bad as Stormfront in some ways, just without all the Nazi and fascist baggage.

But Homelander's worst enemy is himself. After Ryan sticks with him in Episode 1, some shit goes down in Episode 2 that leaves Ryan pretty distraught -- and Homelander manages to expose his own immature and dark soul to his son in a way that shakes Ryan to his core. All is not lost yet. By being himself, Homelander might yet turn Ryan back to the light.

I don't know if Firecracker gets on the Seven, as she seemingly fails her initiation -- but one cool thing is that she's played by the same actress who was so great as Emma in the early seasons of The Following.

 

[Totenkindly]

Finished Episode 3. There was a real big turn in this episode, with Butcher contemplating something really stupid again. We also got a more subtle view of Annie, because no one is necessarily always a good person. Also, there was a hell of a twist sideways with Sister Sage -- I am assuming it's just a temporary measure, and it's her way of enduring the emotional pain and isolation of crystal clarity.

There are two big cameos in e2 and e3, and I'm just dying. One of them is very obvious, and it's hilarious. The other is more subtle (as it's a voice cameo) but again just totally unexpected. I love that stuff.

Hughie almost gets himself into deeply fatal shit in this episode, and things just go south in other ways. "Vought on Ice" singing "putting the Christ back in Christmas" becomes a total nightmare on ice instead.

As much as I enjoy The Boys, I think it's main problem is that it's just too close to home. Obviously it's a parody off our current political situation, except it's not really a parody because it's almost literally the same as what it is parodying.... and so it's painful and depressing to watch even while it's enjoyable on another level. I don't know how I am supposed to feel, I am laughing and crying at the same time.

 

[Snoopy22]

It's in the form of the classic Greek satire. Unlike the Umbrella Academy which ruined it's plotline by bringing current political beliefs into their storyline. The Boys make a joke of everything which makes it amusing to watch, at least up to this point.

 

[Totenkindly]

Kripke joked that, during production on Season 4, execs from Prime Video pulled him aside and asked him to tone down these scenes, saying:

"Funny enough, the only thing they said to me all season was - and we weren't going to do it anyway - was 'Can you just, maybe, not have The Deep f*cking an octopus in so many scenes?' because bestiality is a real tricky line for standards."

But how else are we to prepare for the return of the Elder Gods?

 

[Totenkindly]

Episode 4, pretty bloody, it wasn't a bad episode but a little straightforward on the Homelander angle. His subplot dragged out through the whole episode and is really great at creating dread, but you kinda knew how it was going to go and then you have to sit there and watch it unfold. I think the best part was the head doctor (the woman) who comes in strongly rather than cowering like the others and she has some play with Homelander because of her approach and confidence -- and it reinforces how they exerted control over him when he was a child.

Because realistically, Homelander can pretty much kill anyone he wants at any time, so if he's going to be restrained, it has to be for ulterior reasons -- either it doesn't get him the validation he wants, or the attention he wants, or it doesn't gratify him as much as letting someone live, etc.

Anthony Starr does have this role down pat.

For the other main subplot, Annie's past gets dragged more through the mud -- and then through the present too, when she is eventually triggered. Firecracker is a play off Marjorie Taylor Greene and other right-wing personalities. I think the funny thing is that Firecracker thinks she is doing her own thing but actually she was brought in by Sister Sage and SS is manipulating her / setting her up for what happens in order to further her long-range plans. Everyone is a pawn for the smartest person on the planet.

The most intriguing part of the episode, though, is the more overt display of Sister Sage's psychological pain. It was hinted at in the past episode and this time is fully laid out:

Sage is so smart that it often causes her excruciating loneliness and pain -- she has no one to speak to her on her level, nothing that is fully interesting to her, she is socially and intellectually isolated. Since she can actually regenerate her brain as part of her powerset, she has started to give herself frontal lobotomies to "dumb herself down" and be able to live life as a "normal" somewhat dumb and shallow person, for at least a few hours until her brain regenerates. She's been doing it lately to eat really shitty food, watch really shitty TV, and hook up with really shitty men like The Deep in the few hours it takes for her brain to heal.

 

[Totenkindly]

Antony Starr's standout 'The Boys' homecoming was initially more brutal

Antony Starr's standout performance on 'The Boys' season 4 this week was initially much more brutal. Early drafts had Homelander 'being just cruel top to bottom,' Eric Kripke says.

ew.com

Starr was right, the aired version was far better due to the growing dread tied to not quite knowing what Homelander would actually do next. And at times you could see his immature frightened boy side.

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[Totenkindly]

S4E5 wasn't as good as the other episodes, although in the last moments a plot twist alleviates the nothing-burger they had almost made an important narrative element into. The shock value of barnyard animals with Temp V didn't land as well as some other moments in the show.

The biggest change is Homelander moving on from wanting everyone's adoration to viewing the country as a war that he and his ilk ("the good guys") needs to win, and in war sometimes you do some awful things in order to serve the greater good. So I guess they are finally catching up to "The Authority" before James Gunn can make his film, lol.

There were a few new alliances made, and a supporting cast member finally gets what he wants but probably not how he wanted it.

The arc with Hughie's dad did feel kind of nothing-burger in how it was developed and ended -- I get why they might have doing some deference to Simon Pegg but again, eh?

Homelander trying to empower Ryan and "good dad" him is a bit more chilling, with only the implied use of power but no power actually used to dominate everyone around them.

The whole Frenchie arc this season feels underbaked. Lots of white guys have been bitching that they made Frenchie gay, but he was always bi as of season 1 and they're just being dumb. But his actual arc just doesn't feel satisfying and feels like they're trying to do something with him but have nothing to do with him. Again, dunno.

 

[Totenkindly]

S4E6 was a return to form -- there was really only one through plot that all the characters were involved with, and the episode is peppered with emotional responses / arc-building for all the characters. Just a lot of crazy funny stuff where various character points congealed into the main plot, much better than the prior episode that was just too heavy for no good reason. It was pay off for a lot of private character arcs or at least a sequence where the funny stuff from all of those arcs intersected. Easily one of the best episodes of the season.

Summary of Episode, which is funnier if watched and you know the backstories:

Hughie dresses up like Web Slinger -- spiderman spoof who is a druggie and kinked out, with spinnerets above his anus -- to infiltrate a party at billionaire Tek Knight's house (who is the spoof of Bat Man, who previously we've seen having heightened senses + compulsive screwing of any kind of orifice, even if it's just a hole in a tree).

Hughie ends up going with Knight to see the "Tek Cave" -- which ends up instead of being the Bat Cave being a sex dungeon, where the prior sidekick who Web Slinger might be replacing in a red gimp suit chained to the wall, and Hughie is forced to play along as the sub for the sex games. Knight has a black butler called Elijah (parallel of Alfred) who seems to be a "good black" -- yes, Tek is a total perv rich racist POS.

Ashley (current acting head of Voight, or was) shows up -- we've known she was a dom in her romantic relationships but she takes it here to a whole next level as Tek watches her tickle Hughie's feet mercilessly while stimulating herself and verbally smacking him around, while Hughie realizes there are safe words but doesn't know what they are, he just knows it is something that "Web Slinger loves," so he keeps guessing spider-related words to get out of this). Note that Hughie still is in a full body rubber Web Slinger outfit the entire time, including mask.

Upstairs, there's a fancy party where the entire Seven is (no one knew they would be there when Hughie went), including Highlander. Apparently it's for Sister Sage to explain to the 0.5% why they should support the President being slapped with Amendment 25 to put Victoria (a secret super and the current VP) in office. Annie has a run-in with Firecracker and offers s a heartfelt apology for how she treated her as a kid -- before stabbing her in the neck with a hypo and knocking her out. They head to the study with the secret door, where unfortunately Sister Sage has a run in with Kimiko, her, and Mother's Milk. MM ends up shooting Sister Sage in the head when she threatens to squeal on them -- although he doesn't her brain is the only part of her that regenerates, so she's not going to die from that although she'll be lobotomized. MM has a panic attack and collapses. They convince the black A Train (the secret mole in the Seven) to really commit and run MM at superspeed to the hospital -- where a black kid sees him do the dropoff and is excited to see another hero who looks like him, and you can see how this makes A Train feel good about himself for maybe the first time in a great while.

The rest of the group heads down to the secret lab, where Tek Knight has demasked Hughie and is about to cut lots of holes in him to penetrate.

So they beat the shit out of Tek Knight. When Tek won't squeal on Homelander's plans, the gimp and Elijah turn on him (apparently they've hated him a long time) and get him into Tek Knight's bank accounts, and they start donating large sums of money to liberal orgs including BLM so that finally Tek Knight squeals and explains since he owns all the prison systems, Homelander once he takes off is planning internment camps for any dissidents. Elijah and the Gimp wave to The Boys as they take their leave in the elevator, then go to kill Tek Knight and stage his body as a kinky suicide.

Oh, we also find out the safe word had nothing to do with spiders: it was "Zendaya".

Meanwhile, upstairs, Homelander is looking at Sister Sage to explain why the President needs to be deposed, but she's been lobotomized and hasn't healed enough, so she's just grinning like a moron and shoving cake in her mouth (with icing all around her face) and saying really dumb things. Fortunately (for homelander), Victoria steps up and saves the day.

 

[The Cat]

Because if he didn't age and die, he would be unstoppable, if you're gonna engineer a powerful killing machine, you engineer a few fail safes and kill switches. It's just good business.​

 

[Totenkindly]

Because if he didn't age and die, he would be unstoppable, if you're gonna engineer a powerful killing machine, you engineer a few fail safes and kill switches. It's just good business.​

Pretty much. But I also agree that because he was being given the drug as a kid, they probably also needed him to keep aging in order to reach adulthood. Unfortunately, that also means he... keeps aging. They can always replace Homelander as needed. It's a slow kill switch but a good one.

Stormfront and Soldier Boy, the only two supers that I'm aware of that did not age, were created in the 40-60's I think and were already adults, so they didn't have to worry about reaching maturation.

Since Homelander is aging, though, he's getting neurotic and a bit desperate, and we're also seeing how horrible he is trying to parent Ryan, who he wants to take his place when he grows up even though Homelander might flip back and forth between wanting his kid to succeed him and feeling threatened that his kid is taking his place. After all, we saw what happened last season when he found out who his own dad was.

 

[Totenkindly]

S4E7 -- Kind of a fun episode stacking up all the pieces for the Jan 6 incident episode.

I don't particularly find that any stakes are being raised (they've had opportunities to pull the trigger on plotlines and characters but simply keep pulling back, although secondary characters seem to be expendable), but I guess we'll see how ballsy they are in the season finale.

There was a supe-on-supe fight at least this time, a silly Avenue Q ripoff song with muppets, a few revelations showing that some characters either as dumb as we thought or smarter than was let on, and some decent jokes. Homelander gets in another kill but mostly just seems to be stewing in his malcontent, unhappy with everyone and everything in his life. Still, it makes for some tense moments not knowing how he will respond to yet another setback.

Edit: and then this gem a few weeks ago from the "official" Voight Twitter feed ripping on all the pissy Season 4 fans who finally realized the show was making fun of them all along:

 

[Totenkindly]

S4E8 Seasons Finale -- kind of a depressing ending for a variety of reasons. It definitely wasn't a "feel good" ending but it does screw everything hard for Season 5 so I guess that will hit the ground running.

A lot of clarifications on things that were under debate

• Ashley took Compound V when she realized she was expendable and the supes were gonna double-tap her. We don't know what she turned into yet.
• Grace managed to fuck up by not trusting Ryan and paid the price.
• Butcher fucked up by not trusting Neumann and screwed the pooch there too -- maybe he feels good about himself, but it pretty much handed this season's game to Homelander, Sage, and Firecracker.
• The Deep is pretty much unredeemable.
• Black Noir is just a comic patsy, he doesn't matter.
• Oh look, the Gen V kids threw in their lot with the baddies. I guess we have the few good ones, including Marie who will now need to carry on with Neumann gone.
• Everything went (in the big sense) according to Sage's plan, apparently. And she did it because it was challenging and fun, not for any particular reason. She's a wild card.
• Firecracker's a biatch.
• Annie and Butcher are free. Everyone else is in lockdown.
• I really hate when people suffocate another person to death, because they never hold them long enough. If you release someone right after they go limp, they'll start breathing again and wake up shortly. You need to literally smother them for five minutes or more so that all their body functions stop. I hate this esp here because it made it unclear whether the Changeling was dead.
• Final season: The country is on lockdown, I guess we'll see how Team Starlighter does as roving rebels.
• Kimiko does actually love Frenchie and vice versa after all. She just felt like she didn't deserve him. A lot of people were bitching about Frenchie hooking up with a guy, but he IS bisexual and Kimiko had lied to free him from dealing with her.