Watching: The Boys S4

2024, Amazon

When I watched Season 3; I was already over the show. My watch of "Gen V" was eaten by my TV-writing hiatus from the end of last year (I have filled in some blanks, but skipped this one) actually spurred some more interest in the world. And while this sounds really really strange, I really was craving the over-the-top antics of this show as escapism from the even more depressing IRL. The world of The Boys is at the extreme end of Right Wing fantasies (to be clear, it descries them, despite a lot of r-wing-nuts not getting that) and this season went even further, to parallel the current IRL divide but amp it up, as they always do. At least in a show we see people fighting back, while all I see IRL are more and more losses and nothing being done about it.

What 100. Butcher (Kar Urban, Riddick) is dying -- cancer caused by the superpowers-supplying drug V. Before he dies he wants to reconcile with his step-son Ryan, and get him away from his real father (by rape) Homelander. His Hail Mary is a supe killing virus created in Gen V. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit, Timeless), herself secretly a murderous supe is VP to POTUS (Jim Beaver, Supernatural; love that he is called Robert Singer in this show as well), while conspiring to assassinate him, and aligned with Homelander (Antony Starr, Banshee) behind the scenes. Homelander continues to go batshit and brings in "the smartest woman in the world" -- Sister Sage (Susan Heyward, Powers) -- on to plan his coup. Everyone else is dealing with their own shit and whatever happens episode to episode.

1 Great. The introduction of Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Rampage), Butcher's old CIA wetwork buddy, who shows up to constantly point out that the "old Butcher" would never have pulled so many punches, would never have worried about collateral damage, would not have given a fuck about a step-son. He constantly badgers Billy from the sidelines, while initially providing some sorely needed intel. In fact, he's not real. He's long dead. He's a hallucination caused by Billy's cancer, which is actually taking on a form of life itself, emerging as a tentacle weapon when Butcher is in grave danger. Billy doesn't realize this until very very late in the game. But I just love Jeffrey Dean Morgan, already a Kripke regular, playing his typical three-letter government agency type, in requisite black suit.

1 Good. The constant, non-stop mockery of the Right (Wing Nuts) from the conspiracy theorists, to the anti-woke agendas, to the Fox New style pundit assholes, to the fact they are all fucking each other over as well as their enemies on the Left. There is no doubt these are all bad bad people. The only problem is that the "good" people are generally not very Good either. Its like an entire show of Chaotic Neutral people leaning in one direction or another.

1 Bad. While I know a lot of "fans" just love all the gross-outs, the juvenile locker room humour, the show has long since passed the point of making us numb to these things. So, the human-centipede salad tossing from a supe who duplicates himself is meant to be "OMG Shocking!!" I just sighed and rolled my eyes. Yeah yeah, nice CGI. The violence can still be rather chilling, but the constant sex & kink jokes are tiring.