‘The Boys’ season 4 premiere review: Superhero abuse and the sadness of the election

Anthony Starr as Homelander in ‘The Boys’ Season 4

This year has been far from comic book cinema, as superhero fatigue continues to set in. While the genre is still beset by formulaic plotlines and diminishing returns, Prime Video’s fourth season of The Amazing Spider-Man is sorely missing comic book cinema. Boys It continues to disgust and disturb with unabashed gusto, and serves as a sharp antidote to dull super storytelling.

After establishing its over-saturated universe with previous seasons, and a spinoff set at Godolkin University last year, Season 4 wastes no time delving into the fetid morass of its characters’ psyches, and takes a slower, more contemplative approach.

Homelander, portrayed still terrifyingly by Antony Starr, struggles with an existential crisis as he gazes bewildered at a blonde pubic hair. Starr’s portrayal has the essence of a god grappling with his own mortality, his manic episodes punctuated by moments of eerie calm (think of Squidward crippled by the monotony of Tentacle Acres).

A scene from ‘The Boys’ Season 4

With more control over his power than ever before, Homelander seems simultaneously self-confident and deeply insecure about the sycophancy around him. This duality is embodied in his obsessive need to control everything around him, including his own son, in a desperate attempt to cement a legacy that will outlast his own fading supremacy. This obsession with his legacy and his slowly increasing mortality adds a fascinating new layer to one of television’s most dangerous villains, making his madness all the more dangerous.

New faces like Sister Sage (Susan Hayward) and Firecracker (Valorie Curry) in the Seven add dangerous spice to an already potent mix. Known as the smartest person in the world, Sister Sage becomes a scheming player in Homelander’s machinations, while Firecracker, a right-wing conspirator, seems a character stolen from today’s headlines and exaggerated to revolting extremes.

The Boys themselves are in fine form. Frenchie (Tomer Capon) gets a more compelling (albeit pretty boring) subplot that advances a complicated relationship, and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) decides the only way to accept her past is to kill him. Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) grapple with their own personal struggles, while Butcher (Karl Urban) displays unexpected depth prompted by a terminal diagnosis, balancing his brutal vengeance with a reluctant paternal instinct. While they feel more like filler than usual; these arcs provide a solid emotional backbone that grounds the season amid its latest bizarre antics.

Karl Urban and Laz Alonso as Billy Butcher and Mother’s Milk in a scene from ‘The Boys’ Season 4

With the film scheduled for release in the election year, Boys continues to satirize the contemporary American political landscape with stomach-churning (quite literally) irreverence, holding up a broken mirror to it. Homelander mirrors the narcissism of authoritarian goons in power, his orange underwear and populist bluster a none-too-subtle nod to the recently convicted orange tyrant. The show’s sprawling, corrupt conglomerate Vought International parodies the insidious influence of big business in politics, turning corporate misdeeds into a perverse art form. By dialing up these elements to grotesque extremes the series offers a scathing commentary on the fragile state of democracy and the insidious nature of power in the 21st century, with uncanny accuracy.

Of course, that won’t happen Boys Without his typical overt violence and depravity. So far, we’ve already had the pleasure of seeing some standard procedure Homelander lasering, some faces crushed beyond recognition, and some auto-erotic human centipedes. Oh, and the Deep is still with the octopus.

Despite its explicit narratives testing the limits of human nature and societal degradation, the series retains its whimsical sense of optimism. Where the moral teachings of the superhero franchise are either waning or stagnating, Boys It seems to stand towering, its blood-soaked hat flapping in the breeze, all while making us laugh, guffaw and wince at the absurdity of its demonic existence.

The Boys season 4 is now streaming on Prime Video