There's a staggering amount of people who seem to have interpreted my rant about the Deep to mean I think he HAD to have a redemption arc--which is weird, since I never actually said that. That was ONE potential avenue they could have explored with him that would have been a natural progression to what was set up, but really just doing anything at all with him is all I want.
@@SheevTalks since you dragged your video as long as you could, I mightve snored a little, but it is interesting how you avoided mentioning all the woke stuff that slowly started to crawl into the show after season 1. By season 4 it became so obvious that you couldn't just overlook it.
@@SheevTalks also, on homelander's super hearing and other senses - it is possible that he should concentrate on his abilities to use them fully. If he always had to hear everything in 2km range or he couldn't deactivate his xray vision, he'd go insane much sooner
And that right there is why Invincible is infinitely better, it's a deconstruction made out of love of the super hero genre that offers a reconstruction, breaking tropes without shitting on the themes.
Best scene was easily when Homelander landed at Billy Butchers home and said “I am The Homelander and I can land wherever I want” and then got a parking ticket
Reminds me of what Terrible Writing Advice said about deconstruction: "The point of a deconstruction isn't to take apart a genre, carefully inspect its elements, and interpret them in a new and interesting way. it's to show everyone how smart I am!
It sounds to me like the biggest problem about how they use that trope in this show is that they don't pick a lane. The supervillains are both overconfident and actually see the boys as a real threat.
@@likedebia4693 Hit the nail on the head. And even then sometimes when villains doesnt the main characters as a threat its arrogant to the point of stupidity not logic. There is plenty of ways villain can be made to spare thw heroes if they are ibterested in their development or have a potential use for em later, but if not and they actively kill people for less then its just bad.
Hughie was made so dirty in this last season. He's forced to euthanize his own father right after seeing him commit several murders accidentally, traumatizing them both completely alongside Hughie's mother. He doesn't even have time to process that shit that he's thrown into the sex dungeon scene, and then finally Annie throws a fit because he had sex with a doppelganger that perfectly emulated her. I swear, Hughie went through hell in season 1, and now season 4 is even worse and it's mostly treated as a joke.
GIRLLLL POWWERRRRRRRRRRR Woman is the superior being, all men are weak and evil, all woman are strong pure and innocent. Believe all woman. All woman are victim, believe all woman. Woman. Man. Woman. Two gender, both being woman and wowman. Edit:/s
I mean, as a joke for the writers lol, but at least Annie supported him after the Tek Knight shit As for the finale scene, I get Annie is in the wrong, but I blame it mostly on the writing, since I understand where she comes from (despite the catfishing, at least Hughie was having good sex for 10 days, while Annie was chained shitting in a bucket, of course she is mad, but the scene is really written like the sex is the problem, and not her miserable situation)
Insane how Hughie is the victim of several of the most horrible scenarios a person has to experience and still gets shit on by others. And then Annie a woman, does victim blaming from r@pe, genius. Good job dude.
Eh if you loot at it in another way, it’s not too ironic and honestly more meta tbh. I’m gonna take the safe bet that it was corporate and not the writers that chose to make it a franchise.
@@minecraftlover6971 I doubt it since it's basically the team from Supernatural doing the work and they've had a history of spinning Supernatural off into like 6 different failed projects with Kripke and other writers are credited as producers. Maybe it's not the original creators' intention but it's definitely the showrunner's intention to milk it while it's hot.
I mean yeah, the majority of people fall into the group who just worship celebrities and don’t understand how disconnected and terrible these people are half the time
A fundamental flaw of the Boys, in my view, is that its 5 seasons instead of 3-4. Feels like the show constantly has to give the Boys plot armor, make Homelander either really passive or an idiot, just to have the show go on till the finale in S5. Which is a shame, I remember S1 Homelander being really engaging since he wasnt a total idiot and was proactive. Dude got the Boys idenity burned, and started investigating them as soon as the Invisible superhero disappered
Despite the fact that I like the scene (Heart-Shaped Box is a banger, Nirvana never failed to deliver) the ending of Season 4 is a perfect example of this, they don't kill any of The Boys, even when from the past 4 seasons they have been really trying to do that, just a couple of episodes earlier Homelander was more than willing to cut Hughie in half and he would done that if vents weren't made with zinc, A-Train in Season 1 was sent to kill Kimiko because she was dangerous (if not, what did he expect he would achieve by smashing her head in the wall at super speed?) and then Cindy takes her fkin time to kill Annie just so she can escape (with her powers that stayed inactive for most of the season and she started flying perfectly despite she still had problems figuring it out before) while Sam doesn't kill Kimiko even when he should be totally able to? Ok sure.
It always bothers me hearing the "he's so scary, what makes him so intimidating!" schpiel when he's just been super comedic since the start of season 2. You just can't take him seriously as a villain anymore, even if they put a random stand-in kill subject for him to take out.
Agreed. The problem with writing a proactive, at least average intelligent antagonist who is the most powerful on the planet is that there is going to be a point where he has all the agency and information to kill the protagonist(s), and at that point, you either conclude the story or take away his proactivness and make him stupid/weak to continue. The Boys reached this point at the end of the first season, IMO, and they went with the latter. As such, Homelander has been reduced to the character you describe.
I think the first couple of issues you mentioned could have been negated by not making the Seven the center point of the show. In the comic, the Boys don’t really confront the Seven till the very end, dealing with various other issues like solving a murder, stopping a Vought-backed coup in Russia, infiltrating an X-men parody, etc. Perhaps if altercation between The Boys and the Seven were limited to a couple per season with the main characters barely escaping alive, that would give much more credibility to Homelander as a threat.
Bingo. Although I'm not a fan of the comic, Ennis knew that with an antagonist as powerful as Homelander, any direct conflict between him and The Boys would be a decisive one. But instead, the writers of this show blew their load at the end of season 1 when The Seven recognizes the threat The Boys are, and really have been coming up with contrived ways to prolong this ever since.
Or it's just too damn long. Should have been a 2 season show; leave season 1 as it is, make season 2 the conflict between them, leading to the finale. Done.
@@somerussianguy185 I agree, I’m not sure why they feel the need to keep having the boys face off with Homelander in person sometimes multiple times per season and then write these goofy a$$ ways for them to escape his wrath…if they had the meetings with Homelander be more rare and written more smartly with better logic, Homelander would be a more intimidating presence for the characters.
Oh no... That part where they fight the xmen/go to a high school is the worst part of the comics... It's boring and pointless... The show and comic share that. The story should have been more structured, more focused.
One thing I honestly didn't like was how normalized it was how quickly Hughie kinda moved on from Robin. Like don't get me wrong, it obviously still haunted him but if someone just ran through my girlfriend nonchalantly like that, I think I'd be in a psych ward for life.
I think that was acceptable given the rollercoaster of things that happened after that. Remember that Hughie is the guy that blew up Translucent. I can see how becoming a killer and seeing crazy shit more and more numbs you to whatever happened before. He still does get very much affected by Robin's death through the whole first season. It's only after much time that he is able to move on.
Promiscuity and rushing into new relationships is a genuine trauma response that I can believe someone might engage in in hughies position The problem is that they write so it's not this and he's just mostly over her fairly quick
Telling your partner, who has been recently RAPED MULTIPLE TIMES (while also having their parent died and having to deal with the other suddenly coming back in their life) that you forgive them for it by saying "Check if you have STD or something so we can fuck again" is one of the most vile things you can do in this scenario. Just unempathetic and gross, devalidating their experience and entire existence as nothing more than a piece of meat you hope isn't ridden with disease. AND SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE RIGHT HERE??????????????
@@MrGamer21 the show's narrative is that she isn't flawed. And they had hughie apologise for being raped like he cheated on Streetlight. Fucking disgusting.
@@MrGamer21given the way it was written and what they've said in interviews after season 4 i really don't think they meant to make it some character flaw for her, but that's probably how they'll justify it in the next season. it really feels like they legitimately thought she was in the right and trying to be funny given their opinions on male sexual assault victims. i think it also makes her super fucking hateable, like jesus christ
I hate how unrealistically, funnily enough, it is. Sister Sage is a Vought baby, meaning they should have at least kept tabs on her. She found a way to solve cancer, yet no doctor even bothered actually looking into her research, which was probably up to standards, since she's so smart. Then, she just gave up on her cancer cure? What? Her backstory is a not-so-veiled hint at systemic racism, and no one consumes media to be reminded, or notified that apparently LE SYSTEM doesn't like non-Whites.
@@PapaRoboto in theory Vought could use her smarts to sell medicine and cures but money and attention hungry never took advantage?? That's crazy. Or the writers suck at creating a convincing evil company.
@@PapaRobotoI don't see my reply so ill say it again. Vought is shown to be attention and money hungry so wouldn't they take advantage of sister sages abilities to sell cures and medicine?? Also if her granny was a black panther why would'nt she use her smarts to make the world better for minorities?? But she works for vought, the evil company making the world a worse place?? Oh, the writers suck???? okay then.
My headcanon is that she completely made up that story to motivate Neuman to start taking control, which would get Homie mad, get her to search help with The Boys and ultimately (and naively, because the succession of events that get that outcome don't make any sense) get her killed. That's the only way that makes sense to me because her story doesn't make sense at all, and for the true reason she doesn't just solve all world problems I assume she just doesn't care.
@@Mortimer_RSit's literally impossible to find a "cure" to cancer just by reading stuff on the internet. At the very least you need long-term studies to give you at least the slightest bit of credibility.
@@donovan4222 I don't think you understand I am completely aware of this and I think they should have Incorporated that into Frenchies backstory so he stops being such a useless character. The writers being Jewish would love it and the audience being Shabbos goy would be talking about him
When i first started watching the show, I thought it was gonna be the boys finding the smalleat weaknesses for these powerful unstoppable supers and coming up with clever plans to exploit them. I was expecting some JoJo level planning to even just stay alive and survive an encounter against monsters like homelander and black noir. Needless to say, thats not what i got
I like to Imagine the kinds of plans theyd have to come up with to walk away from any physical encounter with homelander and what theyd have to sacrifice each time to survive
@@gianni206 They are perfectly encapsulating the cringe American corporate neoliberal weaponization of identity politics with Vought and the right wing Facebook lunatic personality cult of Trump with Homelander. The satire is so good that people have started saying “this is like an episode of the boys” in reference to current events. Thats definitely a sign of a good satire.
You would have to remove the whole plot line with Edgar and the Virus and the Sheep, cause that all caters to the Plot line with Kimiko and Frenchie, so you would make it really boring. But sure, you could do that without changing the “Main” plot line. But then again, you could remove and add all kinds of plot lines and characters without doing that, so what is the point?
@@donovan4222 it's not that frenchie should be removed, it's just that i wish they included them in the storyline more. the only intersection was the virus; i wish it was more like S1 where frenchie was an integral part of the plot. (also he was conscripted; he didn't willingly join the IDF)
@@hamburger_bigmac_whopper He should be removed for supporting g3n0c1de. Not only did he serve in the IDF, he signed an open letter to Biden after Oct. 7th thanking him for his “support” as Israel destroyed Gaza. That shouldn’t be normalized.
@@randomhuman2595 nah she shouldn’t let’s see if it changes the general consensus, or if people aren’t so slaved to one party they can see the flaws in her reasoning.
The way the showrunner laughed while describing writing that entire plot point is truly despicable. To use something like that as a punchline is just awful.
@@Caffeinated-DaVinci idk man, its just a joke, it isnt real. You'd probably be mad, if some comedian made a joke about that happening to someone of the other gender, and people got upset about that, because comedians should be allowed to joke about anything. But if it happens to a man, it cant be funny? Double standards. Even something like that, can be funny. I didnt find it offensive. Was it particularly funny? No. It was quite distasteful and poorly done. But Im not gonna get upset about that just because it happened to a man.
The show has lost its touch. Now it feels exactly like an edgy teen trying to come up with the most messed up ideas for a superhero show to “deconstruct” the genre without any actual substance
I thought it was really fucked up how Starlight literally blames the victim when it comes to Hughie being raped, it kind of feels like the writers treated t it as if he 'cheated' on her
@@harate she bounced back way faster than anyone would in real life. imagine your partner slept with someone who looked like you and couldnt tell the difference. that would permanently end 99.9% of relationships. blaming her for being a bit upset over that, briefly, is nuts.
no shit. s1-2 homelander would already find atrain and kill him. he would even kill sage but somehow sage manipulates him even though homelander has an evil smart version of himself in him
ye probably because as the show progresses he becomes more mentally unstable because the supes team he has built is getting out of control??please man,think before typing,homelander is a man child,he has benn outwit many times in the show,
Ya, I can almost here his corny laugh after an idea like, "Lets make him replicate, eat his own ..... and get pink eye, huh huh huh." I did like the 1st season, reminded me a little of Ted Chiang's short story 'Hell is the Absence of God' ish.
> Show criticising corporate greed and narcisitic celebrities > Made by Amazon and played by famous actors I guess in season 4 they tried to either address this by butchering the show or by making fun of the audience (they used "most people are idiots" line)
Show criticising toxic masculinity and narcisistic celebrities* fixed that for you. The show always tried to make women feel superior to men when it comes to moral compass. R terrible and the worst thing (rightfully so) when it happens to women but funny if it happens to men. Also the only good supes are women in this show. All male supes are portrait as self-serving and/or straight up stupid.
The show is paid for by Amazon and is made by writers most of which aren’t rich or narcissistic. Not saying the hypocrisy is totally wrong but it’s easy to count out the people who are actually responsible for the show
the downplay of Hughie’s sexual assault literally ruined season 4 for me. especially when coming from the person who is also a sexual assault victim. (Starlight)
@@racheddar maybe because when it happened to starlight it was treated as such? or maybe because the “heroes” of the show are shown to actually have morals and conviction in the first season?
@@justareligiouszealot They play murder straight in some scenes as well. Like Hughie's GF at the start. The thing with Starlight was supposed to reveal how power *really* works in the Seven. The scene with Hughie is just the same gross out garbage they've pivoted to.
@@justareligiouszealot And I'm saying that it doesn't make sense to object to that because the show is dark comedy. They play all sorts of terrible things for laughs. Like murder. Which the video above seems to miss.
Sage is the worst of the "Super Smart" characters recently. She just has omniscience because the writers tell her what's going to happen and then she struts around saying everything going to shit was exactly according to some crazy brilliant plan she couldn't share with anyone.
won't happen but honestly it would actually be amazing if next season it's revealed she literally just pretended to orchastrate everything and is actually just a smart conwomen and her mutation just makes her brain swell up which doesn't actually increase intelligence because that would be silly, and she just used it to market herself as some galaxy brained superhero and ride that into getting paid enough to buy an apartment then just took the opportunity to come live at vought an con homelander and has been winging it the whole time.
@@ahoramazda6864 on the path to the truth. watch Lost, watch Suits, these shows don't put their black characters into the position where their only personality is about their being black, and only conversation is harassing uwhite characters unprovoked. Imagine a line like 'I don't need some black fool telling me' being scripted. Wouldn't happen, and it's prejudice no matter which way it's cut.
Hughie and Annie's relationship just feels painfully uneven at this point where Hughie is the one who always has to apologize and emphasize how important Annie is to him while she never really has to say as much back. Slight correction: The importance of Soldier Boy's power isn't that it makes a big explosion, it's that it burns away the V in Supes' blood, making them powerless and vulnerable if they get hit with enough of it.
@@nont18411 I view it as a way for them to point out Annies flaws, considering in that episode she also had been mocked by the shapeshifter, its meant to point out how self righteous annie is
I actually stopped watching the show after S2 because it was too intense and mean-spirited for me. Invincible is def a much better show because it actually has some humanity in it and the characters aren’t total jerks 24/7.
@@deadpunisher4584 I didn't read this as "mad". More overburdened by the dramatic tone shifts from these seasons done in the name of "shock value", where the intensity grew from mere gore and horror to direct and vitrolic toxicity every which way. I was a fan of each step, had some pet peaves along every turn, but some people just couldn't continue on the wild ride this show wanted to offer viewers. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't call it "crying" in a sense, but vocalizing a valid opinion of someone's where there are clear whites and blacks of morality and comfort after being tossed into the grey abyss every so often. Some folks like James needed that anchor, while I don't really find much sacred in this world that isn't ripe for storytelling, though even then at times have lines been crossed for this show in ways I wanted to find tasteful, but left it at the end of it all.
@@vyomrane1237 Oh sorry mate, I think there is a misunderstanding. You see, there is another username I'm tagging in this comment, I was not referring to James her, but someone else being disrespectful and discarding James' point based on nothing. On the topic. I feel like people speaking about "grey morality" often are treating as if everything is just as debatable, and can be defended or countered with the same equal force without exception. These people also say there's no absolutes in morality, yet forget painting everything grey is by itself an absolute. There's always positions that are impossible to defend no matter your view, and turn into a fool's errand to even attempt to. Like... Well, the many forms of abuse. Edit: Just some grammar corrections. And I say that I should have just say that people often confuse gray morality with moral complexity to make it simple.
One of the worst things this show has done is become a franchise. The ENTIRE point was to comment on the overexpansion of the MCU and DCEU yet what do they do? Overstretch a thin story, create 3 spin offs (with more to follow) and merchandise the shit out of it. They're hypocrites, and with how smug the writers are about their "commentary" it feels undeserved. You don't get to mock a franchise when you intend to follow the same footsteps. Edit: for the sake of future discussion, I'm aware that season 1 was more about a celebrity critique rather than the MCU, although elements were still present. Overtime this does shift from my perspective and the anti-cinematic universe cinematic universe becomes a much bigger problem.
Man I don't hear enough people talk about this. If you start to become the very thing you mock. Your "Satire" and "Social commentary" on superhero tropes start to become irrelevant. Edit: LOL the comments below are so embarrassing. Don't yall remember that scene in where that held that expo for showcasing the new films. You know just like Marvel does. You guys give this show way too much credit.
Eh no.... the entire point of the series was always a critique on the reality of superheroes if they really existed in the world. The mcu and the dceu didnt even exist at the time the comics were made. The critique of the mcu only came into play much later simply to mock the current state of it, because of how talked about it is. But i agree, that the series might have overstayed its welcome a bit.
it wasn't meant to be a commentary on the MCU its meant to be a commentary on celebrity culture using the Superhero genre as a device to drive the story. How can you misinterpret a show so hard
@@matthewaddai5336 I'd disagree, I totally see your point but the original comic was a mockery of the whole mainstream comic business. It was an angry attack on Marvel + DC since they were (and are) shitty companies to work for. There's contempt of the business there, that I feel continues to now. I'll give it a fair shot and say it did start off more as a critique of celebrities in the first season but very quickly became making fun of cinematic universes even before "dawn of the seven." The actions each supe does in the show doesn't make it feel like a "what superheroes would be like irl" story, it's a "all your favorite characters are creeps" take instead. Invincible does a reality of superheroes story is so much better at it, for it is a critique on the reality of superheroes with egos and misuse of power plus how to regulate them. The Boys (to me) feels like it's an edgy teen who just started watching political dramas and wanted to include political terms like "regulation" and "registration act" to add depth to a story instead of actually comment politically.
The scene where he yaps about his girlfriend being stronger could have been so easily salvaged. When she tells him that he said it didn't bother him, all he had to say was "It doesn't bother me, that you are better at bowling, or running, or anything else that we can do together. It bothers me that every day you walk into that building, risking your life, that I couldn't do anything, once it all goes wrong. I'd have to sit at home one day, wondering why you aren't back yet, only to realize that there was nothing I could have done to stop it. That never again, I would be shown up in bowling, or anything else, ever again by you." Or something like that. I am not a writer, just some person, and even i could come up with something better
Actually fantastic re-write. The thing is that's what I feel Hughie's motivation was in the first place. When he had to hear HL talk so horribly about his girlfriend he tried to man-up for her sake and realized he'd be decimated. His girlfriend whom he wanted to defend had to end up saving him again. I don't think his problem ever was that she was strong. His problem was that he wasn't strong enough to help her and you captured that as oppose the actual show writers.
In S1, it was basically a major twist that Homelander was not just smart, but VERY smart. He would move pawns and scheme and win. But as he became more batshit insane, he became a childish dumbass. They turned a very scary and competent villain into just some insane baby. He became non-threatening come S3, and now I dont give a shit about him at all.
He's still pretty smart in later seasons. The way Homelander gets rid of Edgar was smart. The way he manipulates Ryan into using his power over the director was smart.
17:00 Surprisingly, most ductwork actually is coated in zinc or zinc alloys to protect against rust and reduce maintenance costs. It doesn't make the application of Homelander's powers any less inconsistent, but I was surprised to learn that after I was bitching about how stupid it was that Homelander couldn't just see him and laser him immediately. I have no clue if the writers actually knew that though, or if it was just a lucky coincidence for them.
even if he couldn't aim due to lack of xray vision, s1 finale proved Homelander has incredible superspeed, so nothing was stopping him from just flying right through the vent and getting his hands dirty
@@verdant543 yep, his laziness isn't even an excuse, because A) he wanted Huey dead, like seriously dead (and no ulterior reason for wanting Huey spared was offered); and B) he was lazy when he doomed Flight 37, and there he swept with his laser eyes, meanwhile he merely poked his lasers at the vents with Huey. So he failed to use his ears, his eyes, his speed, or his flight to stop the person he hated most in that moment. Pathetic.
@@verdant543Exactly he would have been able to fly through the entire vent system of the building in less than 2 seconds. And how did he not figure out A-Train must have saved Hewie for him to disappear once he gets outside? Wouldn't he be able to see Hewie and A-Train through the wall once Hewie went outside anyway? Are the walls made of Zinc too? This comment thread has already put more thought into the sequence than the writers sadly
I really loved the first season because it deviated drastically from the nihilistic and grotesque tone that the comics had. It added humanity to the characters and made you sympathize with them. Then they just started doing exactly what the comics did, except with a ton of overt political commentary. What a waste.
@@ProGamer-lk9qw The whole show was always like this, but you have 'gamer' in your name unironically so you're either 17 years old or too far gone to understand; either way, gg.
My biggest pet peev with season 4 and by extension, seasons 2 and 3. Is that Homelander is now very stupid, where in season 1 he was the only character that figured out the mystery of what happened to Beca. Now he is a child with no control over himself. He isn't scary anymore. He is a threat, but he isn't nearly as intimidating as he was before
@ultrainstinctgokuhope7442 yes and no. He is more likely to react out of emotion not logic but that doesn't mean he isn't intelligent, just means he doesn't know how to control his emotions
I’ve hated the show since season 2. Season one was soo good, it had so much potential. Anything that came after is trash. The plot refuses to advance at all. I didn’t watch season 4 because season 3 pissed me off so badly. It’s just so mindless and refuses to advance. Compare breaking bad to the boys, five seasons in and look how different breaking bad is. The boys is basically in the same place for five seasons. Villains won’t kill heroes, heroes won’t kill villains. It’s horrible. I hate when people complain about season 4 because every season is shit. They introduce a villain of the week, find an excuse to keep each other alive, and just set up awful jokes and “satire”.
@@manolgeorgiev9664 nope, The Boys are trying to do the good thing (only butcher's morality is questioned), starlight, Maeve was ended up being good, and the whole final conflict will probably be about whatever homelender's kid is gonna end up a good guy or not. All these character's didn't have a bizarre sex scene.
@@Chen_Ash by and large, the "super bizarre" sex kinks displayed by the supers are only possible because they're supers. A person without super powers would be physically incapable of doing those things.
I am a massive fan of this show. However, Season 4 Episode 6 is one of the worst experiences I have been through. Watching one of my favorite shows constantly mistreat male SA, which is something I have been through in my life, was one of the most uncomfortable things I have been through. Eric Kripke is an insensitive mess, and I hate how it has to be attached to this show. Great video, by the way. I disagree with a lot of the things you said, but I can respect most of the grievances, even if I could propose some other points to this.
That's my least favorite episode as well. male SA isn't addressed enough in media, but this is NOT how I wanted it addressed. I couldn't even watch a huge chunk of the episode. I kept looking away from the screen.
It wasn't a mistreat. Hughie knew what he signed up for and it just simply didn't bother him as much as other people would stop expecting every character to cry about it for a whole season
@@hammer-0 the problem wasn’t exactly with the episode itself. I have went on record saying that it could’ve worked if they kept it just to the episode, then maybe it could work, but while watching I never felt comfortable. Eric Kripke going on record to say that he thought it was “hilarious” confirmed my suspicions that Kripke was not taking this seriously. Saying that it was “hilarious” completely nullified the things the episode had going for it.
Sister Sage reading 'Naming and Necessity' was hilarious. It's peak dumb-person's smart-person. "Wow, she reads hard books on the toilet like a wizard." "The cure for cancer wow." " 'I knew that was gonna happen' wow"
Making fun of stupid tropes, but still have them too. Making fun of corporate greed, but also a product of it. Making fun of cash grab sequel and spin off, they made them too. Making fun of 'public figure being ass off-cam', Have actor being ass off-cam irl.
"Stupid tropes"- show a 'stupid' trope they parody that they also participate in. "Corporate greed"- product of a greedy corporation, the show a product of corporate greed? No. "Cash grab sequel and spin off"- well unless you're mad at a TV show for having seasons, then I don't know what you mean by sequel, but if by spin off you're calling Gen V a cash grab, are you forgetting the vital plot pieces, and likely vital characters for the final season that were introduced and developed during that 'cash grab' spin off. "Public figure being ass off-cam"- yeah dude the writers don't have control over that. What kind of criticism is this?
The reason they play The Deep as a joke is because he's the stand in for Aquaman and ever since The Super Friends morons think Aquaman is lame. So they are "taking the piss" out of Aquaman. "Look how lame Aquaman is."
It's funny because in the comic the Deep actually takes himself seriously and his whole character is all about how serious he is, he is always in character despite how goofy he looks
@@drzerogi exactly, if they wanted to be actually subversive they would have made the Deep very powerful, but "fishfucker" jokes was apparently more interesting to the writers.
@@matane2465 Yeah I started questioning this review when he said the Deep wasn’t funny…he’s very funny imo and Chace Crawford’s comedic timing is spot on.
@@guerreiroazul3230 The Deep I think is actually very powerful, but we never really get to see him in his element. He's quite literally a fish out of water, and I think the show plays on that well by time-and-time-again demonstrating that he'd be happier if he weren't caught up in the superhero nightmare machine.
Humans in real life: bags of meat and blood covered in a protective layer and supported by very strong complex rocks and they only have 5 liters of blood Humans in the boys: water balloons that explode in 2000 trillion gallons of blood of when you touch them
@@HYDROCARBON_XD dude, if you dont like the show, fine. But get a better reason to. "humans having too much blood" is the worst complaint ever. Especially when its deliberate Plus idk what you mean by durability. They get hit by superheroes. Of course they die, getting hit by them is like getting hit by a truck with all force being centred in a fist
@@patrickwastie5 no I am talking about when they fall or they get hit at a wall at not an extremely high speed (this might be accidental the CGI but they travel very slow) and when A train kills robin the bits of robin just fall to the ground when the top motion stops instead of following the momentum
Youll be hard pressed to find realistic violence/gore in pretty much any show. If thats what youre really looking for theres plenty of places you can find the real stuff...
Annie getting mad at Hughie felt so off considering the mimic literally demonstrated to her that they had all of her memories and could impersonate her almost perfectly.
@@malikpierre-louis3343 She was held hostage in a dirty basement for several days. She has every right to be mad at the guy who shoudl have known that it wasn’t her.
The whole show is focuses so hard on being reddit slop satire of the real world that as soon as you stop caring about it you realize how bad the actual writing is. If they had kept with the same producers from season 1 we might've gotten a solid show but since eric wants to make "crazy" scenes the last three seasons have felt like a series of best gore clips mashed together with dumb politics because eric has to have self inserts
@@kkegg The boys is a masterpiece in satire of the real world…so putting “Reddit slop” before that doesn’t really change anything lmao Also, can you give an example of the “dumb politics”?
@@donovan4222 can you give me an example of it being a master piece? The show sums ideas down to the simplistic strawman then will still do what it's criticizing in the show, they'll criticize how the media only focuses on identify politics then make the black characters stories all centered around how they're black, mothers milk literally has only pictures of mlk in his house none of his family.
@@kkegg I think the satire is a masterpiece, even if the entire show is not. The satire perfectly encapsulates the cringe inducing neoliberal corporate “focus group” PR speak and weaponization of identity politics with Vought…as well as the whacky right wing Facebook lunatics of rural America with Homelander. They aren’t just criticizing how the media focuses on identity politics, they are satirizing how mostly white liberal corporations cynically weaponize identity politics as a shield against criticism and PR tactic. For example, Ashley and others at Vought constantly brag about how they value diversity, when in reality the company was founded by a Nazi and employs superheroes like blue hawk.
@@donovan4222 Thats a very bad example, even in the satire of the neoliberal mindset it can't bring itself to pinpoint a liberal as the butt of the joke but a natzi. It has to be a natzi , because they can't bring themselvs to portray an actual liberal as the butt off the joke outside small quips . It just reinforces the show being strawman reddit slop memes , fits with the writters and the way they portray male csa.
@@donovan4222a masterpiece? They just don’t like Republicans or christians or conservatives. You think mocking a group of people that are routinely mocked in all of media because most people that work in that industry are liberals makes it a masterpiece? Wow that’s hilarious you are very easily impressed.
Eric Kripke thought that leaning heavily on shock value over story was gonna be a winning formula for longer than he thought. The boys is basically Justice League Injustice but with filthy adult humor and on the nose political satire. It was a great concept but lost it's value when overplayed
I really hate the trope of "smart character figures out how to do something in their head in a short time frame." Like, it just demonstrates that the writers have no clue how science works. Being smart does not give you clairvoyancy. If the information needed to figure something out isn't available to you you're not gonna suddenly get it because you're magically smarter than everyone else. There are experiments that would need to be run - potentially very expensive and time consuming experiments - before any real progress could be made. It doesn't matter how smart you are, if you don't have time and funding you are f***ed.
1:15 The concept of Evil Superman had already been done to death at this point with Injustice Superman, Snyder Superman, Evil Superman dozens of times in the comics, Omni-Man, Brightburn, and The Plutonian just to name the ones off the top of my head. The only thing Homelander adds to the table was "What if Superman were evil... and a corporate shill?"
@@PostCrisisRH In terms of his goals, he's very much like Zod. But his presentation, persona, and how he's associated with a league of heroes in the series is straight up just Superman.
Invincible is the Superman archetype, not Omni Man. I'll admit both the comic and show want you to believe that at first but Mark is the true representation of the character.
The false premise that Batman is a rich dude who hunts poor people has done so much irrevocable damage it makes every other smear campaign look amateurish.
@@claytonc6417 it’s not a “smear campaign” popular iterations of Batman are fascistic. Nolan’s Batman ends the dark knight movie using mass surveillance and lying to the public to preserve the image of the Gotham police so they can do a Gotham Patriot act 🤣. TDKR literally ends with Batman rallying an army of cops to beat up a left coded villain who uses revolutionary anti rich rhetoric. And Snyder’s Batman tortures criminals and brands them with bat signs.
@@donovan4222 It's wild too how the people ACTUALLY responsible barely have anything happen to them, they're treated much differently and which much higher respect, but the lackeys who carry out his work are treated much harsher, many of them in reality, sure are doing bad, but either are forced to by the gang or just need to make a living. He wouldn't think twice about maiming a lackey, but when it comes to the actual boss like Joker, he barely does anything in comparison.
That and "why dont' he kill Joker", as if the most popular and marketable villain in history of comic books can get killed or otherwise removed from the threat list for good.
@@demilung I mean, they could. DC isn't like Marvel. They don't usually stick a constant continuation timeline indefinitely. They constantly "reboot" and do different timelines. Often times things may just get a few movies, and then it's done until the next timeline/reboot. In DC's case, they absolutely could have a timeline that ends with his death
This show is just sadistic for the sake of it. I noped out of the first episode. It must be an age thing, when I was in my teens and 20's I would have loved this show. Now I'm in my 40's with a son, I just can't take extreme violence, too distressing to watch this stuff.
I skip most of the scenes of Season 3 and 4 whenever it starts to be edgy. I said it many times, but being gory for the sake of it is no longer brave, if anything is lame. Using violence to tell a story has worked many times, and the Boys has days when it misses the mark so hard that I have people skip ENTIRE SCENES, just to get to the point.
Dude I think exactly the same! There are other productions or films that basically focus on gore and morbidity, such as the Terrifier saga recently, that is where it works perfectly because you know very well that it is directed specifically for those who like that type of content. While in The Boys I feel it very forced when they put in exaggerated gore and edgy stuff, as if it were a way to show how "unique and different" they are from the rest, when its just a satire of superheroes and its not the type of genre that shows this (the original comic is like this and that's why it's garbage). For example, the scene in which they brutally stamp the whale, it's as if they were saying "Haha, look at a giant dead whale, a lot of gore, guts and organs sticking out, look how edgy we are" seems cringey and cheesy to me...
yea I also stopped watching it but finished S1, invincible does the bad superman trope so much better. the boys is being edgy for edgy's sake and that to me is not art lol
I agree, Im not against extreme violence if it has some artistic merit, but that part is lacking in the Boys. It just feels like edgy 4chan teenager gore.
I’m so glad you talked about the Hughie-Starlight-shifter scenario. I left season 4 extremely frustrated at how poorly they handled that and made it seem like Hughie’s fault, or how they treat the resolution like a joke
@@randomhuman2595 Not gonna happen. They are not going to admit that a WOMAN, who belongs to the "good folks", of all things could possibly not be in the right. This show is about toxic masculinity after all.
Glad other people are pointing out how this series tries way too hard to be edgy instead of actually being critical of superhero stereotypes and cliches. Like the first half of Torchwood, but 100x worse.
To be fair, it didn't start with the best of material, considering the Comics is already a fuming pile of edgy shit covering the author's raging boner for the US Military and insane hate towards the Superhero Genre.
If you’re going to attack the show for that, first attack the source material. It’s like that the comics, too. The show actually tame a lot of the stuff down. But, yeah, I never get why Homelander doesn’t just end the group. It would’ve worked better if the main group was operating in some sort of secrecy or behind the shadow throughout the entire show.
"Hey look guys, we're all sexual freaks who satirize porn and gore. Aren't we meta? Aren't we just hilarious?" Hollywood really is full of Winsteins, Diddys, and Epsteins. The bigger question is how this came to be?
Seems like it always has been, it just used to be better concealed and culture was a lot more about keeping such things away from the public eye, vs. today's "almost anything goes" permissiveness and normalized perversions and degenerate lifestyles.
It's money, it's just somewhat odd that so many people with money are so predatory. Though I guess the acquisition of such an abundance of money does call for a certain amount of predatory habits.
To be honest, that WOULD be a more interesting story, showing the inside stories of all pf these monumental screwups, and how they got so screwed up in the first place. They're all still human, and made to be the way they are by humans, so it might teach us something about ourselves, but apparently this very real horror is funny?🤔
@@tiquezgraham7963 why? I haven't read the comics, I just heard it was based on super heroes in real life and season 1 wasn't purely about american politics when I watched it, idk how thinking that is "idiotic". Also you edited your comment and couldn't even correct your two mistakes. Talk to me again about being idiotic.
@@FanksCast Superheroes are a US creation so that kind of comes with the territory…the show has always been a satire depicting how superheroes would be if they really existed in modern American corporate society
@@donovan4222 Yeah I understand that, and don't get me wrong I don't hate all the politics in the show. But while all the seasons before 4 had some politics and some super hero parodying (which is how they originally marketed the show, as a parody of marvel/DC,) now its 70/80 percent politics, and I already hear about trump and US politics enough living in the UK, now making it mainly about that makes it kind of eye rolling. Feels like they lured me in with the superhero concept and now its about starligthers and homelanders, erm I mean democrats and republicans, (which to people who started watching it because of the super hero parodying just makes it a bit of a drag, kind of asking for some balance) Just my opinion ofc and I still like the show regardless. To put simply before it was superheroes first, politics second, but now its completely vice versa.
I didn't understand the Hughie arc all season with being him being SA'd repeatedly. Seriously how could she be mad at him because he did not cheat on her, he was victimized. He should have been so mentally scarred that he needed to see a mental health professional to sort things out. And that is not even including the trauma of losing his father and dealing with a mother who abandoned her family when he was a child.
@@donovan4222 it isn't satire though imo. the first season is satire. the first couple seasons it was a satire on the superhero genre. but a "meme" is much more accurate to what it is now. a meme is low brow humor with nothing behind it. just like the show has become.
Whoa donovan it’s such good satire!!! You know it’s great writing when they tackle the issue of racism by having their villain utter garbled nonsensical remarks about jews that nobody in real life has ever uttered. It’s such a great satire when you tell the audience “Trump equals Homelander equals Hitler!!” It’s so thought provoking amirite?
@@walmartian422 yep, it was fine when they were taking shots at both sides. like the over-the-top gay Disney Park episode i thought was funny cuz it's making fun of Disney for pushing an agenda in order to make money but this current season it really feels like the vibe is "conservatives are bad, liberals are good". rather than "look at how cringey both sides are when they have extremist values" which is what made the first couple seasons great and i'm saying this as a liberal myself lol
@@donovan4222 Doctor Strangelove is satire. This is garbage and not at all clever. It's not even trying to be anything more than "What if marvel was more gross and written by fetishists?" as opposed to properly doing satire. They even drag it out for more seasons and do spin offs, anything to cynically make a buck the same way Disney does.
8:13 Okay... I really like the show... but the number of times they pull the "character whips out a cellphone with convenient blackmail on it" card IS ridiculous.
That's what annoyed me in season 3 🤣 Especially that scene in the elevator with Annie and Homelander. She whips out her phone and is basically like, "Erm, yeah. You're #Cancelled bitch.~
Finally someone says this. The gore in the show is so overkill and often just becomes a fucking shield for The Boys glazers. You try to criticize the story and plot and all they say is “You just didnt like it because of all the gore”
@@daniquemaxwell5070 yeah its like “look at us were so different because we have all this blood and disgusting shit where people fuck next to corpses and some guy jerks off to an octopus’s mouth or psy or whatever thats even supposed to be”
They fluctuate. The killing of the scientists in the basement is meant to be intensely damaged. If you're not a sadist, then you should probably be uncomfortable with watching characters that represent human beings (if the text has any meaning) being tortured. Web weaver's death seemed to have elements of comedy. Tek Knight is, I think, murdered by his Alfred in cold blood if memory serves (which doesn't elevate him particularly). Then you have murdering the wrong ashley or ripping extras in half. Violence should be violent. You should be riven. If you get close to it, it should probably trigger a level of revulsion. You're either watching characters as puppets, or the fictional world understands that they represent humans and that allows the event happening onscreen to be meaningful. If a character betrays another character, it's meant to have the meaning of betrayal in the real world. If a murder occurs, it's meant to have the meaning of murder. My video store used to have mondo cinema. You could, if you wanted to, watch videos of people dying in ambulances or, I think, of massacres in africa. Why would you want to? I'm not sure it's less demented if you just watch a reenactment and glory in the rivers of blood and viscera. It just seems odd to be if you have to apologize for not seeing a representation of someone be ripped in half and thinking "yes! what fine entertainment.". I'm not sure gore is created equally. The gore in Westworld was probably meant to indict the audience for their lurid fascinations and it at least had the horror of the bodies being collected in heaps or rotting bloated in the desert sun.
I swear the writers of this show (men) have some serious dominatrix fantasies they need to check up on. The amount of sexual assault against male characters is unnerving.
I wish you brought up them letting the deep live instead of killing him because "it would take too long" even though I'm sure Annie could snap his neck and A Train is there to Blue Hawk him.
Aquaman continues to exist for some reason, and continues showing up, despite no one really liking him. One of the more baffling products made by humanity. The Deep has divine protection because of this fact.
Late, but a couple things, Annie was strong enough to beat him up, not snap his neck. Remember they're fairly equal, but the deep was shown to be stronger. I think they likely knew they couldn't kill him, at least not in time. He is strong enough to survive 8 tons per square inch of pressure (Mariana Trench). We don't know how physically strong A Train is, and it's pretty clear the Deep is stronger than Blue Hawk, so he's probably just leave a train of broken concrete if dragged across the road like with blue hawk.
@@ilikesnakes4695 Never too late. The fact that the Deep can withstand the pressure of deep sea is an interesting point. That would make it believable that he's much more durable than he is physically strong, however if you're able to beat someone up you really can kill someone, especially if they're knocked out. I know saying "I have a feeling..." Isn't a great argument but it just doesn't feel they did a good job making him seem that durable. Homelander they treat as if he could wipe out a city but could be killed by a small missile tbh. I don't think the deep could survive the Blue Hawk specialty.
season 1 was definitely a fluke. The reason why homelander is intimidating is because you have this ticking unstable timebomb that can nuke earth if he wants to and no one can stop him. That's why people around him are treading lightly but the more the season goes, he is not scary anymore. This villain has been watered down and diluted to oblivion. The biggest crime for me is the ending of season 3. That's why I didn't watch the show after that and just watch reviews and essays on season 4 instead. The sheer stupidity and character assassination in that ending is so awful. They have sacrificed everything from season 1 and 2 just so they let Homelander live and because MM has gripe with soldier boy. I was yelling at my TV "WHY THE FCK WOULD YOU STOP THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP THE BIGGEST THREAT!? you could literally do that after Homelander is subdued. You know how to stop Soldier Boy. You don't know if another opportunity comes with Homelander"
"WE HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU R*CIST MOTHERFUCKERS" MM saying that shit to Soldierboy at the end of s3 felt so unintentionally funny and out of place. They never established Soldier Boy as racist really and its more so that he was a fish out of water frozen for 20-30 or so years. It feels like they had multiple writers that had different ideas for him the writes all wrote different scenes with their ideas of his character in mind without communicating with each other.
See it's always comments like this that make me question the media literacy or compassion of an average viewer. You're asking the right question "why would you not take the chance to stop the biggest threat?" But you're missing the answer that's literally in the text. If Butcher kills Homelander, but loses Ryan, everything will be for naught. It's not winning if he loses Ryan. He wants to kill Homelander for revenge over his presumed-dead-now-actually-dead wife, but the last remnant of her and his promise to her is right there, falling out of his grasp. He made the choice to not make another Homelander that day. I used to be just like you (and a lot of these commenters) when I was younger, so I understand the plot focus, but the real world is full of irrational choices made for emotion reasons. Although I agree that The Boys (especially season 4) is sometimes contrived with letting its heroes live (seriously what is that ending), a lot of the criticism in these comments are just woefully dismissive of the context
@youhavegottobekidding did you even watch the next season where Ryan kills Mallory and Butcher decided he needed to let neegan take control so he can kill Ryan? JESUS CHRIST Ryan and homelander should have died stupid
Frankly after season 4 I'm pro-virus, we're getting two more seasons at least in The Boys universe, season 2 of Gen-V and season 5 of The Boys. This story's been stretched and beaten so much that watching season 1 is like watching a completely different show.
Would be a bold ending. Wipe out every supe (and possibly the world at large since the virus could mutate?) in present day, then revisit Vought in its infancy through the Soldier Boy/Stormfront prequel. Not sure there's enough artistic integrity in the writers' room to go that route though.
@@kingkarlito babbit09's critique solely targets the narrative shortcomings of the show. No idea how you've performed that ass pull of making it political.
@@kingkarlito yea your guys' trump comparisons to homelander are just so subtle, the feeble conservative mind can't comprehend it! Do you read Engels by any chance?
@@butcherpete2286 I’m a huge Batman fan, but you can absolutely critique the concept of Batman as having fascist underpinnings. The whole concept of a rich guy going into the slums and brutally punishing criminals with violence is like a fascists wet dream…that’s why I prefer stories that highlight that Batman is more than that and the character should inspire hope and actually save people…which is why Reeves Batman is superior
@@donovan4222 no. That's projection on your part of what you think a fascist is like. Not the character being fascist at all. He's a PHILANTHROPIST who operates both an ORPHANAGE and a mental health institution for SUPER VILLAINS. He wholeheartedly believes that nobody is beyond saving and even refuses to use guns (in most iderations and dont site the Origin comics, even the co creator of those stories has openly said he regrets ever letting batman use a gun in the origin comics so dont even go there) People just like to associate rich people with evil because they view the world as the haves and have nots and they wish they were the haves. Batman, inherently, is a character of good moral standing and justice. He doesn't go into slums and brutally beat people. He lives in crime ridden city and is actively pursuing criminals to bring them to justice. It's a very modern day part of the character that he "brutally beats people up" because Hollywood and the comics industry is rife with leftoids that think all rich people are evil and want to smear BATMANs character
@@butcherpete2286 That is the definition of what a fascist is like, not my opinion. Fascists place a huge emphasis on “law and order” and see themselves as kind of morally superior warriors against “degeneracy” doing the “dirty work” that others won’t. Thats how the psychology works and how fascists view themselves and justify what they do. I agree that Batman shouldn’t be fascist obviously, but the point is that the character is sometimes written in ways where people can interpret it that way. And you are right that things like his no kill rule and believing no one is beyond saving are what separates Batman from that, but if you look at Snyder’s Batman for example you can see the huge problem there. People accurately associate wealth with evil, because rampant wealth inequality is evil…billionaires existing while thousands of homeless people exist is an evil policy choice of how to run society. Has nothing to do with individual billionaires being nice people or not. In the real world, billionaire do philanthropy for PR and tax break purposes, and philanthropy is not a solution to homelessness or wealth inequality…but that’s kind of beside the point. I have no problem with the concept of Batman existing as a billionaire and trying to do good, I’m just saying you have to be careful about the message you send with how the character is written. And yeah you are right again, that Batman being this brutal guy that tortures criminals just because he wants to or thinks it’s “necessary” is a more modern take on the character, I largely blame Snyder for that…but the point is that those interpretations of the character can and do have fascist underpinnings. Thats why I think as Batman fans we should push for stories where Batman is written well and not with those fascist underpinnings.
@@donovan4222 the fascist underpinnings you're describing come from the people that align themselves with anti-fasict groups though. It is literally a projection from the writers of the modern takes of the character. Watch the Justice League and Unlimited series and tell me there's a fascist underpinning to that character. Or Batman the Animated series, Batman Beyond or a plethora of the DCAU movies. One director fundamentally not understanding the character he was writing (and got so much backlash for it he was not rehired with DC to do any future projects with them and they retconned his entire movie universe with the Flash movie) does not mean the "character has fascist underpinnings" it means that a writer/director did not understand the character he was working with. For the director of the Boys to say this quote is just another projection from that writer/director who absolutely does not understand the character on a fundamental level and should, rightly, be called out on that. And in all honesty if you want to use the ideas youre here to say Batman has fascist undertones I'd argue that it's the society that has them, not the character. He gives far more than he ever takes, he bucks against the system and calls out corrupt police and governmental officials, and actively helps low income communities. That's antithetical to what you're saying he is. If anything it builds the case that Batman is against authoritarianism, hence why he's a vigilante not an authority figure. Side note, just because fascist societies emphasize conformity and abuse of the legal system does not mean that anyone that takes a hard line stance against crime is fascist, or that a society that fairly and justly punishes criminals is a fascist one. They are t mutually inclusive of each other.
@@butcherpete2286 Lol there is just no evidence that writers purposely make Batman fascist because they don’t like him, that’s just how the character can be interpreted when it’s a rich guy using fear tactics to “clean up” crime in a city. Thats a very easy concept to create fascist themes around. JLU and BTAS are great examples of Batman done right, and making it clear he’s not a fascistic figure. There are other examples of where he can be…Snyder Batman, aspects of Frank Miller Batman, and even Nolan’s Batman show show elements of this. Kingdom Come Batman turns Gotham into a police state solely managed and run by him, that one is pretty obvious… The Batman I’m a fan of isn't a fascist, but a bunch of popular versions of the character have some pretty notable fascist subtext so it's not unreasonable for some to interpret the character in that way.
Everyone forgets the part in season 2 where they character assassinated Starlight by having her become a killer and murdering a completely innocent dad in cold blood who was well within his right of self defense. She showed zero remorse in the following scene where she was okay with murdering him, stealing his car, and leaving his corpse in the middle of the road and never had to face any consequences for those choices.
Agree with everything you say except the "serial killer" thing. A serial killer is the kind that commits various murders in a specific set of time and often with a pattern, one murder doesn't make you a serial killer.
The dude was about to shoot Butcher even after being told "Put the gun down" by Annie. She showed shock for having sent him backwards (and murdering him) in the very next second
@@Bumbum_Inspector Well it was an accident, they needed the car, he pulled a gun, and she pushed him too hard…so I believe the point of that scene was to show how far Starlight has come since season 1. While the old starlight would have a mental breakdown if she did that, the new starlight briefly shows some remorse, accepts what happened, and moves on. Remember, superpowers aren’t clean in this show. Supes kill people, even by accident, all the time and it’s regularly covered up as shown in the very first episode.
@@donovan4222 It was not an accident. She was shown to be able to take nearly point blank shots from a sniper rifle in season 1 without any real damage. She had so much time to use her bullet immune body as a shield and stand in the way of him and Butcher and disarm him. The Dad offered to drive them to the hospital but he was not willing to just give them his car and be left in the middle of nowhere, but Butcher didn't want that and escalated. Starlight opted to kill a completely innocent person well within his right of self defense instead of protect and disarm, despite having plenty of time to do so.
its nice to see someone finally say the truth about this show. its okay to put on in the background, but some people actually ride or die for this show, thinking it is gods greatest gift and i have never understood that
S4 took a hard dive in quality... till then I mostly enjoyed it. But then I read the show runner say "If you don't like it, don't watch it." and my response was "You got it, chief!"
@username.exenotfound2943 wow u mean a director who isn't gonna let fan feedback change and affect his story? What a horrible human being, like do u all realize that feedback like this changing the tone and story is what killed the dceu
@@heresnegan6825 No, a director who is incapable of taking valid feedback and criticism, and instead acts as if there is something wrong with the fans. Obviously not all criticism is valid, but an adult should be able to tell the difference.
@@heresnegan6825 Counter point. Do you know what killed the mcu or starwars? Directors that don't listen to feedback and just saying "If you don't like, don't watch it." Or "This movie wasn't made for you"
11:03 I will actually defend Ryan’s characterization here. One thing that’s made pretty clear is that he doesn’t like creeps and rapists. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment, but he explains that Homelander told him that the star lighters were pedophilles. So then later hearing from someone he was raised by (truthfully) accusing Homelander of raping his own Mother, and pressuring him to murder his own father must have been pretty world shattering to him. I don’t think he even knows what to think after accidentally killing Grace. He just wants to get away from it all. The poor kid’s been thrown around between multiple parental figures, some much more fucked up than others. Of course he’s gonna start being confused about his own morals
Despite how hard the show fell off after S1, you still have to apreciate how good the acting still is, specially Antony Starr, that man is giving it is all every scene
I don't recall if it was a video or an article, but I heard that Antony didn't even want the role of Homelander, but was convinced to send in an audition tape. They gave him the gig because his audition showed the perfect level of disinterest and disdain.
28:30 Noir nodded. It wasn't "silence means yes" Noir clearly nods, and even if not, Homelander was always good with reading body language, and says that he could always see Noirs face. Not that I disagree with anything else here, just wanted to point that out, you are right, he was wasted.
Hot take: The Boys has always been a show of nihilistic nonsense that was made palatable by a mask of competent writing and acting. Only now, the competency is gone so the mask is slipping.
The amount of times Homelander could have killed Butcher but just doesn't for either some contrived reason or sometimes no apparent reason drove me crazy. Also, it feels like he is already past the point of caring what the public thinks but he still just does for some reason.
There was one scene in season 2 where Annie accidentally kills a driver who turned out to be a father to which Annie claims she doesn't feel sad over because he was in their way despite it being her first kill to my knowledge. Annie has been questioning her religion and becoming more ruthless by blackmailing her friend earlier in season 2, but accidentally killing a father while Butcher was escalating things only for Annie to blame the driver instead of butcher afterwards and not feeling guilty over it just rubbed me the wrong way.
@@yokesplooge2852 I think that was meant to show Annie’s character development, because season 1 Annie would have had a mental breakdown from accidentally killing someone…but she goes through so much that she starts to become more like Butcher, so she just accepts it and moves on.
@@donovan4222 Except by the end of season 2 Annie finds her religion again symbolizing her getting back in touch with her moral compass after watching a wretched human being like butcher do something good. By season 3 she's all sanctimonious about Hughey and Butcher teaming up with a murderer like Soldier Boy all the while Starlight caught a body she still shown no remorse over but she shows remorse blinding a hostage when she was young and starting out as a superhero in season 4. If she could feel remorse for that she could do the same for killing a father who Butcher got killed when he tried to help them.
@@donovan4222 You call that character development? oO Oh she developed so well she is now able to murder people in cold blood and not have it weigh on her. Good for her!... Maybe if they are trying to make a villain out of her that could be called character development. But they ain't doing that.
@@AeneaSXI Yeah that’s exactly what character development is, it doesn’t mean “morally perfect character who does nothing wrong” and having character flaws does not make you a villain lmao
Watching fanboys try to justify this show by assuming everyone is just mad at the politics is amusing because none of them have ever praised the newer seasons for being well written. It's their only defense when someone criticizes it.
@@opadrip I think it’s interesting how Sheev critiqued the plot but many of the comments are just people being upset that the show is “biased” against Trump supporters
@@donovan4222 I only saw the first episode of season 4, then I found out what a piece of sh*t the Frenchie actor is in real life. But honestly, even if it weren't for him, that woman who's supposed to be a caricature of alex jones and that human centipedes stuff was just about enough for me. The show was never subtle, but Jesus, talk about a jackhammer....
@@hb4080 I totally agree about Frenchie, but why should it be subtle when the material it’s satirizing isn’t subtle in real life? Like you may say “oh they made Homelander too unsubtle, he’s a little on the nose” but then it turns out they accurately made Homelander say something that Trump literally said in the debate a few weeks ago 🤣
One thing i don't really see get talked about is the Kimiko's whole "I don't want to be a monster" plotline where she tries to get rid of her superpowers where when that actually happens the writers are like "Fuck what do we do now" so they just give her the powers back after wasting a shit ton of screen time for nothing
Well, when a bunch of right wing idiots can't tell that they are the joke, ya gotta make it obvious so the message finally gets through their thick skulls.
@kagu2811 well tbf although I understood the comment, yeah, I'm not saving it for another time, it just wasn't at all nice to read or to say out loud. 😅
Why there's a lot of recent comments acting as if disliking the show is edgy contrarianism when the show is literally edgy contrarianism of Superhero media with a side of shallow shocking content? Any nuance got lost after season 1, which is a damn shame. I really wanted to like the show, and some aspects it did really good kept me going long after I started disliking the writing. It never picked of.
@@randomhuman2595 Stormfront isn't interesting, I really dig the concept of the insidious harmful propagandist using platforms to spread harmful ideas but I felt the social media aspect of her character was too "how do you do fellow kids" and didn't have much going for her other than being comically evil and racist, and don't get me wrong she should've been just that but we didn't really see her actually use her platform to spread insidious propaganda, she was just a hip hero who got popular because she wasn't afraid to throw dirt at Vought. I didn't buy she would've been a social media star, the show just say she is. I didn't really like Stan or Neuman either, I feel their arcs are just meandering as a result of having to stretch the series as much as they can to milk Homelander. I did dig Soldier Boy, but I was mad he didn't betray the boys on his own, he was clearly the lesser evil compared to Homelander. If Soldier Boy would've been a bigger asshole, and they didn't waste Noir I would've been more hopeful for the series. But nah, it's just very boring to see a plot that should've ended be stretched and milked.
Unironically this is the best review of this show on UA-cam. It’s great seeing you point the actual issues with the writing rather than your own biases.
@@BirdsElopeWithTheSun09 tbf this show is Woke af. having hughie get SA'd and have to apologise to his fuckin gf about it is peak woke writing. The writing isn't bad because woke it's bad because it don't make sense then again the writing perhaps would be tighter if the showrunners focused on that instead of wanting Homelander to be a Trump allegory or wanting Hughies arc to be about toxic masculinity and not the trauma of his gf being gibbed in front of him.
@@moe5020I hate the overuse of the word woke, but “woke” writing is going to be intrinsically bad. I say this as someone this show is poorly mocking. You can write something that’s left leaning and have it be well written. Sure people might disagree with said message. But “woke” writing is always going to be garbage. It’s like trying to separate stink from sh¡t. It ain’t happening
@@PKM9107 agreed. That's the unfortunate thing about left leaning audiences. They could have really good pieces of media, like they keep desperately claiming they dont have enough of, but then the writers chosen to head those projects are just so god awful at their jobs. I mean, look at how much people clamored for Leslie Headland, being the first openly gay director for SW and they had the opportunity to tell a story part of the SW mythos that could faithfully encapsulate their life experiences, only for it to be badly written garbage.
I lowk disagree with the part about black noir's death. It didn't really seem like it was played for laughs but rather a last look into black noir's damaged psyche as he takes his last breaths trying to rationalize his death and make it feel better. i do agree that it sucks that he didnt get to confront soldier boy though
@@saby7825 He truly is a wasted character imo. Dude finally get meaningful screen time for once, then die very shortly after. Such a waste of potential...
@@Juhnte he also is a victim of that varying power level, he should be able to stand a punch from homelander. Not win a fight, but not have the punch go cleanly into him.
@@dorianleakey Honestly, like. He survived being practically lobotomized by Soldier Boy but a single punch from Homelander was enough to kill him so quickly?? That's just bad writing tbh
@@Jesse-Pinkthem I remember when that guy who could self detonate did next to no damage as well, I feel they wanted that shock moment as homelander coldly kills him for us to be horrified by.
I hated the constant smug preachiness of the writers in season 4. Edit: Not even left/right politics, but the show went from showcasing views through story, to just telling you what to think. Every episode felt like a lecture from a bunch of metropolitan liberals funded by a super massive corporation.
@@anthonyparillo7832 I know what kinda argument you're trying to pull, yeah there's lots of RW guys who think Homelander is literally them but there's also normal people too who dislike how the show becomes more stupid and shallow each season. A lot of the cleverness of the first season is just gone, there's no longer any satire it's just "hey look at this thing that happened, kinda crazy right?". Equating Soldier Boy to what happened at the Capital in January 6 is BEYOND idiotic.
@@anthonyparillo7832 "if you dont tell me I will donate your money to black lives matter!" Stop it. Just stop. That was a quote from season 4. I dont want to see mentally ill extreme left people write shows.
According to her and Kripke, she was facing online harassment. However, what I think really happened is some execs convinced her to get plastic surgery, she looked like shit afterward, then scapegoated the fans. From s1 and s2 I saw and heard NO ONE talking about her being ugly, which she wasn’t.
@@randomhuman2595 They do take it seriously, at the end of ep6 of s4 he's literally crying due to what happened and Annie comforts him over it how isn't it being taken seriously.
They took The Deep's redemption arc and switched it with A-Train's damnation arc for no reason; Black Noir was a complex character with a tragic backstory, killed off and replaced with a stupid version of him for no reason; Soldier Boy was brought back and knocked out again without making any long-standing difference for no reason What even is this show now? Also, a detail that no one ever talks about: the show tries to make fun of Republicans and conservatives with characters like Homelander, but since Newman ran with Singer as a Democrat candidate, the main danger in Season 4 would be over if the Republican candidate won the election, since the Super takeover of the government would never happen; Vought itself is an impossible company, because it simultaneously appeals to conservatives and liberals with completely opposite value in an extremely explicit way (e.g: the anti-LGBT sponsorship of religious groups, while EXPLICITLY parading Queen Maeve as a lesbian)
'Also, a detail that no one ever talks about: the show tries to make fun of Republicans and conservatives with characters like Homelander, but since Newman ran with Singer as a Democrat candidate, the main danger in Season 4 would be over if the Republican candidate won the election, since the Super takeover of the government would never happen; Vought itself is an impossible company, because it simultaneously appeals to conservatives and liberals with completely opposite value in an extremely explicit way (e.g: the anti-LGBT sponsorship of religious groups, while EXPLICITLY parading Queen Maeve as a lesbian)' Broken clock moment - that's just an accurate representation of the USian uniparty.
@@thetaomegatheta I don't know if you wanted to show off the cool new word you learned but didn't pay attention to the text you're replying to or you genuinely don't get what the uniparty concept is, but either way this ain't it.
@@mrmcawesome9746 'I don't know if you wanted to show off the cool new word you learned' Haha. That's some cute projection. 'or you genuinely don't get what the uniparty concept is' I'm going to explain this for the especially gifted: there is no significant difference between the two major USian parties apart from their PR. They have almost the same policies, they support each other, including financially, and they both shouldn't exist. They are effectively two fronts of the same party, hence why they are called a 'uniparty'.
@@mrmcawesome9746 'Okay, well I guess I know you just didn't read the comment' You don't know that. Because I did read the comment. The part that I quoted talks about the show trying to focus on criticising a particular part of the USian uniparty but ends up criticising the uniparty as a whole. As such, the show accidentally lands on a correct position in this regard, which is what I commented on. Notably, you couldn't even point to anything in the original post that I supposedly contradicted.
17:17 Sorry just one thing The explosion from soldier boy is supposed to be able to deactivate a supe’s abilities, making them a normal person just from the blast. (Which is why a few bombs probably couldn’t work) It’s why I thought homelander took damage from maeve, since soldier boy had almost detonated his ability moments before, but to be fair that’s me making excuses for the writers instead of what was shown.
Homelander took damage from Maeve because she trained and is the 3rd strongest supe in the show, I feel like people cite this and the metal straw as an anti feat too much, his powers are relatively consistent, the only times they aren't is for collateral damage in extended fight scenes which is obviously because of budget restrictions.
The way they just forget that Annie killed a guy then victim blamed him because he had a gun (despite the fact she's bulletproof) and treat it as if it never happened is so weird. Also they use violence against male characters comedically, but NEVER female characters.
i cant remember the last time a Man pun/ched a woman on screen but i see women physically and verbally abuse Men on screen all the freaking time... There is a double standard and its obvious to see but many are still pretending there isnt. Thats also why modern writting is so freaking easy to predict, they have all of these unspoken rules that are easy to see if u use ur brain a little bit- ''wow she betrays and backstabs him'' 1- i wonder if he will get hes revenge or 2- easily forgive her and even act like its his fault for all of this... and its 2.
There's a staggering amount of people who seem to have interpreted my rant about the Deep to mean I think he HAD to have a redemption arc--which is weird, since I never actually said that. That was ONE potential avenue they could have explored with him that would have been a natural progression to what was set up, but really just doing anything at all with him is all I want.
@@SheevTalks since you dragged your video as long as you could, I mightve snored a little, but it is interesting how you avoided mentioning all the woke stuff that slowly started to crawl into the show after season 1. By season 4 it became so obvious that you couldn't just overlook it.
@@SheevTalks also, on homelander's super hearing and other senses - it is possible that he should concentrate on his abilities to use them fully. If he always had to hear everything in 2km range or he couldn't deactivate his xray vision, he'd go insane much sooner
youre lost @@sunofabeach9424
@@sunofabeach9424 Probably didn't want the video to be demonetised by picking the 'wrong' side according to youtube.
@@sunofabeach9424 Touch grass....
I was disgusted when Annie scolded Hughie for being a rape victim.
Wait what?
@@CinnamonBob DId you watch the video?
@@billjacobs521 I'm 21 minutes in as of right now
@@billjacobs521 I watched the video now and it's no wonder I was co fused because I went out of my way to avoid watching season 4
Hughie was a rape victim?
> Thing claims to be a “deconstruction of a genre”
> Looks inside
> Contempt for the genre
I miss when we had deconstructions that were actually made by people who loved the genre they were parodying like Venture Bros.
Every time
And that right there is why Invincible is infinitely better, it's a deconstruction made out of love of the super hero genre that offers a reconstruction, breaking tropes without shitting on the themes.
@@KinoFlexReviews the Incredibles does this with superheroes better than The Boys ever did.
Deconstruction is taking things apart, see how them work together, and then rebuilding the thing better than before.
Dis is just destruction.
Best scene was easily when Homelander landed at Billy Butchers home and said “I am The Homelander and I can land wherever I want” and then got a parking ticket
He's Homelander, his superpower is to land at anyone's home.
Made me laugh.
"I can land at anyone's home"
Nah the best scene was when Homelander landed in front of Becca's secret hideout and said "It's Homelandin' time"
Or that time he grabbed my home and landed it on an island.
Reminds me of what Terrible Writing Advice said about deconstruction:
"The point of a deconstruction isn't to take apart a genre, carefully inspect its elements, and interpret them in a new and interesting way. it's to show everyone how smart I am!
Oh yeeeeeah!
And it was very effective.I can see exactly how smart Kripke and Johnson are.
@@AidanDaGreat There are some good supes in the show like Starlight or Maeve. I don't think the writers hate Supes
Overpowered villains not finishing the job because they’re overconfident is an overused trope.
Can you name examples? And why it is bad?
@@djb9267 It’s not inherently bad it’s just overdone. An example that comes to mind outside of this video is Cassandra Nova in Deadpool and Wolverine.
It sounds to me like the biggest problem about how they use that trope in this show is that they don't pick a lane. The supervillains are both overconfident and actually see the boys as a real threat.
@@likedebia4693 Hit the nail on the head. And even then sometimes when villains doesnt the main characters as a threat its arrogant to the point of stupidity not logic. There is plenty of ways villain can be made to spare thw heroes if they are ibterested in their development or have a potential use for em later, but if not and they actively kill people for less then its just bad.
and usually its very inconsistent
Hughie was made so dirty in this last season.
He's forced to euthanize his own father right after seeing him commit several murders accidentally, traumatizing them both completely alongside Hughie's mother. He doesn't even have time to process that shit that he's thrown into the sex dungeon scene, and then finally Annie throws a fit because he had sex with a doppelganger that perfectly emulated her.
I swear, Hughie went through hell in season 1, and now season 4 is even worse and it's mostly treated as a joke.
I'm glad I stopped watching. That is horrible.
GIRLLLL POWWERRRRRRRRRRR
Woman is the superior being, all men are weak and evil, all woman are strong pure and innocent. Believe all woman. All woman are victim, believe all woman. Woman. Man. Woman. Two gender, both being woman and wowman.
Edit:/s
S5 Hughie is just him painting a Picasso.
I mean, as a joke for the writers lol, but at least Annie supported him after the Tek Knight shit
As for the finale scene, I get Annie is in the wrong, but I blame it mostly on the writing, since I understand where she comes from (despite the catfishing, at least Hughie was having good sex for 10 days, while Annie was chained shitting in a bucket, of course she is mad, but the scene is really written like the sex is the problem, and not her miserable situation)
Insane how Hughie is the victim of several of the most horrible scenarios a person has to experience and still gets shit on by others. And then Annie a woman, does victim blaming from r@pe, genius. Good job dude.
The biggest irony of this show is it became a franchise, and it made fun of marvel for it.
@@Error-000 you were expecting them not to become everything they hated? You must not know the track record of most satire things
Eh if you loot at it in another way, it’s not too ironic and honestly more meta tbh. I’m gonna take the safe bet that it was corporate and not the writers that chose to make it a franchise.
how is that irony? Of course people that like this video have 0 brain cells.
@@minecraftlover6971 I doubt it since it's basically the team from Supernatural doing the work and they've had a history of spinning Supernatural off into like 6 different failed projects with Kripke and other writers are credited as producers. Maybe it's not the original creators' intention but it's definitely the showrunner's intention to milk it while it's hot.
No, the biggest irony would be that it tried to make fun of/ take to task evil corporations while being an Amazon product
"What if the rich and powerful were horrible, violent people."
Wow, what a wild concept.
I mean yeah, the majority of people fall into the group who just worship celebrities and don’t understand how disconnected and terrible these people are half the time
@@mrpickle5655 hot take: celebrities are good and better than peasants.
@@hoordeyah what?
@hoordeyah it's sad that you think that
@@hoordeyah hot take alright, but not a good take.
A fundamental flaw of the Boys, in my view, is that its 5 seasons instead of 3-4. Feels like the show constantly has to give the Boys plot armor, make Homelander either really passive or an idiot, just to have the show go on till the finale in S5. Which is a shame, I remember S1 Homelander being really engaging since he wasnt a total idiot and was proactive. Dude got the Boys idenity burned, and started investigating them as soon as the Invisible superhero disappered
Despite the fact that I like the scene (Heart-Shaped Box is a banger, Nirvana never failed to deliver) the ending of Season 4 is a perfect example of this, they don't kill any of The Boys, even when from the past 4 seasons they have been really trying to do that, just a couple of episodes earlier Homelander was more than willing to cut Hughie in half and he would done that if vents weren't made with zinc, A-Train in Season 1 was sent to kill Kimiko because she was dangerous (if not, what did he expect he would achieve by smashing her head in the wall at super speed?) and then Cindy takes her fkin time to kill Annie just so she can escape (with her powers that stayed inactive for most of the season and she started flying perfectly despite she still had problems figuring it out before) while Sam doesn't kill Kimiko even when he should be totally able to? Ok sure.
@@Mortimer_RS Yeah, like after S4, all the captured Boys should be dead(especially Hughie given Starlight is on the run and Homelander hates him).
It always bothers me hearing the "he's so scary, what makes him so intimidating!" schpiel when he's just been super comedic since the start of season 2. You just can't take him seriously as a villain anymore, even if they put a random stand-in kill subject for him to take out.
Isn’t the point of homelander that he’s supposed to be a insane idiot
Agreed. The problem with writing a proactive, at least average intelligent antagonist who is the most powerful on the planet is that there is going to be a point where he has all the agency and information to kill the protagonist(s), and at that point, you either conclude the story or take away his proactivness and make him stupid/weak to continue. The Boys reached this point at the end of the first season, IMO, and they went with the latter. As such, Homelander has been reduced to the character you describe.
The entire show is being carried on the fact that Anthony star plays a fantastic villian
Honestly true.
He should play Albert Wesker.
@@anubusx Damn... he would be amazing for that role!
Him and Karl Urban carried the show for me tbh. I really liked all the main cast, but those two were my favorites for sure
And Jensen Ackles carried the last season pretty hard
I think the first couple of issues you mentioned could have been negated by not making the Seven the center point of the show. In the comic, the Boys don’t really confront the Seven till the very end, dealing with various other issues like solving a murder, stopping a Vought-backed coup in Russia, infiltrating an X-men parody, etc. Perhaps if altercation between The Boys and the Seven were limited to a couple per season with the main characters barely escaping alive, that would give much more credibility to Homelander as a threat.
Bingo. Although I'm not a fan of the comic, Ennis knew that with an antagonist as powerful as Homelander, any direct conflict between him and The Boys would be a decisive one. But instead, the writers of this show blew their load at the end of season 1 when The Seven recognizes the threat The Boys are, and really have been coming up with contrived ways to prolong this ever since.
Or it's just too damn long. Should have been a 2 season show; leave season 1 as it is, make season 2 the conflict between them, leading to the finale. Done.
@@billjacobs521 No complaints there.
@@somerussianguy185 I agree, I’m not sure why they feel the need to keep having the boys face off with Homelander in person sometimes multiple times per season and then write these goofy a$$ ways for them to escape his wrath…if they had the meetings with Homelander be more rare and written more smartly with better logic, Homelander would be a more intimidating presence for the characters.
Oh no... That part where they fight the xmen/go to a high school is the worst part of the comics... It's boring and pointless... The show and comic share that. The story should have been more structured, more focused.
One thing I honestly didn't like was how normalized it was how quickly Hughie kinda moved on from Robin. Like don't get me wrong, it obviously still haunted him but if someone just ran through my girlfriend nonchalantly like that, I think I'd be in a psych ward for life.
I think that was acceptable given the rollercoaster of things that happened after that. Remember that Hughie is the guy that blew up Translucent. I can see how becoming a killer and seeing crazy shit more and more numbs you to whatever happened before.
He still does get very much affected by Robin's death through the whole first season. It's only after much time that he is able to move on.
Pause
Promiscuity and rushing into new relationships is a genuine trauma response that I can believe someone might engage in in hughies position
The problem is that they write so it's not this and he's just mostly over her fairly quick
I just love the premise of what if all your favourite Hollywood rapists were superheroes.
I’ve heard this one lol
And then after that they turn into your favorite politicians for some reason
BIGBUNJEE REFERENCE?!
@@megapistol64 ah yes art is never political
@@FrogmanhatesQibli art is very political, and the best art is remembered and admired throughout time, unlike this show
Homelander is phenomenal just in terms of sheer acting though.
The Bear, BCS, and any Homelander scene make me me want to Act.
Antony Starr never fails to deliver, I’ll give them that
I saw a video pitching him as Eobard Thawne and honestly, I can see it.
@@Sam_Montgomery at first but when you think about it, just looking snarky does not a Reverse Flash make
@@Sam_Montgomery ive been saying that for like 2 years
"How The Boys took me out to the woods and threw me into a woodchipper"
Would have been a good title
"The Boys Seasons 2-4 done k*lled me wife and took me bloody son"
@@Mortimer_RS This.
😂😂😂@@Mortimer_RS
“How the boys forced me into sexual relations with the sealife”
Telling your partner, who has been recently RAPED MULTIPLE TIMES (while also having their parent died and having to deal with the other suddenly coming back in their life) that you forgive them for it by saying "Check if you have STD or something so we can fuck again" is one of the most vile things you can do in this scenario. Just unempathetic and gross, devalidating their experience and entire existence as nothing more than a piece of meat you hope isn't ridden with disease. AND SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE RIGHT HERE??????????????
She's right cause she's a wooommaaaannn
Mfw characters are flawed
@@MrGamer21 the show's narrative is that she isn't flawed. And they had hughie apologise for being raped like he cheated on Streetlight. Fucking disgusting.
@@MrGamer21given the way it was written and what they've said in interviews after season 4 i really don't think they meant to make it some character flaw for her, but that's probably how they'll justify it in the next season. it really feels like they legitimately thought she was in the right and trying to be funny given their opinions on male sexual assault victims. i think it also makes her super fucking hateable, like jesus christ
Its a movie AJ. A shitty one, but its a movie. Dont take it so serious lmao
Why would Doctors trust a kid?? Sister Sages apathy towards the world sounds poorly explained.
I hate how unrealistically, funnily enough, it is.
Sister Sage is a Vought baby, meaning they should have at least kept tabs on her.
She found a way to solve cancer, yet no doctor even bothered actually looking into her research, which was probably up to standards, since she's so smart.
Then, she just gave up on her cancer cure? What?
Her backstory is a not-so-veiled hint at systemic racism, and no one consumes media to be reminded, or notified that apparently LE SYSTEM doesn't like non-Whites.
@@PapaRoboto in theory Vought could use her smarts to sell medicine and cures but money and attention hungry never took advantage?? That's crazy. Or the writers suck at creating a convincing evil company.
@@PapaRobotoI don't see my reply so ill say it again. Vought is shown to be attention and money hungry so wouldn't they take advantage of sister sages abilities to sell cures and medicine?? Also if her granny was a black panther why would'nt she use her smarts to make the world better for minorities?? But she works for vought, the evil company making the world a worse place?? Oh, the writers suck???? okay then.
My headcanon is that she completely made up that story to motivate Neuman to start taking control, which would get Homie mad, get her to search help with The Boys and ultimately (and naively, because the succession of events that get that outcome don't make any sense) get her killed.
That's the only way that makes sense to me because her story doesn't make sense at all, and for the true reason she doesn't just solve all world problems I assume she just doesn't care.
@@Mortimer_RSit's literally impossible to find a "cure" to cancer just by reading stuff on the internet. At the very least you need long-term studies to give you at least the slightest bit of credibility.
Frenchy is so meaningless you didn´t even mention him in your 53 minutes rant.
Ironically they made him significantly less interesting when they tried to explore his sexuality, in an attempt to make him more interesting.
@@chickenlegsTV I didn't really get it. what's interesting about a crack head's sexual desires?
“Well someones gotta be gay” - director
@@donovan4222 that wouldve been really cool. Him actually having a back story that is consistent and badass.
@@donovan4222 I don't think you understand I am completely aware of this and I think they should have Incorporated that into Frenchies backstory so he stops being such a useless character. The writers being Jewish would love it and the audience being Shabbos goy would be talking about him
When i first started watching the show, I thought it was gonna be the boys finding the smalleat weaknesses for these powerful unstoppable supers and coming up with clever plans to exploit them. I was expecting some JoJo level planning to even just stay alive and survive an encounter against monsters like homelander and black noir. Needless to say, thats not what i got
I like to Imagine the kinds of plans theyd have to come up with to walk away from any physical encounter with homelander and what theyd have to sacrifice each time to survive
They kind of do that again in S3, with using Novichok against Soldier Boy
@@randomhuman2595 The show still has its moments
Exactly what I was thinking. That was kinda what the Translucent thing implied.
That's what Season 1 was, Translucent, ezekial, homelander, A-train but it started to pull away from that.
Bigbunjeeee was the first one to come out and say "Hey this show is reddit the show"
Being satire is not a shield for being shit.
@@loltwest9423 the satire is good though
@@donovan4222the satire is awful. Theyre saying absolutely nothing when they make references.
Oh you would be surprised how many series are allowed to be shit with the Satire shield.
@@nhagan001 *cough cough* Fallout *cough cough*
@@gianni206 They are perfectly encapsulating the cringe American corporate neoliberal weaponization of identity politics with Vought and the right wing Facebook lunatic personality cult of Trump with Homelander. The satire is so good that people have started saying “this is like an episode of the boys” in reference to current events. Thats definitely a sign of a good satire.
You could also literally remove Fenchie and Kimiko from season 4 and change basically nothing
@@donovan4222is always fun to see the writers criticizing corporation immorality and double standards while working under fkin Amazon of all things.
Except without Frenchie and Kimiko, Butcher wouldn't have the supe virus at the end.
You would have to remove the whole plot line with Edgar and the Virus and the Sheep, cause that all caters to the Plot line with Kimiko and Frenchie, so you would make it really boring. But sure, you could do that without changing the “Main” plot line. But then again, you could remove and add all kinds of plot lines and characters without doing that, so what is the point?
@@donovan4222 it's not that frenchie should be removed, it's just that i wish they included them in the storyline more. the only intersection was the virus; i wish it was more like S1 where frenchie was an integral part of the plot.
(also he was conscripted; he didn't willingly join the IDF)
@@hamburger_bigmac_whopper He should be removed for supporting g3n0c1de. Not only did he serve in the IDF, he signed an open letter to Biden after Oct. 7th thanking him for his “support” as Israel destroyed Gaza. That shouldn’t be normalized.
I hate the way they treat male victims of SA
Starlight needs to apologise to Hughie next season
@@randomhuman2595 nah she shouldn’t let’s see if it changes the general consensus, or if people aren’t so slaved to one party they can see the flaws in her reasoning.
The way the showrunner laughed while describing writing that entire plot point is truly despicable. To use something like that as a punchline is just awful.
@@Caffeinated-DaVinci idk man, its just a joke, it isnt real. You'd probably be mad, if some comedian made a joke about that happening to someone of the other gender, and people got upset about that, because comedians should be allowed to joke about anything. But if it happens to a man, it cant be funny? Double standards. Even something like that, can be funny. I didnt find it offensive. Was it particularly funny? No. It was quite distasteful and poorly done. But Im not gonna get upset about that just because it happened to a man.
@@TheSuperappelflap Name one funny rape joke.
I'll wait.
The show has lost its touch. Now it feels exactly like an edgy teen trying to come up with the most messed up ideas for a superhero show to “deconstruct” the genre without any actual substance
I liked Season 3 and Soldier Boy's chracter a lot
In that way, it's more resembling the comics although that's not always a good thing
@@randomhuman2595he is going to have a spinn off
I thought it was really fucked up how Starlight literally blames the victim when it comes to Hughie being raped, it kind of feels like the writers treated t it as if he 'cheated' on her
ehh I guess. She was just jealous, which is why she bounced back so quick.
She needs to apologise to Hughie in Season 5
oh... yes the classic "I you really loved me you could tell te difference" ... that one was cheap AF
@@harate she bounced back way faster than anyone would in real life. imagine your partner slept with someone who looked like you and couldnt tell the difference. that would permanently end 99.9% of relationships. blaming her for being a bit upset over that, briefly, is nuts.
@@TheSuperappelflap Lmao what? That someone literally took her whole memories and personality.
I like Homelander as a villain, except he keeps getting dumber and lamer as the show goes on.
no shit. s1-2 homelander would already find atrain and kill him. he would even kill sage but somehow sage manipulates him even though homelander has an evil smart version of himself in him
Other than the fact that he literally doesn't as he gets probably his best episode this season and actually wins by the end
Anarchism sucks
@@nicholasoneal1521 you swallow
ye probably because as the show progresses he becomes more mentally unstable because the supes team he has built is getting out of control??please man,think before typing,homelander is a man child,he has benn outwit many times in the show,
Every time Seth Rogen is a writer, the episode will suck more than usual
Seth Rogen seems to have the magical touch that can turn solid gold into lead.
Seth Rogan was a writer!?!
Jesus Christ. No wonder episodes in the later seasons were worse compared to season 1.
oh fuck this explains why it sucks so bad..
Ya, I can almost here his corny laugh after an idea like, "Lets make him replicate, eat his own ..... and get pink eye, huh huh huh." I did like the 1st season, reminded me a little of Ted Chiang's short story 'Hell is the Absence of God' ish.
I rather like Seth Rogan's writing style. But I suppose it's not for everyone.
@@rabiesbiter5681 I believe that is known as the Shit-Midas Touch.
> Show criticising corporate greed and narcisitic celebrities
> Made by Amazon and played by famous actors
I guess in season 4 they tried to either address this by butchering the show or by making fun of the audience (they used "most people are idiots" line)
Show criticising toxic masculinity and narcisistic celebrities* fixed that for you.
The show always tried to make women feel superior to men when it comes to moral compass. R terrible and the worst thing (rightfully so) when it happens to women but funny if it happens to men. Also the only good supes are women in this show. All male supes are portrait as self-serving and/or straight up stupid.
The show is paid for by Amazon and is made by writers most of which aren’t rich or narcissistic. Not saying the hypocrisy is totally wrong but it’s easy to count out the people who are actually responsible for the show
the downplay of Hughie’s sexual assault literally ruined season 4 for me. especially when coming from the person who is also a sexual assault victim. (Starlight)
Why? The show plays murder off for laughs, so why would you expect it to treat the crime of SA with more seriousness and heft?
@@racheddar maybe because when it happened to starlight it was treated as such? or maybe because the “heroes” of the show are shown to actually have morals and conviction in the first season?
@@justareligiouszealot They play murder straight in some scenes as well. Like Hughie's GF at the start. The thing with Starlight was supposed to reveal how power *really* works in the Seven. The scene with Hughie is just the same gross out garbage they've pivoted to.
@@racheddar precisely my point. they played hughie’s sexual assault off as a joke.
@@justareligiouszealot And I'm saying that it doesn't make sense to object to that because the show is dark comedy. They play all sorts of terrible things for laughs. Like murder. Which the video above seems to miss.
Sage is the worst of the "Super Smart" characters recently. She just has omniscience because the writers tell her what's going to happen and then she struts around saying everything going to shit was exactly according to some crazy brilliant plan she couldn't share with anyone.
won't happen but honestly it would actually be amazing if next season it's revealed she literally just pretended to orchastrate everything and is actually just a smart conwomen and her mutation just makes her brain swell up which doesn't actually increase intelligence because that would be silly, and she just used it to market herself as some galaxy brained superhero and ride that into getting paid enough to buy an apartment then just took the opportunity to come live at vought an con homelander and has been winging it the whole time.
Yep, its a case of her superpower not just being smart, but having the script; which has been a disturbing trend in "modern" shows.
She's just a walking cliché about the "wise black woman" that is now held in high esteem so won't be deconstructed.
@@ahoramazda6864 on the path to the truth. watch Lost, watch Suits, these shows don't put their black characters into the position where their only personality is about their being black, and only conversation is harassing uwhite characters unprovoked. Imagine a line like 'I don't need some black fool telling me' being scripted. Wouldn't happen, and it's prejudice no matter which way it's cut.
Ironically they're saying black women can only be smart if it's a super power 💀
Hughie and Annie's relationship just feels painfully uneven at this point where Hughie is the one who always has to apologize and emphasize how important Annie is to him while she never really has to say as much back.
Slight correction: The importance of Soldier Boy's power isn't that it makes a big explosion, it's that it burns away the V in Supes' blood, making them powerless and vulnerable if they get hit with enough of it.
Hughie: “Hey babe, I’m sorry that she raped me.”
What a deranged way to portray sexual assault
@@nont18411 I view it as a way for them to point out Annies flaws, considering in that episode she also had been mocked by the shapeshifter, its meant to point out how self righteous annie is
@@nont18411 Can you explain how Hughie going to town on a body double that tricked him is equivalent to r*pe?
@@TheMan-ct8ghif that was the intent then they did an awful job conveying that.
@@Mortimer_RS probably wasn’t, I’m just saying how I interpreted it
I actually stopped watching the show after S2 because it was too intense and mean-spirited for me. Invincible is def a much better show because it actually has some humanity in it and the characters aren’t total jerks 24/7.
@@Agent71053Stay mad.
If you can't take people criticizing your stuff, you're the one crying here.
@@deadpunisher4584 I didn't read this as "mad". More overburdened by the dramatic tone shifts from these seasons done in the name of "shock value", where the intensity grew from mere gore and horror to direct and vitrolic toxicity every which way. I was a fan of each step, had some pet peaves along every turn, but some people just couldn't continue on the wild ride this show wanted to offer viewers. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't call it "crying" in a sense, but vocalizing a valid opinion of someone's where there are clear whites and blacks of morality and comfort after being tossed into the grey abyss every so often. Some folks like James needed that anchor, while I don't really find much sacred in this world that isn't ripe for storytelling, though even then at times have lines been crossed for this show in ways I wanted to find tasteful, but left it at the end of it all.
@@vyomrane1237 Oh sorry mate, I think there is a misunderstanding.
You see, there is another username I'm tagging in this comment, I was not referring to James her, but someone else being disrespectful and discarding James' point based on nothing.
On the topic.
I feel like people speaking about "grey morality" often are treating as if everything is just as debatable, and can be defended or countered with the same equal force without exception.
These people also say there's no absolutes in morality, yet forget painting everything grey is by itself an absolute.
There's always positions that are impossible to defend no matter your view, and turn into a fool's errand to even attempt to.
Like... Well, the many forms of abuse.
Edit: Just some grammar corrections.
And I say that I should have just say that people often confuse gray morality with moral complexity to make it simple.
Am I the only person who doesn’t need the characters to be good people in order to enjoy a show?
@@PeriodDrama nobody is saying that.
One of the worst things this show has done is become a franchise. The ENTIRE point was to comment on the overexpansion of the MCU and DCEU yet what do they do? Overstretch a thin story, create 3 spin offs (with more to follow) and merchandise the shit out of it. They're hypocrites, and with how smug the writers are about their "commentary" it feels undeserved. You don't get to mock a franchise when you intend to follow the same footsteps.
Edit: for the sake of future discussion, I'm aware that season 1 was more about a celebrity critique rather than the MCU, although elements were still present. Overtime this does shift from my perspective and the anti-cinematic universe cinematic universe becomes a much bigger problem.
Man I don't hear enough people talk about this. If you start to become the very thing you mock. Your "Satire" and "Social commentary" on superhero tropes start to become irrelevant.
Edit: LOL the comments below are so embarrassing. Don't yall remember that scene in where that held that expo for showcasing the new films. You know just like Marvel does. You guys give this show way too much credit.
Eh no.... the entire point of the series was always a critique on the reality of superheroes if they really existed in the world. The mcu and the dceu didnt even exist at the time the comics were made. The critique of the mcu only came into play much later simply to mock the current state of it, because of how talked about it is. But i agree, that the series might have overstayed its welcome a bit.
Hey, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
it wasn't meant to be a commentary on the MCU its meant to be a commentary on celebrity culture using the Superhero genre as a device to drive the story. How can you misinterpret a show so hard
@@matthewaddai5336 I'd disagree, I totally see your point but the original comic was a mockery of the whole mainstream comic business. It was an angry attack on Marvel + DC since they were (and are) shitty companies to work for. There's contempt of the business there, that I feel continues to now. I'll give it a fair shot and say it did start off more as a critique of celebrities in the first season but very quickly became making fun of cinematic universes even before "dawn of the seven."
The actions each supe does in the show doesn't make it feel like a "what superheroes would be like irl" story, it's a "all your favorite characters are creeps" take instead. Invincible does a reality of superheroes story is so much better at it, for it is a critique on the reality of superheroes with egos and misuse of power plus how to regulate them. The Boys (to me) feels like it's an edgy teen who just started watching political dramas and wanted to include political terms like "regulation" and "registration act" to add depth to a story instead of actually comment politically.
It's crazy how much better S1 is than the rest of the show
they had to lure you in somehow
I think season 2 is far better
@@donovan4222 Then you know absolutely nothing about writing. S2 was atrocious already.
@@TheStraightestWhitestno it isn’t you aren’t as smart and understanding of writing as you think you are😂
@@TheStraightestWhitest I think season 2 was their best season. Do you wanna debate me on it?
The scene where he yaps about his girlfriend being stronger could have been so easily salvaged. When she tells him that he said it didn't bother him, all he had to say was "It doesn't bother me, that you are better at bowling, or running, or anything else that we can do together. It bothers me that every day you walk into that building, risking your life, that I couldn't do anything, once it all goes wrong. I'd have to sit at home one day, wondering why you aren't back yet, only to realize that there was nothing I could have done to stop it. That never again, I would be shown up in bowling, or anything else, ever again by you." Or something like that. I am not a writer, just some person, and even i could come up with something better
Imma be honest bro I think that writing is too mature for a show like this. Well written though, heard Hughie's voice in my head.
You guys care way too much about a character in a fictional show having their ego hurt.
@@DarkZide8 Wow, imagine immersing yourself in the story. How unusual. 🙄
Actually fantastic re-write. The thing is that's what I feel Hughie's motivation was in the first place. When he had to hear HL talk so horribly about his girlfriend he tried to man-up for her sake and realized he'd be decimated. His girlfriend whom he wanted to defend had to end up saving him again. I don't think his problem ever was that she was strong. His problem was that he wasn't strong enough to help her and you captured that as oppose the actual show writers.
They should hire you lmao
In S1, it was basically a major twist that Homelander was not just smart, but VERY smart. He would move pawns and scheme and win. But as he became more batshit insane, he became a childish dumbass. They turned a very scary and competent villain into just some insane baby. He became non-threatening come S3, and now I dont give a shit about him at all.
He's still pretty smart in later seasons. The way Homelander gets rid of Edgar was smart. The way he manipulates Ryan into using his power over the director was smart.
17:00 Surprisingly, most ductwork actually is coated in zinc or zinc alloys to protect against rust and reduce maintenance costs. It doesn't make the application of Homelander's powers any less inconsistent, but I was surprised to learn that after I was bitching about how stupid it was that Homelander couldn't just see him and laser him immediately. I have no clue if the writers actually knew that though, or if it was just a lucky coincidence for them.
even if he couldn't aim due to lack of xray vision, s1 finale proved Homelander has incredible superspeed, so nothing was stopping him from just flying right through the vent and getting his hands dirty
@@verdant543 yep, his laziness isn't even an excuse, because A) he wanted Huey dead, like seriously dead (and no ulterior reason for wanting Huey spared was offered); and B) he was lazy when he doomed Flight 37, and there he swept with his laser eyes, meanwhile he merely poked his lasers at the vents with Huey. So he failed to use his ears, his eyes, his speed, or his flight to stop the person he hated most in that moment. Pathetic.
@@verdant543 Bad writing.
@@verdant543Exactly he would have been able to fly through the entire vent system of the building in less than 2 seconds. And how did he not figure out A-Train must have saved Hewie for him to disappear once he gets outside? Wouldn't he be able to see Hewie and A-Train through the wall once Hewie went outside anyway? Are the walls made of Zinc too? This comment thread has already put more thought into the sequence than the writers sadly
@@SRosenberg203 I just assumed that Homelander couldn’t see where Hughie was in the vents so he was just lasering blind
I really loved the first season because it deviated drastically from the nihilistic and grotesque tone that the comics had. It added humanity to the characters and made you sympathize with them.
Then they just started doing exactly what the comics did, except with a ton of overt political commentary. What a waste.
*takes Sage and puts her in another show*
watching conservatives realize it was criticizing them only this season and turning on the show is so great to watch. better than the show!
@@kingkarlitoThey’re shoving bullshit down peoples throats lmao
@@ProGamer-lk9qw The whole show was always like this, but you have 'gamer' in your name unironically so you're either 17 years old or too far gone to understand; either way, gg.
@@kingkarlitoEveryone knew it was taking shots at both the right and left, the difference now is that it's not clever or well written anymore.
My biggest pet peev with season 4 and by extension, seasons 2 and 3. Is that Homelander is now very stupid, where in season 1 he was the only character that figured out the mystery of what happened to Beca. Now he is a child with no control over himself. He isn't scary anymore. He is a threat, but he isn't nearly as intimidating as he was before
True, I would say he just emotional crash out that use brawl over brains
Yeah, pretty sure they do that now because if Homelander acts comptent or proactive, the Boys are likely to lose lmao
@ultrainstinctgokuhope7442 yes and no. He is more likely to react out of emotion not logic but that doesn't mean he isn't intelligent, just means he doesn't know how to control his emotions
@@TheeDawson idk man he seemed pretty intimidating in that episode with the scientists
Yeah not scary at all when he forces a woman to commit suicide or when he torments and kills the scientists who made him. Yeah sure thing chief
I’ve hated the show since season 2. Season one was soo good, it had so much potential. Anything that came after is trash. The plot refuses to advance at all. I didn’t watch season 4 because season 3 pissed me off so badly. It’s just so mindless and refuses to advance. Compare breaking bad to the boys, five seasons in and look how different breaking bad is. The boys is basically in the same place for five seasons. Villains won’t kill heroes, heroes won’t kill villains. It’s horrible.
I hate when people complain about season 4 because every season is shit. They introduce a villain of the week, find an excuse to keep each other alive, and just set up awful jokes and “satire”.
Ngl, you are on your own with this one and wrong about a lot of things
I've been saying for years "How can you tell someone is a bad guy in The Boys? they get a super freaky sex scene"
Except that Frenchie has loads of kinks and he's one of the good guys, so there's holes in that logic.
@@ThumpertTheFascistCottontail
Frenchie's kinks are very common and normal compared to the super bizarre stuff we see the bad guys do for shock value.
Isn't everyone supposed to be the worst in that show?
@@manolgeorgiev9664
nope, The Boys are trying to do the good thing (only butcher's morality is questioned), starlight, Maeve was ended up being good, and the whole final conflict will probably be about whatever homelender's kid is gonna end up a good guy or not.
All these character's didn't have a bizarre sex scene.
@@Chen_Ash by and large, the "super bizarre" sex kinks displayed by the supers are only possible because they're supers. A person without super powers would be physically incapable of doing those things.
I am a massive fan of this show. However, Season 4 Episode 6 is one of the worst experiences I have been through. Watching one of my favorite shows constantly mistreat male SA, which is something I have been through in my life, was one of the most uncomfortable things I have been through. Eric Kripke is an insensitive mess, and I hate how it has to be attached to this show. Great video, by the way. I disagree with a lot of the things you said, but I can respect most of the grievances, even if I could propose some other points to this.
You know its bad when the comic took Hughie’s SA more seriously than the show
@@PostCrisisRH I didn’t like either take, but yes, it is bad.
That's my least favorite episode as well. male SA isn't addressed enough in media, but this is NOT how I wanted it addressed.
I couldn't even watch a huge chunk of the episode. I kept looking away from the screen.
It wasn't a mistreat. Hughie knew what he signed up for and it just simply didn't bother him as much as other people would stop expecting every character to cry about it for a whole season
@@hammer-0 the problem wasn’t exactly with the episode itself. I have went on record saying that it could’ve worked if they kept it just to the episode, then maybe it could work, but while watching I never felt comfortable. Eric Kripke going on record to say that he thought it was “hilarious” confirmed my suspicions that Kripke was not taking this seriously. Saying that it was “hilarious” completely nullified the things the episode had going for it.
Sister Sage reading 'Naming and Necessity' was hilarious.
It's peak dumb-person's smart-person.
"Wow, she reads hard books on the toilet like a wizard."
"The cure for cancer wow."
" 'I knew that was gonna happen' wow"
Man, i gotta tell you, you're gonna LOVE checking out who it is that wrote that book
I don't follow?
@@thomaskilroy3199 Naming and Necessity by Saul A. Kripke. Runs in the family
@@JopeJalopy wow yeah, never clicked
@JohnWall-lj1mx when she said bazinga I fell out of my chair throwing up from laughter
Making fun of stupid tropes, but still have them too.
Making fun of corporate greed, but also a product of it.
Making fun of cash grab sequel and spin off, they made them too.
Making fun of 'public figure being ass off-cam', Have actor being ass off-cam irl.
"Stupid tropes"- show a 'stupid' trope they parody that they also participate in. "Corporate greed"- product of a greedy corporation, the show a product of corporate greed? No. "Cash grab sequel and spin off"- well unless you're mad at a TV show for having seasons, then I don't know what you mean by sequel, but if by spin off you're calling Gen V a cash grab, are you forgetting the vital plot pieces, and likely vital characters for the final season that were introduced and developed during that 'cash grab' spin off. "Public figure being ass off-cam"- yeah dude the writers don't have control over that. What kind of criticism is this?
The reason they play The Deep as a joke is because he's the stand in for Aquaman and ever since The Super Friends morons think Aquaman is lame. So they are "taking the piss" out of Aquaman. "Look how lame Aquaman is."
It's funny because in the comic the Deep actually takes himself seriously and his whole character is all about how serious he is, he is always in character despite how goofy he looks
True, and that is very uninteresting because that is a trope that has been around before most of us were born.
@@drzerogi exactly, if they wanted to be actually subversive they would have made the Deep very powerful, but "fishfucker" jokes was apparently more interesting to the writers.
@@matane2465 Yeah I started questioning this review when he said the Deep wasn’t funny…he’s very funny imo and Chace Crawford’s comedic timing is spot on.
@@guerreiroazul3230 The Deep I think is actually very powerful, but we never really get to see him in his element. He's quite literally a fish out of water, and I think the show plays on that well by time-and-time-again demonstrating that he'd be happier if he weren't caught up in the superhero nightmare machine.
Humans in real life: bags of meat and blood covered in a protective layer and supported by very strong complex rocks and they only have 5 liters of blood
Humans in the boys: water balloons that explode in 2000 trillion gallons of blood of when you touch them
that's like every violence show in the world you silly
@@Cyulus not all in some humans are way more durable and more anatomically realistic
@@HYDROCARBON_XD dude, if you dont like the show, fine. But get a better reason to.
"humans having too much blood" is the worst complaint ever. Especially when its deliberate
Plus idk what you mean by durability. They get hit by superheroes. Of course they die, getting hit by them is like getting hit by a truck with all force being centred in a fist
@@patrickwastie5 no I am talking about when they fall or they get hit at a wall at not an extremely high speed (this might be accidental the CGI but they travel very slow) and when A train kills robin the bits of robin just fall to the ground when the top motion stops instead of following the momentum
Youll be hard pressed to find realistic violence/gore in pretty much any show. If thats what youre really looking for theres plenty of places you can find the real stuff...
Annie getting mad at Hughie felt so off considering the mimic literally demonstrated to her that they had all of her memories and could impersonate her almost perfectly.
She was held hostage in a basement for multiple days, while her boyfriend was chilling with an imposter. I’d be mad too.
@@Lutherstrode17492*while her boyfriend was being r*p*d by an impostor
@@Lutherstrode17492**while her boyfriend was being sexually abused by an imposter
There, fixed it for you.
@@Lutherstrode17492He didn't know she was.
@@malikpierre-louis3343 She was held hostage in a dirty basement for several days. She has every right to be mad at the guy who shoudl have known that it wasn’t her.
Homelander: Why would you do this?
The writers: ...To see if we could.
Because you let us
The Boys beat me with hammers and voted me off the space ship
You were the imposter
@@Groppy Oi, the boys took me woif’s son and gave im to omelanduh’
Amogus
@@donovan4222 diabolical
They beat me off too
The whole show is focuses so hard on being reddit slop satire of the real world that as soon as you stop caring about it you realize how bad the actual writing is. If they had kept with the same producers from season 1 we might've gotten a solid show but since eric wants to make "crazy" scenes the last three seasons have felt like a series of best gore clips mashed together with dumb politics because eric has to have self inserts
@@kkegg The boys is a masterpiece in satire of the real world…so putting “Reddit slop” before that doesn’t really change anything lmao
Also, can you give an example of the “dumb politics”?
@@donovan4222 can you give me an example of it being a master piece? The show sums ideas down to the simplistic strawman then will still do what it's criticizing in the show, they'll criticize how the media only focuses on identify politics then make the black characters stories all centered around how they're black, mothers milk literally has only pictures of mlk in his house none of his family.
@@kkegg I think the satire is a masterpiece, even if the entire show is not. The satire perfectly encapsulates the cringe inducing neoliberal corporate “focus group” PR speak and weaponization of identity politics with Vought…as well as the whacky right wing Facebook lunatics of rural America with Homelander.
They aren’t just criticizing how the media focuses on identity politics, they are satirizing how mostly white liberal corporations cynically weaponize identity politics as a shield against criticism and PR tactic. For example, Ashley and others at Vought constantly brag about how they value diversity, when in reality the company was founded by a Nazi and employs superheroes like blue hawk.
@@donovan4222 Thats a very bad example, even in the satire of the neoliberal mindset it can't bring itself to pinpoint a liberal as the butt of the joke but a natzi.
It has to be a natzi , because they can't bring themselvs to portray an actual liberal as the butt off the joke outside small quips .
It just reinforces the show being strawman reddit slop memes , fits with the writters and the way they portray male csa.
@@donovan4222a masterpiece? They just don’t like Republicans or christians or conservatives. You think mocking a group of people that are routinely mocked in all of media because most people that work in that industry are liberals makes it a masterpiece? Wow that’s hilarious you are very easily impressed.
Eric Kripke thought that leaning heavily on shock value over story was gonna be a winning formula for longer than he thought.
The boys is basically Justice League Injustice but with filthy adult humor and on the nose political satire. It was a great concept but lost it's value when overplayed
Thank you.
What’s wrong with being injustice with filthy humor and satire? You’re literally describing what makes the show entertaining 🤣
@@donovan4222 You're seriously paraphrasing.
Filthy adult humor and on the nose political satire. Not filthy humor and satire
@@davidcopperfield5345 yeah what’s wrong with those things?
@@donovan4222 Oh. If you know then I guess you know how to have a good time.
I really hate the trope of "smart character figures out how to do something in their head in a short time frame."
Like, it just demonstrates that the writers have no clue how science works.
Being smart does not give you clairvoyancy. If the information needed to figure something out isn't available to you you're not gonna suddenly get it because you're magically smarter than everyone else. There are experiments that would need to be run - potentially very expensive and time consuming experiments - before any real progress could be made. It doesn't matter how smart you are, if you don't have time and funding you are f***ed.
1:15 The concept of Evil Superman had already been done to death at this point with Injustice Superman, Snyder Superman, Evil Superman dozens of times in the comics, Omni-Man, Brightburn, and The Plutonian just to name the ones off the top of my head.
The only thing Homelander adds to the table was "What if Superman were evil... and a corporate shill?"
> Omni-man
Wasn’t Omni-man more based off Zod than Superman
@@PostCrisisRH In terms of his goals, he's very much like Zod. But his presentation, persona, and how he's associated with a league of heroes in the series is straight up just Superman.
Snyder Superman?
Invincible is the Superman archetype, not Omni Man. I'll admit both the comic and show want you to believe that at first but Mark is the true representation of the character.
The Boys predates literally all of those examples
In a world where everything is subversive, a straight forward vanilla super hero show would actually be subversive.
You mean like Starlight, one of the main characters
@@matthodgkinson2003He said show dude. Not one vanilla hero in a subversive superhero show. Lmao.
@@blackdynomite5831 oh that's on me, misread the comment lol
Does invincible count?
My only gripe is that pointless pause the did in season 2, that and characters feel like they're getting plot armor.
But there are SO MANY already!
Every CW superhero show, most MCU shows on Disney+, Heroes, etc
The false premise that Batman is a rich dude who hunts poor people has done so much irrevocable damage it makes every other smear campaign look amateurish.
@@claytonc6417 it’s not a “smear campaign” popular iterations of Batman are fascistic. Nolan’s Batman ends the dark knight movie using mass surveillance and lying to the public to preserve the image of the Gotham police so they can do a Gotham Patriot act 🤣. TDKR literally ends with Batman rallying an army of cops to beat up a left coded villain who uses revolutionary anti rich rhetoric. And Snyder’s Batman tortures criminals and brands them with bat signs.
batman fights criminals, and weirdos think he actually just fights poor people
what did they mean by this
@@donovan4222 It's wild too how the people ACTUALLY responsible barely have anything happen to them, they're treated much differently and which much higher respect, but the lackeys who carry out his work are treated much harsher, many of them in reality, sure are doing bad, but either are forced to by the gang or just need to make a living. He wouldn't think twice about maiming a lackey, but when it comes to the actual boss like Joker, he barely does anything in comparison.
That and "why dont' he kill Joker", as if the most popular and marketable villain in history of comic books can get killed or otherwise removed from the threat list for good.
@@demilung I mean, they could. DC isn't like Marvel. They don't usually stick a constant continuation timeline indefinitely. They constantly "reboot" and do different timelines. Often times things may just get a few movies, and then it's done until the next timeline/reboot. In DC's case, they absolutely could have a timeline that ends with his death
This show is just sadistic for the sake of it. I noped out of the first episode. It must be an age thing, when I was in my teens and 20's I would have loved this show. Now I'm in my 40's with a son, I just can't take extreme violence, too distressing to watch this stuff.
@@Agent71053 you're the vegetable if you're still watching and enjoying this show
I skip most of the scenes of Season 3 and 4 whenever it starts to be edgy.
I said it many times, but being gory for the sake of it is no longer brave, if anything is lame.
Using violence to tell a story has worked many times, and the Boys has days when it misses the mark so hard that I have people skip ENTIRE SCENES, just to get to the point.
Dude I think exactly the same! There are other productions or films that basically focus on gore and morbidity, such as the Terrifier saga recently, that is where it works perfectly because you know very well that it is directed specifically for those who like that type of content.
While in The Boys I feel it very forced when they put in exaggerated gore and edgy stuff, as if it were a way to show how "unique and different" they are from the rest, when its just a satire of superheroes and its not the type of genre that shows this (the original comic is like this and that's why it's garbage). For example, the scene in which they brutally stamp the whale, it's as if they were saying "Haha, look at a giant dead whale, a lot of gore, guts and organs sticking out, look how edgy we are" seems cringey and cheesy to me...
yea I also stopped watching it but finished S1, invincible does the bad superman trope so much better. the boys is being edgy for edgy's sake and that to me is not art lol
I agree, Im not against extreme violence if it has some artistic merit, but that part is lacking in the Boys. It just feels like edgy 4chan teenager gore.
I’m so glad you talked about the Hughie-Starlight-shifter scenario. I left season 4 extremely frustrated at how poorly they handled that and made it seem like Hughie’s fault, or how they treat the resolution like a joke
She MUST apologise to him next season
@@randomhuman2595 Not gonna happen. They are not going to admit that a WOMAN, who belongs to the "good folks", of all things could possibly not be in the right. This show is about toxic masculinity after all.
"characters can only be as smart as the people who write them" is exactly what came to my mind when i saw sister sage.
Glad other people are pointing out how this series tries way too hard to be edgy instead of actually being critical of superhero stereotypes and cliches. Like the first half of Torchwood, but 100x worse.
what's wrong with torchwood.... i thought it was just a dr who spinoff
To be fair, it didn't start with the best of material, considering the Comics is already a fuming pile of edgy shit covering the author's raging boner for the US Military and insane hate towards the Superhero Genre.
HAHAHA HOLY SHIT FUCKING TORCHWOOD WHAT A PHENOMENAL PULL. That show half traumatized me, half intrigued me as a little kid.
@@caliginousmoira8565 It farms shock value much like the boys.
People really getting mad that the series is more than just its gimmick 💀
I love this show. But literally all 4 of the main characters would have been killed a long time ago if it weren’t for the plot
Like Vicky and Homelander could've easily painted the room red with them at anytime aside from Butcher getting powers
The scene where the doppleganger just shoves Hughie and MM into a wall instead of snapping their necks is one of the dumbest scenes of this show
If you’re going to attack the show for that, first attack the source material. It’s like that the comics, too. The show actually tame a lot of the stuff down. But, yeah, I never get why Homelander doesn’t just end the group.
It would’ve worked better if the main group was operating in some sort of secrecy or behind the shadow throughout the entire show.
utter stupid take
@@Aansh_cube100 how so
"Hey look guys, we're all sexual freaks who satirize porn and gore. Aren't we meta? Aren't we just hilarious?"
Hollywood really is full of Winsteins, Diddys, and Epsteins. The bigger question is how this came to be?
Seems like it always has been, it just used to be better concealed and culture was a lot more about keeping such things away from the public eye, vs. today's "almost anything goes" permissiveness and normalized perversions and degenerate lifestyles.
Always was. There's a reason the Romans considered actors equal socially to prostitutes.
@@cattrucker8257 And what "perversions and degenerate lifestyles" have been normalized exactly?
It's money, it's just somewhat odd that so many people with money are so predatory. Though I guess the acquisition of such an abundance of money does call for a certain amount of predatory habits.
To be honest, that WOULD be a more interesting story, showing the inside stories of all pf these monumental screwups, and how they got so screwed up in the first place. They're all still human, and made to be the way they are by humans, so it might teach us something about ourselves, but apparently this very real horror is funny?🤔
It started off as a parody of superheroes, and then now its a parody of the US, which makes it really dull to watch for people who don't live there.
Thays been the point sense its conception in the comics.... like idc if you like it but to expect less is idiotic.
@@tiquezgraham7963 why? I haven't read the comics, I just heard it was based on super heroes in real life and season 1 wasn't purely about american politics when I watched it, idk how thinking that is "idiotic". Also you edited your comment and couldn't even correct your two mistakes. Talk to me again about being idiotic.
@@FanksCast Superheroes are a US creation so that kind of comes with the territory…the show has always been a satire depicting how superheroes would be if they really existed in modern American corporate society
@@donovan4222 Yeah I understand that, and don't get me wrong I don't hate all the politics in the show. But while all the seasons before 4 had some politics and some super hero parodying (which is how they originally marketed the show, as a parody of marvel/DC,) now its 70/80 percent politics, and I already hear about trump and US politics enough living in the UK, now making it mainly about that makes it kind of eye rolling.
Feels like they lured me in with the superhero concept and now its about starligthers and homelanders, erm I mean democrats and republicans, (which to people who started watching it because of the super hero parodying just makes it a bit of a drag, kind of asking for some balance) Just my opinion ofc and I still like the show regardless.
To put simply before it was superheroes first, politics second, but now its completely vice versa.
Completely wrong
I didn't understand the Hughie arc all season with being him being SA'd repeatedly. Seriously how could she be mad at him because he did not cheat on her, he was victimized. He should have been so mentally scarred that he needed to see a mental health professional to sort things out. And that is not even including the trauma of losing his father and dealing with a mother who abandoned her family when he was a child.
It went from a dark and gritty superhero show to just a shock value meme.
@@NthnLikeCodeine it’s beautiful watching kids discover what satire is and calling it “meme”
@@donovan4222 it isn't satire though imo. the first season is satire. the first couple seasons it was a satire on the superhero genre. but a "meme" is much more accurate to what it is now. a meme is low brow humor with nothing behind it. just like the show has become.
Whoa donovan it’s such good satire!!! You know it’s great writing when they tackle the issue of racism by having their villain utter garbled nonsensical remarks about jews that nobody in real life has ever uttered. It’s such a great satire when you tell the audience “Trump equals Homelander equals Hitler!!” It’s so thought provoking amirite?
@@walmartian422 yep, it was fine when they were taking shots at both sides. like the over-the-top gay Disney Park episode i thought was funny cuz it's making fun of Disney for pushing an agenda in order to make money
but this current season it really feels like the vibe is "conservatives are bad, liberals are good".
rather than "look at how cringey both sides are when they have extremist values" which is what made the first couple seasons great
and i'm saying this as a liberal myself lol
@@donovan4222 Doctor Strangelove is satire. This is garbage and not at all clever. It's not even trying to be anything more than "What if marvel was more gross and written by fetishists?" as opposed to properly doing satire. They even drag it out for more seasons and do spin offs, anything to cynically make a buck the same way Disney does.
8:13 Okay... I really like the show... but the number of times they pull the "character whips out a cellphone with convenient blackmail on it" card IS ridiculous.
Oh shit hey Sai, love your art and attitude
That's what annoyed me in season 3 🤣 Especially that scene in the elevator with Annie and Homelander. She whips out her phone and is basically like, "Erm, yeah. You're #Cancelled bitch.~
Finally someone says this. The gore in the show is so overkill and often just becomes a fucking shield for The Boys glazers. You try to criticize the story and plot and all they say is “You just didnt like it because of all the gore”
I personally have no problem with gore but gore for the sake of gore is just edgy
@@daniquemaxwell5070 yeah its like “look at us were so different because we have all this blood and disgusting shit where people fuck next to corpses and some guy jerks off to an octopus’s mouth or psy or whatever thats even supposed to be”
They fluctuate. The killing of the scientists in the basement is meant to be intensely damaged. If you're not a sadist, then you should probably be uncomfortable with watching characters that represent human beings (if the text has any meaning) being tortured. Web weaver's death seemed to have elements of comedy. Tek Knight is, I think, murdered by his Alfred in cold blood if memory serves (which doesn't elevate him particularly). Then you have murdering the wrong ashley or ripping extras in half. Violence should be violent. You should be riven. If you get close to it, it should probably trigger a level of revulsion. You're either watching characters as puppets, or the fictional world understands that they represent humans and that allows the event happening onscreen to be meaningful. If a character betrays another character, it's meant to have the meaning of betrayal in the real world. If a murder occurs, it's meant to have the meaning of murder.
My video store used to have mondo cinema. You could, if you wanted to, watch videos of people dying in ambulances or, I think, of massacres in africa. Why would you want to? I'm not sure it's less demented if you just watch a reenactment and glory in the rivers of blood and viscera. It just seems odd to be if you have to apologize for not seeing a representation of someone be ripped in half and thinking "yes! what fine entertainment.". I'm not sure gore is created equally. The gore in Westworld was probably meant to indict the audience for their lurid fascinations and it at least had the horror of the bodies being collected in heaps or rotting bloated in the desert sun.
@@daniquemaxwell5070 Edginess is not inherently bad thing
literally nobody said this about gore. It's more to do with people disagreeing with the shows political stances.
I swear the writers of this show (men) have some serious dominatrix fantasies they need to check up on. The amount of sexual assault against male characters is unnerving.
they are not men , they are nonbinary u BIGOT !
I wish you brought up them letting the deep live instead of killing him because "it would take too long" even though I'm sure Annie could snap his neck and A Train is there to Blue Hawk him.
Yeah because the deep is fucking awesome????????????
Aquaman continues to exist for some reason, and continues showing up, despite no one really liking him. One of the more baffling products made by humanity.
The Deep has divine protection because of this fact.
Nah they knew the Peak was only using 1% of his power and were fearful of him
Late, but a couple things, Annie was strong enough to beat him up, not snap his neck. Remember they're fairly equal, but the deep was shown to be stronger. I think they likely knew they couldn't kill him, at least not in time. He is strong enough to survive 8 tons per square inch of pressure (Mariana Trench). We don't know how physically strong A Train is, and it's pretty clear the Deep is stronger than Blue Hawk, so he's probably just leave a train of broken concrete if dragged across the road like with blue hawk.
@@ilikesnakes4695 Never too late. The fact that the Deep can withstand the pressure of deep sea is an interesting point. That would make it believable that he's much more durable than he is physically strong, however if you're able to beat someone up you really can kill someone, especially if they're knocked out. I know saying "I have a feeling..." Isn't a great argument but it just doesn't feel they did a good job making him seem that durable. Homelander they treat as if he could wipe out a city but could be killed by a small missile tbh. I don't think the deep could survive the Blue Hawk specialty.
This show has no stakes anymore, main characters never die so what’s the point
When their contracts are up and they're looking for raises then you'll start seeing characters die left and right.
Grace, Neuman, Black Noir?
@@randomhuman2595 noir was a main character? lollllllllll
@@potheadraccoon8536he very much was
@@mitnick2512 roflllll keep telling yourself thaat man he was a secondary antagonist who got one shotted by homelander cope harder
season 1 was definitely a fluke. The reason why homelander is intimidating is because you have this ticking unstable timebomb that can nuke earth if he wants to and no one can stop him. That's why people around him are treading lightly but the more the season goes, he is not scary anymore. This villain has been watered down and diluted to oblivion.
The biggest crime for me is the ending of season 3. That's why I didn't watch the show after that and just watch reviews and essays on season 4 instead. The sheer stupidity and character assassination in that ending is so awful. They have sacrificed everything from season 1 and 2 just so they let Homelander live and because MM has gripe with soldier boy.
I was yelling at my TV "WHY THE FCK WOULD YOU STOP THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP THE BIGGEST THREAT!? you could literally do that after Homelander is subdued. You know how to stop Soldier Boy. You don't know if another opportunity comes with Homelander"
Exactly this! The season 3 finale was some of the most lazy writing I've ever seen
"WE HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU R*CIST MOTHERFUCKERS"
MM saying that shit to Soldierboy at the end of s3 felt so unintentionally funny and out of place. They never established Soldier Boy as racist really and its more so that he was a fish out of water frozen for 20-30 or so years. It feels like they had multiple writers that had different ideas for him the writes all wrote different scenes with their ideas of his character in mind without communicating with each other.
That ending was crap.
See it's always comments like this that make me question the media literacy or compassion of an average viewer. You're asking the right question "why would you not take the chance to stop the biggest threat?" But you're missing the answer that's literally in the text. If Butcher kills Homelander, but loses Ryan, everything will be for naught. It's not winning if he loses Ryan. He wants to kill Homelander for revenge over his presumed-dead-now-actually-dead wife, but the last remnant of her and his promise to her is right there, falling out of his grasp. He made the choice to not make another Homelander that day.
I used to be just like you (and a lot of these commenters) when I was younger, so I understand the plot focus, but the real world is full of irrational choices made for emotion reasons. Although I agree that The Boys (especially season 4) is sometimes contrived with letting its heroes live (seriously what is that ending), a lot of the criticism in these comments are just woefully dismissive of the context
@youhavegottobekidding did you even watch the next season where Ryan kills Mallory and Butcher decided he needed to let neegan take control so he can kill Ryan? JESUS CHRIST Ryan and homelander should have died stupid
Remember guys, Annie murdered a civilian in cold blood in season 2.
Like kimiko is innocent
Frankly after season 4 I'm pro-virus, we're getting two more seasons at least in The Boys universe, season 2 of Gen-V and season 5 of The Boys. This story's been stretched and beaten so much that watching season 1 is like watching a completely different show.
Would be a bold ending. Wipe out every supe (and possibly the world at large since the virus could mutate?) in present day, then revisit Vought in its infancy through the Soldier Boy/Stormfront prequel. Not sure there's enough artistic integrity in the writers' room to go that route though.
watching conservatives realize it was criticizing them only this season and turning on the show is so great to watch. better than the show!
@@kingkarlito babbit09's critique solely targets the narrative shortcomings of the show. No idea how you've performed that ass pull of making it political.
@@kingkarlito L opinion
@@kingkarlito yea your guys' trump comparisons to homelander are just so subtle, the feeble conservative mind can't comprehend it! Do you read Engels by any chance?
Wait did they just call BATMAN a fascist?
Holy not understanding a character AT ALL Batman
@@butcherpete2286 I’m a huge Batman fan, but you can absolutely critique the concept of Batman as having fascist underpinnings.
The whole concept of a rich guy going into the slums and brutally punishing criminals with violence is like a fascists wet dream…that’s why I prefer stories that highlight that Batman is more than that and the character should inspire hope and actually save people…which is why Reeves Batman is superior
@@donovan4222 no. That's projection on your part of what you think a fascist is like. Not the character being fascist at all.
He's a PHILANTHROPIST who operates both an ORPHANAGE and a mental health institution for SUPER VILLAINS. He wholeheartedly believes that nobody is beyond saving and even refuses to use guns (in most iderations and dont site the Origin comics, even the co creator of those stories has openly said he regrets ever letting batman use a gun in the origin comics so dont even go there)
People just like to associate rich people with evil because they view the world as the haves and have nots and they wish they were the haves. Batman, inherently, is a character of good moral standing and justice.
He doesn't go into slums and brutally beat people. He lives in crime ridden city and is actively pursuing criminals to bring them to justice. It's a very modern day part of the character that he "brutally beats people up" because Hollywood and the comics industry is rife with leftoids that think all rich people are evil and want to smear BATMANs character
@@butcherpete2286 That is the definition of what a fascist is like, not my opinion. Fascists place a huge emphasis on “law and order” and see themselves as kind of morally superior warriors against “degeneracy” doing the “dirty work” that others won’t. Thats how the psychology works and how fascists view themselves and justify what they do.
I agree that Batman shouldn’t be fascist obviously, but the point is that the character is sometimes written in ways where people can interpret it that way. And you are right that things like his no kill rule and believing no one is beyond saving are what separates Batman from that, but if you look at Snyder’s Batman for example you can see the huge problem there.
People accurately associate wealth with evil, because rampant wealth inequality is evil…billionaires existing while thousands of homeless people exist is an evil policy choice of how to run society. Has nothing to do with individual billionaires being nice people or not. In the real world, billionaire do philanthropy for PR and tax break purposes, and philanthropy is not a solution to homelessness or wealth inequality…but that’s kind of beside the point. I have no problem with the concept of Batman existing as a billionaire and trying to do good, I’m just saying you have to be careful about the message you send with how the character is written.
And yeah you are right again, that Batman being this brutal guy that tortures criminals just because he wants to or thinks it’s “necessary” is a more modern take on the character, I largely blame Snyder for that…but the point is that those interpretations of the character can and do have fascist underpinnings. Thats why I think as Batman fans we should push for stories where Batman is written well and not with those fascist underpinnings.
@@donovan4222 the fascist underpinnings you're describing come from the people that align themselves with anti-fasict groups though. It is literally a projection from the writers of the modern takes of the character. Watch the Justice League and Unlimited series and tell me there's a fascist underpinning to that character. Or Batman the Animated series, Batman Beyond or a plethora of the DCAU movies.
One director fundamentally not understanding the character he was writing (and got so much backlash for it he was not rehired with DC to do any future projects with them and they retconned his entire movie universe with the Flash movie) does not mean the "character has fascist underpinnings" it means that a writer/director did not understand the character he was working with.
For the director of the Boys to say this quote is just another projection from that writer/director who absolutely does not understand the character on a fundamental level and should, rightly, be called out on that. And in all honesty if you want to use the ideas youre here to say Batman has fascist undertones I'd argue that it's the society that has them, not the character. He gives far more than he ever takes, he bucks against the system and calls out corrupt police and governmental officials, and actively helps low income communities. That's antithetical to what you're saying he is. If anything it builds the case that Batman is against authoritarianism, hence why he's a vigilante not an authority figure.
Side note, just because fascist societies emphasize conformity and abuse of the legal system does not mean that anyone that takes a hard line stance against crime is fascist, or that a society that fairly and justly punishes criminals is a fascist one. They are t mutually inclusive of each other.
@@butcherpete2286 Lol there is just no evidence that writers purposely make Batman fascist because they don’t like him, that’s just how the character can be interpreted when it’s a rich guy using fear tactics to “clean up” crime in a city. Thats a very easy concept to create fascist themes around.
JLU and BTAS are great examples of Batman done right, and making it clear he’s not a fascistic figure. There are other examples of where he can be…Snyder Batman, aspects of Frank Miller Batman, and even Nolan’s Batman show show elements of this. Kingdom Come Batman turns Gotham into a police state solely managed and run by him, that one is pretty obvious…
The Batman I’m a fan of isn't a fascist, but a bunch of popular versions of the character have some pretty notable fascist subtext so it's not unreasonable for some to interpret the character in that way.
Everyone forgets the part in season 2 where they character assassinated Starlight by having her become a killer and murdering a completely innocent dad in cold blood who was well within his right of self defense. She showed zero remorse in the following scene where she was okay with murdering him, stealing his car, and leaving his corpse in the middle of the road and never had to face any consequences for those choices.
Agree with everything you say except the "serial killer" thing.
A serial killer is the kind that commits various murders in a specific set of time and often with a pattern, one murder doesn't make you a serial killer.
@@Bumbum_Inspector Yeah everyone just kinda forgot that Starlight straight up murdered a dude and then carjacked him on top of it lol
The dude was about to shoot Butcher even after being told "Put the gun down" by Annie. She showed shock for having sent him backwards (and murdering him) in the very next second
@@Bumbum_Inspector Well it was an accident, they needed the car, he pulled a gun, and she pushed him too hard…so I believe the point of that scene was to show how far Starlight has come since season 1. While the old starlight would have a mental breakdown if she did that, the new starlight briefly shows some remorse, accepts what happened, and moves on.
Remember, superpowers aren’t clean in this show. Supes kill people, even by accident, all the time and it’s regularly covered up as shown in the very first episode.
@@donovan4222 It was not an accident. She was shown to be able to take nearly point blank shots from a sniper rifle in season 1 without any real damage. She had so much time to use her bullet immune body as a shield and stand in the way of him and Butcher and disarm him. The Dad offered to drive them to the hospital but he was not willing to just give them his car and be left in the middle of nowhere, but Butcher didn't want that and escalated. Starlight opted to kill a completely innocent person well within his right of self defense instead of protect and disarm, despite having plenty of time to do so.
its nice to see someone finally say the truth about this show. its okay to put on in the background, but some people actually ride or die for this show, thinking it is gods greatest gift and i have never understood that
Because some of the characters like Homelander and Soldier Boy are great
You don't have to. People like what they like.
S4 took a hard dive in quality... till then I mostly enjoyed it.
But then I read the show runner say "If you don't like it, don't watch it." and my response was "You got it, chief!"
anyone who says if you dont like it dont watch it just likes the smell of their own farts tbh
@@username.exenotfound2943 Indeed. That is a phrase that screams "Vanity Project."
@username.exenotfound2943 wow u mean a director who isn't gonna let fan feedback change and affect his story? What a horrible human being, like do u all realize that feedback like this changing the tone and story is what killed the dceu
@@heresnegan6825 No, a director who is incapable of taking valid feedback and criticism, and instead acts as if there is something wrong with the fans.
Obviously not all criticism is valid, but an adult should be able to tell the difference.
@@heresnegan6825 Counter point. Do you know what killed the mcu or starwars? Directors that don't listen to feedback and just saying "If you don't like, don't watch it." Or "This movie wasn't made for you"
11:03 I will actually defend Ryan’s characterization here. One thing that’s made pretty clear is that he doesn’t like creeps and rapists. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment, but he explains that Homelander told him that the star lighters were pedophilles.
So then later hearing from someone he was raised by (truthfully) accusing Homelander of raping his own Mother, and pressuring him to murder his own father must have been pretty world shattering to him. I don’t think he even knows what to think after accidentally killing Grace. He just wants to get away from it all.
The poor kid’s been thrown around between multiple parental figures, some much more fucked up than others. Of course he’s gonna start being confused about his own morals
Despite how hard the show fell off after S1, you still have to apreciate how good the acting still is, specially Antony Starr, that man is giving it is all every scene
I don't recall if it was a video or an article, but I heard that Antony didn't even want the role of Homelander, but was convinced to send in an audition tape. They gave him the gig because his audition showed the perfect level of disinterest and disdain.
S3*
28:30 Noir nodded. It wasn't "silence means yes" Noir clearly nods, and even if not, Homelander was always good with reading body language, and says that he could always see Noirs face. Not that I disagree with anything else here, just wanted to point that out, you are right, he was wasted.
The show isn’t satire, it’s parody that thinks it’s satire. It’s not a well thought out satirical drama, but a shitty drawn out SNL skit.
O.K., so it's parody, that isn't a criticism, it's a clarification, and doesn't tell anyone anything of value.
@@Selrisitai More value than what you said. He does make a interesting point, which seems to have gone way over your head.
@JohnWall-lj1mx not sure i'd say that, rick and morty has it's own level of garbage in it's own right.
@@SeannSantanathat's the plan with the nihilistic shows. They have to be low level to rot your brain with time..
@@Selrisitaiok no but yeah, sure if it were
“ She can only be as smart as the people writing her “ maybe the most obvious statement ever made lol
It might be but that's why smartest-person-ever characters need very clever writing.
same line was used for Tyrion lannister after season 4
It's not true tho
@@m.dave2141 it literally is but ok
@@m.dave2141 Literally true though.
"She ultimately sucks it up and does it" ruthless wording
I mean to be fair He does say in another comment He didn't mean it like that.
lmao thats a good one
@@dylandogg54weirdo
Hot take: The Boys has always been a show of nihilistic nonsense that was made palatable by a mask of competent writing and acting. Only now, the competency is gone so the mask is slipping.
The amount of times Homelander could have killed Butcher but just doesn't for either some contrived reason or sometimes no apparent reason drove me crazy. Also, it feels like he is already past the point of caring what the public thinks but he still just does for some reason.
He doesn't kill Butcher at the start of Season 4 because he doesn't want to upset Ryan
@@randomhuman2595 Homelander is a character who cares what Ryan thinks?
@@liquidamerican8543 Yes. He doesn't want to upset his son
@@randomhuman2595 wrong
When they hatefuck in s5 it will all make sense (This is a JOKE btw)
There was one scene in season 2 where Annie accidentally kills a driver who turned out to be a father to which Annie claims she doesn't feel sad over because he was in their way despite it being her first kill to my knowledge. Annie has been questioning her religion and becoming more ruthless by blackmailing her friend earlier in season 2, but accidentally killing a father while Butcher was escalating things only for Annie to blame the driver instead of butcher afterwards and not feeling guilty over it just rubbed me the wrong way.
@@yokesplooge2852 I think that was meant to show Annie’s character development, because season 1 Annie would have had a mental breakdown from accidentally killing someone…but she goes through so much that she starts to become more like Butcher, so she just accepts it and moves on.
@@donovan4222 Except by the end of season 2 Annie finds her religion again symbolizing her getting back in touch with her moral compass after watching a wretched human being like butcher do something good. By season 3 she's all sanctimonious about Hughey and Butcher teaming up with a murderer like Soldier Boy all the while Starlight caught a body she still shown no remorse over but she shows remorse blinding a hostage when she was young and starting out as a superhero in season 4. If she could feel remorse for that she could do the same for killing a father who Butcher got killed when he tried to help them.
@@donovan4222 You call that character development? oO Oh she developed so well she is now able to murder people in cold blood and not have it weigh on her. Good for her!... Maybe if they are trying to make a villain out of her that could be called character development. But they ain't doing that.
@@AeneaSXI Yeah that’s exactly what character development is, it doesn’t mean “morally perfect character who does nothing wrong” and having character flaws does not make you a villain lmao
@@donovan4222 being indifferent to murdering innocent people is quite literally the definition of a villain. "lmao"
Watching fanboys try to justify this show by assuming everyone is just mad at the politics is amusing because none of them have ever praised the newer seasons for being well written. It's their only defense when someone criticizes it.
@@opadrip I think it’s interesting how Sheev critiqued the plot but many of the comments are just people being upset that the show is “biased” against Trump supporters
@@donovan4222 I only saw the first episode of season 4, then I found out what a piece of sh*t the Frenchie actor is in real life. But honestly, even if it weren't for him, that woman who's supposed to be a caricature of alex jones and that human centipedes stuff was just about enough for me. The show was never subtle, but Jesus, talk about a jackhammer....
@@hb4080 I totally agree about Frenchie, but why should it be subtle when the material it’s satirizing isn’t subtle in real life? Like you may say “oh they made Homelander too unsubtle, he’s a little on the nose” but then it turns out they accurately made Homelander say something that Trump literally said in the debate a few weeks ago 🤣
@@donovan4222 I meant it as a figure of speech lol I'm sorry, I should have made that clearer :)
It's so funny. They run all this defence for the show but when asked to bring up just 3 positives, they struggle to list 1. 😂
One thing i don't really see get talked about is the Kimiko's whole "I don't want to be a monster" plotline where she tries to get rid of her superpowers where when that actually happens the writers are like "Fuck what do we do now" so they just give her the powers back after wasting a shit ton of screen time for nothing
That’s her whole character for like the past two seasons. “Oh shit what do we do with kimko, random ninja shit”
Subtlety is an art.
The boys is playground macaroni art.
Saying catchy things in UA-cam comments isn't easy man.
But you keep at it ok? Doing great buddy. 👍
@@lostree1981Gavin’s grumpy guys :(((
Well, when a bunch of right wing idiots can't tell that they are the joke, ya gotta make it obvious so the message finally gets through their thick skulls.
@kagu2811 well tbf although I understood the comment, yeah, I'm not saving it for another time, it just wasn't at all nice to read or to say out loud. 😅
Tbh the Boys did know when to be subtle at times, but that time has long since been gone
Why there's a lot of recent comments acting as if disliking the show is edgy contrarianism when the show is literally edgy contrarianism of Superhero media with a side of shallow shocking content? Any nuance got lost after season 1, which is a damn shame. I really wanted to like the show, and some aspects it did really good kept me going long after I started disliking the writing. It never picked of.
Stormfront, Soldier Boy, Stan Edgar and Neuman were very interesting characters introduced after Season 1
@@randomhuman2595 Stormfront isn't interesting, I really dig the concept of the insidious harmful propagandist using platforms to spread harmful ideas but I felt the social media aspect of her character was too "how do you do fellow kids" and didn't have much going for her other than being comically evil and racist, and don't get me wrong she should've been just that but we didn't really see her actually use her platform to spread insidious propaganda, she was just a hip hero who got popular because she wasn't afraid to throw dirt at Vought. I didn't buy she would've been a social media star, the show just say she is. I didn't really like Stan or Neuman either, I feel their arcs are just meandering as a result of having to stretch the series as much as they can to milk Homelander. I did dig Soldier Boy, but I was mad he didn't betray the boys on his own, he was clearly the lesser evil compared to Homelander. If Soldier Boy would've been a bigger asshole, and they didn't waste Noir I would've been more hopeful for the series. But nah, it's just very boring to see a plot that should've ended be stretched and milked.
"There's always next season." Sheev sounds like a Cleveland Browns fan.
Well there is only next season it will be the last of the boys
@@alexneff but not the franchise, they still made some spinoff series.
Unironically this is the best review of this show on UA-cam. It’s great seeing you point the actual issues with the writing rather than your own biases.
"It's bad because it's woke."
@@BirdsElopeWithTheSun09 tbf this show is Woke af. having hughie get SA'd and have to apologise to his fuckin gf about it is peak woke writing. The writing isn't bad because woke it's bad because it don't make sense then again the writing perhaps would be tighter if the showrunners focused on that instead of wanting Homelander to be a Trump allegory or wanting Hughies arc to be about toxic masculinity and not the trauma of his gf being gibbed in front of him.
@@moe5020I hate the overuse of the word woke, but “woke” writing is going to be intrinsically bad. I say this as someone this show is poorly mocking. You can write something that’s left leaning and have it be well written. Sure people might disagree with said message. But “woke” writing is always going to be garbage. It’s like trying to separate stink from sh¡t. It ain’t happening
@@PKM9107 agreed. That's the unfortunate thing about left leaning audiences. They could have really good pieces of media, like they keep desperately claiming they dont have enough of, but then the writers chosen to head those projects are just so god awful at their jobs. I mean, look at how much people clamored for Leslie Headland, being the first openly gay director for SW and they had the opportunity to tell a story part of the SW mythos that could faithfully encapsulate their life experiences, only for it to be badly written garbage.
@@pajamapantsjack5874 It's not that good
I lowk disagree with the part about black noir's death. It didn't really seem like it was played for laughs but rather a last look into black noir's damaged psyche as he takes his last breaths trying to rationalize his death and make it feel better. i do agree that it sucks that he didnt get to confront soldier boy though
Yeah, his death was sad.
@@saby7825 He truly is a wasted character imo. Dude finally get meaningful screen time for once, then die very shortly after.
Such a waste of potential...
@@Juhnte he also is a victim of that varying power level, he should be able to stand a punch from homelander. Not win a fight, but not have the punch go cleanly into him.
@@dorianleakey Honestly, like. He survived being practically lobotomized by Soldier Boy but a single punch from Homelander was enough to kill him so quickly?? That's just bad writing tbh
@@Jesse-Pinkthem I remember when that guy who could self detonate did next to no damage as well, I feel they wanted that shock moment as homelander coldly kills him for us to be horrified by.
I hated the constant smug preachiness of the writers in season 4.
Edit: Not even left/right politics, but the show went from showcasing views through story, to just telling you what to think. Every episode felt like a lecture from a bunch of metropolitan liberals funded by a super massive corporation.
It's the same politics, there's just less subtlety.
Hope you know the shows been inherently very political since day 1
@@anthonyparillo7832 I know what kinda argument you're trying to pull, yeah there's lots of RW guys who think Homelander is literally them but there's also normal people too who dislike how the show becomes more stupid and shallow each season. A lot of the cleverness of the first season is just gone, there's no longer any satire it's just "hey look at this thing that happened, kinda crazy right?". Equating Soldier Boy to what happened at the Capital in January 6 is BEYOND idiotic.
@@anthonyparillo7832 "if you dont tell me I will donate your money to black lives matter!"
Stop it. Just stop. That was a quote from season 4. I dont want to see mentally ill extreme left people write shows.
@@GavMiPie triggered are we?
Am i the only one who is distracted by how different Starlight looks in the later season. Why would she mess with her face?
According to her and Kripke, she was facing online harassment. However, what I think really happened is some execs convinced her to get plastic surgery, she looked like shit afterward, then scapegoated the fans. From s1 and s2 I saw and heard NO ONE talking about her being ugly, which she wasn’t.
Why the fuck do they have hughie get assaulted for 3 episodes directly after his dad died bruh wtf
Honestly? I think the show runners are just perverted weirdos and wanted an excuse.
It wouldn't be that bad if they took it seriously and not a joke
@@randomhuman2595 no it would still be a strange choice. Seems like they hate the character or the actor or something
Because it's funny when it is a guy.
@@randomhuman2595 They do take it seriously, at the end of ep6 of s4 he's literally crying due to what happened and Annie comforts him over it how isn't it being taken seriously.
They took The Deep's redemption arc and switched it with A-Train's damnation arc for no reason; Black Noir was a complex character with a tragic backstory, killed off and replaced with a stupid version of him for no reason; Soldier Boy was brought back and knocked out again without making any long-standing difference for no reason
What even is this show now?
Also, a detail that no one ever talks about: the show tries to make fun of Republicans and conservatives with characters like Homelander, but since Newman ran with Singer as a Democrat candidate, the main danger in Season 4 would be over if the Republican candidate won the election, since the Super takeover of the government would never happen; Vought itself is an impossible company, because it simultaneously appeals to conservatives and liberals with completely opposite value in an extremely explicit way (e.g: the anti-LGBT sponsorship of religious groups, while EXPLICITLY parading Queen Maeve as a lesbian)
'Also, a detail that no one ever talks about: the show tries to make fun of Republicans and conservatives with characters like Homelander, but since Newman ran with Singer as a Democrat candidate, the main danger in Season 4 would be over if the Republican candidate won the election, since the Super takeover of the government would never happen; Vought itself is an impossible company, because it simultaneously appeals to conservatives and liberals with completely opposite value in an extremely explicit way (e.g: the anti-LGBT sponsorship of religious groups, while EXPLICITLY parading Queen Maeve as a lesbian)'
Broken clock moment - that's just an accurate representation of the USian uniparty.
@@thetaomegatheta I don't know if you wanted to show off the cool new word you learned but didn't pay attention to the text you're replying to or you genuinely don't get what the uniparty concept is, but either way this ain't it.
@@mrmcawesome9746
'I don't know if you wanted to show off the cool new word you learned'
Haha. That's some cute projection.
'or you genuinely don't get what the uniparty concept is'
I'm going to explain this for the especially gifted: there is no significant difference between the two major USian parties apart from their PR. They have almost the same policies, they support each other, including financially, and they both shouldn't exist.
They are effectively two fronts of the same party, hence why they are called a 'uniparty'.
@@thetaomegatheta Okay, well I guess I know you just didn't read the comment and just wanted to act smart then. Thanks for explaining?
@@mrmcawesome9746
'Okay, well I guess I know you just didn't read the comment'
You don't know that. Because I did read the comment.
The part that I quoted talks about the show trying to focus on criticising a particular part of the USian uniparty but ends up criticising the uniparty as a whole. As such, the show accidentally lands on a correct position in this regard, which is what I commented on.
Notably, you couldn't even point to anything in the original post that I supposedly contradicted.
17:17
Sorry just one thing
The explosion from soldier boy is supposed to be able to deactivate a supe’s abilities, making them a normal person just from the blast. (Which is why a few bombs probably couldn’t work)
It’s why I thought homelander took damage from maeve, since soldier boy had almost detonated his ability moments before, but to be fair that’s me making excuses for the writers instead of what was shown.
Homelander took damage from Maeve because she trained and is the 3rd strongest supe in the show, I feel like people cite this and the metal straw as an anti feat too much, his powers are relatively consistent, the only times they aren't is for collateral damage in extended fight scenes which is obviously because of budget restrictions.
@@ilikesnakes4695 stormfront soldier boy stronger
The way they just forget that Annie killed a guy then victim blamed him because he had a gun (despite the fact she's bulletproof) and treat it as if it never happened is so weird.
Also they use violence against male characters comedically, but NEVER female characters.
i cant remember the last time a Man pun/ched a woman on screen but i see women physically and verbally abuse Men on screen all the freaking time...
There is a double standard and its obvious to see but many are still pretending there isnt.
Thats also why modern writting is so freaking easy to predict, they have all of these unspoken rules that are easy to see if u use ur brain a little bit-
''wow she betrays and backstabs him'' 1- i wonder if he will get hes revenge or 2- easily forgive her and even act like its his fault for all of this... and its 2.
the girls beating up Stormfront and Kimiko falling from a building was comedic
The show is trying too hard, and it makes everything about it laughable, even the gore.
It would be a much better show if they didn't feel the need to go so over the top for the sake of shock value all of the time