Recently, the fourth season of the popular fantasy series “The Boys” about a world with “sinful” superheroes began in Amazon’s online cinema. The show itself has always been highly regarded by audiences for its biting satire and sarcastic commentary on comics, culture, and more.
However, at the beginning of the new season, it suddenly faced a wave of criticism from viewers who rated the first three episodes extremely low. This development of events may seem unexpected from the outside, but it has very specific reasons: we will analyze them in this article.
The text contains spoilers for the first three episodes of the fourth season of The Boys.
Photo: Amazonas
Spectators versus critics
If you look at the well-known aggregators with ratings of movies and TV series, you can immediately notice a striking trend: the opinions of critics and ordinary users about the fourth season of “The Boys” are clearly divided. For example, on Rotten Tomatoes, the first three episodes received up to 95% “freshness” from journalists, while viewers rated them only 50%. On Metacritic the situation is even worse: 76 points from critics and only 4.0 points from viewers.
For comparison: the first season of the show received 85% from critics on RT, while viewers gave it 90%. On Metacritic, the user rating for the debut season was also higher: 7.8 points compared to 74 points from journalists. Critics rated the third season the highest on Tomatoes: it has a 98%. While the mass audience liked it less: it received 75% of them. The second season had the highest score on Metacritic – 80, but users gave it 6.8 points.
Rating of the season by critics (76) and users (4.0)
Photo: Metacritic
Season rating from critics (95% recommended) and viewers (only 50% recommended)
Photo: Rotten Tomatoes
As can be seen from the examples above, the overall assessment of “The Boys” between the two “camps” has never diverged so much before. Additionally, the series was often praised for the same features. Many people liked that Eric Kripke’s show (Supernatural) brutally parodies all kinds of superhero clichés and “turns the images of good-natured superhumans on their head.”
The demand for “The Boys” only increased against the background of the problems of the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, whose films grossed less and less money in the cinema and annoyed fans with the low level of quality. The creators of the Amazon series have always actively responded to these types of trends, making references to the Snyder Cut or crossover superhero movies.
Additionally, the series often criticizes the activities of large corporations that use various social and cultural movements in the “product” format. You can remember the story in which the fictional company Vought promoted a “feminist” message among superheroines, but it did so only as a publicity stunt; In reality, they were only interested in profit. It is quite ironic that the series itself is released on the platform of the large corporation Amazon.
And many expected that the audience would receive the fourth season at approximately the same level as the previous ones. Also, before the release, reviews from critics appeared, where they called the last chapter of the story the darkest of all. They praised it for its political themes, its characteristic sarcastic tone, and the performances of the main cast members. Most of the praise, which has already become a tradition for the series, went to Antony Starr in the role of the scoundrel Homelander.
So what went wrong?
The guys came to Pravda-con.
Photo: Amazonas
“The Boys”: information about the series
Name: “Children.”DirectorsStars: Philip Sgricchia, Fred Tua, Sarah Boyd, Eric Kripke.actorsStars: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Chace Crawford and others.release date: June 13, 2024 (fourth season).Gender: fantasy, satire.how many episodes: 8 episodes.A country: USA
“The Boys”: where to watch?
The series is screened in Amazon’s online cinema; On the day of the premiere of the fourth season, three episodes were released.
The video is available on the Prime Video YouTube channel. The rights to the video belong to Amazon.
Politics and “propaganda”
There were several main reasons for the negativity among viewers, but the greatest outrage was caused by elements of the series related to politics and “propaganda.” Part of the plot of the fourth season touches on the issue of the presidential elections in the United States, where the “second number” of one of the candidates is the adopted daughter of Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), Victoria Newman (Claudia Doumit).
But the public and “The Boys” know that the heroine has skills with which she managed to make a bloody path in politics. She eliminates threats with literal “explosions to the head,” although she appears “liberal” to the public. And even in the first few episodes, Homelander is acquitted of the murder of a man that he committed in front of a crowd in the season three finale.
Victoria Newman is a key character in season four.
Photo: Amazonas
These last elements reminded some viewers too much of the actual elections in the United States, which will be held in November of this year. And with presidential candidate Donald Trump recently embroiled in another court case, some fans said the series was criticizing the politician through Homelander’s line. The public began to criticize the writers for making fun of “one side” (the Republican one). And he stated that in the past the series remained more balanced on these issues. Some users even noted that this story should “entertain” fans and not preach to its audience.
These parallels could be considered strained if The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke himself noted in a recent interview that the series supposedly always addressed the topic of “Trumpism.” And to those who began to declare an excessive “agenda,” the author advised them to “look at something else.” Apparently, Kripke became concerned that some viewers shared some of the ideas of Homelander and his followers, and he decided to more clearly reflect his thoughts on this matter on screen. That’s probably why, in one of the scenes in the new season, Homelander forces the members of the Seven to beat their own fans with bats so he can use their bodies in the fight against Starlight (Erin Moriarty). The metaphor is arguably not the most subtle, and there are several similar thematic moments in the first three episodes.
For example, other story details, such as a new heroine nicknamed Firecracker (Valorie Carrie), reference the theme of the “culture wars.” She actively criticizes the liberal agenda on her podcast, endorsing gun use, accusing Starlight followers of stealing children, and quoting the Bible. But at the same time, the heroine has a low opinion of her own admirers of her. Obviously, in this case, the authors also wanted to “push” a certain representative sample of members of the US Republican Party who host similar programs on YouTube.
Wise sister and firecracker
Photo: Amazonas
Running in circles
There are also reviews on the Internet that directly refer to the plot of the new season, or rather, its repetitions. Viewers in colorful reviews note that some characters in the series seem to go around in circles in their development, and the general story of the universe progresses very slowly.
So in the new season, the “Boys” team is distracted again by family dramas: Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) is still trying to “save” Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) from the hands of Homelander, even though he had previously chased the child. away from himself. Starlight has abandoned his superhero persona in the past and is now starting to use it again. The Express (Jesse T. Usher) from “Seven” once again argues with his brother, and the Submarine (Chace Crawford) once again communicates too closely with the octopus. Etc.
Many didn’t appreciate the sidelines themselves, such as Kimiko’s (Karen Fukuhara) attempt to deal with past traumas or Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) confrontation with his mother. But the additional branch of the Frenchman (Tomer Capon), who is concerned about the murder of his friend’s family, especially “gets it.”
Some viewers felt that this line was simply a waste of time and, furthermore, they were also accused of having an “agenda.” Similar comments can be found in many reviews of the fourth season, for example on IMDb.
Some fans note that the series became too dependent on the “shock” factor, but at the same time “forgot” about its own story and the ideas of the first episodes. Some even recommend limiting yourself to watching only three seasons.
Patriarch
Photo: Amazonas
Will viewers abandon the series?
There is no exact answer to this question yet, as all the episodes of the season have not been released yet. But we can assume that in this case the mass audience will see the story until the end. The level of indignation on the Internet with the start of the fourth season turned out to be high, but it cannot be compared with the huge wave of hatred that covered the “neighbor” “Acolyte” from the Star Wars universe.
The series are released in different online cinemas, but their parallel schedules still allow us to see a significant difference in the level of anger of the audience. In addition, “The Boys” will probably benefit greatly from the announcement of the fifth season: shortly before the premiere of the new episodes, it became known that it would be the last season of the show.
Therefore, there is a high probability that a significant part of the fans will no longer abandon this plot so close to the end. True, this measure is unlikely to save the ratings of new episodes of “The Boys” from collapse.
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