Amazon’s superhero satire The Boys is one of the best series currently available. This does not change in season 4, which masters its complex ensemble with numerous plot threads and once again boasts plenty of shocking, shameless and sometimes dirty highlight moments. But One thing disturbs the enjoyment of the series for me.
Amidst bloody excesses, violence and death, The Boys is frighteningly restrained in one respect. Where series like House of The Dragon or The Walking Dead keep the tension high with unpredictability, the otherwise tough superhero series lacks the courage to to kill your own main characters. That’s a problem.
Warning, spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 7 follow:
After 4 seasons, The Boys has become too transparent
Stan Edgar sums it up well in Season 4: “It is a true miracle that they all managed to survive this long.“
The battle between Billy Butcher’s The Boys and the corrupt Supes of this world has been raging for 4 seasons now. The trademark of the Amazon series is the extremely high level of violence. Since the very first scene in which a young woman is blown to pieces by the super-fast hero A-Train, The Boys has continually outdone itself in terms of creative gore scenes.
Limbs are regularly severed, genitals are blown up and characters die like flies. Unfortunately, in season 4 it becomes quite clear what pattern The Boys follows when it comes to deadly shock moments: No one is safe except the main characters. Each.
Amazon
The boys keep escaping death
Of course, many characters die in The Boys and some deaths are surprisingly heartwarming. If we look at the core cast – Butcher, MM, Hughie, Frenchie and Kimiko, Homelander, Starlight, A-Train and The Deep – the Amazon series just doesn’t seem to dare to tell really painful deaths.
Sure: With Black Noir, a real main character lost his life for the first time in season 3. But showrunner Eric Kripke and his team have refuted this shock just one season later – and simply presented us with a new Black Noir. In order to protect its own protagonists, The Boys keeps introducing new (super) characters who then serve as cannon fodder. Here is an overview of the striking death pattern (season 1 excluded):
Many other long-standing supporting characters have also been affected. But the central (anti-)heroes seem untouchable. And so I find it difficult to really get excited these days. A risk that Homelander, Butcher, Hughie and co. could die? It doesn’t exist. The latest season 4 episode is the best proof.
The Boys misses the opportunity to sacrifice someone again in season 4
In the seventh episode of season 4, Starlight and Butcher engage in an intense battle with Seven members Deep and Black Noir. Each of them is ready to kill. And even though A-Train and MM are also involved, everyone involved gets away unscathed. The Boys missed the ideal opportunity for a shock death.
Amazon
Deep’s death is long overdue
Especially with regard to the “animal lover” Deep, The Boys has the perfect candidate for death who can be sacrificed to raise the height of the fight between the Boys and the Seven to the next level. The reason is simple: Deep has long since been told as a character. and since the death of his octopus lover Ambrosius, he has become nothing more than a one-dimensional assassin for Homelander.
Are The Boys writers too cowardly to let main characters die? I don’t actually want to accuse them of that. But it is noticeable that A-Train was basically written out of the plot after this episode. His activity as a double agent was exposed and now there would be no excuse for Homelander not to dismember him on his own initiative. To avoid a deadly confrontation, the script instead takes him to safety.
Precisely because the series is so character-centered, it is an annoying omission that the most important characters in the series do not have their own lives at stake. For them, the central conflict no serious consequences and the threat being portrayed is not very tangible for the audience.
The Boys makes it clear with each season that Homelander can wipe out any character at any moment. It is striking that he always holds back when it comes to his declared arch enemies. For example, Hughie’s escape from the angry Homelander at the beginning of season 4 was simply frustrating because he was only able to escape the situation alive thanks to his secure plot armor.
The Boys must finally take a risk because time is running out
Of course, The Boys season 4 still has one episode left and could claim a major sacrifice in its finale. But the superhero series has proven too many times in the past that we don’t have to worry about the Seven and the Boys. That’s especially annoying when we consider that the series is running out of time.
Amazon
Butcher isn’t the only one running out of time
The Boys will end with season 5. So there are only a few episodes leftin which the series brings out the big guns and really makes us fear for the lives of beloved characters and rips our hearts out with shocking losses.
Unfortunately, The Boys has Missed the opportunity to build the foundation for a final massacre for 4 seasons. I’ve never had the feeling that the main characters are ever really in danger and could die at any moment. The only exception is Billy Butcher, whose inevitable death has been hanging over the main character like the sword of Damocles since the end of season 3 and has a significant impact on his actions. But let’s be honest: even he will definitely survive this season.
Of course, I will continue to celebrate every overly brutal death of unimportant Supes and will definitely shed a tear or two when another minor character dies. The lack of mortal danger remains frustrating, however – especially since several characters have been going around in circles since this season. I still love The Boys, but this problem urgently needs attention.