The Boys is losing its superpowers. Panic if you must. The writing is on the wall as Season 4 of the hit Prime Video series arrives this week with a dark and somewhat bloated outing that never fully finds a strong creative thread to weave through eight episodes. The bigger news that suddenly has fans clutching their faux Homelander capes is the recent announcement from showrunner Eric Kripke, who recently shared on X (formerly Twitter) that even though the show has been renewed for Season 5, that season will serve as its last, bringing the buzzy superhero satire show to a close. So, relish what you get now.

The Boys has always cleverly served as a quirky parable about the peculiar times in which we live, but no season has so eerily mirrored the current brouhaha taking place in the country and around the world as Season 4. An ominous leader (Antony Starr’s Homelander) awaiting the outcome of a contentious trial — in this case, for murder — while a fascist figure (Claudia Doumit’s Victoria Neuman) chomps at the bit to get into the White House?

The takeaway? Somewhere beyond the gore, grit, and cynicism of this inventive series, the answer lies in ordinary people themselves. “Wake up,” the show keeps telling us. “Make smarter choices when electing officials to power.” It recalls famed broadcaster Walter Cronkite, who once said, “We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.” Perhaps that’s too deep for most superhero content, but, hey, isn’t that the point of this show? Well, that, and a bevy of exploding heads.

The Boys Will Be Boys

“Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax,” teased showrunner Eric Kripke in recent social media posts. You can bet on that in Season 4. If you’ve enjoyed the smorgasbord of VFX and graphic violence in past seasons, sit back and prepare to squint at the bevy of dismembered limbs, body splats, and well, you know, Boys stuff. Meanwhile, the show feels as if it’s trying to catch up with itself in the aftermath of delays from the industry strikes, plus the launch of spin-off The Boys: Gen V, which now must filter into the larger IP.

Beyond that, the entirety of Season 4 unravels between the election of smarmy presidential candidate Robert Singer (Jim Beaver), with Victoria Neuman on the ticket, and the significant vote certification on Jan. 6. Strangely familiar, eh? That said, you can expect this season to bounce between that story thread and everything leading up to Season 5’s end game.

This includes the world-building of the franchise, so that The Boys: Gen V can carry the torch further, perhaps. In fact, there are some pleasantly surprising crossovers between that series and this one in Season 5, though it sometimes feels like it’s more in the service of Gen V. Season 2 of the spinoff is in the works, so stay tuned.

A Flurry of Newcomers

To be sure, The Boys struck a vibrant chord. After premiering in 2019, it steadily improved and became destination viewing. This season — so many spoilers, and we must remain tight-lipped — tracks events from last season and attempts to move forward. Butcher (Karl Urban) dosed himself with the experimental Temp V drug, but the short-term brand of the signature drug, Compound V, which created “superheroes,” has shortened his life span. He’s been ostracized from the anti-supe rebels but, as always with The Boys, one week’s debacle quickly shifts the following week.

It’s that way for Butcher, who lost custody of Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), who’s attempting to assimilate into life with egomaniac daddy, Homelander, who is himself fending off existential malaise upon realizing he’s hit middle age. (There’s a recurring bit where Homelander keeps finding gray hair in his nether regions.)

What’s Going on with Starlight?

Then there’s Starlight (Erin Moriarty), who cut the umbilical cord from “the Seven,” the core superheroes. She continues to fight for justice now that she’s outed the mega-corp Vought for the maniacal entity it is. Crowd scenes, protests, superhero confrontations, quick escapes, rinse, and repeat. It’s all there, and it feels like we’ve seen it before one too many times.

Starlight’s romance with Hughie continues to move forward; look for Hughie’s mommy and daddy issues to pop up. On that note, other superheroes experience their own growing pains, and there’s a nice development of deeper bonds between several characters you wouldn’t have imagined being together.

Meanwhile, an explanation of Vought’s superhero bylaws, if you can call it that, comes into play, which tends to feel jarring and out of sync. Between this, all the newcomers, the political allegories, the continuing arcs of standard characters, and the crossovers from Gen V, it feels as if there are too many creative threads to follow, and there’s no real indication of where it all may leading for this franchise overall.

Season 4 of The Boys Feels Like a Sacrifice for Season 5

Bottom line: Season 4 of The Boys still packs a (dark) punch. The characters, now familiar to us, don’t disappoint, but the season smacks of growing pains, and would’ve perhaps benefitted from more episodes to space things out. There’s more than a hint that the final season will wrap up loose threads and provide more cohesion in its overall storytelling, which the original comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Roberts didn’t have to confront. But as a result, it feels like the individual strength of Season 4 was sacrificed in order to build up to a powerhouse fifth season. Hopefully that’s the case; otherwise they’ve hampered a whole season of a great show.

The first three episodes of Season 4 of The Boys hits Prime Video June 13, with one new episode each Thursday through July 18.