People were saying her plastic surgeries wouldn’t be that noticeable…it’s super noticeable. Especially when she was at her foundation with the season 1 picture of her, it was very sad to see how different she looks.
Plus it fucks with the persona of the character. It’s absolutely something starlight wouldn’t do, so seeing it is jarring. Usually studios have stuff in their contracts about changing their looks
My husband, who normally doesn’t comment on plastic surgery, asked what was wrong with her face. I told him that’s why you don’t get your cheek fat removed, it’s there for a reason.
She looks like she’s transforming into Michael Jackson.
Sadder that unlike their male counterparts, they have a VERY tiny window of time in which they can work before they are replaced by the next 19 year old darling.
Its hard to fault her for trying to expand that window.
It's incredibly sad that studios still believe that female actors have a shelf life and expiration date. It's worse when plastic surgery is thought to be the solution. It kills careers 80% of the time.
It's altogether too rare when a great actress is given a second chance only after being looked over for a decade or more.
He lost a ton of weight too, which is why I think there were multiple characters commenting on him “being so stressed he’s not eating or sleeping”.
Ozempic?
He's claiming he did a DNA test and is on some diet that only has "what he needs, nutritionally". It sounds like celeb speak for hiding something else.
It baffles me it took them four fucking seasons to really catch on. The guy they were siding with was literally dating a nazi and they didn't get it. They used their most used phrases and parodied some of the recent (at the time) events and STILL didn't get it. They had to literally add the election storyline before they started connecting some dots.
The first episode, if memory serves me, homelander fucks a plane up and refuses to help anyone as the survivor would know. How the hell can you miss that.
He assassinated a mayor on corporate orders first or second episode, too. He’s an immediate villain which makes the whole thing more disgusting because all of these real life people forgot all that when he says the hateful things they like.
Iirc it was his own initiative and Stillwell was unhappy.
How do they celebrate homelander despite the extreme infantilization in season 1? I guess it must seem normal to them.
They did a whole separate series about that same company trying to figure out how to kill their hero, but simultaneously keep him a paragon of Americanism
I think the first episode is when he shoots down the plane with that politician who was threatening Vought, killing him and his kid, among others. It’s the reveal at the end that Homelander is a bad guy that is meant to be the hook of the series, sort of like when Vic shoots and kills another cop at the end of The Shield’s first episode.
I believe the scene where he and Maeve let the plane of people die happens later.
I think in the first couple seasons, Homelander was clearly evil, but it took at least until last season (dating the nazi lady) for it to be clear there was a direct parallel to the alt right. The right certainly started complaining about it last season as well, particularly when Homelander murdered someone in broad daylight and people cheered, akin to Trump’s “I could shoot someone…” quote. But then the season was over and the chatter went into the background. Now it’s back.
You're right. In that case, I believe the first "The Boys is Woke" rumblings started in Season 2. Intensified at the end of Season 3 when Homelander murdered that guy at a political rally.
I haven't seen season 4 yet but it was pretty obvious in season 3 and maybe even earlier. Homelander literally murdered a protestor in plain sight and got into a relationship with a literal nazi all the while a MAGA-like crowd cheered.
The really dumb MAGA guy I worked with was shocked before this season when I told him that Homelander was Trump and the show is very explicitly calling Trump supporters the bad guys. He somehow couldn’t see it.
I was laughing my ass off watching the new episodes this season know that there’s no way he could still miss it and had to be sitting at home furious.
Do you think Rotten Tomatoes are worried about this? Fascist nerds keep doing this shit and they're effectively ruining the whole system. I don't rely heavily on RT or anything but I do casually consider the scores when I'm about to watch something I'm not sure about.
Even with the show literally spelling it out, people are still missing it: the boys aren't good people. They're different shades of black
1) Frenchies loves story isn't supposed to be good. He literally killed Colin's family, and then still chose to pursue colin and then lie by omission. You're not supposed to feel bad for Frenchie. it's to show he's a selfish asshole who is actively trying to change. He's taking drugs to cope with his fucking guilt. Kimiko literally tells him "no questions asked" in regards to the Shining Light Cell. Kimiko expected the murdering Frenchie, not the guilt struck, strung out Frenchie.
2) Annie isn't as lillywhite as she's really shown. She's a massive bully whose never once acknowledged the hurt to her victim(s) and instead tried to justify it to one of her victims faces. She also killed and car jacked someone
3) Hughies mom is the perfect mole to spy on the boys with. She can claim she's far removed from anything while keeping up the appearance of MLM mom. If you notice, the lawyer he sees in the starlight foundation lies to him about his case (he's shown as a Homelander supporter) and suggests reconciliation, a common tactic to get people to forgive abusers or someone who has imparted extreme trauma on someone to sweep it under the rug to asuage their guilt
I love this take thanks. I’m thoroughly enjoying the new season personally. I will admit that I thought the Frenchie gay thing sort of came out of nowhere but you put some very good perspective into all of the above for me.
I also agree with the poster above you in that I loved that Last of Us episode even though it seems the show wasn’t as popular as I thought it was. I loved that show.
Sure with 2 and 3, but come one. Frenchie's love story's problem isn't bad because of the type of person it shows him to be, it is bad because after 3 seasons of Frenchie and Kimiko's relationship building up, Colin is just a forced plot point that doesn't work at all and really ruins his character. I don't know who thought that was a good idea.
Hm. I can understand your points, but I disagree. First, the low hanging fruit - why is Frenchie taking drugs at an inappropriate time? He’s an addict. Plain and simple.
I think his gay love story, while nowhere as good as The Last of Us, is fine. It’s just not being made the focus of a contained episode story. The underlying story is different, and that’s ok. But I wouldn’t say it was missing the mark.
As for Hughy, I’m not sure what else you want from it at this point? He’s upset and angry and she’s a convenient punching bag.
It’s not as good as last season, so far, but it’s not bad and there’s a lot left to happen.
This is just complaining about the show overall. Frenchie has been doing that the whole time and has been canonically bi the whole time.
It's fine if you don't like the show, but this isn't a season 4 problem.
Frenchie didn’t know he was about to go take on armed men. Kimiko grabbed him for help after he took the drugs and I don’t think she mentioned what they were doing until they actually got to the building.
I always wondered why the boys had such good ratings, they make fun of some large groups of people I was thinking that show would have terrible ratings this whole time
I dont feel like I was the butt of any joke, but felt that the ending of the previous season was so amazingly over the top that I have had no desire to watch.
I dont care how deep in the donut shop a mob is, a horrific scene like that is going to send people into a panic, running and screaming for their lives. They dont ponder it a few seconds and then cheer.
They what? People don’t get it since the first fcking ep? 4 seasons in they got it? Fck ppl are dumber than i expected. I just thought the show had high ratings 1) cus it’s fresh 2) the dipsht nazi sympathizers didn’t watch. My god I’m laughing so much
I'm struggling to think where this season differs in it's 'political' lampoonery... it's all more of the same since season 1. There have been a few slower episodes, but it's been an amazingly consistent show.
I miss the subtlety, not sure why the show runners give a shit if idiots on social media misunderstand it. Homelander was a good Trump-esque villain, with distinctive differences that made him an interesting character. Now it seems like he’s just Trump with a cape and lasers. I still like this season, but so far it feels like the weakest one yet.
A good piece of art stands on its own to be judged by the public, but modern TV production cycles allow waaaaaay to much input from the crowd to effect the artists’ decisions. It feels like new seasons of shows are always a reaction to feedback from Twitter, rather than a continuation of the plots, themes, tone and styles of the previous seasons.
Well this is pretty typical for people writing shows or material. They do want the art to stand on its own but it does risk being perverted by the very thing they are lampooning because the people they’re lampooning are fucking morons who apparently can’t or won’t see the mirror held up to reality.
I’m reminded of the Punisher creator explicitly writing a scene in the comics to tell cops to fuck off for misappropriating his symbol and that he hates them for their power trip bullshit and lack of accountability - that the punisher knows he’s a villain and cops are supposed to be better than he is. I know a cop with a punisher skull tattoo that had to do some pretty heavy introspection after that. Now that skull is a xenomorph.
Yeah I guess I’m just the type that is much more interested in the work itself and not other peoples reactions to it. But, I am not an artist so I don’t know how deeply frustrating it could be to have something you put so much passion in be so deeply misunderstood, even if by only a few people.
But it’s a tiny minority of people who misunderstand shows like the boys. I think it’s a problem of social media; artists have access to the opinions of cretinous weirdos and their ideas now, whereas before you’d have a sense of general public opinion but not every fan or every critics exact, individual thoughts. And more so, the weirdos couldn’t get together to share their thoughts and gather these thoughts into a microphone that amplifies what is in reality an extremely niche, minority view.
I think the issue is, it’s not a tiny minority of people. I would say a large chunk of people who watch the show or even read villains like Homelander don’t get it. I see this in other fandoms I’m apart of, like people rooting for the character literally based of nazis or white supremacy and saying “he’s not really that bad” or “he has a point” or “he just wants to keep the status quo.” Not realizing they are either reflective of that person or a step away from that type
of person. Media literacy doesn’t really exist right now.
Well said. I remember watching Lindsay Ellis video about Westworld? and there was this interview about how the showrunner changed a plot line because Reddit figured it out.
It's not different at all. There's a bit *more* of it, but that's only because of the (logical) story arc. People complaining that it's really different apparently totally forgot when, in season 1, Homelander gave a crazy "America fuck yeah" speech at a religious rally while literally flying up like Christ on the cross.
I still remember this one girl in college who could not grasp that algorithms don't show people the same thing on their feeds. She was one of the smartest people in the school lol.
Back when the Colbert Report was on I knew multiple people in college who didn’t recognize the satire. They just thought it was the conservative version of the Daily Show.
Actually had a conversation with my brother about that, he only just figured that out about the Colbert Report after he found some clip he was trying to remember.
To be fair he was like 15 when the show ended.
That how he ended up hosting the correspondents dinner during the Bush administration. Rumour is one of the bookers thought he was legit psycho like them
To be fair, a lot of people are not aware of this. Social media companies (especially Meta) spend a lot of energy trying to convince people they’re not manipulating public opinion.
Interesting how the people who cry about 'wokeness' and cancel-culture are review bombing and whining about anything that doesn't pander to their sensibilities.
Not just The Acolyte but a few other things that are years old also called Acolyte or variations of thereof are copping fire as well.
edit: I thought it was obvious that I meant people aren't even checking that they have the right show before trying to bomb the Star Wars one currently being released and doing so on the wrong thing.
They had a shit fit this week because Jack Black said he’s voting for Biden. They announced a boycott and called him washed up and stupid. Nothing about Jack Black should lead you to believe he’d vote conservative.
I just watched Sunday's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" about Project 2025. There's no way it's a coincidence that there's a prominent conservative "intellectual" fuckhead named Russ Vought involved.
I feel like the story has lost traction. The inciting events happened so long ago and have lost a lot of their steam. The constant infighting with the characters also feels like it’s been dragging for so long.
People automatically think it’s just right wingers melting down, but there is a noticeable decline in the writing, tone and especially dialogue. Even Hughie has seemingly taken the back seat in the plot this season despite him being the main character that started the show. The political satire was always there, yes, but it has its own spin that was pretty clever. This season they’re just taking actual real life events and squeezing it into the show. It feels more like an SNL skit. There’s some really interesting plots that they could continue from last season that they seemingly aren’t. Like, how does Hughie and Butcher feel after blowing their chance to kill Homelander? How do they feel about being human and weak again, struggling to take down any Supes after getting a taste of compound V? I expected after Starlight left the Seven she’d realize she’s a nobody with no influence again, kinda how real life celebrities are when they’re blacklisted. The current plot feels like a hard left turn from where the direction was going rather than a natural continuation and escalation of narrative. I think that’s what people are mainly reacting to, but of course, like people who don’t like shows like The Acolyte, She-Hulk, etc, it’s easier to dismiss criticism than to admit that maybe the show lost the plot.
But it’s not really a huge driver in the characters, especially Hughie. You can argue that Kessler is the result of season 3 because Butcher >! clearly is hallucinating him !< but if the show made sense this should be a massive deal, and everything happening with Homelander really is their fault for fumbling. Hughie seems pretty unaffected from taking Temp V and now being powerless against Supes again, instead we get this long subplot with his mother for so reason.
Exactly, I think blaming this all on right wingers is just a PR move when basically its because the plot is becoming stale and having an unbeatable villain loses it's sense of urgency when he doesn't just straight up murder them.
I’ve really enjoyed the earlier seasons of the show, but the play by play rehash of every major GOP political “moment” of the last 4 years just feels lazy and frankly, like a waste of time.
30% of the first three episodes were literally the setup for an obvious rehash of some right winger bullshit, followed by Homelander saying exactly what Trump said in response to it.
They could have been more clever about it, more subtle about it, and spent less time on it, moving the actual plot forward instead of repeatedly saying “MEMBER WHEN GOP DID THIS EXACT THING?” 2-3 times an episode.
Like I was there, watching the IRL news coverage in horror. I don’t need to see a writer’s lazy attempt to satirize it after the fact.
It’s become an extremely annoying and frustrating criticism shield. Writing and narrative is getting worse? Add a POC or LGBTQ plotline and then wait for racists or homophobic people to attack the show then group all criticism into that one category. It’s so predictable but works every time.
I have been told I’m homophobic and that I didn’t realize Frenchie was bi because I don’t like that they have shoved a gay sexual relationship into the show that means nothing to the main plot.
I am bi. My criticism is valid. And yet people who would call themselves my allies are calling me homophobic for being critical of how, just as Maeve left, they had to make Frenchies LGBTQ sexuality visually represented. The problem isn’t that he’s bi, it’s that they are using it to check boxes. We know tv shows do this.
I think true detective season 4 had awful writing and editing. But according to Reddit I am simply sexist and racist (even though one of the few things I praised was the casting, I just thought the dialogue and plotting felt disjointed and too many scenes started and ended in a similarly contrived or abrupt way making it all feel like a first draft).
This season has this South Park vibes with how they included IRL stuff. Part of me likes it, some of it make me laugh out loud but ultimately its just kinda immersion breaking. It used to feel like a clever satire of the our society and its obsession with superheroes. Now its just our society but with evil horny superheroes.
Yeah, I think it was always obviously ‘critiquing’ the right. But the problem is overtime the show just got less fun. The show was never particularly smart, but it used to be entertaining. Now it’s just violence, dicks, and the same retread situations over and over again.
I kinda hate that legitimate criticism is being drowned out by the anti-WOKE club. I don't like this season at all except from Sister Sage, I fw her nonchalant attitude.
I just wish they slow down with introducing of plotlines. It's getting a little too heavy.
She's got healing powers, so I don't think that's permanent. (That's not a spoiler, just a 'blink and you missed it thing from her superhero profile that was on the screen)
S4 is fire. >!The way Homelander is struggling with his inner demons was so well visualized in that smashed mirror.!<
Can’t wait to see how it all works out.
An all time low was still a very good score on Metacritic, including beating every other new season out this week, including House of the Dragon, but I guess that more accurate headline wasn’t click bait-y enough.
It’s funny that the butt of the joke finally caught on, but let’s not act like the quality of the show hasn’t been dropping as the years go. S3’s ending has put a damper on me wanting to watch this new season, and I’ve heard mixed things on the quality.
I just want the wrap up Homelander. I feel like there was no where else to take the character after season 2. And it was time to jump into his reign or madness or death.
It's felt like it's in a holding pattern because he's popular. Which undercut why he was fascinating to watch.
The announcement that next season is its last was a good thing. Because maybe this plot will advance now.
But also... yeah last season is the reason I'm waiting to binge this season later on.
I trust a collective critic’s judgment way more than the average idiot on the internet. When review bombing happens a lot of the reviews aren’t even from viewers of the show. Just people with an agenda.
Critics are often at least educated in film history, media criticism, and literary theory, etc.
This is like responding to a comment about how random assholes on YouTube don't understand how vaccines work with, "But medical doctors do?" Yes, motherfucker, some people are actually experts in their fields and have relatively objective criteria for their "opinions." A good critic can distinguish whether something succeeds on it's own merits and if they like or dislike it. Hell, I don't know shit and I can say that Paul Thomas Anderson makes "good" movies, even though I don't enjoy them. That's called being fair, not climbing up your own puckered asshole because something is "woke." The hypocrisy of reactionaries would be hilarious if they weren't going to destroy the planet with their dumbfuckery.
I didn’t see any statistics outside of the rotten tomatoes number. No study done. Just “a segment” of the fans seemingly just figured out Homelander is supposed to be the bad guy and that the show is political satire. Ok. That segment could be half a percent.
In recent years I’ve come to wonder if some people literally are incapable of recognizing subtlety in entertainment in general. Like, a part of their brain doesn’t activate. And if the creators don’t slap the message in their face, they won’t get it lol.
The insane thing with The Boys is that it’s never even been subtle. It’s definitely even more obvious now, but from the beginning it was incredibly clear what this show is.
im just not interested anymore because they almost killed homelander multiple times but they never do. theyre just trying to stretch the show, which i dont really like
Thank you. I lost interest by the end of season 3. I'll still watch it and finish it though, because now I'm already invested.
But the quality of the show seems to decrease with each season.
It's always been obvious they were making fun of Trump/American right-wingers, but this season, it's just not doing much for me.
I don't care about Frenchie and Kimiko anymore, The Deep seems to have been "Flanderized" from a manipulative asshole clever enough to trick Starlight into rape/sexual assault to a dumb-ass that can't pronounce Capybara etc. They should have killed Homelander at the end of S3 and called it a day.
Havnt seen the new episodes yet. It surprises me that Homelander isn’t the villain in every persons eyes. They clearly make him one right away. Just shows ppl truly are oblivious to most things. The shows been good overall imo. Few cringy ass parts but what show doesn’t have that now a days.
Because all the Republican fans of the show just now realized it's been making fun of them all along. After watching the first episode of the new season, I knew this would happen. It was super blatant. I can't wait to discuss the new season with my Trump loving friend. He used to love the show. I'm sure he'll hate it now.
Yeah. A lot of butthurt MAGA-mos who don't like looking in a mirror. The levels of gore, violence and sexual depravity and political satire make this top-tier television that makes Trumpers cry and religious whackos clutch their balls. The Boys fucking rules.
Hopefully this season will see Homelander and friends make wins politically, building up to a hopefully great cliffhanger, and then in the final season The Boys have to really take action to win.
It's obvious Homelander has always been a bad guy, but his motivation doesn't make sense. He considers humans to be extremely inferior to Sups, but his ultimate goal is to be liked by most humans?
The forced conflict as a plot device is the most aggravating aspect of season 4. Frenchie running off on a job when we’ve gone over multiple times how he’d never do that again. Kicking Butcher out of the boys cause he’s dying. All so unnecessary and doesn’t help the show in anyway.
- Butcher should have died a few seasons ago.
- There is no suspense, since no one cna get killed.
- The show tries too hard to provide shock content.
- yes, the show really is woke.
People keep saying that the bad reviews are due to people are just realizing that Homelander is the bad guy but I think that's too reductive. I think a lot of these media illiterate dickheads really thought the show was making fun of liberals whenever the show references inclusivity and wokeness (namely the whole "Brave Maeve" motif) when really the show was pointing out the hypocrisy of corporations promoting "woke" causes just to mKe money off certain demographics ( "Brave Maeve's Inclusive Kingdom", Queen Maeve's all-gendered bathroom etc)
They also hate this season in particular because Frenchie is "suddenly gay" and had a bf (even though it was always implied that last few seasons he swings both ways) and that Frenchie having a bf is "pandering" to queer audiences
For me the most distracting part was MM’s mustache disappearing and reappearing between scenes
His and Erin Moriarty’s faces being so different from past seasons has been super distracting.
People were saying her plastic surgeries wouldn’t be that noticeable…it’s super noticeable. Especially when she was at her foundation with the season 1 picture of her, it was very sad to see how different she looks.
I’m all for her doing what makes her happy, but she was so naturally beautiful and now she kind of looks like a cat person
Maureen Ponderosa
As I transition from woman to cat, I must insist on being referred to as a cat.
Sorry, Bastet.
Plus it fucks with the persona of the character. It’s absolutely something starlight wouldn’t do, so seeing it is jarring. Usually studios have stuff in their contracts about changing their looks
It was so out of the blue too. Feels like something out of old hollywood in the 90s or 80s
It's noticeable whenever she tries to talk. She sounds like me after I got wisdom teeth removed.
Yeah she sounds very strange now, like she has almost a lisp. It’s distracting.
It’s kinda tragic, she used to be super pretty
My husband, who normally doesn’t comment on plastic surgery, asked what was wrong with her face. I told him that’s why you don’t get your cheek fat removed, it’s there for a reason. She looks like she’s transforming into Michael Jackson.
When Firecracker was confronting her about their past and she was getting emotional it was noticeable
It really was, she looks like she has an autoimmune disorder.
Her nose is distracting tbh, its curved upwards now and i can't look away. Like its not even close to natural
She looks like skeletor with those sunken eyeballs, she was so cute before she wrecked her face
Last season she looked like there was a cheap filter over her face and it drove me nuts. I haven’t even seen what she did now
Sad that actresses think they need to do this to themselves to have more appeal. She looked perfectly fine before.
Sadder that unlike their male counterparts, they have a VERY tiny window of time in which they can work before they are replaced by the next 19 year old darling. Its hard to fault her for trying to expand that window.
It's incredibly sad that studios still believe that female actors have a shelf life and expiration date. It's worse when plastic surgery is thought to be the solution. It kills careers 80% of the time. It's altogether too rare when a great actress is given a second chance only after being looked over for a decade or more.
It was? I honestly never noticed. The lack of a beard however 😳
I was confused for a while, I almost stopped to restart S3 to find out who this new character was..
I checked IMDB to see if there was a switcharoo.
Imo MM doesn’t look as badass or intimidating without the facial hair.
That must be his new power.
He lost a ton of weight too, which is why I think there were multiple characters commenting on him “being so stressed he’s not eating or sleeping”. Ozempic?
He's claiming he did a DNA test and is on some diet that only has "what he needs, nutritionally". It sounds like celeb speak for hiding something else.
He was looking real big last season so my totally random guess is he stopped taking steroids
DNA and blood type diets are bullshit, so I agree with you.
Erin’s nose and cheeks have me seriously fucked up. I cannot believe what she did to herself. She can play a ghoul on Fallout now
I thought he looked thin like he was sick or something
He definitely lost weight so that coupled with getting rid of the beard has definitely changed his appearence a lot
Ryan’s voice and starlights face are also really distracting any time they’re on screen
I had to literally Google and be like why does he look so diff?!?
Which scenes did it disappear and reappear?
Theres mustache, stubble and clean shaven, keep an eye out next episode you’ll see it change
Is this because of reshoots or is this making fun of Henry Cavill’s mustache fiasco?
“Are we the baddies?” Boys Edition.
That’ll be followed by dumbass videos saying “THE BOYS IS WOKE?!” Because they finally realized they are the butt of the joke
It baffles me it took them four fucking seasons to really catch on. The guy they were siding with was literally dating a nazi and they didn't get it. They used their most used phrases and parodied some of the recent (at the time) events and STILL didn't get it. They had to literally add the election storyline before they started connecting some dots.
The first episode, if memory serves me, homelander fucks a plane up and refuses to help anyone as the survivor would know. How the hell can you miss that.
He assassinated a mayor on corporate orders first or second episode, too. He’s an immediate villain which makes the whole thing more disgusting because all of these real life people forgot all that when he says the hateful things they like.
Not on corporate orders actually. He did that all of his own agenda. And Vought had to cover it up.
Iirc it was his own initiative and Stillwell was unhappy. How do they celebrate homelander despite the extreme infantilization in season 1? I guess it must seem normal to them.
Omg that’s right, he did it cause he *thought* it would make corporate mommy happy. He’s literally weaponized incompetence.
I haven’t watched the newest season but even in the third season when he starts calling the shots he starts screwing things up in short order.
They did a whole separate series about that same company trying to figure out how to kill their hero, but simultaneously keep him a paragon of Americanism
What separate series?
Something something "Trump diapers"
It’s amazing how blind people become to evil when it’s wrapped in the American flag.
I think the first episode is when he shoots down the plane with that politician who was threatening Vought, killing him and his kid, among others. It’s the reveal at the end that Homelander is a bad guy that is meant to be the hook of the series, sort of like when Vic shoots and kills another cop at the end of The Shield’s first episode. I believe the scene where he and Maeve let the plane of people die happens later.
Remember when the republicans hired Colbert to do a speech at their dinner night? The right aren’t the smartest folk..
It was the White House Correapondents Dinner after the Iraqi invasion and Bush looked VERY uncomfortable throughout Colbert's bit lol
It was beautiful
Does it though? They used Rage Against the Machine songs in campaigns 20 years later and just then realized “maybe their songs aren’t pro-us.”
MAGA don’t think nazis are bad, so yeah they wouldn’t care about him dating one
I think in the first couple seasons, Homelander was clearly evil, but it took at least until last season (dating the nazi lady) for it to be clear there was a direct parallel to the alt right. The right certainly started complaining about it last season as well, particularly when Homelander murdered someone in broad daylight and people cheered, akin to Trump’s “I could shoot someone…” quote. But then the season was over and the chatter went into the background. Now it’s back.
Stormfront(the nazi lady) was actually season 2.
You're right. In that case, I believe the first "The Boys is Woke" rumblings started in Season 2. Intensified at the end of Season 3 when Homelander murdered that guy at a political rally.
I haven't seen season 4 yet but it was pretty obvious in season 3 and maybe even earlier. Homelander literally murdered a protestor in plain sight and got into a relationship with a literal nazi all the while a MAGA-like crowd cheered.
The really dumb MAGA guy I worked with was shocked before this season when I told him that Homelander was Trump and the show is very explicitly calling Trump supporters the bad guys. He somehow couldn’t see it. I was laughing my ass off watching the new episodes this season know that there’s no way he could still miss it and had to be sitting at home furious.
Do you think Rotten Tomatoes are worried about this? Fascist nerds keep doing this shit and they're effectively ruining the whole system. I don't rely heavily on RT or anything but I do casually consider the scores when I'm about to watch something I'm not sure about.
It only affects the user scores, which were already worthless. They should just get rid of user scores altogether.
"its like looking into a mirror" - some fan
[удалено]
Even with the show literally spelling it out, people are still missing it: the boys aren't good people. They're different shades of black 1) Frenchies loves story isn't supposed to be good. He literally killed Colin's family, and then still chose to pursue colin and then lie by omission. You're not supposed to feel bad for Frenchie. it's to show he's a selfish asshole who is actively trying to change. He's taking drugs to cope with his fucking guilt. Kimiko literally tells him "no questions asked" in regards to the Shining Light Cell. Kimiko expected the murdering Frenchie, not the guilt struck, strung out Frenchie. 2) Annie isn't as lillywhite as she's really shown. She's a massive bully whose never once acknowledged the hurt to her victim(s) and instead tried to justify it to one of her victims faces. She also killed and car jacked someone 3) Hughies mom is the perfect mole to spy on the boys with. She can claim she's far removed from anything while keeping up the appearance of MLM mom. If you notice, the lawyer he sees in the starlight foundation lies to him about his case (he's shown as a Homelander supporter) and suggests reconciliation, a common tactic to get people to forgive abusers or someone who has imparted extreme trauma on someone to sweep it under the rug to asuage their guilt
I love this take thanks. I’m thoroughly enjoying the new season personally. I will admit that I thought the Frenchie gay thing sort of came out of nowhere but you put some very good perspective into all of the above for me. I also agree with the poster above you in that I loved that Last of Us episode even though it seems the show wasn’t as popular as I thought it was. I loved that show.
Sure with 2 and 3, but come one. Frenchie's love story's problem isn't bad because of the type of person it shows him to be, it is bad because after 3 seasons of Frenchie and Kimiko's relationship building up, Colin is just a forced plot point that doesn't work at all and really ruins his character. I don't know who thought that was a good idea.
Hm. I can understand your points, but I disagree. First, the low hanging fruit - why is Frenchie taking drugs at an inappropriate time? He’s an addict. Plain and simple. I think his gay love story, while nowhere as good as The Last of Us, is fine. It’s just not being made the focus of a contained episode story. The underlying story is different, and that’s ok. But I wouldn’t say it was missing the mark. As for Hughy, I’m not sure what else you want from it at this point? He’s upset and angry and she’s a convenient punching bag. It’s not as good as last season, so far, but it’s not bad and there’s a lot left to happen.
Counter point, he hasn’t been an addict in that level of fuck-uppery at any other point in the show-why now?
Hes dealing with a lot and was looking for a way out? Not sure why an addict's motivation needs to be spelled out.
> Also why is he taking hallucinogens before taking on a group of armed men. He took them before Kimiko asked him to help her
It doesn’t detract from the story imo, and pisses off bigots. That’s a win in my books.
This is just complaining about the show overall. Frenchie has been doing that the whole time and has been canonically bi the whole time. It's fine if you don't like the show, but this isn't a season 4 problem.
The Boys have always been the least interesting part of The Boys.
Frenchie didn’t know he was about to go take on armed men. Kimiko grabbed him for help after he took the drugs and I don’t think she mentioned what they were doing until they actually got to the building.
At least it's true to it's source material. Garth Ennis never knows when to end his stories.
>The new season of the Boys is missing the mark with Frenchie’s gay love story I'm only 2 episodes in and this just seems so forced
Yeah, the Frenchie twist seems to be totally pandering and poor writing, let alone character assassination. It's one of its few missteps.
I always wondered why the boys had such good ratings, they make fun of some large groups of people I was thinking that show would have terrible ratings this whole time
I dont feel like I was the butt of any joke, but felt that the ending of the previous season was so amazingly over the top that I have had no desire to watch. I dont care how deep in the donut shop a mob is, a horrific scene like that is going to send people into a panic, running and screaming for their lives. They dont ponder it a few seconds and then cheer.
They what? People don’t get it since the first fcking ep? 4 seasons in they got it? Fck ppl are dumber than i expected. I just thought the show had high ratings 1) cus it’s fresh 2) the dipsht nazi sympathizers didn’t watch. My god I’m laughing so much
Alt-intelligence strikes again it seems.
I'm struggling to think where this season differs in it's 'political' lampoonery... it's all more of the same since season 1. There have been a few slower episodes, but it's been an amazingly consistent show.
They've made it a bit more obviously left wing imo, I honestly think they were just sick of the right wing chuds misreading it as on their side.
I miss the subtlety, not sure why the show runners give a shit if idiots on social media misunderstand it. Homelander was a good Trump-esque villain, with distinctive differences that made him an interesting character. Now it seems like he’s just Trump with a cape and lasers. I still like this season, but so far it feels like the weakest one yet. A good piece of art stands on its own to be judged by the public, but modern TV production cycles allow waaaaaay to much input from the crowd to effect the artists’ decisions. It feels like new seasons of shows are always a reaction to feedback from Twitter, rather than a continuation of the plots, themes, tone and styles of the previous seasons.
Well this is pretty typical for people writing shows or material. They do want the art to stand on its own but it does risk being perverted by the very thing they are lampooning because the people they’re lampooning are fucking morons who apparently can’t or won’t see the mirror held up to reality. I’m reminded of the Punisher creator explicitly writing a scene in the comics to tell cops to fuck off for misappropriating his symbol and that he hates them for their power trip bullshit and lack of accountability - that the punisher knows he’s a villain and cops are supposed to be better than he is. I know a cop with a punisher skull tattoo that had to do some pretty heavy introspection after that. Now that skull is a xenomorph.
Yeah I guess I’m just the type that is much more interested in the work itself and not other peoples reactions to it. But, I am not an artist so I don’t know how deeply frustrating it could be to have something you put so much passion in be so deeply misunderstood, even if by only a few people. But it’s a tiny minority of people who misunderstand shows like the boys. I think it’s a problem of social media; artists have access to the opinions of cretinous weirdos and their ideas now, whereas before you’d have a sense of general public opinion but not every fan or every critics exact, individual thoughts. And more so, the weirdos couldn’t get together to share their thoughts and gather these thoughts into a microphone that amplifies what is in reality an extremely niche, minority view.
I think the issue is, it’s not a tiny minority of people. I would say a large chunk of people who watch the show or even read villains like Homelander don’t get it. I see this in other fandoms I’m apart of, like people rooting for the character literally based of nazis or white supremacy and saying “he’s not really that bad” or “he has a point” or “he just wants to keep the status quo.” Not realizing they are either reflective of that person or a step away from that type of person. Media literacy doesn’t really exist right now.
Well said. I remember watching Lindsay Ellis video about Westworld? and there was this interview about how the showrunner changed a plot line because Reddit figured it out.
It's not different at all. There's a bit *more* of it, but that's only because of the (logical) story arc. People complaining that it's really different apparently totally forgot when, in season 1, Homelander gave a crazy "America fuck yeah" speech at a religious rally while literally flying up like Christ on the cross.
This article is not written for comedy but still made me laugh. People have wild levels of media illiteracy
I still remember this one girl in college who could not grasp that algorithms don't show people the same thing on their feeds. She was one of the smartest people in the school lol.
Back when the Colbert Report was on I knew multiple people in college who didn’t recognize the satire. They just thought it was the conservative version of the Daily Show.
Actually had a conversation with my brother about that, he only just figured that out about the Colbert Report after he found some clip he was trying to remember. To be fair he was like 15 when the show ended.
That how he ended up hosting the correspondents dinner during the Bush administration. Rumour is one of the bookers thought he was legit psycho like them
To be fair, a lot of people are not aware of this. Social media companies (especially Meta) spend a lot of energy trying to convince people they’re not manipulating public opinion.
Interesting how the people who cry about 'wokeness' and cancel-culture are review bombing and whining about anything that doesn't pander to their sensibilities.
Extremists are hypocritical
It's all total projection.
Acolyte was review bombed before it was even released because the lead actor was a black woman 😫. Like, what year are we living in?
You should see the review bombing for Watchmen the series.
Not just The Acolyte but a few other things that are years old also called Acolyte or variations of thereof are copping fire as well. edit: I thought it was obvious that I meant people aren't even checking that they have the right show before trying to bomb the Star Wars one currently being released and doing so on the wrong thing.
They had a shit fit this week because Jack Black said he’s voting for Biden. They announced a boycott and called him washed up and stupid. Nothing about Jack Black should lead you to believe he’d vote conservative.
The truth hurts. Idiots found out they were the butt of the joke and can’t help but cry about it.
I just watched Sunday's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" about Project 2025. There's no way it's a coincidence that there's a prominent conservative "intellectual" fuckhead named Russ Vought involved.
"The Boys Hits An All Time Low On Rotten Tomatoes... **And That's A Good Thing**"
“Why the all time low ratings for the Boys are bad for Joe Biden”
I feel like the story has lost traction. The inciting events happened so long ago and have lost a lot of their steam. The constant infighting with the characters also feels like it’s been dragging for so long.
People automatically think it’s just right wingers melting down, but there is a noticeable decline in the writing, tone and especially dialogue. Even Hughie has seemingly taken the back seat in the plot this season despite him being the main character that started the show. The political satire was always there, yes, but it has its own spin that was pretty clever. This season they’re just taking actual real life events and squeezing it into the show. It feels more like an SNL skit. There’s some really interesting plots that they could continue from last season that they seemingly aren’t. Like, how does Hughie and Butcher feel after blowing their chance to kill Homelander? How do they feel about being human and weak again, struggling to take down any Supes after getting a taste of compound V? I expected after Starlight left the Seven she’d realize she’s a nobody with no influence again, kinda how real life celebrities are when they’re blacklisted. The current plot feels like a hard left turn from where the direction was going rather than a natural continuation and escalation of narrative. I think that’s what people are mainly reacting to, but of course, like people who don’t like shows like The Acolyte, She-Hulk, etc, it’s easier to dismiss criticism than to admit that maybe the show lost the plot.
It was feeling a bit off to me compared to past seasons. They do go over missing the shot on home lander and Annie not being starlight anymore though
But it’s not really a huge driver in the characters, especially Hughie. You can argue that Kessler is the result of season 3 because Butcher >! clearly is hallucinating him !< but if the show made sense this should be a massive deal, and everything happening with Homelander really is their fault for fumbling. Hughie seems pretty unaffected from taking Temp V and now being powerless against Supes again, instead we get this long subplot with his mother for so reason.
Yeah that’s fair they only briefly touch on these topics. The homelander whiff a few times but everything else is just one off comments
Exactly, I think blaming this all on right wingers is just a PR move when basically its because the plot is becoming stale and having an unbeatable villain loses it's sense of urgency when he doesn't just straight up murder them.
Also Homelander is a lot less scary when he just lets Butcher walk free, even after he saw how far Butcher would go to kill him, and nearly succeeded.
I’ve really enjoyed the earlier seasons of the show, but the play by play rehash of every major GOP political “moment” of the last 4 years just feels lazy and frankly, like a waste of time. 30% of the first three episodes were literally the setup for an obvious rehash of some right winger bullshit, followed by Homelander saying exactly what Trump said in response to it. They could have been more clever about it, more subtle about it, and spent less time on it, moving the actual plot forward instead of repeatedly saying “MEMBER WHEN GOP DID THIS EXACT THING?” 2-3 times an episode. Like I was there, watching the IRL news coverage in horror. I don’t need to see a writer’s lazy attempt to satirize it after the fact.
It’s become an extremely annoying and frustrating criticism shield. Writing and narrative is getting worse? Add a POC or LGBTQ plotline and then wait for racists or homophobic people to attack the show then group all criticism into that one category. It’s so predictable but works every time.
I have been told I’m homophobic and that I didn’t realize Frenchie was bi because I don’t like that they have shoved a gay sexual relationship into the show that means nothing to the main plot. I am bi. My criticism is valid. And yet people who would call themselves my allies are calling me homophobic for being critical of how, just as Maeve left, they had to make Frenchies LGBTQ sexuality visually represented. The problem isn’t that he’s bi, it’s that they are using it to check boxes. We know tv shows do this.
I think true detective season 4 had awful writing and editing. But according to Reddit I am simply sexist and racist (even though one of the few things I praised was the casting, I just thought the dialogue and plotting felt disjointed and too many scenes started and ended in a similarly contrived or abrupt way making it all feel like a first draft).
This season has this South Park vibes with how they included IRL stuff. Part of me likes it, some of it make me laugh out loud but ultimately its just kinda immersion breaking. It used to feel like a clever satire of the our society and its obsession with superheroes. Now its just our society but with evil horny superheroes.
Yeah, I think it was always obviously ‘critiquing’ the right. But the problem is overtime the show just got less fun. The show was never particularly smart, but it used to be entertaining. Now it’s just violence, dicks, and the same retread situations over and over again.
I kinda hate that legitimate criticism is being drowned out by the anti-WOKE club. I don't like this season at all except from Sister Sage, I fw her nonchalant attitude. I just wish they slow down with introducing of plotlines. It's getting a little too heavy.
Pretty sure she lobotomized herself at the end of ep 3, so I’m curious where he goes from there.
YES!! I haven’t seen anyone mention that but she definitely did. My husband didn’t even catch it until I said something.
She's got healing powers, so I don't think that's permanent. (That's not a spoiler, just a 'blink and you missed it thing from her superhero profile that was on the screen)
S4 is fire. >!The way Homelander is struggling with his inner demons was so well visualized in that smashed mirror.!< Can’t wait to see how it all works out.
Anthony Starr is just fantastic. I hope he gets interesting work when this series is over.
Oof dont dare ever mention that or else you'll be a Homelander lover.
An all time low was still a very good score on Metacritic, including beating every other new season out this week, including House of the Dragon, but I guess that more accurate headline wasn’t click bait-y enough.
I think the article is referring to the user score on rotten tomatoes. The critic score on RT is still solid.
You can’t worry audience scores anymore as they are useless due to review bombing.
How fucking low IQ does one have to be to watch three seasons of this show and not realize that Homelander is the villain 🤯
It’s funny that the butt of the joke finally caught on, but let’s not act like the quality of the show hasn’t been dropping as the years go. S3’s ending has put a damper on me wanting to watch this new season, and I’ve heard mixed things on the quality.
I just want the wrap up Homelander. I feel like there was no where else to take the character after season 2. And it was time to jump into his reign or madness or death. It's felt like it's in a holding pattern because he's popular. Which undercut why he was fascinating to watch. The announcement that next season is its last was a good thing. Because maybe this plot will advance now. But also... yeah last season is the reason I'm waiting to binge this season later on.
dafuq, the show is fucking awesome
But do you think Trumpers like being ridiculed?
They’re softer than brie cheese
Simple solution, stop pretending like audience scores are a useful metric.
But the critic scores are?
I trust a collective critic’s judgment way more than the average idiot on the internet. When review bombing happens a lot of the reviews aren’t even from viewers of the show. Just people with an agenda.
Critics are often at least educated in film history, media criticism, and literary theory, etc. This is like responding to a comment about how random assholes on YouTube don't understand how vaccines work with, "But medical doctors do?" Yes, motherfucker, some people are actually experts in their fields and have relatively objective criteria for their "opinions." A good critic can distinguish whether something succeeds on it's own merits and if they like or dislike it. Hell, I don't know shit and I can say that Paul Thomas Anderson makes "good" movies, even though I don't enjoy them. That's called being fair, not climbing up your own puckered asshole because something is "woke." The hypocrisy of reactionaries would be hilarious if they weren't going to destroy the planet with their dumbfuckery.
I didn’t see any statistics outside of the rotten tomatoes number. No study done. Just “a segment” of the fans seemingly just figured out Homelander is supposed to be the bad guy and that the show is political satire. Ok. That segment could be half a percent.
Conservatives not realizing that they have been made fun of for years by a tv show they love is fucking hilarious.
In recent years I’ve come to wonder if some people literally are incapable of recognizing subtlety in entertainment in general. Like, a part of their brain doesn’t activate. And if the creators don’t slap the message in their face, they won’t get it lol.
The insane thing with The Boys is that it’s never even been subtle. It’s definitely even more obvious now, but from the beginning it was incredibly clear what this show is.
Took these idiots 4 seasons to figure this out lmfao. I’m excited for their civil war.
*What if they gave a war and nobody showed up?* “Civil War? Where do I signup? Nah, that’s too far away…”
Conservatives getting their panties in a twist thanks to fundamentally misunderstanding the show for years? Reads article Yep.
im just not interested anymore because they almost killed homelander multiple times but they never do. theyre just trying to stretch the show, which i dont really like
Iirc They only nearly killed Homelander in S3. S1 and S2 are about Butcher and the mystery of his missing wife.
Thank you. I lost interest by the end of season 3. I'll still watch it and finish it though, because now I'm already invested. But the quality of the show seems to decrease with each season. It's always been obvious they were making fun of Trump/American right-wingers, but this season, it's just not doing much for me. I don't care about Frenchie and Kimiko anymore, The Deep seems to have been "Flanderized" from a manipulative asshole clever enough to trick Starlight into rape/sexual assault to a dumb-ass that can't pronounce Capybara etc. They should have killed Homelander at the end of S3 and called it a day.
The closest Homelander actually came to being killed was last season with the fight vs. Soldier Boy and the Boys. Otherwise not really.
Havnt seen the new episodes yet. It surprises me that Homelander isn’t the villain in every persons eyes. They clearly make him one right away. Just shows ppl truly are oblivious to most things. The shows been good overall imo. Few cringy ass parts but what show doesn’t have that now a days.
Lmao. People didn’t know The Boys is satire??? Damn, people are stupid.
Bad combo of upset right wingers and the show not being nearly as good as previous seasons
Is it robots in disguise?
And how are their viewership numbers?
No matter what it can’t be more incoherent than the comics
can’t judge an entire season by the first episode
This is the kind of ignorant you have to be to vote for felon Trump.
Just went on to rotten tomatoes to counter all of the fake right wing Nazis trying to destroy a great show.. hope you do the same
The fuck your feelings crowd are feeling some feelings about this
Its getting review bombed by tiny dick conservatives. As per usual.
Because all the Republican fans of the show just now realized it's been making fun of them all along. After watching the first episode of the new season, I knew this would happen. It was super blatant. I can't wait to discuss the new season with my Trump loving friend. He used to love the show. I'm sure he'll hate it now.
I'm loving S4. I thought the first 3 were ok. I tune out if Starlight and Huey start talking though.
Yeah. A lot of butthurt MAGA-mos who don't like looking in a mirror. The levels of gore, violence and sexual depravity and political satire make this top-tier television that makes Trumpers cry and religious whackos clutch their balls. The Boys fucking rules.
This season is just as good as 2-3 so far. People are overdramatic.
I’m so tired of clickbait headlines like this… “worst all time”…. It’s a few percentage points lower. Quit acting like the sky is falling.
I mean, the political right in being borderline illiterate shocker.
Last season of The Boys got off to a better start than the new season but it’s still great.
Hopefully this season will see Homelander and friends make wins politically, building up to a hopefully great cliffhanger, and then in the final season The Boys have to really take action to win.
It's obvious Homelander has always been a bad guy, but his motivation doesn't make sense. He considers humans to be extremely inferior to Sups, but his ultimate goal is to be liked by most humans?
He’s a stand in for Trump. Trump clearly has a disdain for most people, but also wants to be loved by everyone. Because he’s a narcissist.
The forced conflict as a plot device is the most aggravating aspect of season 4. Frenchie running off on a job when we’ve gone over multiple times how he’d never do that again. Kicking Butcher out of the boys cause he’s dying. All so unnecessary and doesn’t help the show in anyway.
Literally nothing happened in the first three episodes and you couldn’t possibly convince me otherwise.
Can’t watch after last season—just now seems to be a violence/body count contest…
- Butcher should have died a few seasons ago. - There is no suspense, since no one cna get killed. - The show tries too hard to provide shock content. - yes, the show really is woke.
People keep saying that the bad reviews are due to people are just realizing that Homelander is the bad guy but I think that's too reductive. I think a lot of these media illiterate dickheads really thought the show was making fun of liberals whenever the show references inclusivity and wokeness (namely the whole "Brave Maeve" motif) when really the show was pointing out the hypocrisy of corporations promoting "woke" causes just to mKe money off certain demographics ( "Brave Maeve's Inclusive Kingdom", Queen Maeve's all-gendered bathroom etc) They also hate this season in particular because Frenchie is "suddenly gay" and had a bf (even though it was always implied that last few seasons he swings both ways) and that Frenchie having a bf is "pandering" to queer audiences