The Boys season four has gotten some disparaging ratings on Rotten Tomatoes thanks to some of the most hilarious self-owns coming from a certain small demographic of fans who didn’t realize the show was a satire. Somehow it escaped them until now that yes—it’s always been about them.
In an interview with Variety, showrunner Eric Kripke discussed that even though he and his team didn’t set out to mirror real life, it just naturally played out that way in our political climate. “When we first pitched the show, it was before Trump was elected. And the idea that a celebrity would actively want to turn themselves into a fascist autocrat was kind of a crazy idea. I mean, it still is. But it turned out to have happened?” he said, “We sort of lucked into a show whose metaphor is really about the moment we’re living in, which is the cross-section of celebrity and authoritarianism. And so once we realize that, we’re like, ‘Well, we have to go all the way.’”
He continued to describe how over time and the last few election cycles, real life did inform how to approach the fictional political superhero world in The Boys. “I’m just going to lean into it, and then the audience can sort of decide whether they want to watch or not,” he said. “I mean, it’s almost become like South Park, you know what I mean?” and added about the nature of playing up the ridiculousness of Homelander and Vought, “There’s just so few shows that can directly comment on the world we’re living in, and they get to do it as a cartoon. We get to hold up a mirror as a fantasy genre show. But again, because we’re just like, we’re right there. I mean, it’s all in the original comic.”
Those now mad at the show being “woke” all of a sudden really took four seasons to come to the realization of something Kripke thought was fairly obvious. “I have to believe that the ‘bad fans’ are a very small minority. Because I don’t know how you root for Homelander. When the guy is slurping up breast milk, and being the weakest character in the show over and over and over again and being like—he’s not even particularly macho. He’s weird. He’s weird and thin-skinned, and I don’t know how you look at that guy and you’re like, ‘That’s my guy.’” He pointed out the show tries to take no prisoners regarding who it makes fun of. “The show’s not subtle. It wears its politics on its sleeve. And it’s funny to rip on the madness on the right, and we get some shots in on the left of all the performative wokeness and everything. So I’m hoping that that’s the vast majority?”
The Boys season four is now streaming on Prime Video.
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