It’s possible that Jack Quaid is busy BTS, but I’m actually really vibing with what they’re doing with Hugie. He’s the only character in the cast that is actively letting go of his past through forgiveness and growth while *everyone else* is getting crushed under the weight of their unresolved traumas

Hughie's plot feels interesting to me because it shows that you can be kind and compassionate and still make tough choices. You don't need to be Butcher.

The "new" Black Noir actor is the same actor that's been playing him since season 1. In season 3, the used a different actor for all the unmasked Black Noir scenes.

Not sure why people don't love Hughie's subplot, using Compound-V to save a dying relative and dealing with the fallout of that feels like a very on-brand and like an obvious concept to explore.

The death of Hughie Sr needs to be in tandem with A-Train’s redemption. A-Train cannot be fully redeemed until Hughie Jr is ready to move on. Allowing Hughie to be okay with letting go of the past is how he’s able to let go of what A-Train did to Robin, and thus prove to the audience that A-Train is worthy of redemption. That’s just clean, simple writing.

The thing about Sister Sage that I’m curious about is that she must have some sort of contingency for Homelander because there’s no way she doesn’t know how volatile he is. If Homelander kills her and she’s in any way surprised it’ll completely diminish her supposed influence.

I like the idea of Neuman. That she has the same goals of killing Homelander and destroy Vought, but that she also has the goal of removing restrictions on supes. She shouldn't have been a villain, but rather just a complicated ally.

I liked the plotline with Hughie and his dad. I lost my father recently, and I appreciated that they used the setting to act out a fantasy of having a second chance with a lost loved one. And especially in the wake of the pandemic, when so many lost loved ones under circumstances when they could not be present to say goodbye, it is a fantasy I think that many will find relatable.

I love the fact that they are giving Nathan Mitchell lines this season

My theory for Kessler is that he died on that mission he talked about with Butcher where their whole squad died and Butcher saved Kessler's life. I'm guessing someone is going to mention that mission and how Butcher was the only survivor, or we'll see a file that shows all the people who were KIA on the mission with him being one of them and we'll get a sort of "shattered mirror" type scene with Butcher.

I think the issue with this season is it’s all feels like filler. It’s obvious they are winding down and just waiting to go HAM for their final season. Aside from Butcher, Ryan and Homelander the rest of the characters arcs just feel very repetitive. I don’t hate it but it’s glaring obvious change in pace from the absolute blast that was season 3

I just wonder, what was the point of having MM kick Butcher out of the group, reject him when he wanted to rejoin, only to have him rejoin suddenly off screen? That just felt kind of weird.

Before the video, in my opinion what works: -Homelander in general -Butcher in general -Both of them are elevated by Ryan -The Deep in general. I laugh at almost everything he says. -Sister Sage in concept, tho her dialogue can be really cringey -Giancarlo Esposito and Simon Pegg’s performances. Best parts of the season imo. It is disappointing that it feels like both actors were too expensive for them to actually get back; Queen Maeve and especially Soldier Boy are both also missed imo. What isn’t working for me: -Frenchie and Starlight. It seems like they ran out of things to do for both characters and so had to write in backstory that doesn’t have time to even set in before it’s supposed to matter. Like baking exposition for twists and reveals INTO said twists or reveals. I would much prefer Frenchie and Colin to have no past and be a fresh relationship to watch grow, rather than a past relationship that needs to be exposited. At least show instead of telling us and expecting us to care. -Hughie’s story. I rewatched the first episode and feel that they’ve fumbled the Butcher/Hughie relationship. Bringing in his mother, again seemingly from nowhere and in a fairly corny way, was not my cup of tea. -The comedy is hit or miss. It seems like the writers have a quota for one really gross sex joke and one piece of particularly horrifying graphic violence/gore. Multiplying dude eating his own ass seemed out of place, like an obligation. -The satire is either not nearly as smart as it once was, getting old, or both. Firecracker is lame, a lot of the political themes of especially the first three episodes are really weak and juvenile compared to the first season. Fwiw I lean left but the Trump “allegories” are really cringe and the show operates under the logic that politics are mostly what is actually shown to the public. -Lastly, the tension. In all honesty, Homelander should have won by now. It seems like the show has been treading water with him and Neuman for so long because both of them are unstoppable. Temp V was interesting but the show blew its load too early without being willing to make that a conceit/core concept. I feel silly for writing all this but ig I wanted my opinions as of episode 5 written *somewhere* so

Maybe its just me but I really loved Hughie’s subplot personally

I was also thrown by M.M. at first, not just because the actor shaved. Reportedly, trying to keep up the character's sheer muscle mass was detrimental to his health, so he cut back on that part of his training and he is visibly smaller this season. I think they even wrote it into the show, because at one point, M.M. gets called out for not eating.

I described the farm episode as, it felt like another "way to get homelander" only for the twist to be it doesn't go well like the show has done more than once.

I think what they're doing for the main characters is actually quite interesting. All of them have one thematic element running throughout all of their stories, their past actions haunting them today. Butcher is obviously being haunted by his past and reflecting on his entire life, but you also have Kimiko with the girl she forced into the the terrorist cell, and Starlight sabotaging Firecracker when they were kids. Even MM has to deal with his violent past get copied by his daughter. Huey's plotline also has this, though it's more subtle, with it just being not letting his cat get put down when he was a kid, having the side effect of his dad not trusting that he could let go when necessary, though ironically it was his mother, the one his father trusted to let go, was the one to revive him. The big difference, so far, is that Huey's the only one who can grow from his past rather than be stuck to his old ways, learning to let go. I think this is why Frenchie's plot line seemed so repetitive. As you said, it's pretty similar to what's been done before for his character. But to keep thematic consistency with the rest of the cast, they had to give more bad things he's done to overcome it. Hope this makes sense, I thought what I saw as a throughline between all the character's stories were pretty cool.

Story wise, the show is running into issues because at its core, it’s a genre show. There’s only so much character backstory/building you can do. The show works best when the plot is moving forward.

The satire from Firecracker makes me smile big Also A train saying that one of the movies have been reshot many times "it must be good" made me think of Secret Invasion again😭

The pacing. It’s simply too slow. And the last season had an anticlimactic finale that didn’t really do much other than make Vic and Homey more powerful. We don’t need to change the status quo entirely but it feels like too many characters and plot threads lead nowhere meaningful. Shit just be happening lol

I hope the way Homelander’s story ends is him somehow being depowered and put into prison. Then he’ll have to live the rest of his life as a normal human, while also now The Boys have solved their biggest problem without murder.

I feel like we can't end this season without some major deaths. We got through last season with all the og members of the Boys still alive and wait did any main characters die last season? I know Maeve went off somewhere to live her life quietly, but she's not dead. Oh, well i guess Black Noir died but other than him I can't remember anyone who died. Anyway, I think we need some main character deaths this season. I think Neuman is safe bc her plot must have something to do with either my Jan 6th theory (guys, its pretty obvious what they want to set up there lmao) or just the endgame of the show. I think the Deep is safe unless they pull something out of pocket. I think Sister Sage might die if for no other reason than a lot of the Secondary Antagonists both have S names and then also die or are at least removed from the board. I think new Black Noir is safe bc he's funny. I think Ashley is safe unless A-Train throws her under the bus to save himself (seems unlikely though). I do think A-Train is going to die. I don't really see a way out of his current predicament without some pretty thick plot armor which would undercut the main themes of the show in that nobody should feel safe. Homelander and Butcher are both gonna live. I think Hughie lives. I think Kimiko lives. I think Annie lives. I think it's very possible that Frenchie dies. I think it would be a HUGE twist if MM dies this season too. It could be that with the way MM has been working so hard to keep the team together and functioning, the show is gonna Agent Coulson him and use his death to rally the Boys back to the mission instead of all these side quests they've got going on. I almost forgot about Firecracker...ummm, yeah she probably dies too just cause I don't see a need for an extended use of that character to further the story.

I'm hoping some of the Sage stuff might have been telegraphed by Hughie being the only person in the show so far to refer to her as the smartest 'person', instead of smartest woman. It's possible it's nothing, but it feels like that might have been a sign of her future.

"The boys can just never be as interesting as the Supes" - I think that's what my issue with this show comes down to. The idea of regular people who have to team up and come to with crazy strategies to kill corrupt superheroes... That's SUCH a great concept that could be so so fun! And yet this show never wanted to let that be the premise, and it's just a terrible waste. They're more fixated on having fun with these horrible monsters than with the characters who would much more naturally fit the position of protagonists. I feel like a lot of modern streaming prestige tv writers tend to identify more with traumatized people of privilege who are connected to power and less with characters who are underdogs trying to make the world a better place, and it leads to some kind of meandering stories.

I know Frenchie was bi since forever but it feels like their forcing the Colin plot by showing a lot gay sex, like we get it hes gay, everytime we see them on screen its always sexual, but with him and kimiko they barely had any intimacy and yet still created a great relationship. Theres no problem but like how am i supposed be emotionally invested when the characters are literally only physically invested into each other. Like maybe they could have shown how frenchie was using colin as an emotional support system for his grief of killing his family. But he just fucks and is like alr imma dip

It’s the weakest season so far. But the fact that I’m saying that about a bold, hilarious, devastating, all-around great season of TV is proof of how outrageously good this show is

I like that the show is taking more risks with each season. Any show that does that is still good imo, regardless of any nitpicking I can do with it.

Nothing's happening. The plot is at a standstill. And there's only 2 episodes left

I agree with all of this, but you didn't mention how anticlimactic the trials were - they jump cut past whatever is said and Tadaaa, Homelander is innocent. How? Why? No news reporting or talk about it whatsoever. I wish we had an episode where we got to see it play out.

I think Negan and Butcher’s Dead Wife are acting like the angel and the devil on Butcher’s shoulders. Negan in particular, I strongly feel is the manifestation of Butcher’s violent impulses that came out in order to spare Butcher of the burden of doing the tough choices.

Nah blaming the bad writing on scheduling is simply cope

Feels like this season is mostly about families and parent-child relationships, and that ties back to Hughie's bit really nicely (and it also worked for me) but unfortunately that's not a theme that really fits for Kimiko or Frenchie so they have to feign commitment to their characters in the writing a little just to have something for them to do.

They made 5 episodes and almost nothing has happened

Nando Black Noir is being played but the same actor from before. Hs just playing a different character. Except on season 3 when black noir was unmasked it’s the same actor

it’s just kind of insane to me that there’s only 3 episodes left. the one thing that concerns me is this is how i feel a lot of the time around this part in marvel shows. like, “there’s no way they wrap all this up in 3 more episodes.” i feel like, unfortunately, that feeling is often correct for the marvel shows, so i’m really nervous this show might end up feeling the same way

7:15 - Karl Urban has been in Lord of the Rings, Dredd, Thor Ragnarok...I doubt they didn't realize he was busy XD Also, the Hughie's dad stuff totally worked for me - if anything, I was pleasantly surprised they didn't go full on 'super zombie' like Lamplighter in the comics. Simon Pegg turned in an AMAZING performance in Ep. 5

I honestly was shocked how wrong people was about season 4. So far I’m loving almost everything in it. The only issue I have is with frenchie at the end of episode 5. I get why he’s doing what he’s doing, but honestly taking down Vought is enough to redeem anything he’s done. Apart from that I still really like this season so far.

Saying you like the weird s** stuff after episode 5 is so funny considering what happened in episode 6

Hughie and the rest of the team feel stuck in filler while Homelander and his son have their story focused

short answer yes, I also don't get people saying it's gotten too political when it's been that way since the fucking beginning ffs, still is my favorite show

honestly, season 4 feels like it's mostly padding. There are storylines I really like, but like a good 40-50% of each episode feels unnecessary. It seems like it's just setup for the final season

My read on sage is that she's just helping some key characters fastrack into what they've wanted or thought they wanted all this time and fuck them up when it's suddendly at their feet and they realize that's not the fulfilling answer theg were hoping for. She's like on accelerationist mode or something like that.

Couldn't disagree more. Love all the characters having to face their pasts and I could watch Simon Pegg do anything for hours without complaint and he's totally killed it while killing several people. The show is its own thing but pretty much nobody was safe from being killed in the comics which is part of what makes it so good. No plot armor. Honestlly wouldn't mind if they toned down some of the grossness and know at least one person who stopped watching after the Termite explosion.

One of the complaints I have and don't see mentioned is just how many people are killed this season, I mean, just killed with no consequences at all. The fight of Kimiko and Hughie with that gang - it happened in a semi-public place, lots of blood and bodies, and no mention of that afterwards. Deaths in the hospital by Hughie's dad - no consequences (and it isn't like Vought was to cover it up, since it wasn't involved). Lots of deaths at Vought, high profile deaths, too, and it is just brushed off off-screen. There are just so many deaths a megacorporation would be able to cover up, especially if there is a federal agency on their ass, some of those MUST have consequences, but no. It feels meaningless, more like a rollercoaster than an actual series. We are just supposed to accept like yeah, this guy is dead now, this fight happened, that's it, next scene now. There is a big shitstorm from the fact that Starlight beat up Firecracker, but almost no mention of the fact that Butcher killed the multiplying guy at a public event

“Haha! Firecracker is such a good parody of the Right” “How dare they criticize AOC” 😡

I feel like the biggest problem is that there is to many subplots, and since there’s so many, some are obviously not going to hit as much. Basically every character have their own subplots, and it makes the narrative less focused and sharp, especially compared to last season. There so much stuff that happens that just feels like fluff, instead of just focusing on a main storyline, which is way more compelling.

I think it should've been a 3-season show with a bigger bang at the end

ima need an update on this list post-6th episode coz it really put my mind at ease like "oh yeah these writers are brilliant and knew what they were doing this season", very excited for what's to come in the last couple eps of the season and the final season next time round!

The actor for MM also loss a lot of weight in between filming and that’s also a reason he looks totatly diffrent

I feel like we need to allow the show to actually finish the season before judging it.

Splitter is Chuck from Supernatural. Dudes really look different without their beards.

The mother's milk actor also lost a good amount of weight along with cutting the beard, really not that absurd for people to recognize that he looks significantly different...

honestly i am liberal af but this season really feels like a circlejerk of the writers it's soooo boring. like yes we get it you don't like conservatives but really EVERY antagonist in this series is the most extreme conservative imaginable and every good guy is a die hard liberal. it's not clever writing at all

The writing for this season is all over the place. Doesn’t even feel like the boys anymore

I just started watching the boys from season 1 and personally I think season 3 is the best the whole hugue and butcher relationship is amazing almost made me tear up

If sage bliws up, would only her brain regenerates, and there's just a brain left

I also subconsciously guessed the twist but hand-waved it by thinking it's just a redundancy that these characters are too much alike.

I think The Boys aspect has the potential to be the most interesting part of the show. I like the idea of non powered humans trying to take down supes by outsmarting them or exploiting their over confidence. Of course they would have to do a lot of imoral stuff to get the upper hand as trying to play fair against supes that could instantly annihilate all of them would probably end in disaster. I feel like Season 1 started out great with this concept of The Boys taking down Translucent. Season 3 did some interesting stuff (and this might sound hypocritical) by giving themselves superpowers to keep up. The reason I'm not against it is because a) it's temporary and b) it kills them with use so it's obviously this tiny little risky edge that they can only pull out when absolute necessary. I also liked Soldier Boy. The idea of manipulating supes to fight each other is something The Boys should explore more often. Not talking about recruiting them like Starlight or Maeve, but taking mad and bad supes and force a fight between them perhaps arranging it in a way that they would have to give the weaker mad bad supe an advantage in the hopes that the resulting fight kills them both. When Season 4 started with The Boys intercepting the event to try and kill Neuman by swapping out her perfume(?) with acid I thought "Hell yeah, we're back". Unfortunately that felt like the only time so far in this season where The Boys did something like that. They're all split apart and it doesn't seem like they have a plan for the future. The Starlight stuff could be interesting if The Boys ever intended to do something with the influence they had. Exposing Firecracker seemed more like a quick retaliation and a way to show "Butcher still got it" rather than a step in overarching scheme. Finally they find out about the virus (over halfway into the season) and in the same episode they discover it they remove the virus. I know it's coming back, but for now it's just Butcher working on replicating it so I'm not counting it as scheme for The Boys. What is the plan for The Boys? What are they doing this season? They have no goal and it's making them seem incompetent as well as making the other supes like Homelander and Neuman less threatening that they just haven't killed them yet. The virus should have been discovered in the first episode, they should have spent time debating whether or not it's right for them to use, they should have had to come up with a plan to get the virus back from Neuman and we the viewers should have been part of that process. Maybe a part of that plan hinged on Starlight and her influence only for it to be ruined by Sage. Would have made it more impacful and established Sage as a bigger threat. I still enjoy a lot of parts of this season, but this is the one aspect I'm very disappointed in so far.

Season 5 of Peaky Blinders was sucky to me cuz the main character got chill and PEACEFUL which is not who he is. I didn’t finish that season. Homelander is experiencing the boredom emotion but he’s still him. It’s evolving.

I think the show has a theme of "the monsters we make" Hughie was good and innocent, until A-train carelessly killed his gf and he decided to become a supe-killer. All supers, including homelander, are products of their environments and wish they had freedom to be their true selves. Butcher decided to turn himself into a monster to take down another monster, both literal and metaphorical. The whole entire plot of homelander's story and ryans fate is this focus. People will say homelander is the biggest monster in The Boys. And they wouldnt be wrong in many ways. but there was a bigger monster, much older and cunning, that was the one who broke and hurt homelander more than any weapon ever could. Humanity. Humanity was, is, and will be.. a bigger monster than homelander. And by that extension, homelander isnt the problem. but a symptom. And unless they break the cycle(ryans big theme) the cycle will repeat. No time in this show, with supe, temp-v, or anything has good outcomes due to the creation of a "monster" Because you cannot destroy the monsters you create, as we often lose control to do so, you can only fix it. or let it destroy you.

For me, it's like Game of Thrones. I just want to see how it ends hopefully with a dead homelander.

Jack Quaids acting has been phenomenal this season.

bruh I just clicked on the vid and my immediate reaction is you look like Tech Knight lol

I think Hughie’s plot line is leading to him becoming more independent? or at the very least more able to deal with stuff on his own. So i’m looking forward to that cuz im tired of him always having to rely on someone else showing up and saving him or just getting lucky. Both Kimiko’s and Frenchie’s plotline feel pretty similar and for frenchie it feels very repetitive. I just hope that we don’t have to deal with the same kind of plot in future seasons. Starlight’s plotline feels incredibly forced. The reveal of her and Hughie getting an abortion didn’t feel impactful. That’s because we never got to see how they came to that decision and the way they felt about it. Not only that but the whole reason behind her beef with firecracker feels out of character. Maybe i got the wrong impression but they made Starlight out to be a goody two shoes ever since she was a kid. So for her to spread a rumor such as the one she spread about Firecracker didn’t feel believable to me.

The worst the boys season would probably still be one of the best tv show seasons this year anyway.

Honestly asides Butcher The Villains are far more interesting subplot wise than the main characters

I think its up to a fairly rough and messy start, but all seasons pick their pace up in the last copule of episodes and I think it's more of a problem with the setups and it'll probably be just as good as the last ones by the last 2 or 3 episodes

Timing might not have been great on Hughie's story, but I dig using V on the facing death challenge and it's a way to use simon peggs amazing talent in a small easy to shoot scene

Very nice video man, nice work

The Boys comics are NOT a product of their time. It’s just bad

Where did you hear the season is 10 episodes? I literally cannot find it anywhere.

thanx for making the video so erly

Feel like they were building frenchie and kimiko but this season they did a whole 360, not sure why but overall it’s alright. Like what they’re doing with butcher,homelander,a-train, and noir. Just not sure where the plot is headed to this season.

I love the show but one gripe I have is that they overuse blackmail as a way of getting out of sticky situations.

The writers are trash Thier bs personal messages are a distraction. And break the vibe. Pointless charter recreations, this is a trrain wreak.

I think your disdain for them making the AOC stand-in a negative figure and love of Firecracker's obvious right-wing parody shows a bit of bias that affects your love of the show. Right-wing people have ALWAYS known the show made fun of them. Most shows do because all of Hollywood basically is leftist. They typically just don't care as much. They only care when its blatant and poorly done. This show pokes fun at the Left as well, and I'm actually not sure leftists get it. Its wonderful that Newman is an AOC-ish character BECAUSE she's a grifter just like a lot of leftist politicians. There are bad people on all sides of the political spectrum and this show embodies that.

I feel like episode 6 answered like, 80% of your questions. lol. Can't wait for the last two!

I do love Season 4 so Far and I don’t care what anyone says, this and MAWS is much better than the Acolyte.

Where’s the desktop image from?? 👀

God, this video is a fucking breath of fresh air. An actual video that not only looks at the bad but also the good as well.

Weakest season so far but it’s still great to me.

Laz Alonzo didn't just shave. He looked slimmed down from previous seasons. More power to him. He looks great. He just looked very different.

I think the series is going to end with Butcher being a supe and "John" losing his powers and any way to get them back is destroyed.

so far the only characters I like and think have been handled well this season are A-Train and Sage (sort of, there have been some stumbles with her but I'm still optimistic). Calling it now, A-Train is gonna die in the season finale with an inversion of Robin's death. He'll be trying to save someone and Homelander will step in the way, causing A-train and the person he's saving to get splattered all over Homelander.

bro just predicted the episode 6 plot twist

The only character i really care about is Homelander and butcher tbh. the other story lines aren't really captivating anymore.

I reckon Newman is a phenomenally well written and well acted character, because whenever she's on screen, I feel a real terror that someone's head is gonna explode. Every second she's on the screen. She hasn't exploded any heads recently but I can feel it coming.

Great breakdown!

5:37 A-train ads all over the hospital were helarious.

Great video mostly agree with everything you said

I like the theory that JD Morgan is a manifestation in Butcher's head like Becca.

I agree with you that Season 4 is working, I also agree with you that Frenchie and Kimiko plot is not as interesting and that’s been the problem almost every season now but I disagree with almost every single thing that you think is not working. I think Hughie plot with his Dad was one of the highlights of this season and the acting by Simon Pegg was phenomenal. One of the things about Hughie which was mentioned in the previous seasons was how clingy he is in his life, how he holds on to people, but this was never resolved in the previous seasons. But the writers did an amazing job with his dad and him not only having to let him go but he had to be the one to make that difficult choice, it was a huge character growth for Hughie. Now the Butcher plot. You said you didn’t like the fact that he was by himself this season and Jeffrey Dean Morgan also wasn’t working because he didn’t do anything that Butcher himself couldn’t have done. Well after seeing episode 6, that was kinda of the point, and he did his role as a Negan like character perfectly. Also Butcher being by himself is really important this season, because this is his journey into Darkness without anybody around him but his own devil. I got the impression that you prefer comedy more than serious and grit storytelling which is why you enjoyed Deep and Noir plots compare to other characters.

||SPOILER FOR S4 EP 6|| Oh my god Nando you totally called it wtf 9:45

After Ep 6 I have a feeling the prison Frenchie is in will turn into a internment camp because it’s one of the ones owned by Tek Knights family, and the start of season 5 will be the Boys breaking him out.

Show is spinning its wheels again trying to get to the finale so they can deliver the "gut punch". The seasons should be 6 episodes a pop and better paced. The show is being milked and the story suffers for it.

kate not having interesting powers is a hellova take

As someone whose dad has passed away young-ish (he was 55, I was 18), I genuinely could not watch the Hughie plotline because it made me so sad. I think the issue isn't with the plotline, but it's with the "haha funny V'd up chicken, haha I can't believe this is happening to me again, very funny!" and then go "people you love can and will die without warning and there is nothing you can do except let go" and that messed me up. I do love (and this is a small spoiler for episode 6) how in the next episode Hughie was saying he's fine, everything good, and then at the end of the episode he just completely breaks down, I genuinely think that is so well done, and I love how they gave the death of a side character this much of an impact and handeled it with care.

watching after episode 6 and to answer, yes its absolutely working

It feels a tad meandering tbh But I do think it's feeling that way because when they filmed this they still were set on the"we'll do as many seasons as we can" so they stretched the plots thin. Hopefully S5 being the last is filmed in a tight closed way. Also I have the slightest suspicion that after S5 they are gonna do a Soldier Boy antihero spin off and that's why he's just alive and stored

Something else I've noticed is that there seems to be a lot of red shirts this season. Both in the latest episode and the first episode there were two random unnamed characters accompanying our heroes who seemed to only be there to die. I feel like this sometimes makes the stakes feel a little low, but i'm hoping that starts to change soon and named characters start dying again instead of generic man in suit number 2.