Life Among the Septics

In the second episode of "The Boys" season 4, the series heavily relies on Homelander to maintain its momentum and intrigue. Antony Starr's portrayal continues to be a magnetic force, commanding every scene with his blend of charm, menace, and complexity. His character's evolution and the dynamics he shares with others, especially Butcher and their son Ryan, drive the episode's narrative with intensity and suspense, showcasing why Homelander remains one of the show's standout elements.

However, despite Homelander's compelling presence, other characters like Frenchie, Kimiko, Hughie, and Starlight struggle to contribute meaningfully to the episode. Their scenes feel disconnected from the main plotlines and fail to sustain viewer interest or advance the overarching story in significant ways. This disparity in narrative impact creates a noticeable imbalance, where Homelander's storyline thrives while others falter, bogging down the series with slower pacing and less engaging character arcs.

As a result, while Homelander continues to carry the show with his riveting character development and intricate relationships, the lackluster contributions from secondary characters in episode 2 leave much to be desired. Viewers may find themselves longing for more cohesive storytelling and dynamic interactions across all fronts, in order to fully capture the essence of what makes "The Boys" a compelling and provocative series.

Absolutely perfect rendition of what the rest of the world see's baked in to America and its politics.

Wake up and smell that two party politics is absolutely useless. You have to both head back to the middle and accept that that's the best things can be. Partisan politics will never work.

Also as an aside do you want to be part of the fascist, right wing a holes or the side that's accepting and generally just a bit nicer. I for one would definitely pick the nicer side. That relates to the boys and general politics. The US is definitely giving off 1930's Austria and Germany vibes at the moment. Time to stop watching the right wing broadcasts come back to centrist politics (which you don't have... lol)

Back on topic, the boys delivers exactly what it should - Over the top, gory, crude fun whilst taking pot shots at the ridiculous situation the US public are allowing to happen under their noses.

The scenes with the nude duplicator clone dudes were absolute cinema and will definitely be on the list of top iconic scenes from The Boys.

This episode pretty much has everything you'd expect from this show; a fight between The Boys and a supe with a weird power, Homelander's training scenes going unsurprisingly wrong, Homelander being petty and talking about normal people as if they're pets, nudity, violence, gore, and all the things you want from the show.

And although the fight scene was pretty good, I found the green screen to be really noticeable which is unlike this show, because the CGI work looked pretty good in previous seasons, but that scene looked like a low-budget green screen work.

Also gotta say Ryan's voice is really funny and I can't take him seriously when seeing sounds like an 8-year-old girl and an 80-year-old woman at the same time. No disrespect to the actor obviously, I just think it's funny that they decided to go with the voice.

And as I guessed from the first episode, we now know a lot about Frenchie's past with Colin's family. I mean they outright say what you're thinking about, they don't seem to be subtle with the dialogue this season. But I guess it's nice that they don't seem to stretch at least this plotline and don't reveal what actually happened. Nevertheless, I am still not sure why we need this Colin character here and his backstory when they literally can give that runtime to Kimiko's past (which they seem to be doing now) after 4 seasons.

And like I said in my last episode's review, the only reason I'm giving these a little lower score is because the writing and the scenarios this season feel off a bit. The dialogue doesn't seem to be as subtle and well-written as before and some scenes seem to be suddenly cut off and we jump to the next scene, when they feel like they need more dialogue.

And the scenarios aren't as unique and creative as before. It feels like they ran out of creative juice and they should've ended the show with this season. I'm still not sure what the plot of this season is and it seems to be setting up for the final fifth season, which is a shame because season 3 felt energetic and alive from its very first episode because you didn't know if they're actually gonna kill Homelander or not. That, and Soldier Boy. This season doesn't have that energy, at least yet, and it feels like a filler setup for the final season. So I hope it gets better from here on out, because the previous seasons peaked at the middle to end episodes, so I'm not gonna say this season is disappointing and bad until we get the whole picture.

So so far, this is the better of the first two episodes elevated by the clone fight, but still suffers from weak dialogue and weird plot progression. But I have hope this is gonna get better as the season goes on.

This is shaping up to be the best season yet. The current events satire is strong but stuff like TruthCon has got to be the easiest satirical target ever. Makes me wonder why this hasn't been tried more often. Is The Boys the only series with the guts to do it?

Adding a character like Sister Sage could have backfired because it's easy to come up with a new character who is super strong or can melt you from the inside out or whatever. You just hand the work off to the CGI folks.

But the smartest woman, sorry, person, in the world is not so easy. The writers have given themselves the challenge of writing a person who actually IS smart, says smart things, does smart things. And you know what, I think they're pulling it off.

From being an amazing show, especially during the first and second season, also the third season, it was great. It had a good ending and a solid run!!! But what happened!?? This seasons plot, to me, felt all over the place ; from the first episode get go. There is no purpose, no clarity, no character development, no suspence or drama. It almost feels the show creators at this point are just trying to milk this show as much possible. Hopefully, they don't ruin the legacy of this amazing show and try to put up a good effort in the last season!? Maybe tie everything up nicely, for one last time!!!