How The Boys takes down Donald Trump during season 4

It is often said that good wines gain flavor with age. That of The Boys, with the sweet scent of chaos and hemoglobin, has finally found all its aromas of yesteryear, after a season 3 less delicious than expected. But for this new bottling, of which we were only able to see the first 3 episodes, showrunner Eric Kripke (supernatural) has decided to move its 2024 vintage, to venture into the very tortuous terrain of political life.

If The Boys has always shone with its irreverence, this season 4 finally puts both feet in the dish of campaigns waged for victory, ego wars and even conspiracy theories.

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Remember: we left our superhero slayers and their superhuman enemies in a confrontational posture, after the explosive death of Soldier Boy (Little Soldier). Homelander (The Protector) has thus managed to regain the trust of Ryan, his son, to the great dismay of Butcher, and he can even kill one of his opponents in the street, while retaining the love of his supporters.

Victoria Neuman is embarking on a prominent political career, despite her annoying tendency to (literally) turn the heads of those who get in her way. This season, the Boys will therefore have their work cut out for them to continue fighting Homelander, while preventing the White House from becoming a superhero lair.

Big Homelander is watching you

From now on, there is no more question of beating around the bush: this time, the superheroes have definitively dropped the mask thanks to the public revelations of Starlight (Stella) at the end of season 3. The confrontation then moves into the street, between the fervent admirers of Homelander and fans of Starlight, who clash during muscular and… manipulated demonstrations.

The notion of instrumentalization is also at the heart of this season 4. Homelander thus encourages the protesters to kill each other in order to better establish themselves as the savior, while episode 2 plunges us into the middle of a “Truth -Con”, where conspiracy theory fans can unleash their best guesses about how the world supposedly works, in a dedicated event.

Homelander, Donald Trump or both?

The Boys has always drawn a parallel with our reality, of course. But here, there is no longer room for doubt: Homelander has definitively become Donald Trump in all his splendor, no longer hesitating to directly attack cancel culture and “non-binary atheist socialists” from Starlight’s camp. At the dawn of the American presidential elections, scheduled for November 5, 2024, any resemblance to reality is no longer at all coincidental. And it must be admitted that the uncompromising frankness of The Boys do well.

The science fiction comedy, which has always denounced sexism, homophobia or racism from its beginnings, continues to ignite anti-vaccines, transphobes (hello JK Rowling) and even the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial. At present, it is the only series to represent to this extent a counter-power and a real progressive offensive, in the face of reactionary surges. And in these troubled times, we really need it.

50% blood, 100% figure skating

But all the genius of The Boys has always been about mixing this political audacity, never Manichean, with a Machiavellian penchant for fighting, gore, ass and brains to mush. So we don’t have to wait long before our heroes are covered in blood, as is the case 50% of the time in this series.

But on this point, Prime Video’s production slows down slightly, to continue to offer truly unique sequences. We had already been treated to entertainment, a musical, and even the famous Herogasm. This time, episode 3 concentrates new discoveries: prepare yourself for a figure skating session that is frostier than expected and above all for a bloodbath with the option of flying rubber ducks.

supernaturalthe return ?

It is therefore difficult to make things more chaotic than The Boysas the series dares everything, all the time and parodies everything, all the time (even The Marvelous Mrs. Maiselin episode 2), with always quality cameos, of which we leave you the surprise, and always more alumni of supernatural, with the arrival of Jeffrey Dean Morgan in an ambiguous role. In the middle of all this brilliantly organized tumult, there are obviously some less convincing intrigues, notably around the pasts of Kimiko and Frenchie which suddenly resurface.

But overall, The Boys manages to set things right, after a season 3 which went completely in circles, and while waiting for the end of the series, planned for season 5. So before saying goodbye to these vulgar marketing products which have become psychopaths, and to the gang which pursues them relentlessly, let’s still enjoy the frightening charisma of Antony Starr (Banshee) in the role of Homelander to better reflect on the political future that awaits us, between two bloodbaths.

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