It’s great to have THE BOYS back, even if this season has been a lot of the same so far. E4 is no different—lots of violence and gore and things we used to be shocked to see but aren’t anymore. What works in this episode is that it belongs to Anthony Starr, who plays Homelander. This week is the Homelander show and Starr’s performance is the best thing about it.
Before we delve into specifics, I need to back up and discuss some of the other characters and plot points in WISDOM OF THE AGES. THE BOYS has never shied away from being political. I mean all art is political, but this show turns it up to eleven. The character of Firecracker has stepped in as a surrogate to Stormfront. She’s a younger, MUCH prettier Alex Jones and it feels like we’ve seen this all before. Mother’s Milk is still mad at everyone, and especially at Butcher like he has been the last four seasons. He’s sick of having to come in and clean up Buther’s messes, and frankly, I’m bored of it as well. Speaking of Butcher, it feels like he’s been sidelined so far this year. I hope something big is coming for him because if it wasn’t for him, there wouldn’t be THE BOYS. Frenchie and Kimiko are off doing their own thing like they’re in another TV show altogether. They’re two of my favorites from the show, and their sidequests are always a mix of entertainment and tragedy. It’s good, but it’s still much of the same.
Starlight and Hughie haven’t had many moments together this season and it’s giving mixed results. Starlight is infinitely more compelling on her own, while Hughie just sort of bobs around waiting for something to happen. The Deep is still very horny. This brings us to A-Train whose season 4 arc I predicted way back in Season 1. He’s seen what corrupt power has done to Homelander and he appears to be trying to turn things around like Queen Maeve, but we all know how that turned out for her.
The writers for THE BOYS are pushing Anthony Starr a lot this year and he’s delivering everything they give him and more. I cannot say enough good things about his performance. If the saying “hurt people, hurt people” is true, he’s the most broken of them all and has the most damage to cast around. WISDOM OF THE AGES took a character who has been borderline cartoonish at times and gave him nuance and complexity, something that it can’t pull away from here on out. There are no happy endings at the end of Homelander’s journey and I think he finally knows that. But it will be a ride to see who and what he takes down along the way.
THE BOYS drops a new episode every Thursday night on Amazon Prime Video.
