My Favorite Michel Gondry Film

Once you've seen the work of Michel Gondry, it's impossible to mistake it for anything else.  The playful DIY aesthetics, the whimsical cartoonish imagery, the reality-breaking transitions, and the gonzo nature of the filmmaking have been imitated, but never quite matched.  Gondry got his start making innovative, eye-catching music videos for artists like Bjork, Daft Punk, Radiohead, and the White Stripes.  When he moved into features, his first two were collaborations with writer Charlie Kaufman, before Kaufman started directing his own scripts.  The second of these, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," is one of the weirdest, most touching screen romances I've ever seen.

"Eternal Sunshine" came about thanks to a confluence of rare talents.  In addition to Gondry and Kaufman, you have Jim Carrey earnestly embracing a dramatic role, and Kate Winslet at the height of her career.   Kaufman's writing is what gives the film the proper emotional grounding to really make the relationship dynamics compelling, but the initial premise came from Michel Gondry and co-writer Pierre Bismuth, who had initially intended to make a sci-fi thriller about erasing memories.  The production was difficult and chaotic, and Gondry clashed with Kaufman over the script, the actors over shooting demands, the editor over the cut, and the production team over the movie's complicated in-camera practical effects - there's minimal CGI in use.  Tracy Morgan and Ellen Pompeo were cut from the film, and Kaufman and Gondry subsequently won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and went their separate ways for good.

However, all that friction and turmoil produced a fantastic film, where a new technology allows a man to revisit his memories of a failed relationship, processing and interacting with them as they're systematically removed from his mind.  The process is visualised in various ways - some dramatic, like watching a landscape gradually lose all detail and start blinking out of existence, and some as simple as turning off the lights.  There are digressions into Joel's childhood memories, where the Gondry whimsy gets piled on, and interference by ne'er-do-wells, but at its core "Eternal Sunshine" is a relationship drama, and a good one.  All the dazzling cinematic trickery wouldn't be nearly so effective if it weren't for the romance feeling so authentic.  Joel and Clementine come across as a genuine couple, and the memories that Joel fights to preserve are ordinary, but intimate, and often painfully relatable.  

"Eternal Sunshine" feels like an outlier for Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, who both feel like they're playing against type.  Joel is quiet and reticent, and we first meet him in a depressive funk, which only exacerbates his introversion.  Meanwhile, Clementine is mercurial and spontaneous, but stubbornly refuses to be romanticized - a manic pixie who is anything but a dreamgirl.  The two of them spend the whole movie mercilessly examining themselves and each other, reliving their troubled relationship backwards and forwards, and in the end are on the verge of doing it all over again.  Carrey and Winslet juggle multiple versions of their characters, blissful and bitter, real and imagined.  Between the two of them, the intensity of the emotions that they're able to evoke is extraordinary and cathartic.  You don't question for a moment why they'd consider trying again, despite all the heartbreak.      

As for Michel Gondry, he's still making movies, but he's probably not coming back to Hollywood.  In interviews, he's admitted that he's immature, delusional, and easily frustrated when working on his films, and can be difficult to work with.  Gondry's filmography is littered with fascinating smaller projects, personal documentaries, and occasional big-budget curiosities like "The Green Hornet" and "Mood Indigo."  His creativity seems boundless, but clearly Gondry isn't built for mainstream filmmaking.  I think his most representative and defining work is actually his music videos, which allow for a purity of concept that films rarely do.  

"Eternal Sunshine" was easily his biggest critical success, and it was clearly a collaborative one.  I don't think it would have turned out half as well if Gondry hadn't made it with the participation of so many other creatives who were willing to challenge and question him.  However, there would also be no "Eternal Sunshine" without Michel Gondry fighting for it, and pushing everyone else to do their best work.  

What I've Seen - Michel Gondry

Human Nature (2001)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005)

The Science of Sleep (2006)

Be Kind Rewind (2008)

The Green Hornet (2011)

The We and the I (2012)

Is the Man Who is Tall Happy (2013)

Mood Indigo (2013)

Microbe & Gasoline (2015)

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The Matter of "Marty Supreme"

"Marty Supreme" is very much in the vein of the other Safdie films - a tense, chaotic portrait of a terrible man who just can't seem to stop himself from making bad choices.  In this case, we have Marty Mauser (Timothee Chalamet), a table tennis/ping-pong champion loosely based on a real figure from the 1950s.  

When we first meet Marty, he's working as a shoe salesman in New York for his uncle (Ratso Sloman), trying to secure funds to go compete in a London table tennis tournament, and having an affair with his married childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A'zion).  He ends up robbing the shoe store to pay for his plane ticket, and his behavior just gets more reprehensible from there.  Most of the film follows Marty eight months later, when he's in the same position trying to get money to go another tournament in Japan, only his personal life has gotten much more complicated, and he's burned a lot more of his bridges.  Marty is only too willing to send the rest of his life up in flames in the dogged pursuit of his dreams.  

Despite being played by the charming and talented Timothy Chalamet, it's never in doubt that Marty Mauser is a downright horrendous human being.  The movie often seems to be daring us to root for him.  His main rivals in table tennis are the far more humble Bela Kletski (Geza Rohrig) and Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), who have more sympathetic histories.  Marty's endless quest for more money means he takes advantage of everyone he comes into contact with.  He regularly betrays his friends like black taxi driver Wally (Tyler Okonma) and potential business partner Dion (Luke Manley).  He displays some attachment to his mother (Fran Drescher) and to Rachel, though that doesn't stop him from also aggressively pursuing an aging screen star, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), who he meets by chance in London.  He ends up running afoul of dangerous characters like mobster Ezra Mishkin (Abel Ferrara) and Kay's husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O'Leary), and it's entirely his own fault.    

The film, chronicling Marty's many adventures in skullduggery and self-destruction, is two and a half hours of occasional sports drama, interwoven with segments of melodrama, suspense, and escalating chaos.  Some of the material is very difficult to get through, though if you've seen the Safdies' other films, you know what you're in for.  Marty talks his way out of bad situations, creates others, and sometimes has to get more creative or craven in his tactics.  Many of the episodes unfold like shaggy dog stories, with wild twists and improbable getaways.  Other times, Marty's luck runs out and he has to face humiliation and defeat, though he never knows when to give up.  As the film goes on, the stories get wilder and Marty's behavior gets more outrageous and cringeworthy.  I've never seen a sports film work so hard to make you root against its protagonist, and it's definitely on purpose.   

So, obviously "Marty Supreme" isn't about table tennis as much as it's about poking at the audience's own impulses to elevate or vilify people based on totally arbitrary characteristics and how they happen to be positioned in a narrative.  There's also a lot more going on in the margins - post WWII rebuilding, the Jewish immigrant experience, the commercialization and commodification of sports, and of course this is a New York story too.  The movie has more in common with "The Brutalist" than other sports movies like "The Smashing Machine."  Eventually you realize that "Marty" may be a narcissist and a grifter, but many of the people he interacts with are also various degrees of dishonest, and some of the people he's using are using him right back.  Maybe Marty stands for America or the Jewish diaspora.  Maybe he's just another wannabe.

I don't see how it's fair that Josh Safidie got both cinematographer Darius Khondji and writer/editor Ronald Bronstein in the Safdie brothers breakup.  So I'm definitely not giving all the credit for "Marty Supreme" to Josh.  Frankly, I think he was very lucky that Timothee Chalamet decided to get onboard, and committed so hard during the awards season lead-up and promotional campaign, he actually helped make the film a bona fide box office hit.  Odessa A'zion also distinguishes herself nicely in a cast chock full of familiar faces and random cameos.  See if you can spot David Mamet and Penn Jillette.

Frankly, "Marty Supreme" is too mean to its audience for me to embrace it fully.  I will happily respect and admire it from afar, and hope everyone involved enjoys their success.

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"Hamnet" is a Heartbreaker

I have a few major biases when it comes to film.  I get more invested in stories about children and motherhood.  I'm partial to Shakespeare adaptations.  And when it comes to romances and tearjerkers, the more earnest and uncynical, the better.  Chloe Zhao's "Hamnet," which she directed and co-wrote with Maggie O'Farrell, based on O'Farrell's book, is all of these things.

The approach of the book and the film is to treat William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) like a human being instead of a genius, following him and his beloved Agnes (Jessie Buckley) through their initial encounters, courtship, marriage, parenthood, separation, and then terrible tragedy.  The film never plays coy with the identities of its leads, but neither is William's playwriting presented as anything of particular importance until the last act, when it becomes a way for him to process his grief and despair.  Instead, the focus of the film is on the family - William and Agnes battling their parents to be allowed to marry, the dramatic births of their children, Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breahtnach), and twins Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and Judith (Olivia Lynes), William relocating to London for work, and then the arrival of the devastating plague.  

Most of the film is a lovely, intimate domestic drama about love and loss from Agnes' point of view.  She is rumored to be the daughter of a witch, and deeply connected with the forest and nature, so we get a very naturalistic, immersive view of Stratford, England and its inhabitants through her eyes.  However, she's also guided by visions and haunted by portents of doom that follow her all her life.  Lukasz Zal's cinematography captures lush greenery, lively family scenes, a few hints of the supernatural, and all the emotional highs and lows of the performances.  However, I was struck by how evocative some of the simplest shots of trees or quiet interiors were, despite no action or dialogue at all.  I have to point out that a lot of the heavy lifting is also done by Max Richter's score, which does exactly what you expect a Max Richter score to do in a tragedy.

I expect that some Shakespeare fans will take issue with the portrayal of the Bard and his family, as "Hamnet" plays up the relationship of the stage play to the real-life tragedy considerably, even inventing a few additional connections.  It's also clear that nobody was too concerned about the historical accuracy of the period dress and mannerisms.  However, as a piece of pure, cathartic cinema, nothing hit me as hard as "Hamnet" did this year, and I was warned well in advance what kind of movie this was.  The execution is just that good, on every level.  Jessie Buckley's raw, uninhibited performance is extraordinary, as has been widely reported, but the whole cast is  excellent - Paul Mescal, Emily Watson as Agnes' mother-in law, Joe Alwyn as her brother, Noah Jupe as one of the players, and especially the kids for getting us to love them, and really make the big losses hurt.    

It's also one of those rare, ambitious films where everything is building up to the emotional crescendo of the last ten minutes, and about twenty things pay off one after another, which has a tendency to go wrong in less experienced hands.  Considering how the film is structured, it feels positively miraculous that the third act came together as well as it did.  I never expected Chloe Zhao to tackle Shakespeare, but her approach is so refreshing, and her instincts are dead-on.  I expect "Hamnet" works better if you already know Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and I do know Shakespeare's "Hamlet" pretty well, but I'm very curious what newcomers to Shakespeare will think of the movie.  

I know I want to watch this again, but I'll also approach with caution, as the film is very emotionally intense.  And frankly, I'm a little afraid that the magic of that last scene might not work as well the second time around.  This is one trick where I'm not keep on peeking behind the curtain or looking for the seams.

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"Hazbin Hotel," Year Two

Spoilers for the first season ahead.

The second season of "Hazbin Hotel" gets right down to business, showing the aftermath of the big extermination battle from season one.  The Hotel is full of sinners who are all there for the wrong reasons, including newcomers Cherri Bomb (Krystina Alabado) and Baxter (Kevin Del Aguila).  Sir Pentious is causing an existential crisis in Heaven, with angels Sera (Patina Miller), Emily (Shoba Narayan), and Lute (Jessica Vosk) in disagreement about what his redemption means for their relations with Hell.  However, the central character of this year is really Vox (Christian Borle), the TV-headed overlord, who with fellow baddies Velvette (LIlli Cooper) and Valentino (Joel Perez) form a villain triumvirate known as the Vees.  As the head of Hell's major telecommunications company, VoxTek, Vox controls the airwaves and social media.  And he sees the chance to consolidate power and take the fight to Heaven.  

I really shouldn't be watching "Hazbin Hotel" for the plot, because despite some significant improvements in the pacing and overall story flow this year, most of the characters are stuck in a holding pattern.  Charlie naively tries to make the case for the Hotel to the rest of Hell, but Vox and his minions keep warping and twisting her message at every turn, causing her to repeatedly spiral.  Angel Dust is said to be the sinner closest to redemption, except he hasn't addressed any of his personal issues, his past, or the whole involuntary servitude thing.  We do start getting pieces of people's backstories, including flashbacks to when characters like Sir Pentious and Alastor were alive on Earth.  These do help a lot to flesh out characters and relationships.  However, most of the big revelations are either severely anticlimactic, or just keep punting the juiciest stuff further down the road, to be addressed later.  The show also has the terrible habit of nerfing its most powerful characters until they need to be badasses for the big finale.         

I know Season Three and Four are coming, and we're going to get answers to some of the remaining mysteries, but I wanted  more out of Season Two.  Everything to do with Vox is great, especially Christian Borle's committed scenery-chewing.  Everything else feels like it's repeating parts of Season One, or maneuvering characters to where they'll need to be for future episodes.  There are a lot of subplots that have yet to be resolved and there are a lot of balls in the air, but when it comes down to it, most of our heroes don't have a whole lot to do beyond singing about their feelings.  The only one of the leads who actually accomplishes something significant is Alastor, and he literally spends three episodes tied up on an office chair.

Still, this is a musical program and we're here for the songs.  There are some bangers this season, including "Gravity" for Lute, "Easy" for Vaggie and Charlie, and "Brighter" for Vox, and "Love in a Bottle" for Husk.  Probably the funniest moment in the whole season is when Niffty gets her own anime OP out of nowhere.  There's really no attempt to hide that this is an earnest musical anymore, with a big, cheesy, uplifting ending clearly designed to get as many cast members on the soundtrack as possible.  The quality of the music remains variable, but about on par with last year.  However, there's a lot more of it, with multiple episodes featuring three full numbers.  My biggest peeve is that Alastor's best song is the "Season 1 Recap Song" that you have to go watch on Youtube.

Production-wise, "Hazbin" looks and sounds great this year.  The crew feel a lot more comfortable in this universe now, and willing to get more ambitious.  The action scenes in particular have improved, with major fights showing off more of the characters' powers.  Husk in action, using magician-themed attacks is especially fun to watch.  Some of the character designs, especially for minor  background demons, still feel goofy and overworked, but I've gotten used to the style.      

Until next time, I'll be enjoying the soundtrack and looking forward to more.

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The End of "The Late Show"

"The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" wrapped up its last episode on Thursday, after what felt like months of goodbyes.  Colbert didn't manage to land that interview with the Pope he was hoping for, but plenty of others dropped by for cameos and performances.  If you didn't like the final show, which featured Paul McCartney playing the Ed Sullivan theater again, the return of Jon Baptise, and a silly science-fiction storyline, that's fine.  Colbert and company made plenty of others that could stand in for a finale that you might like better - Colbert taking his own Colbert Questionert on Wednesday, the "Worst of the Late Show" program on Monday that spotlighted the contributions of members of the "Late Show" staff, the big President Obama interview from the week before, or the "Strike Force Five" reunion of all the current late night television hosts the week before that.  

My favorite was easily last Friday's return of David Letterman, the previous "Late Show" host, who Colbert took over from in 2015.  Letterman, always the anti-establishment figure, was one of the only final guests who really displayed any sign of being upset about the whole situation.  He dressed down CBS several times during the interview, and then made them the literal target of a resurrected bit from his own version of the show - dropping random stuff off the roof of the Ed Sullivan theater to smash on the asphalt below.  In this case, Letterman and Colbert dropped chairs from the set - including Colbert's desk chair - trying to hit a giant CBS eye logo on the ground.  A few watermelons and a multi-tiered cake were also hurled over for good measure.  The clip  was later released on Youtube as a video titled "Wanton Destruction of CBS Property."  

Stephen Colbert has also been doing a good amount of press to promote these final programs - interviews with Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Tonight, the Today Show, People Magazine, and others.  He's clearly got mixed feelings about the end of the show, but he's leaving on a high note, despite the fact that he's being pushed out by the network.  What's more, he's at the height of his popularity and everybody in town seems to be on his side.  His fellow hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon ran reruns on Thursday in solidarity, while his old colleagues at "The Daily Show" and "Last Week Tonight" have delivered shoutouts and encouragement.  The outpouring of support and good wishes is wonderful to see, and I suppose it's better to focus on that than the grim reality of why "The Late Show" was cancelled - the Paramount Skydance merger and the pettiness of the Trump administration.  Say what you want about Disney, but they only pulled "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" for a week. 

I've been watching Stephen Colbert since his appearances on "The Daily Show," and I'll be very sad if he decides to stop performing.  Colbert has been one of our most reliable satirists, and even though helming a big network show softened his edge, he proved far more watchable than his competitors.  His keen intelligence, steady faith, and winning wholesomeness never clashed with his killer sense of humor or willingness to be ribald and ridiculous.  Then again, if writing "Lord of the Rings" movies and sleeping in late will make Colbert happy, all the best to him.  I'm more worried about the staff of "The Late Show," who are all now unemployed.  CBS is ending their late night talk programs entirely, opting to replace "The Late Show" with a program called "Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen."  Allen has already made it clear he will be avoiding political commentary.  

Of all the finales and cancellations this year, "The Late Show" is the toughest to reckon with, because it shouldn't have happened, and the fact that it did indicates that things are very wrong at CBS and Paramount right now.  I know the end of "The Late Show" was an inevitability, considering the decline of network television, but Colbert easily could have gone on many more years as host.  He might make a return to late night on another show, the way Jon Stewart did, but it won't be the same.  This is the end of an era, not just for Colbert, but for television.  And as wonderful as these last weeks of "The Late Show" have been, there is nothing that is going to make this ending sit right.

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"Roofman" and "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You"

Minor spoilers ahead.

"Roofman" is Derek Cianfrance's latest film, telling the stranger-than-fiction story of the criminal career of Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), an ex-soldier who turns to burglary in the late '90s to make ends meet.  He picks up the moniker "Roofman" because he robs fast food restaurants by cutting his way through the ceilings.  Manchester is eventually incarcerated, escapes in 2004, and manages to secretly live in a Toys "R" Us while waiting for his friend Steve (La Keith Stanfield) to arrange a way out of the country.  There, he falls in love with one of the employees, a single mother named Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), while doing his best to steer clear of her jerk of a manager, Mitch (Peter Dinklage).

I don't think this is the best movie that Channing Tatum has appeared in, but this is the best Channing Tatum movie.  It's very easy to root for Jeffrey Manchester, because Tatum is so charming and so wholesome in the part.  Manchester prioritizes making his loved ones happy, and does his best to make sure no one gets hurt during his robberies.  He's also got a mind for figuring out systems and schedules that makes him an expert infiltrator.  The trouble is that he's a big kid at heart, someone who doesn't really appreciate the deeper repercussions of his actions, or the harms that he can cause long term.  His antics in the  Toys "R" Us are a lot of fun, but there's deeper thematic stuff going on there.  Living in a toy store sounds fun, but the reality of it hits Manchester pretty hard.  And ultimately, "Roofman" is about him figuring out far, far too late that he doesn't have the temperament or the need for criminality, even though he's so good at it.  

The movie runs a little long, but it's sweet and fairly heartwarming.  "Roofman" is easily Derek Cianfrance's most accessible film - it's still got a very un-Hollywood ending, but it offers a lot of fun on the way there.  The romance works, which surprised me, though I do wish that we could have gotten more of Kristen Dunst's side of the story.  And special kudos go to Peter Dinklage, who I feel like I've been seeing everywhere this year, doing solid work playing that petty manager that everyone hates.   However, the one thing that kept taking me out of the movie was some of the other casting choices.  It was distracting how many of the actors I recognized in the minor roles, like Ben Mendelsohn as the local pastor, Uzo Aduba as his wife, Juno Temple as Steve's girlfriend, and Jimmy O. Yang showing up to sell Manchester a used car.  

On to "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You."  This one really caught me off guard, because all the marketing has been about Conan O'Brien having a supporting part, his first significant dramatic role.  He's fine in the movie, but definitely not what "If I Had Legs" should be remembered for.  This is the second film from director Mary Bronstein, about an overstressed, anxiety-riddled mother named Linda (Rose Byrne) who is taking care of a medically fragile young daughter (Delaney Quinn) with an eating disorder.  Her husband (Christian Slater) is away for an extended period for work.  The ceiling of their apartment has caved in, forcing Linda to relocate to a seedy hotel, run by a friendly superintendent, James (A$AP Rocky). 

Conan O'Brien plays Linda's therapist, who is also a colleague, because Linda is also a therapist.  So, it turns out that on top of all of Linda's problems, her job is to listen to other stressed out, anxious people  all day and try to help them with their problems.  It's no wonder that Linda starts to crack under the pressure.  "If I Had Legs" feels similar to other paranoid thrillers like "Uncut Gems," but with a more heightened, subjective POV.  Linda occasionally disassociates, staring into holes and voids where the blackness seems to temporarily mute all the chaos around her.  "If I Had Legs" never gets to the level of surrealism of something like "Beau is Afraid," but there's definitely the same willingness to make the viewer viscerally uncomfortable by focusing on the most nerve-grating moments of the protagonist's life. There's also plenty of black humor.

What really stands out is the performance of Rose Byrne as a woman who is in the throes of failure and can't seem to stop making things worse.  Maternal regret has become a more common subject in recent films like "The Lost Daughter," and Byrne embodies it wonderfully, layering on the reactive hostility, self-flagellating guilt, and endless frustration.  Bronstein shows the world from Linda's POV as an endless series of escalating irritants and disruptions that simultaneously enrage her and deepen her self-loathing.  It's difficult to watch, especially the subplot with one of Linda's patients, a new mother named Caroline (Danielle Macdonald), but I found it rewarding.  I especially like the ending, which is a series of rug-pulls that finally bring us to an inevitable conclusion.  I hope to see more from Bronstein soon.  

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"The Boys," Year Four

Spoilers for the first three seasons ahead.

I nearly dropped "The Boys" after a third season that felt repetitive and stalled out.  It was only because I knew that the show was ending with the fifth season that I decided to catch up on the fourth one, and then I debated whether to just write up the last two seasons together.  However, I think the fourth season has enough for me to talk about in its own post.

There's still a lot about the fourth season of "The Boys" that is repetitive and feels like it's stalling for time.  We don't appear any closer to the show's final goal of either killing Homelander or watching everybody die trying.  However, there are some different goals and side-quests this year that play out in interesting ways, as well as a few new characters and old characters in new roles.  Right off the bat, the best new addition to the show is Susan Heyward as the superintelligent Sister Sage, who is absolutely fascinating to watch because she is working toward her own unstated goals the whole time, which don't match the goals of anyone else in the show.  She also has a habit of temporarily lobotomizing herself to enjoy sex and junk food binges, which gets funnier every time it happens.  

I also like Valorie Curry as Firecracker, a right wing influencer and conspiracy theory peddler, who spearheads the media misinformation campaign against Starlight.  I didn't think it was possible, but "The Boys" becomes even more blatant about tying Homelander's supporters to the alt-right this season, with Firecracker as a cutting caricature of the new breed of MAGA-era white nationalist zealot.  The show apparently got a little too close to current events for comfort, prompting the finale to change its official title from "Assassonation Run" to "Season Four Finale," due to some of the depicted events.  I found the Firecracker storyline the most difficult to watch due to how grating her schtick is, but I'm also very appreciative of it, because the satire is so spot-on.

Easily the most improved performer is Cameron Crovetti as Ryan, who is given much more to do as he gains more autonomy and starts asking more difficult questions of his two father figures.  "The Boys" is better about balancing its dark humor with more sincere storylines this year, and Ryan experiencing some growing pains was one of the better ones.  I also want to highlight Claudia Doumit as politician Victoria Neuman, who is one of this year's major villains.  Like Sister Sage, she's a villain with some shades of gray, and it was genuinely hard to predict where her loyalties were ultimately going to land.  I also want to acknowledge that Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Rosemarie DeWitt, Will Ferrell, and Tilda Swinton appear in this season in roles I will not spoil. 

As for the main characters, the showrunners did a decent job of giving everyone new things to do, while not making it too obvious that nobody was making much progress.  A-Train and Ashley got some of the funnier interactions as they toyed with dumping Vought.  Deep and Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) are pretty much pure comic relief at this point.  Homelander gets points for never getting any less disturbing every time he shows up.  On the other team, Hughie and Annie had a good season, weathering a lot of ups and downs.  I wasn't sure why Frenchie and Kimiko were seemingly on a break at the beginning of the season, or how Frenchie ended up in a deeply problematic relationship with a guy named Colin (Elliot Knight), but at least that one wrapped up well.  Butcher had a very big, meaningful arc this year, but it wasn't executed too well, regrettably.

I continue to prefer the show's worldbuilding to any of its actual plot.  Season Four gives us a holiday ice show, an Avenue Q parody (complete with a song number about informing on your parents), superpowered farm animals, and the most depraved versions of Batman and Spiderman I have ever seen.  The shocks are still pretty inventive and disgusting, which I respect, even if this part of the show hasn't worked for me for the past few seasons.  And I'm looking forward to the finale, and seeing if "The Boys" can top itself one more time.  This feels like the right time for "The Boys" to be ending, and I'm glad it's going on its own terms.

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