Parts of "The Boys" fandom seem to have vocally turned against the show in its last season, which is getting weirdly common with genre media these days. I find this a little mystifying, because "The Boys" has been pretty consistent in quality throughout its whole run, and has even been released on a reasonable schedule - five seasons across seven years. My pet theory is that it's the same old story. Some of the fans expected the show to be something that it never was, and handled the disappointment badly. "The Boys" did decrease in quality the longer it went on, ran short on ideas, started repeating itself, and had to juggle the same issues that all long-running shows do. Still, I thought it ended just fine - better than "Supernatural," or "Preacher," other genre shows from the same creators.
The fifth season has its ups and downs. Like "Daredevil: Born Again," events in "The Boys" mirror current events in 2026 to a startling degree. However, "The Boys" has been purposefully reflecting the rise of MAGA and the alt right since the beginning, with Homelander standing in for Donald Trump. Still, it's wild how some of the extreme escalations in Homelander's tyrannical behavior look an awful lot like what the Trump administration is actually doing, starting with our heroes incarcerated in a "freedom camp" in the season premiere. The season's biggest storyline involves The Boys hunting for the means to create a plague that will only affect people with superpowers, and to prevent Homelander from obtaining Compound V, a substance that will potentially give him immortality. After establishing total control over the US government, Homelander finds he's still miserable, so he turns to religion. With the help of the superpowered televangelist, Oh Father (Daveed Diggs), he decides to create a new American belief system with Homelander himself as the supreme being.
Beyond this point, there will be spoilers.
I suspect that one of the reasons certain fans of "The Boys" were so unhappy is that this season, is that it stays pretty small scale throughout. There's no epic spectacle, no mass casualty events, and a fairly modest amount of property damage. We do get our big showdown in the last episode, but it's not any more impressive than the showdowns we've seen in previous seasons. The pacing is also fairly slow and meandering, not really building up to a major climax. Instead, the season could be called a collection of false-starts, abrupt endings, and lots of indulgent nonsense that the creators wanted to try while they still had the chance. There's an episode that's essentially a bunch of one-shot character shorts that at one point involves a lot of random celebrity cameos and a few "Supernatural" alums. It's also very apparent that the creators are setting up storylines for other shows in "The Boys" universe - we're at three spinoffs so far. This means some characters like Solider Boy really wear out their welcome, and nobody bothers to explain who any of these kids from the "Gen V" show are.
Still, I was satisfied with the way things shook out, even if the season felt like it was running short of material. This time there is no more pulling of punches or ducking out on the consequences. The bill comes due and there are a lot of major character deaths. Some of them should have probably happened earlier, but none of them feel cheap. Endings are difficult, and I thought that the showrunners did the right thing choosing to focus on the characters instead of the carnage. My favorite storylines this year had to do with the Vought toadies like Ashley and Firecracker dealing with their complicity in Homelander's reign of terror. Ashley becoming Vice President and literally growing a second face on the back of her head (Who has her own personality! And is telepathic!) is so much fun.
Sure, there are missteps. Everything involving Soldier Boy and Sage is pretty underwhelming. Kimiko being able to talk felt kind of pointless, though clearly it needed to happen. I wish some of the big character moments, like Hughie finally standing up to Butcher, were given some better buildup. Honestly, I haven't been very invested enough in the show since the first season, so its slipping quality simply didn't bother me much. The ending was telegraphed long in advance, and the fact that they stuck it was all I really wanted.
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