![\"Homelander](\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/THBY_S4_UT_402_220926_SAVJAS_01022_R1_Crop_3000.0.jpg\")
The stakes are clear, but the metaphor is not<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an election year in these United States, and as go the headlines, so goes The Boys<\/em><\/a>. Not on purpose<\/em> \u2014 showrunner Eric Kripke, articulating a reality of television production, has noted<\/a> that his narrative plans often precede their real-world parallels \u2014 but the hit Prime Video series has a pretty consistent rep for producing a bloody response to the moment at hand. In its fourth season, the dark satire circles a familiar target, once again arriving in a pivotal election year<\/a>. Now it\u2019s returned to ask if anyone learned anything since the last go round. <\/p>\n Unfortunately, the only clear answers to that question are bad ones in the world of The Boys<\/em>. Last season ended with Homelander (Antony Starr) lasering a man\u2019s head off in public to the cheers of his supporters, signaling a shift in the status quo between the world and the supes that inhabit it. As debauched and amoral as the supes of The Boys<\/em> have been in the series, they still kept up appearances. They engaged in the theater of being superheroes, noble exemplars there to help their fellow man. But the appeal of playing pretend is losing its luster. <\/p>\n Normal humans, Homelander frequently tells his son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and himself, are lesser, \u201ctoys for our amusement.\u201d The ticking time bomb of The Boys<\/em>, narratively, has been: How long can the show\u2019s writers convince us that he is more amused with the normal people committed to ruining his fun? <\/p>\n