In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.The past few months have not been good for left-wing entertainment, with self-inflicted injuries tearing down successful and prominent figures and shows in the public consciousness.One such self-inflicted wound involved Amazon’s hit show The Boys, a cynical take on superheroes that quickly became one of the biggest shows in popular culture. Early on, the show satirized politics, corporations, celebrities, and, yes, social justice movements. It was clever, graphic, and undoubtedly a hit.
The average episode rating on IMDb for the first three seasons of The Boys was 8.6, 8.5, and 8.6, respectively. However, season four dropped to 7.9, and the final season dropped further to 7.3. The eight lowest-rated episodes come from the final two seasons, with the lowest two (a pair of abysmal 5.7 and 5.6-rated episodes) being the final two episodes of the series. So how did this happen?
With then-former President Donald Trump coming back onto the political scene, showrunner Eric Kripke decided to turn the show into a more expensive Saturday Night Live-style parody of Trump and American politics. This meant turning Homelander, the compelling main villain that viewers loved to hate because of his complexity (and the superb acting of Anthony Starr) into an increasingly childish imitation of Trump. The final season (shot and released after Trump won the 2024 election) ended with Trumplander having taken over the country and trying to turn himself into a god. In the finale, he is stripped of his superpowers, begs for his life and promises to eat feces or perform oral sex before having his head caved in by a crowbar in the Oval Office.
