The Boys: Season 4 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Boys: Season 4



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Ahhhhh, The Boys. A show you either love or hate, enjoy or despise, there is no in between. While I haven’t reviewed the previous 3 seasons of the hit Prime TV show here before, I’ve been a rabid viewer since it was announced. Much like how Brightburn was a “what if Superman was evil?” tale, The Boys is a bit of anti-establishment fun as it lampoons and acts as a “what if?” foil to the MCU and DC comic book universes. Basically, taking the concept of Super Heroes existing in our world, and turning the tables on audiences and infusing it with a bit of cynicism on what would happen if our corporate and politically driven world actually HAD these men and women among us. While we’d love for them to be altruistic heroes of truth, justice, and the American way, we all know that with great power comes great debauchery and human greed. Thus, we have The Boys, a violent, crude, profane, explicit, and downright twisted take on what happens when corporate, capitalistic bureaucracy controls a bunch of overpowered superheroes and all of the destruction and mayhem that would take place.

Season 4 picks up right after the series high of season 3, after the maniacal Homelander (Anthony Starr) and mortal enemy, Butcher (Karl Urban), take out Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). While their feud is far from over, there are bigger things at stake this season. The tone takes a decidedly political tone as there is a presidential election coming up, and Homelander is not shy about making it known that he wants to control the new White House after having been under Vaughn’s thumb for so many years. While Homelander attempts to basically execute a deep state maneuver of manipulating the presidential candidates, Butcher, Hughie (Jack Quaid), Starlight (Erin Moriarty), and the rest of the Boys try to take down presidential candidate Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) before Homelander can complete his mission.

Naturally, things get messy quickly, with Starlight getting replaced by a shape shifter, Homelander having to rely on the help of Sister Sage (the smartest woman alive), and Butcher himself mutating even further with his dalliances with the V super hero formula. But no matter what, the series leads to the inevitable conclusion of Homelander taking control of the government, and a giant final conflict being set up between Butcher and himself, with all the world paying the price for these two men’s conflict.

The Boys has always thrived on being counter culture to modern comic book tropes, taking all of the typical nuances of comic book lore and just throwing them all in the fireplace and dousing it with gasoline. It balanced good storytelling with incredibly unlikable antagonists and protagonists alike, blatantly making use of shocksploitation cinema to get a cheap laugh. Is it crude, rude, and fairly disgusting? Yeah, but that’s also what makes it fun. Karl Urban and Anthony Starr absolutely outshine everyone else by a huge margin, and that’s saying something, as Jack Quaid is fantastic as Hughie. But those two just steal the limelight, with Anthony Starr’s sociopathic manchild portrayal of “Not Superman” so diabolically and deliciously “wrong” that you can’t help but be transfixed whenever he’s on screen. Urban’s Butcher is no less electrifying as he morphs from a vigilante with a mission in the first season, all the way to a morally ambiguous man who shares more in common with Homelander than he would ever care to admit.

Sadly, as much as I love the show, there are some pretty noticeable issues this season that I can’t overlook. The main one is how heavily they attempt to bridge the political elements of the show with modern-day MAGA vs. Liberal politics of the real world. While the show has always had certain political leanings, that loses that balance of “yeah, we have an agenda, but we’re still distancing ourselves from being too on the nose” that made it accessible to people of all political persuasions. It’s not BAD per se, but it gets in the way of the story sometimes when the heavy-handedness gets a bit too much. The second issue is that it’s a hard sell trying to come off Season 3. Jensen Ackles and the entire story of season 3 was peak The Boys, and Ackles's amazing portrayal as Soldier Boy was iconic. So with his loss, the show feels a little weak and empty as a result. BUT, the good generally outweighs the bad, and the series sets up the 5th and final season for a return to form with a last-minute reveal before the final credits roll.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The Boys has enjoyed a great looking video encode for the previous 3 seasons, and season 4 is no different. Captured digitally, the show looks glossy, with rich primary colors and a dark “grunginess” that works for the bleak world that they’re in. Grays dominate a lot of the color palette, while still having ample room for bright primary colored superhero costumes, insane amounts of CGI blood, and laser eyes lighting up the place. Fine details are amazing, with great facial details on Butcher’s craggy face, as well as the wonderfully nuanced look of Homelander’s outfit. There are a few times where the obvious CGI gore gets out of hand, but overall, said CGI isn’t too distracting. I did notice a little banding in the darker shots (such as when Neuman has her conflict with Butcher near the end), and there’s some minor digital noise spikes here and there. But overall, this is a nearly perfect-looking video encode.







Audio:

While not Atmos, Sony’s 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is a beefy mix with plenty of punch and pizazz going on. There are a lot of very wordy, quiet, dialogue-centered scenes that keep things heavily in the front of the room, but there is so much chaos, gore, and action going on that the surrounds are rarely silent for long. Bass is powerful and aggressive when the supers show off their power, and the explosions and laser eyes keep things sizzling at least once or twice an episode. Vocals are crisp and cleanly located up front, and the mix overall is simply superb.






Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reels

Final Score: ​

Is The Boys: Season 4 perfect? Nah, but it’s still fun. Anthony Starr and Karl Urban carry the season on their shoulders, and I’m genuinely rather excited for season 5, as this is the long-awaited finale for the show, and hopefully will close things out with a bang. Plus, I’m curious to see how the Butcher/Homelander conflict plays out, being that the TV series has deviated from the comics quite heavily so far, and I’m not sure where they’re taking it. The Blu-ray is barebones as usual, considering it’s a Prime exclusive series (to date, the Amazon Prime releases have all been very, very barebones), but the audio and video are great as usual. Solid watch, for a highly unique superhero show. Fun watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Anthony Starr, Erin Moriarty
Created by: Eric Kripke
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: NR
Runtime: 325 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 19th, 2025

Recommendation: Fun Watch

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