- Network: Prime Video , AMAZON
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 26, 2019
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
If the last episode can maintain the quality of the previous seven, The Boys Season 5 may just be one of the show's best. It has all the gore, dark comedy, action, and vulgarity that you would expect, while also never veering too far out of control ahead of the final hour.
-
Soars wildly to the finish line, its confidence only matched by its craziness.
-
“The Boys” was always made for adults. It’s good to see it going out with them top of mind.
-
Happily for those fans still interested in this singularly irreverent and bloody show, something feels different this time around. .... For the first time in a long time, The Boys has me unable to look away.
-
It manages its usual fine balance between satire and story. The parallels with modern America are plentiful and terrifying.
-
The Boys doesn't quite move with the verve and swagger of seasons 2 and 3, but as a conclusion to the saga, it feels right.
-
For the first time in years, "The Boys" brings some much-needed heart and soul to this grim conclusion — a quality that, dare I say it, reminds us why we love superheroes so much in the first place.
-
This season was formulaic, sure, but possessed enough brilliance to confirm the show’s outstanding place in television history.
-
It’s progressively broadened into a take on the entire American project, a mission creep that’s sometimes been a strain yet allows the home stretch — minus the series finale, which was withheld from critics prior to review — to wield some heft.
-
The shifts they and the series take not only deepen each character arc, but also allow a show that sometimes feels too humorous for its own good to tackle ideas of hero worship and revolutionary acts of violence.
-
The United States’ breakneck slide into dimwitted authoritarian oblivion is a drag to live through. Maybe it’s crass to turn that kind of thing into entertainment. On the other hand, “The Boys” makes god complexes and garden variety fascism entertaining–a distinction with merit that, in the end, sufficiently earns its laurels.
-
While we’re a bit disappointed in the dark turn The Boys has made as it goes into its final season, we’re looking forward to seeing how Eric Kripke and company bring the story to an end.
-
The plot is sluggish at best, with the early episodes restoring a more traditional status quo and later episodes taking their sweet time in building to a dramatic showdown. And along the way, not every character enjoys as much spotlight time as they deserve. Still, The Boys Season 5 is a lot of fun even when it proves less than laser-focused.
-
Even without the season finale (Season 5 hadn't been finished when screeners were sent to press), this final outing is a bold conclusion to a series which was beginning to grow stale. If only the core group of undercover heroes were as interesting as they are likable.
-
With its social allegory eclipsed by the six-o’clock news, then, The Boys loopily stumbles its way through a rather straightforward, logical conclusion.
-
Though it remains as timely as ever, The Boys’ endgame does take its time putting the pieces in place for the final showdown with Homelander — for both better and worse.
-
There’s certainly still plenty of signature blood-soaked carnage and shocking moments (particularly in one cameo-heavy sequence), but overall it feels more sombre than satisfying.
-
The Boys, unfortunately, doesn’t have anything new to say. It’s trying too hard to speak to the times, but having a scene in which Homelander talks about making this a god-fearing, safer nation again, to be met with chants of “USA! USA!” has no depth. I hope a proper map has been drawn for the show’s conclusion, but the meandering twofer of a premiere ebbs and flows in quality.