While The Boys might have failed as a deconstruction of the superhero genre or political satire,
Political satire is dead. Deconstructions of the superhero genre are also dead.
There is nothing to deconstruct. People no longer believe in superheroes. So why give a fuck when a superhero curses, rapes, or murders people?
let's appreciate what it unexpectedly (and unintentionally) achieved - Kripke managed to create the best PSA about dangers of porn addiction to date.
His porn-addled brain gave birth to memes which will immortalize his juvenile legacy.
Trauma to men has never mattered to the writers. I'm surprised they weren't cracking jokes about it or blaming him for it happening like they did with Hughie
When a woman gets raped, it's either an unforgivable crime or rape as drama.
When a guy gets raped, it's played for laughs.
The last time I saw a show take male sexual trauma seriously was Game of Thrones, and that was when they had Ramsay Bolton cut off Theon Greyjoy's dick after he was revved up by a prostitute. It wasn't so much rape as it was mutilation of a sexual organ.
We didn't get big bad scary Homelander tearing the US infrastructure apart.
And yet we also didn't get active Vought disassembly.
Well, gotta keep the door open for spinoffs! It's a franchise now, meaning that the VCU has made the jump from parody to reality.
Starlight wasn't even part of Homelander's death.
Starlight was there to be preachy in the show. In the comics, at least Garth Ennis used her for fanservice.
The Gen V crew weren't even worth inserting.
Marie Moreau, who should've been their hard counter to V1 Homelander, was as useless as a pile of bricks.
Having her hold Homelander down while Soldier Boy blasted him in the face was how he should've been defeated. Instead, her entire plotline and the whole "she's just like Homelander" thing was a waste of time. Homie could've lasered them all in half at the end of Gen V and it wouldn't have changed anything.
What was the point of all of this again?
The same as the Mando movie that came out recently: MONEY!
Like what someone said here, the Homelander plotline should've ended at Season 3 with Soldier Boy depowering him and Butcher killing him, then move on to Stan Edgar being the real big bad due to him controlling Vought. Instead, they stretched it out for two more seasons of filler.