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This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 5.
The future of The Boys is in the past. Now that the show is over, we can look forward to a prequel series called Vought Rising that will explore the adventures of Soldier Boy, Bombsight, Liberty, and a host of other new characters in the 1950s, but until then, we can also look back at The Boys itself, as season 5 has marked the end of the mothership show on Prime Video.
Butcher and the gang gave us five seasons of absolute chaos to treasure forever, along with endless memes and edits to suit any mood. And although it will remain a travesty that Antony Starr didn’t scoop up every Emmy for his performance as Homelander, he sure did give it 1000% playing one of the most maniacal TV villains of all time.
Right, never mind the bollocks, let’s look back at every season of The Boys and crown a champion…
5. Season 5
Arguably, the final season of The Boys was its weakest. Fans generally weren’t happy with the pacing, which spent too much time setting up the franchise’s next spinoff and too little trying to capture the razor-sharp satire of previous seasons. Unfortunately, by the time season 5 emerged, our reality had become far too stupid to effectively satirize and, as a result, The Boys was running on fumes.
This season set up a final showdown between Butcher and Homelander, one that had been promised for years. After being unable to use the long-in-gestation Supe virus against him, Butcher looked to Kimiko to take on Soldier Boy’s chest blast powers in an effort to suck Homelander’s away and leave him a vulnerable human they could easily beat.
There were happy endings aplenty for many of the show’s characters, including Hughie and Annie, but sadly, a few of the core “good guys” lost their lives by the time the series wrapped, including Butcher’s sweet old dog, Terror. Ultimately, the finale was a good enough sendoff for the show, but there was an overarching sense that seasons 4 and 5 were stretching out a single season of storytelling.
4. Season 4
The wheels came off a bit during this season. Though The Boys was still must-watch weekly viewing, the show was starting to feel like it was running out of compelling ideas, despite a worthy exploration of an America on the brink of societal and political collapse. There was also some uneven pacing as season 4 set up a final showdown between Homelander and The Boys, rather than embracing a more satisfyingly contained arc.
Still, there was a lot to love in season 4. Butcher had been living on the edge for a while, but finally had to face his own mortality. Alt-right Supe Firecracker was recruited at TruthCon, and actress Valorie Curry would go on to become a fantastic addition to the cast. A killer episode also had Homelander return to the Vought lab where he was once experimented on, producing some of the most tense and upsetting scenes of the entire series.
The Gen V virus crossover was a little shaky, and Joe Kessler being a figment of Billy Butcher’s imagination led to a fairly underwhelming guest-starring role for Jeffrey Dean Morgan, but season 4 was basically fine overall, just not as good as previous seasons.
3. Season 1
The first season of The Boys was a fresh breath of diabolical air. It arrived with spectacular timing, as we were meeting Butcher and the gang and getting drawn into the razor-sharp satire of the show just after Avengers: Endgame had practically sewn up the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It felt like it was destined to happen this way. The Boys was a spoonful of medicine, forcing the MCU sugar not just down, but all the way out. A much-needed meta commentary on superhero worship, it deconstructed the myths of costumed saviours and stuck a middle finger up at anyone who thought that absolute power wouldn’t corrupt absolutely in a way that even Zack Snyder wouldn’t dare to explore.
Season 1 was also packed with iconic moments that would drive the show’s narrative all the way into the final season. Hughie’s rage and heartbreak after A-Train kills his girlfriend, Robin. Starlight realizing that being a superhero under Vought’s thumb is a poisoned chalice. The plane crash sequence, where Homelander abandons passengers to their deaths. Homelander lasering Madelyn Stillwell and then showing Butcher that his wife Becca is not only alive but is raising Homelander’s son.
All fantastic stuff, and a strong start to an irreverent series that would capture the imagination of an audience who didn’t know it yet, but were about to experience something called “superhero fatigue.”
2. Season 3
Season 3 is battling with season 2 for the top spot here, as The Boys was on fire across both seasons! This one started off with a bang when that unforgettable Termite penis explosion sequence unfolded. It also brought along some fascinating new ideas with the introduction of the Compound V variant, V24. Temporary superpowers changed the game for Butcher and Hughie, but the risks were soon revealed to be huge.
The revival of Soldier Boy, along with the revelations about his brutal history, also added some serious punch. Jensen Ackles’s toxic, frozen-in-time Captain America knock-off gave us a disturbing glimpse into Vought’s past, and the fights between him, Butcher, and Homelander in the present were fantastic. The fact that Soldier Boy and Butcher nearly beat Homelander together was thrilling, but Ryan’s attempts to build a relationship with his dad really threw a spanner in the works. Of course, there was also “Herogasm,” one of the most bonkers episodes of television ever made!
Exploring drug addiction and America’s alternate history during the Cold War, all while completing Maeve’s redemption arc and teasing a powerful Supe in the White House, The Boys was firing on all cylinders in season 3.
1. Season 2
Arguably, Aya Cash’s villainous Stormfront, a.k.a. Liberty, a.k.a. Clara Vought, was the joint-best addition to The Boys cast along with Soldier Boy, which is probably why she’ll be reprising the character in the franchise’s Vought Rising prequel series. The Nazi Supe was truly abominable, and her romance with Homelander was so cringe-inducing, especially as some predicted she would eventually be revealed as his biological mother. Ryan taking her down was so close to being a celebratory moment, until it was clear he’d accidentally killed his own mother in the process.
There were a bunch of terrific episodes in season 2, but ultimately, it really walked a steady road to its payoff like no other season. Of course, it still had its brilliant moments: Homelander pushing Ryan off the roof like a confident mother bird, only for him to hit the ground with a sickening sound. Kimiko, Starlight, and Maeve teaming up to take the piss out of Endgame‘s forced “girl power” scene. The sudden courtroom head-popping sequence, followed by the reveal of Victoria Neuman as a Supe. Homelander having a sexual encounter with himself via a shapeshifter. The Deep’s gill hallucinations. But nearly all of them served the story. They weren’t just there for shock value.
The pacing was tight, and the satire exploring the insidious creep of fascism fully landed, setting the stage for a bombastic season 3 that could take bigger swings.
Disagree with this ranking? As always, let us know in the comments!
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