'The Boys' Series Finale: Why Fans Are Divided By a Near Perfect Ending

https://discussingfilm.net/2026/05/24/the-boys-series-finale-fans-divided/

34 points · 34 comments · view on lemmy.world

34 Comments

Zahille7@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 82d (4 replies)

Near perfect? I don't know about that, but it was alright.

classic@fedia.io · 10 pts · 82d (2 replies)

Yeah, "near perfect" is a stretch. I'm glad that the series is done.

Zahille7@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 82d (1 reply)

I'd say "near perfect" is quite an extreme exaggeration lol.

bufalo1973@piefed.social · 2 pts · 82d

Well... "Near miss" in a flight...

remon@ani.social · 3 pts · 81d

Alright? I don't about that, but could have been worse.

neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 27 pts · 82d (6 replies)

Poking through the online fan communities, people seemed to resent:

  • the desire to push a new spinoff show, Vaught Rising, starring a character that people didn’t really care about (Soldier Boy) who kept disappearing and coming back,
  • visibly reduced production value,
  • marketing that teased plot turns that never happened
  • dragging the show past its expiration date by 2 additional seasons

I was always an arms-length viewer of the show, never really embracing it, acking it for the edgelord-chasing nihilism that it offered but never caring much about it. All that criticism sounds about right.

Respect to the on screen talent; they deserved better.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 82d (1 reply)

You missed:

  • Butthurt conservatives who thought Homelander was a good guy are mad that "the show got political"
ICastFist@programming.dev · 3 pts · 82d

I wonder how they interpreted the Homelander/Stormfront romance. The red blooded 'murican was "fixing" the nazi?

givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 82d

All four come down to the same reason:

Shows are created/cancelled on a quarterly whim.

A show will drag on as long as it's profitable. If really profitable spinoffs quickly show up.

And no matter how good the main show is, that shit has to end because the actors demand high salaries. It's why they always want a "college spinoff" of everything. 2-3 staff bits that hang around but could be easily replaced, and a rotating main cast of fresh faces that work "for exposure" more than anything.

And since it's Hollywood, can't forget that strategy of churn also means a never ending stream of young desperate people.

The root of the problem is selfish billionaires own the industry

zo0@programming.dev · 4 pts · 82d (2 replies)

I'm surprised hearing people not caring about Soldier boy. I almost dropped the show after season 3 but he was the main reason I stuck around

Kanda@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 82d (1 reply)

I liked his 1950s dad vibe. He should've given the boy the whip instead of v1 though

zo0@programming.dev · 3 pts · 82d

That's what I thought was gonna happen in the finale

MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca · 17 pts · 82d

Yeah, I guess I'm dumb but I quite enjoyed it. Homelander/trump's ending is picture perfect. Butcher's story ended exactly as it needed to. And there's some lovely hope and optimism, which for a series like that in times like these, felt exactly right.

NessD@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 82d

It was a good ending that wrapped up everything kinda nicely, but the way we got there really muddled everything.

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler No building up Kimiko as a key character, Ryan being on screen for 5 minutes this season, three strings that didn't really mattered (virus, soldier boy, Marie) etc. If the season would have been better, the finale would have been great. :::

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 82d

near perfect? fans already have been saying it went downhill around season 3. the show got lazier and lazier, especially they had issues with Marie supposdely being anti-homelander was never used. he did better with 5 seasons of SPNatural than this.

misk@piefed.social · 7 pts · 82d (2 replies)

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler They could have ended it after Homelander was killed, everything after felt unnecessary. Butcher was right but pussied out and allowed Hughie to kill him, which was very out of character. In the end we got a Hollywood ending where nobody learns anything and nothing changes - kind of true to the real world but a bit too depressing. :::

ICastFist@programming.dev · 3 pts · 82d (1 reply)

I stopped following The Boys back at the end of S3, but I've read the comics (they kinda suck)

::: spoiler Tap for (comic) spoiler The end has Butcher assassinating the rest of the team one by one. When he comes to Hughie, he goes easy because he wanted to die as well. How did the show make it happen? :::

kandoh@reddthat.com · 6 pts · 82d

::: spoiler spoiler Butcher offers to start a new life with Ryan and is rejected. Then he sees his dog Terror has died. Butcher then takes the Kill-All-Supes virus to Vaught Tower intending to release it. Hughie finds Terror has passed and realizing Butcher's intentions heads to Vaught Tower to stop him where they have a fist fight that ends in Hughie shooting Butcher :::

It's a solid ending for the Butcher character and was obviously needed to wrap up the story. The show was about more than Homelander.

kandoh@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 82d (1 reply)

I clearly have lower standards than a lot of people so everything I watch provides me more enjoyment

flying_sheep@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 81d

Same. I wonder how many of them truly came to these conclusions independently and his many just looked up their designated opinion online.

cunnililgus@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 82d
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FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 82d

I don't think I've ever skipped through parts of an episode just to make it through before watching this season. The dialogue is so bad.

Berttheduck@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 82d (1 reply)

It was decent, the final season was pretty pointless unfortunately and the finale didn't live up to the hype. I will say the shows ending was a million times better than the comic. I laughed and despaired at how stupid the comic ending was but the show made sense at least and did better with several of the characters like Kimiko, Annie and Hughie.

Comic 5/10 overall ending 2/10. Show 7/10 including the ending, a quite watchable show.

Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 82d

The comic had issues that were either a solid 8 or a solid 3, with nothing in the middle. The show just started gradually sliding down after the first seasons

Fedegenerate@fedinsfw.app · 1 pts · 81d

Everyone ended where they needed too I think, it was fine. Endings are hard, fine is fine.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 1 pts · 82d

I won't see it for at least a week and likely weeks.

artyom@piefed.social · 1 pts · 82d (8 replies)

I had to quit watching this show when the man crawled into the other man's penis.

Kynsey@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 82d (1 reply)
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artyom@piefed.social · 2 pts · 82d

I mean if a woman crawled into a man's penis, or vise versa, all of these are deeply-disturbing images.

Macallan@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 82d (5 replies)

Wasn't that Gen V?

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 82d (4 replies)

No, it was the season 3 opening

Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 82d (3 replies)

I thought that was in season 1. Then he sneezed and exploded the guy he crawled in.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 81d (2 replies)

Nope, Season 3 opening.

Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 81d (1 reply)

Looked it up and it says termite penis explosions was season 3. Looks like my memory of the show was off.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 81d

I wish I could forget, lol

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 82d

The season was a disappointment. They just killed off characters, which had no effect after the third episode. We get it, Homelander is a metaphor for Trump, but cheap revenge justice plots are just lazy and uncreative.

Donald Trump will die a rich old man in a big house.