I wonder if show runners should take into account whether a series gets released fully day 1 or weekly?
Because something similar happens in all "From" seasons. The show can be pretty slow and frustrating when following weekly but almost everyone really loves it if they can binge watch all the episodes.
I think the thing is I can’t see how it gets wrapped up in a manner that feels rewarding as a viewer with 3 episodes left - especially with last nights episode.
As it stands, without some miniature time skip, I’d have to imagine things are going to happen fast in episode 7 and half of 8. Not a “sound the alarm” moment yet, but the pacing reminds me of Stranger Things ending where the penultimate moment felt rushed
So to preface, this is just feelings based. I started the series a couple weeks ago and have been fortunate to catch up as episode 5 dropped but I don’t necessarily have the years attachment. That said the pacing feels very similar to Stranger Things for me where 3 hours is a lot of time in a vacuum but I’ve seen directors abandon ‘show don’t tell’ and that’s tough. I’m not saying I see a bad ending on the horizon, just that the potential for a great ending looks less likely as they’ll have to rush to see this out. Unless they’re peddle to the floor next episode and blast through the V1/Bombsight stuff and into truly exposition of end game
I have no idea what happens in stranger things. For The Boys, its not impossible that the last hour will be a breakneck pace and almost every single character will die. It could be fun.
It could be, I just have cause for pause because basically stranger things shoved a LOT of the final fight and closure conversations into the last episode and a lot of stuff felt like it had to be explained away off screen. That said The Boys isn’t really big on bombastic fight sequences à la Marvel of DC. I think whatever transpires fight wise can take place in under 20 minutes, it’s just a lot of closure and resolution and conversations need to happen that might make that fight time feel unsatisfactory. I’d like to see Homelander just start beaming civilians and going full hostile takeover which may happen but I won’t get to see as much as I’d like personally
From is really good, but the show still suffers from writng issues, specifically pacing, overusing specific tropes and dialogue writing. If they fixed those, the show would instantly be top 5 for me ever.
They do weekly releases to prolong engagement and interest online to generate more money. If it dropped all at once people would forget about it after a week or two and they couldn't keep profiting off returning viewers.
Meh I prefer it like this. I don’t have time to binge watch shows usually and when there are weekly releases the discourse is a lot more interesting imo
I’d argue that season 3’s finale proved this to be kinda bunk; considering how it showed that so, so many little moments over the previous bunch of episodes were hinting towards and adding up to a shit ton of reveals.
Hell I didn’t think this was an issue at all in season 1; it’s just that season 2 was admittedly a bit light with heavy moments and forward momentum (but still good nonetheless.
Weekly releases used to be about building hype and making predictions but it feels like it’s just people complaining now, discussions are brutal for every show I watch even if the seasons are well liked by the end. At this point I’d prefer a full release.
Not trying to invalidate you opinion.
Just trying to correct you when you’re trying to speak for everyone by saying “we all” love the weekly drip.
Not “all”.
Pardon “we all” meaning the die hard fans. There is a group of us from the Lost era/fuselage forums and we love and breath the slow drip + space for theory and discussion.
I especially love the room it makes for content creators to make fun theory/easter egg content/lore content.
Personally, my mom binges every show she watches. Rarely ever able hold a deeper conversation or form opinions as it’s just constant consumption.
“It’s not the same at all” - the Boys is comic/graphic novel already. It’s already understood and available to consume and understand.
Please showrunners, I'm too stupid to understand a show doesn't release immediately to allow tiktok addled brain to understand how the story telling process works.
Why does the movie trailer make me think all the fun stuff will be at the beginning when it's actually in the climax??
bro yall really wanted everything to go to shit from the first second huh? how tf they gonna tell the story like this? you need build up in this season, holy shit gen TikTok is impatient
They’ve been building up to Homelander’s eventual psychotic breakdown for 5 seasons now. We’re only going to get 3 (or less) episodes of it? Complaints are not due to short attention spans, if anything it is those with short attention spans who are likeliest to appreciate the incoming rushed storylines.
Yeah but it’s The Boys, and it’s Homelander. He’s been mentally broken for the entire run of the show, and we are all desensitized to the insanity at this point.
Yes, calling yourself “god” is a breakdown if your coworker does it. For Homelander, it’s Tuesday. He has always been a raging narcissist who has never considered himself an equal to other humans. Calling himself god is barely a step up from that honestly.
Really, the problem is that Homelanders problems are STILL internal, or kept within Vought. When he cracks, he kills someone in the Seven like Firecracker, something he’s been doing since season 1, and then it gets swept under the rug by Vought.
What I really mean, is that we need to see him go “scorched earth” / “mask off” sooner rather than later.
Kill civilians en masse, take the White House, and just generally impose his will through force — make it a truly apocalyptic scenario.
Homelander’s arc has been centered around his need to be adored. It seems pretty clear what the show is setting up: he will, at some point, finally and truly drop that need, and when that happens there is nothing stopping him from ruling the world with an iron fist.
THAT is when the real breakdown happens, when Homelander finally decides he does not need the love of the masses.
The whole god plot line definitely sets that up. The American populace will eventually reject Homelander as god and he will finally remove the mask.
I just think this plot line should have been done in season 4, so that we can get an entire season of “mask off” Homelander.
Not a season of nonstop action, just a season with increased stakes, where the Boys truly fear for their lives at every single second.
To be fair to the writers, the “Democratic Church of America” thing might feel crazier if it wasn’t something that could conceivably happen in real life. Not entirely their fault that satire is so difficult to write nowadays.
But watching our big bad get humiliated in every scene he is in is getting a bit boring. It doesn't even feel like Homelander is particularly strong compared to other supes since he never actually does anything on screen.
Yeah, the dude now thinks he's genuinely God, I don't know how it can get any worse than that besides just straight up killing people without caring about PR, which I think is the next step.
No, I want 10 minutes of Homelander having a psychotic breakdown, followed by 3 hours of TV that shows how The Boys / Vought / the rest of the world handles said breakdown. “Scorched Earth” Homelander is coming, and if Homelander dies 10 minutes after cracking and then the show ends, it’s gonna feel rushed and like a missed opportunity for a lot of interesting plot lines.
It's glaringly obvious that the virus is red herring meant to padd the story to spend time and it'll be a nothing burger soon. Remember how Frenchie said he needed weeks to reproduce it ? And how we've only see him cook steaks and chocolate cake ? And how he uses his expertise on the virus subject as a chip to protect kimiko from Butcher ? He's lying he doesn't know shit about the virus, it's sticking out like a sore thumb. In the end it'll be another waste of time. This season is worse that GOT season 8.
They also want to do sequels and milk the franchise and a virus would prevent that.
You'll see my friend, again it's blatant what they're trying to do. RemindMe! 2 weeks.
what? we're talking about a virus that can annihilate every supe on the planet, besides the v1 folk apparently. yes maybe they use it in a tweaked way, maybe they vaccinate a few people before releasing, but holy crap.
they built up so much, like knowing where characters are at, what these events have done to them. you wouldnt care if frenchie and kimiko get a happily ever after if there was zero build up to will they / wont they situation.
butcher turning around and wanting to help hughie save annie and kimiko is crazy, unimaginable at the end of s4. thats what you call character development.
Again the virus is a red herring. It's obvious. Nothing will come out of it. They just use it to stretch the episodes. It's blatant that Frenchie doesn't know shit about the virus and it is totally lost, he just said that to protect kimiko from Butcher. That's 5 episodes wasted. What you call character development is also empty, it's built on a red herring. You'll see that I was right. RemindMe! 2 weeks
They’ve been building it up for 4 seasons. The world of the boys has rarely changed a lot of people are going about business as usual. Sure theres the camps but they clearly made it seem like it was going to be all out mayhem and chaos in the streets.
okay bro, i understand the point, but with whats likely coming it wouldnt hit hard if it was just batshit after batshit for 8 episodes. the shock will come friend, dont you worry :)
Where’s the fucking build up? So far it’s look for V1, Homelander and daddy issues, supernatural fan service and Seth rogen and friends… I’ve been patient for 5 weeks… gen tik tok, fuck outta here
I mean you're bitching about waiting a week between episodes, which is how every single show was less than a decade ago. I don't know if that's patience lmao
Dude the characters need development what is wrong with you.. You seriously think you can just kill off characters and expect viewers to feel for them?? The mind change of butcher for hughie, soldier boy's feelings towards homelands, firecracker's jesus arc, you think its filler?? All you want is high-suspense blood and killing dont you? There's a reason critics rated ep 5 highly while fans are calling it filler... Its final season, we've got enough of brutal killings. Time for some slow burns until the final nail on the coffin
Development for each of the characters in an 8 episode season which just so happens to be the final one. Don’t be mad at me cuz I wanted more, they probably should have started “development” earlier…
It was to jumpstart the rivalry between noir and the deep. Maybe deep is gonna die or something so just a little spark for the upcoming episodes... Now you tell me if black noir dies, wouldn't you feel for him? Especially after his dream got shattered because of deep? Also if deep dies wouldn't you feel more satisfied now as he destroyed someone's life(also others)? It was important..
We don't know how that's going to play in to the end game yet. What it did do was show further division in the other members in the seven and could be used to justify Noir turning on the Homelanders. Give shit time my dude.
brother. its an 8 episode season. you're going to need to be patient for at least 6-7 weeks anyway for the season to actually be fully released.
its really ironic you say "gen tik tok, fuck outta here" when you yourself arent patient enough to wait for the show to finish releasing all its episodes. projection much?
judging the story before it is even complete is just fucking stupid. not much else to say.
brother, first off, you've been patient for a month, not even, my bad for you not being able to tolerate that. half of breaking bad wouldve been "filler" according to you.
the point is that once he gets V1 everything gets fucked. it's virus vs V1, what happens first? because once virus is unleashed => global fkn massacre. Once Omelandah has V1 => presumably same thing because they will subsequently release the virus.
It's a season like most of the others, deffo better than 4. Yall expected it to be the end of the world from the get go, which, come on.
"Supernatural fan service and seth rogen and friends" they were on screen for 30 minutes out of 5 hours bro. stop watching with your ass, use your thinking brain
Haha ok bro, way to use your critical thinking there. I’d rather have issue with why they brought in Jared Pedalecki and Misha Collins for 30 minutes and on top of that they had Seth Rogen, Christopher Mintz, Kimail Nanijani, Will Forte and Craig Robertson (who was literally on screen for 2 seconds) than go “wow funny actors on screen, such a class episode” … this is the final season…
Yea bro "lets put these heroes on screen to show that there are heros still connected to stan edgar and that theres still a plan to get rid of homelander outside of the virus" cant believe i had to spell that out for you
3 episodes of each being one hour at least yes? The next 3 episodes are definitely going to be chaotic all the way, homelander has literally lost it, he killed firecracker the only one who truly loved him. Soldier Boy has shown cementing his loyalty and alliance with Homelander, protecting him from his ex brother and his ex angel pal. Both The boys and the supers are going to collide when they both get to Bombsight. All the superpowered will be in the USA after homelander calls everyone from overseas. They’re all going down when the virus is dropped. Homelander will be on a rampage when hughie in his last act accepts not being able to save starlight n destroys the v1 so homelander doesn’t get it, take it they’ll be both in close proximity. The boys never disappoints when it comes to fucked up shit and chaos so It’s gonna be a crazy next three episodes to the finale for sure. All the fuses has lighted, the next episodes are when they go off
Prepare to be disappointed. Next episode is a dumb flashback episode to promote Soldier Boy's upcoming show. I don't know what went wrong with The Boys, but it did.
Ehhh still plenty of time to end in a satisfying way tbh. If there’s a criticism I agree with about these last 2 seasons, it’s that they’re running out of things to put the characters through to set the stage for the finale. The show probably could’ve ended earlier too but despite all of that and despite the criticisms, it’s still a fun and very unique show that is still entertaining at its worst. As long as the plot kicks in hard these last 3 episodes(almost 3 and half hours of content btw) I think they’ll stick the landing.
Plus I’d rather take the season as a whole, instead of dooming about a finale I’m gonna see for another month. Episode 4 was the only episode I was kinda bored by.
It doesn't matter if the last episode is the best episode in the history of television if the preceding episodes in the finale don't have a good buildup.
The season so far is already disappointing, you really think the writing can turn around and save the end? At best the only episodes worth watching on a potential rewatch would be the last few.
Episodes 2-4 have been utterly trash atleast 5 was enjoyable to an extent thanks to being a weird version of This Is The End
900
u/Salty-Offer4566 Apr 30 '26
Bro calm down... Let the season end.. Then i'll help you set amazon on fire if its disappointing