The Boys is almost over, with just two episodes of the fifth and final season to go. And while there has been plenty to chew on week to week, some fans have said that Season 5 contains too many “filler episodes” that focus on character development over moving the overarching plot forward. As you’d expect, co-creator and showrunner Eric Kripke doesn’t agree with that sentiment at all.
There are some The Boys fans who want it to feature bigger scale action more often, given it revolves around supes with outlandish powers. In truth, a lot of this stems from fans wanting to see Homelander, the overpowered supervillain with pretty much all the powers Superman has, let rip in a big battle. Most of the fights we see are on a smaller scale, involving one or two or, at best, three supes knocking lumps out of each other.
In an interview with TV Guide, Kripe insisted character development was essential to setting up a satisfying conclusion to the series. And he hit back at the suggestion The Boys should feature more large scale battle scenes.
“None of the things that happen in the last few episodes will matter if you don’t flesh out the characters,” he said. “I’m getting a lot of online dissatisfaction, to put it politely. And I’m like, ‘What are you expecting? Are you expecting a huge battle scene every episode?'”
Kripke then made a point he’s made before: despite being one of the most popular shows on Amazon’s Prime video streaming platform, The Boys doesn’t have the budget for Marvel-style battles that involve scores of superheroes fighting each other. But it sounds like even if he did have the money to make that happen, he wouldn’t.
“One, I can’t afford that,” he said. “And two, it would be so empty and dull, and it would just be about shapes moving without having any import.”
The “online dissatisfaction” Kripke mentions here was no doubt fuelled by the recently released Season 5, Episode 5, called One-Shots. It told a series of One-Shot-style mini-stories from a single character’s perspective, and while it contained a dramatic moment or two (Firecracker’s fate will live long in the memory), it also contained a rather plodding attempt from Homelander and crew to obtain V-One, and a bizarre section from the perspective of Butcher’s dog, Terror.
The prior episode, King of Hell, also came under fire from some fans for a rather contrived plot point that involved the main characters turning on each other while under the influence of spores (no, it’s not like The Last of Us). The Boys ended the episode in pretty much the same position as they began it, although in the process had revealed to each other their inner thoughts. Even Homelander and his father, Soldier Boy, had a moment.
Kripke said this character development was “important,” and that he owes it to all the main characters “to flesh them out and humanize them and their stories.” Television, Kripke added, “is the character business.”
At this point in the interview, Kripke got a little spicy, saying, “…apparently, just because it’s not plot, you’re like, ‘Nothing happened!’ I’m like, ‘Nothing happened, what?’ The craziest, biggest moves happened. It just wasn’t someone shooting someone else and going, pew, pew, pew. And if that’s what you want, you’re just watching the wrong show.”
Kripke suggested the “online dissatisfaction” may stem from The Boys being a weekly release, which creates a space for people to talk and argue about the show in between each episode’s launch. If Season 5 had been released all at once, fans might have had a different experience, he suggested.
“My guess is if you were bingeing it or watching it all at once, you would have a very different experience than watching one episode a week that you might find slow or slower than usual, and then you have to wait a whole other week for the next piece. I think that aggravates people, probably,” he said. “To be clear, I’m a proponent for this release schedule, but I’ve been wondering if that was one of the side effects.”
The Boys Season 5, Episode 6 was packed with twists and turns, some fans had predicted, others they had not. But after its dramatic conclusion, there is a clear theory for Homelander’s fate. Last week, Homelander actor Antony Starr addressed concern that The Boys may join the growing list of controversial TV show endings by insisting it won’t conclude like a recent series finale that failed to kill anyone (he didn’t name it, but he was clearly talking about Stranger Things).
“As our boss Eric [Kripke, The Boys showrunner] has said, don’t get attached to any characters on this show because everyone’s head is potentially on the block,” Starr said.
Image credit: Jasper Savage/Prime.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
