The Boys: Season 5: Review

"Just when I thought there was a ceiling to how fucking weird you could get" is a line spoken midway through episode three of the final season of The Boys.

To reveal the context is to wade into spoilers, but in truth, it could be a mantra for the final season of the twisted humans vs superhumans series that's finally reaching a conclusion after years of overt grossness, exploding heads and shocking moments.

But the fifth season of the show packs punches, gut-wrenching moments and shocks that have been hinted at for years - and yet somehow, it still manages to deliver some truly shocking sequences that couldn't be predicted.

As it kicks off, Hughie, Frenchie and Mother's Milk are stuck in a Vought Freedom Camp, while Butcher, Kimiko and Annie face dilemmas of their own. Homelander's grip on reality is flailing and his desire to be greater than what he is threatens to be derailed by his own desire to secure his legacy.

It may be a spoiler to reveal more (and indeed Prime Video's requested most of the best twists are kept under wraps), but it's not really much of a spoiler to say that of the six episodes made available for press for the highly anticipated final season of The Boys, it feels like the show's firing on all cylinders - and even creatively, finds a different way to tell a whole raft of stories in a later episode.

Ideological arguments come into play in parts as the desire to forgive haunts some members of The Boys and the cost of ascension plays on other minds. Whereas Season 4 of The Boys tended to fly a little close to the less subtle approach of parallels with modern day America, the latest season has stepped away from the more overt edges and decided to concentrate squarely on giving the characters the send-off you'd expect after years of investment.

But it's not without the trademark moments the franchise and its sister show Gen V have come to offer. From elongated testicles as weapons to bloody explosions, it's all in the final season - and then some - and yet, at its heart, this still remains a series that's open to exploring the moral dilemma of what supreme power can bring and how it can destroy and galvanise those within its grasp.

Six out of eight episodes of the final season of The Boys were made available for the purpose of this review.   

The Boys begins streaming on Prime Video from Wednesday, April 8.