The season 5 premiere of The Boys has some engaging moments, but ultimately represents the dull cycles the show has fallen into since around season 3. As constantly reminded through on-the-nose dialogue, “Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite” focuses on Starlight, Kimiko, and Butcher breaking Frenchie, Hughie, and Mother’s Milk out of a Homelander prison camp. The Boys attempt to recruit A-Train and The Worm, with A-Train initially rejecting the call but eventually showing up at the last minute. The main subplots of this episode follow Vice President Ashley and Sister Sage as they deal with the fallout and the easy P.R. recovery after Starlight leaked a clip of Homelander deserting the passengers of Flight 37. The episode concludes with a fight between Homelander and A-Train, in which the speedster is killed.
The issues of dialogue and pacing in this episode go hand-in–hand, with many conversations entirely focused on subtly recapping previous seasons and on constant repetition of the stakes, the time limit, and the breakout plan. Such information is important, but the sheer number of times it’s repeated suggests that the show thinks the audience isn’t paying attention. Similarly, as a nitpick, very few shots last more than a handful of seconds, speaking to a desperate need to keep the audience engaged visually that is ultimately distractingly nauseating. Additionally, much of the comedic dialogue has become hit-or-miss, especially Kimiko’s. Her ability to speak is fine, but the opportunity to give her a unique voice was neglected in favor of creating another vulgar, quippy character. On a general note, many of the self-referential bits ring hollow due to the show’s hypocritical details. Specifically, there is a joke about The Worm writing a script for Reacher (another Amazon Prime Video show), which would be funny if The Boys wasn’t built on the bedrock of parodying such media conglomerates. The jokes about the prisoners being forced to watch constant films about The Seven feel disingenuous when the show includes blatant advertising for Reacher (not to mention the connections to Gen V).
While it could have been more visually interesting, A-Train’s appearance at the end was a good moment, especially with the context of his interaction with The Deep. This scene between A-Train and The Deep stood out for highlighting how much A-Train has changed and how much The Deep has regressed, making it the most interesting dialogue scene of the episode. Said regression, to be clear, is an excellent choice for The Deep’s character, as his descent into patheticness has been one of the more dynamic character shifts throughout the series. As for A-Train’s death, it is refreshing to see a major character’s death in The Boys, but it is unfortunate that he will not be able to have any post-redemption scenes with Hughie. Overall, this episode had some decent scenes, fun action, a creatively satirical prison design (the Homelander bedspreads were a particular comedic highlight), and decent jokes. Ultimately, though, it proved to be yet another nail in the coffin of this series’ quality regression and retreading of tired character dynamics, jokes, and plot points.
Rating: 4/10