The Boys has been dominating the news cycle this week, no great surprise given how divisive a ride Season 5 was before yesterday's series finale hit. Ultimately, "Blood and Bone" proved a largely satisfying conclusion, even if it wasn't as epic as some fans hoped.
Still, with fitting ends for characters like Homelander, Butcher, and The Deep, it arguably delivered a stronger send-off for the series than the divisive final episodes for shows like Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.
It could be considered a little surprising, then, that The Boys' Season 5 finale ranks among the show's lowest-rated episodes on IMDb. With 6.6/10, it sits above only "The Frenchman, the Female, and the Man Called Mother's Milk" (Season 5, Episode 7), which has 6.2/10.
Is The Boys being review-bombed? There's no way of knowing for sure, but it's hard to ignore the fact that "Blood and Bone" has over 53,000 ratings. Aside from Season 3's "Herogasm" (which has 52,000 ratings), that's a good 20,000 or so more votes than any other episode of the Prime Video series.
"I’ve gone through a journey when I first started to read everything — like on social media or online — and it starts to feel like that’s the whole universe, and it feels scary, and you have a pit in your stomach," The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke recently told The Hollywood Reporter. "But season five is the biggest season out of all of them and at 35 days in, we have 57 million viewers in season five alone."
"So then [you see the ratings and] you’re like, 'Oh, obviously, how many times do I have to relearn the lesson that the online world is not the actual world?' [The online reaction is] a fraction of very loud, opinionated people, and God love them," he added. "They’re welcome to have that opinion. But it’s actually not reflecting what’s happening out in the world. And once I saw [the numbers], I calmed right down."
Only time will tell whether The Boys' final season—and the series finale—tarnishes its legacy. As Kripke points out, the online narrative doesn't always reflect what's going on in the real world, and the critical reaction to this final batch of episodes has been mostly glowing.
Yesterday's finale drew somewhat mixed reactions, but with Vought Rising set to be released next year and The Boys: Mexico in the early stages of development, it won't be long until we see more Supes in action.
In the fifth and final season of The Boys, it's Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother's Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a "Freedom Camp." Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found.
But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It's the climax, people. Big stuff's gonna happen.
The Boys stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jensen Ackles, and Daveed Diggs.
The series is based on The New York Times best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, who also serve as executive producers, and was developed by executive producer and showrunner Eric Kripke.
The Boys Season 5 is now streaming on Prime Video in its entirety.