The Boys season 5 review: Homelander can’t keep up with Trump’s madness, but it’s still a hell of a ride

While The Boys has always mixed its superhero satire with a hefty dose of political commentary, the fifth and final season of Amazon’s Prime Video series feels tailor-made for the second Donald Trump era, mostly thanks to its arch-antagonist Homelander (an evil Superman parody played to perfection by Antony Starr). What started in 2006 as an ultra-edgy comic book riffing on Marvel and DC, and became a hit live-action show in 2019, quickly evolved into something unexpected: a sharp portrayal of rising American fascism. In season 5, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke (Supernatural) tries to match the depravity of President Trump’s second term in office, ratchet up the requisite drugs, sex, and violence, and all while wrapping up a complex story with a satisfying finale. Based on the first seven episodes of The Boys season 5 (out of eight total) provided to critics, Kripke mostly meets that challenge, even if he sometimes gets tripped up by a few standby tropes of the superhero genre.