TV Show review
July 25, 2019 · TV-MA
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The Boys is a long-running series about a ragtag group of vigilantes who fight a team of corrupt, celebrity superheroes controlled by the powerful Vought corporation. Across five seasons the show uses extreme violence, crude humor, and dark satire to attack corporate greed, media manipulation, and unchecked power. Later seasons (especially 3–5) add much stronger political messaging, with Homelander portrayed as an increasingly obvious stand-in for right-wing authoritarianism and explicit critiques of modern culture-war issues, making the ideological layer far more noticeable to viewers than in the 2019 premiere.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Boys.
Woke representation / casting
Sustained diverse cast across all seasons that fits the modern setting; visible and recurring LGBTQ+ characters (especially Maeve and later additions) receive meaningful storylines and screen time, with some corporate tokenism being satirized while the representation itself remains prominent.
Woke political dialogue
Early seasons use broad satire against power and corporations; seasons 3–5 shift to much more explicit and sustained political allegory, including direct Trump/Homelander parallels, critiques of right-wing populism, and media-driven fascism warnings, with the showrunner confirming intentional messaging.
Identity-driven story themes
Queer storylines and character arcs (Maeve, others) are clearly present and grow across seasons; some female characters show strength but are balanced with flaws; identity elements are noticeable but secondary to the larger anti-power and political satire.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Core theme remains corporate corruption and media spin, but later seasons add pointed critiques of authoritarianism, right-wing nationalism, and culture-war dynamics; some mockery of corporate “woke” tokenism appears alongside the stronger anti-conservative framing.
Woke character or canon changes
TV adaptation expands and modernizes certain elements for television pacing and current events; changes are mostly tonal or additive rather than radical ideological rewrites of the source comics.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Minimal complaints in 2019–2022; strong and sustained backlash beginning in season 3 and peaking in season 4, including review-bombing, accusations of left-wing bias, and creator pushback; later seasons clearly drove the majority of “too woke” criticism.
Creator track record context
Eric Kripke’s pattern of political satire is confirmed and intensified across the full run; most other producers and the comic creators maintain clean, non-activist records; the overall team score rises because of Kripke’s increasingly explicit statements and creative choices in later seasons.
Production
