EntertainmentTVSuperhero ShowsThe BoysHughie deserved better in The Boys season 4, especially with that finaleWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
EntertainmentTVSuperhero ShowsThe BoysHughie deserved better in The Boys season 4, especially with that finaleWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Amazon Studios)
The following article refers to fictional instances of sexual assault and features spoilers forThe Boys season 4finale.
Poor Hughie. Once a relatively unremarkable retail worker, now a hardened superhero killer, and usually the moral heart of the amoral cult of power and celebrity in The Boys, Hughie always seems to get the short end of the stick.
That’s not to mention, in season 4, the sight of his absent mother 30 odd years after she abandoned him, or the messy death of his father after Hughie tried to keep him alive with a dose of Compound V.
The issue at hand
(Image credit: Prime Video)
But to end that list of misfortunes there is also to do Hughie a great injustice, given the sexual humiliation and violation he experienced throughout the season – though the show itself conveniently skirts past any possible trauma he might have experienced.
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But moments like these are, in a culture that views men as sexually dominant, and incapable of violation in the same way, painfully common.
What next?
(Image credit: Prime Video)
I know not to expect too much from a show where human characters regularly die mid-coitus during trysts with their superpowered lovers: the brash treatment of sex, violence and death alike is ostensibly part of The Boys’ sensationalist appeal, as well as its bruised heart. But I would like to see TV shows – even pulpy, gory, violent ones like The Boys – grapple with the violation of men’s consent in a more meaningful way.
For more, check out our latest coverage on The Boys:
What next?$12.99at Amazon
What next?
$12.99at Amazon
$12.99at Amazon
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