[0:00] Okay, let's talk. So, it looks like 2026
[0:03] is the year of major TV shows in current
[0:05] pop culture coming to an end. Stranger
[0:08] Things ended right when the year
[0:09] started. The Boys ended a few weeks ago,
[0:12] quickly followed by Euphoria. Some of
[0:14] the most popular and watched shows of
[0:16] our time. The Bear is also going to be
[0:18] ending a few weeks from now. I don't
[0:21] know if that's good news yet. Making a
[0:22] final season of a show is like the most
[0:25] difficult thing to do in television.
[0:27] probably right after making a good
[0:29] pilot. Because when millions and
[0:31] millions and millions of people watch
[0:32] your show, you can never satisfy
[0:35] everyone. And that's why a lot of people
[0:37] believe it's impossible to make a good
[0:39] series finale. And with the recent
[0:41] history of big shows ending, it's easy
[0:43] to think that. But of course, it's easy
[0:45] to remember the bad ones. I recently
[0:47] made a video about the series finales I
[0:49] personally despise the most. and I made
[0:51] a very short, very little, 5hour video
[0:54] explaining why the ending of Stranger
[0:56] Things is, in my opinion, one of the
[0:58] worst of all time. But there are also
[1:01] some excellent series finales that are
[1:03] just amazing and close everything out in
[1:06] a way that is memorable both for the
[1:08] story and the characters. It's really
[1:11] hard to do, but it is possible. Flea Bag
[1:14] has one of the best finales I've seen in
[1:16] recent years. Cowboy Bbop is one of the
[1:19] greatest endings in the history of
[1:20] television. We recently had the ending
[1:22] of Succession, which was brilliant.
[1:24] Seriously, if you haven't seen
[1:25] Succession, fix that. The Leftovers has
[1:28] a great finale. The finale of 6 Feet
[1:31] Under is largely considered to be
[1:33] perfect. Pantheon has what I would
[1:35] probably consider to be a top five
[1:37] greatest TV endings of all time. There
[1:40] are many of them, but The Curse of Final
[1:43] Seasons is something that is very hard
[1:45] to escape for most writers. And we can
[1:47] see that in the two recent juggernauts
[1:49] that came to an end. Let's talk about
[1:51] them. Starting with the boys.
[1:56] I'm in my
[1:59] still without
[2:02] cowboy
[2:05] 6 years again.
[2:11] Got nothing to prove.
[2:15] So yeah, The Boys is now over after 7
[2:18] years on the air. And I have thought
[2:21] this is the ending to one of the most
[2:23] praised pieces of superhero media in the
[2:25] last like decade, if not more, featuring
[2:28] what is largely accepted as being one of
[2:30] the greatest villains in the history of
[2:32] the genre and an absurd amount of
[2:34] quotable lines from Carl Urban. Oh,
[2:40] ending the show was always going to be
[2:42] quite the task and there was a lot of
[2:44] expectations riding on this final
[2:45] season. And ever since it ended, there's
[2:48] been a lot of debate on whether or not
[2:50] the series stuck the landing. And I kind
[2:52] of understand the divide with the
[2:53] audience because the answer to that
[2:55] question lies less in the finale and
[2:57] more with the whole season altogether.
[3:00] And that's where the conversation
[3:01] becomes interesting. Okay, I've never
[3:03] made a video about the show before, so
[3:04] quick round up. So everybody knows where
[3:06] I stand with The Boys. Season 1. This is
[3:09] a [ __ ] spectacular season of
[3:11] television. I love season one of The
[3:13] Boys so incredibly much. The way the
[3:15] season has of introducing us to its
[3:17] world, first through the eyes of the
[3:18] general public who believe superheroes
[3:20] are amazing saviors and then through the
[3:22] lens of someone who gets to see
[3:24] firsthand what is hiding behind the
[3:26] hopeful facade. It's just brilliant. The
[3:29] writing is so tight. The characters are
[3:31] super intriguing. The reveal of
[3:33] Homelander at the end of episode 1
[3:35] immediately puts him in legendary
[3:37] status. The social commentary, the
[3:39] satire of corporate shenanigans taking
[3:41] over aspects of our lives, capitalism
[3:44] and superhero media, all of it is just
[3:47] pitch perfect. 9 out of 10. Instantly
[3:50] iconic. Season two, a really solid
[3:52] follow-up that doesn't quite get to the
[3:54] heights of the first season, but that is
[3:55] still amazing on almost every level.
[3:58] Stormfront is an incredibly strong
[4:00] antagonist. The subject matter of the
[4:02] season is really well- handled. The
[4:03] character arcs are absolutely insane,
[4:07] especially when it comes to Homelander.
[4:09] The Victoria Newman twist was
[4:11] diabolical. 8 out of 10. Couldn't wait
[4:13] to see more. Season 3. This, in my
[4:16] opinion, comes very close to being the
[4:19] best season of the show with season 1
[4:21] right above it, just by a hair. Season 3
[4:24] is so much fun. It is such an
[4:27] entertaining season of television. The
[4:29] addition of Soulja Boy, the Tempth V.
[4:31] Butcher with laser eyes, heroasm.
[4:34] Butcher and Soldier Boy in a 2v1 against
[4:37] Homelander. The Black Noir storyline.
[4:39] Queen Mave's character arc. Bro, this
[4:42] season goes so [ __ ] hard. So [ __ ]
[4:46] hard. It is not as thematically strong
[4:48] as season 1, but it is some of the most
[4:50] fun television we got to have in recent
[4:52] years. 8.5 out of 10. I didn't think
[4:54] this show could ever let me down.
[4:57] Season 4 let me down. Despite some minor
[4:59] issues with the show beforehand, The
[5:01] Boys had this kind of consistent quality
[5:03] of writing that made it magnetic and
[5:05] incredibly exciting. The first three
[5:07] seasons were kind of an astonishing
[5:09] streak of being absurdly entertaining
[5:11] while having a level of depth that had a
[5:14] surprising amount to say, and this is
[5:16] where that streak ends. Season 4 was the
[5:19] first time I felt bored watching The
[5:21] Boys. The season isn't atrocious. It's
[5:24] not like unwatchable garbage, but
[5:26] there's a significant and very
[5:28] noticeable decline in the show that is
[5:30] very telling. It's the point where the
[5:32] show starts to feel tired. The logic
[5:34] behind a continuation of this story is
[5:36] being stretched, and this is the season
[5:38] that really feels like, yeah, it's
[5:41] probably time to wrap it up. There are
[5:42] some characters we clearly don't know
[5:44] what to do with. Some of the magic just
[5:46] isn't operating anymore, and the story
[5:48] has gotten ridiculous to a point that
[5:51] isn't really entertaining. There are
[5:53] some moments to enjoy and the
[5:55] performances are still amazing. It was
[5:57] always one of the biggest strengths of
[5:58] the show. But overall, season 4 is a bit
[6:01] of a jumbled mess with too many
[6:02] characters that aren't as well written
[6:04] as they used to be, weird narrative
[6:06] decisions that rely too much on shock
[6:08] value to function, and a story that is
[6:10] starting to wear thin. Five out of 10.
[6:13] Get your head in a game. And that leads
[6:15] us to season five, the final season of
[6:20] The Boys, the big conclusion to 7 years
[6:24] of TV.
[6:27] It's not very good, is it? Listen, as a
[6:30] big fan of this series, despite season 4
[6:32] being a bit of a letdown, I came into
[6:34] season 5 hoping for the best. I really
[6:36] wanted to trust that season 4 was the
[6:38] show's bad day at the office, and that
[6:40] season 5 would close things in a grand
[6:42] and epic way. I tend to trust Eric
[6:44] Krypkkey. He's really passionate about
[6:46] the stories he tells. He cares deeply
[6:48] about characters and he has a great
[6:50] sense of spectacle to give you big epic
[6:53] moments when the story calls for it. But
[6:55] surprisingly, as far as epicness goes,
[6:58] season 5 feels really cheap. It's kind
[7:01] of the least epic and smallest scale
[7:04] season of the show, which I find very
[7:06] jarring because season 4 ramped things
[7:08] up in a way that really signaled season
[7:10] 5 wouldn't be able to possibly get any
[7:14] bigger. And the reason why I find this
[7:16] bizarre is because of the sheer scale of
[7:18] the marketing campaign. The posters
[7:20] alone promised something so epic and
[7:23] massive, it built crazy momentum.
[7:25] Homelander in space, looking over Earth,
[7:28] being ravaged with nuclear explosions.
[7:31] Billy Butcher walking in front of the
[7:33] fallen VA tower. Even the poster for the
[7:36] finale has Butcher walking up to the
[7:38] White House with Homelander hovering
[7:40] over it and an army of soups behind him,
[7:43] emulating the big White House finale of
[7:45] the comics. Like this marketing campaign
[7:47] was promoting the fulfillment of the
[7:49] show's promise, the promise of ending by
[7:52] going scorched earth. But instead, in
[7:54] its big final run, the show has never
[7:57] felt this small. It feels like 80% of
[8:00] the season is taking place on the same
[8:01] like four sets. There's this thing where
[8:04] you can just tell the season is
[8:05] operating on a very tight budget, which
[8:07] Eric Krypkkey has been very open about.
[8:09] And while the show has never felt this
[8:11] small, the bigger problem is that
[8:12] writing wise, the stakes have never felt
[8:15] so muted. The stakes don't feel as
[8:17] tangible as they did in previous
[8:19] seasons, which sucks because season 5
[8:21] does try to establish a certain sense of
[8:23] urgency. But for a number of reasons, it
[8:26] just doesn't really land. And I'm only
[8:28] speaking for myself here. But I think
[8:30] the reason why is that season 4 sets up
[8:32] a lot of things that season 5 turns out
[8:35] to not be interested in at all. And most
[8:37] of that starts with the characters. I
[8:40] think one of the biggest pieces of
[8:41] criticism that can be attributed to The
[8:43] Boys in its last two seasons, and my
[8:45] personal biggest gripe with it, is that
[8:46] the show is not really sure what to do
[8:49] with most of its characters, and in many
[8:51] parts, it ends up choosing to do
[8:54] nothing. So many characters this season
[8:56] that used to be integral to the DNA of
[8:59] the show are just kind of there. They're
[9:02] not really doing much, and even though
[9:03] this is the final season, it doesn't
[9:05] seem like the story intends to end for
[9:08] them. And even when the plot is
[9:09] interested in them, so many choices here
[9:12] are either weird or very obviously a
[9:14] result of the show needing to downscale
[9:16] things. The weirdest example is Billy
[9:18] Butcher. Season 4 ends by turning him
[9:20] into what looks like the final boss. He
[9:23] rips Victoria Newman in half like he's
[9:26] speedrunning a Mortal Kombat fatality. I
[9:28] would like to remind you that earlier in
[9:31] that same season, we watched Victoria
[9:33] Newman take a bullet to the head and
[9:36] walk it off with a smile. She is
[9:39] basically invincible. She's not an easy
[9:41] person to kill. Butcher ends her while
[9:44] knocking out half of the room and his
[9:46] demeanor has completely changed. He
[9:48] walks away looking like a [ __ ]
[9:50] terminator. The message there is very
[9:53] clear. Butcher has become something
[9:55] different, something terrifying. He
[9:58] makes it very clear that if any of the
[9:59] boys stand in his way, he will kill
[10:01] them. There's no care anymore. He's just
[10:04] this sort of killing machine on a
[10:06] mission to end Homelander. And then
[10:08] season 5 immediately walks all of that
[10:11] back. First of all, it largely strips
[10:13] him of his power. Now, you're lucky if
[10:15] his tentacles can even grab someone
[10:17] accurately. He barely even uses his
[10:19] powers throughout the season. And on the
[10:20] sporadic occasion where he does, they're
[10:23] not that useful. and personalitywise,
[10:26] not the Terminator anymore. He's
[10:28] basically just regular Butcher again.
[10:30] It's one of several moments in the
[10:31] season where the show feels like it
[10:33] forgot what it was setting up like 5
[10:35] minutes earlier. Huy is a character that
[10:37] has been a little directionless for the
[10:38] past couple of seasons. He's one of the
[10:40] ones that are just kind of there and
[10:42] he's not nearly as important to the
[10:44] story as he used to be. With his dad
[10:46] dead and his good boy persona being kind
[10:48] of gone, the only thing about him that
[10:50] could be interesting is his relationship
[10:52] with Annie, which I find to have grown
[10:55] surprisingly stale over the years. These
[10:57] two still being together has not made
[10:59] sense to me in a very long time. Annie
[11:02] herself is a character that hasn't made
[11:04] sense to me in a very long time. She's
[11:06] taken a very passive role in the show
[11:08] this season, and after the events of the
[11:10] first three seasons, I really thought we
[11:12] were gearing up for her facing
[11:13] Homelander again after leaving Vault.
[11:16] But no, Annie and Homelander do not
[11:18] speak to each other for all of season 4
[11:21] and all of season 5. It feels like a
[11:23] very incomplete thread. It feels
[11:26] unfinished, and Annie is now just a
[11:28] passive part of the team that sometimes
[11:30] will fight people and punch them
[11:32] repeatedly. Season 4 had also set her up
[11:34] as having unlocked crazy power, but it
[11:36] never plays a part in season 5. Mm is
[11:39] just kind of there as he has been since
[11:41] season 3. And Frenchie is also just kind
[11:44] of there as he has been since season 3.
[11:47] And there are too many characters whose
[11:48] presence just feels tired to me. The
[11:50] more I think about it, the more I don't
[11:52] think I will ever understand what the
[11:54] point of this new black noir was. He
[11:57] made absolutely no sense to me. Sure, he
[12:00] was there to give the public the
[12:01] impression that the seven are still
[12:02] united, yada yada yada, but in terms of
[12:05] the narrative, what was that? There are
[12:08] so many things that felt like a setup
[12:10] with him, but that never leads to
[12:12] anything. We're told that he has to mute
[12:14] a lot of his powers to embody Black Noir
[12:16] because he doesn't have the same powers
[12:18] as him. We're explicitly shown this guy
[12:21] can fly, and it's implied he has powers
[12:23] more similar to Homelanders, but then
[12:25] that never plays a part in anything. He
[12:28] just has a petty argument filler arc
[12:30] with the deep and then he's strangled to
[12:32] death and he never had anything to do
[12:34] with anything that was going on. Boring.
[12:37] >> This season also makes some choices
[12:39] narratively that I found a little
[12:41] convenient. In order for things to
[12:43] function, the show really asks you to
[12:45] push and stretch your suspension of
[12:46] disbelief. I kind of rolled my eyes at
[12:48] the screen when we were told the boys
[12:50] recreated Soldier Boy's blasting power
[12:53] in Kimiko in like a dayish. That to me
[12:56] is just kind of treating the audience
[12:58] like idiots. If it was that easy to do
[13:00] it, why was this not plan A? And the
[13:03] part that really made me sad to realize
[13:05] as the season went on is that I just
[13:07] kind of stopped giving a [ __ ] I could
[13:09] feel my investment in the show
[13:11] dissipating every week. I was bored with
[13:14] the story. I didn't feel any stakes.
[13:16] There was too much filler and I no
[13:17] longer trusted the show to stick the
[13:19] landing. I did not care about the V1. I
[13:22] did not care about the religious
[13:23] psychosis. I did not care when Frenchie
[13:25] died. I did not care when firecracker
[13:27] died. Her death scene was very well
[13:29] executed, but I just didn't care about
[13:31] her character very much. A lot of people
[13:33] are like painting her as this martyr now
[13:36] because the episode where she died tries
[13:38] really hard to make you sympathize with
[13:40] her. But um yeah, in case you forgot,
[13:44] Firecracker was a white supremacist who
[13:46] regularly hooked up with underage boys.
[13:49] She is not a good person. She is not a
[13:52] victim and she is definitely not a
[13:54] martyr. She was taken out by the system
[13:57] she fought for. Ironically, I think the
[13:59] absolute peak in character writing this
[14:01] season was with a train who is only in
[14:04] the season for about 10 minutes of the
[14:06] first episode. I genuinely believe the
[14:09] strongest scene in season 5 is the final
[14:11] scene of episode 1 when Homelander
[14:14] chases a train through the woods and
[14:16] ultimately kills him. A train making a
[14:18] split-second decision to not repeat what
[14:21] he did to Huie's girlfriend Robin in
[14:23] episode 1, which is essentially what
[14:25] sent him to his death is his story arc
[14:27] coming full circle. And then he finally
[14:29] has the courage to stand up to
[14:31] Homelander and realizes he doesn't
[14:33] understand why he was so afraid of him
[14:35] because he can finally see Homelander
[14:38] for what he really is. An insecure,
[14:40] pathetic manchild with nothing. Take
[14:44] away these powers and what are you? Huh?
[14:47] pathetic,
[14:49] weak, sniveling [ __ ] loser.
[14:54] That was just a great moment when
[14:56] Homelander just chokes him out of anger,
[14:58] but a train just keeps laughing at him
[15:01] until he dies. So good. And I really
[15:04] believe this was the show setting the
[15:05] tone. But no, the season unfortunately
[15:08] doesn't keep that energy. I guess the
[15:10] writers really needed to dig deeper for
[15:11] it to be sustainable all season. I know
[15:13] I like digging deeper. I could have
[15:15] helped. Thankfully for myself though, I
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[16:52] Season 5 is mainly about the boys and
[16:55] Homelander discovering there is a secret
[16:57] old formula of Compound V called V1 that
[17:00] can essentially make someone immortal.
[17:03] And everybody wants to get to it first.
[17:05] And that's that's about it. That's kind
[17:08] of the plot of the entire season. For a
[17:10] final season that is throwing a lot of
[17:12] [ __ ] at you, it's also pretty uneventful
[17:15] and the characters aren't interesting
[17:17] enough to carry a season that is
[17:19] severely lacking in story. I don't think
[17:21] it's unreasonable to say Anthony Star
[17:23] has been carrying the boys on his back
[17:25] since season 3. Homelander is one of
[17:27] those rare villains that feels genuinely
[17:30] iconic. And a huge part of that comes
[17:33] down to Star's performance. What always
[17:35] made Homelander so compelling though
[17:37] wasn't just that he was powerful and had
[17:39] anger issues. It was how weirdly
[17:41] specific his psychology was. He had this
[17:44] unspoken rule where he often spared
[17:46] people who weren't afraid of him because
[17:48] fear was the thing he craved most out of
[17:51] people he couldn't get respect from. He
[17:53] wasn't motivated by money, ideology, or
[17:55] even world domination in a literal
[17:57] sense. What he wanted was validation. He
[18:01] wanted love, admiration, worship. He
[18:04] wanted to be seen as a god while
[18:06] simultaneously being desperate for
[18:08] someone to hug him and tell him he's
[18:10] special. That's what made him
[18:12] fascinating. He was the most powerful
[18:14] man on earth and also the most
[18:17] emotionally fragile. Every room he
[18:20] walked into felt like it could either
[18:22] end with a handshake or a massacre
[18:24] depending on whether somebody bruises
[18:26] ego or not. In the first three seasons,
[18:29] every time there was a scene with
[18:30] Homelander, I felt physically anxious
[18:33] because you never knew when he was going
[18:35] to snap. The problem is that starting
[18:37] around season 4, the writing begins
[18:39] stripping away a lot of those layers.
[18:41] Homelander becomes less of an
[18:43] unpredictable narcissist and more of a
[18:46] generic crazy guy. Earlier seasons
[18:48] treated him like a ticking time bomb
[18:50] whose actions were driven by a bizarre
[18:53] combination of insecurity, loneliness,
[18:55] narcissism, and a desperate, desperate
[18:58] need for approval. You never quite knew
[19:01] what he was going to do, but you always
[19:03] understood why he did it. And he was
[19:06] smart. I think the show ended up
[19:07] forgetting over time that he had the
[19:09] ability to pull some really good moves
[19:11] that didn't necessarily involve him just
[19:13] snapping necks. In season 1, he
[19:15] single-handedly orchestrated a terrorist
[19:18] attack from a foreigner country by
[19:20] giving Compound V to maniacs so VA could
[19:23] justify integrating soups into the
[19:26] military. He was making moves back then.
[19:29] It wasn't just about him being crazy.
[19:32] But by the end of the show, that
[19:33] complexity starts to wear thin, and
[19:35] Homelander often feels reduced to angry
[19:38] man with laser eyes. Anthony Star is
[19:40] still giving an absolutely phenomenal
[19:42] performance, but it increasingly feels
[19:44] like the script relies on his
[19:46] performance to make the character work.
[19:48] And it's a shame because the writing
[19:50] behind him used to be incredible. And of
[19:53] course, you can't really talk about
[19:54] season 5 without talking about what it
[19:56] really is for half of its runtime, which
[19:58] is the Soldier Boy show. Look, the thing
[20:01] is I like the character of Soldier Boy a
[20:04] lot, and I love Jensen Aes in that role.
[20:07] But brother, my Hermono in Christ, his
[20:10] presence in this season feels so out of
[20:14] place. And do you know why? Because it
[20:17] is out of place. Everybody has said that
[20:20] his presence in this season is just an
[20:22] extended ad for a spin-off series coming
[20:24] out sometime soon. And uh yeah, people
[20:28] are right. The entire [ __ ] Bombside
[20:30] story line felt so forcefully shoved
[20:33] into this season. And it's all just to
[20:36] introduce us to characters that are not
[20:38] going to matter to the story we're
[20:40] currently watching, but that are going
[20:41] to be in the spin-off. And I find it
[20:44] really sad because it demonstrates in a
[20:46] very obnoxious way that The Boys has
[20:49] become a lot of the things it used to
[20:52] criticize. It used to make fun of the
[20:55] overly corporate approach to
[20:56] intellectual properties and franchises
[20:58] in Hollywood with everything needed a
[21:01] sequel and a spin-off and the setting up
[21:03] of these endless projects overriding the
[21:06] story of the thing you're currently
[21:07] watching. And yeah, that's what this
[21:11] season does for about half of its
[21:13] runtime. Naturally, it doesn't help that
[21:15] the episode before the finale is easily
[21:17] one of the weakest episodes of the show.
[21:19] And that is what is so tragic about it.
[21:22] In the end, I think season 5 is just
[21:26] very forgettable. It's not insultingly
[21:28] bad. Like it it's not Stranger Things 5,
[21:31] but for a show that has proven to be
[21:33] capable of being one of the most
[21:35] thrilling things on television while
[21:37] having very smart and poignant social
[21:39] political commentary driving it, it is
[21:42] kind of astonishing to see just how
[21:44] boring, aimless, and opportunistic this
[21:47] final season is. Some people were trying
[21:49] to say that criticizing the show for
[21:51] butchering four or five episodes of the
[21:53] season wasn't that big of a deal, that
[21:55] it was just four or five episodes and
[21:57] that people were overreacting. I heavily
[22:00] disagree with that. I mean, yeah, back
[22:02] in the day you got like 24 episodes a
[22:05] season. If you [ __ ] up four or five of
[22:08] them, it wasn't the end of the world.
[22:10] But when you only have eight episodes in
[22:13] the season and you [ __ ] up four or five
[22:16] of them, that's a different conversation
[22:20] now, isn't it? If there is credit we can
[22:22] give the season, though, it's that for
[22:24] how ridiculous the political aspect of
[22:26] the show has become, sometimes being
[22:28] overly tacky and all. The season did
[22:31] predict actual events with almost
[22:34] godlike accuracy. the God thing where
[22:37] Homelander wants to be God and then
[22:39] before the episode even airs, Trump puts
[22:43] out that photo of him as Jesus touching
[22:45] and I was like I think Cry was like,
[22:47] "Come on, give us two days."
[22:48] >> A golden statue. It's It's so un It's so
[22:51] unsettling. It's so depressing.
[22:53] >> The golden statue.
[22:54] >> So therapeutic.
[22:56] >> Homelander believing that he's God.
[22:58] >> The Jesus thing was ridiculous.
[23:02] >> They wrote these episodes almost two
[23:04] years ago. It was shot over a year ago
[23:06] and I think the intention was to so
[23:08] overshoot reality in order to sort of
[23:10] like make a commentary on it.
[23:12] >> So the fact that it's so parallel is
[23:15] just really upsetting.
[23:16] >> The show went from being a satire of
[23:19] American politics and how embarrassing
[23:21] they've become to being a literal
[23:23] parallel that mirrors real life events
[23:26] just a few days before they actually
[23:29] happen. Just think about that. We are
[23:31] living in a time where it's become
[23:33] normal for satirical parodies to feel
[23:36] more like preemptive documentaries than
[23:38] the jokes they are supposed to be. But
[23:40] that's not enough to save the show. So
[23:43] after all of that verdict, is the series
[23:47] finale of The Boys terrible? Is it
[23:50] absolutely amazing?
[23:53] It's okay. It's fine. It's not anything
[23:57] unwatchable. It's also not that good
[24:00] either. It's just kind of mid. It's like
[24:03] a five out of 10. Middle of the road.
[24:05] It's not an awful finale. It's an
[24:07] entertaining episode of TV. But the best
[24:10] way I have to describe it and describe
[24:12] why it didn't land for so many people,
[24:14] and me included, is simply that the
[24:17] finale is a decent episode that has to
[24:21] close out a terrible season. It's just
[24:24] kind of all right. The thing is that
[24:26] because the season was so underwhelming
[24:28] and meandering, it felt very difficult
[24:30] to feel the hype of what was going on
[24:32] and it no longer felt like we were
[24:34] concluding a great story. Most
[24:36] characters, they didn't have arcs
[24:38] anyway, but the finale tries to pretend
[24:40] they did. And that's the big mistake a
[24:42] lot of writers make with final seasons,
[24:44] trying to shove every important ending
[24:47] point into the finale. Everything has to
[24:50] happen in the finale. So, the entire
[24:53] final season kind of [ __ ] around and
[24:55] doesn't really do much. And then
[24:57] suddenly in the finale, way too much
[25:00] happens, but nothing has time to breathe
[25:02] because you can only fit so much inside
[25:03] of an hour-ong episode. One thing the
[25:05] finale briefly touches on that I
[25:07] actually found interesting is Annie
[25:10] realizing she's become exactly what she
[25:12] promised herself she would never become.
[25:14] When she first joined VA, she'd looked
[25:16] at Queen Mave and saw someone completely
[25:18] broken and emotionally checked out. She
[25:21] swore she'd never end up like that and
[25:23] then she did. That's a genuinely
[25:26] compelling idea. The problem is the show
[25:29] waits until the final episode to bring
[25:31] it up. Annie spends most of the season
[25:34] doing absolutely nothing and suddenly
[25:37] the finale remembers she used to be a
[25:39] character. It's like a forgotten
[25:41] Christmas present you receive in June.
[25:43] Nice gesture, wrong timing. The same
[25:46] issue applies to Ryan and basically the
[25:49] entirety of Genvie. Ryan was built up
[25:51] for years as one of the most important
[25:53] people in the story and then he barely
[25:55] participates in the final season.
[25:57] Meanwhile, Genvie spent two seasons
[25:59] setting up Marie Maro, Sam, the virus,
[26:03] and a whole bunch of supposedly
[26:04] worldchanging developments that
[26:06] ultimately amount to forgettable cameos.
[26:09] Marie was positioned as one of the few
[26:12] people who could potentially challenge
[26:15] Homelander. Sam was basically being
[26:17] framed as Homelander 2.0. The virus was
[26:21] treated like a game-changing weapon that
[26:23] took so much space in the entire story,
[26:26] and none of it matters. 3 years of setup
[26:31] leading up to two scenes, missing one of
[26:33] those characters, by the way. Nobody
[26:35] does anything and then they [ __ ] off to
[26:37] Canada. Would you Is this the first
[26:39] draft of the script? What the [ __ ] What
[26:42] was the point? Well, we'll never know
[26:45] because Gen V was cancelled after its
[26:47] second season and we'll never get an
[26:49] ending for these characters. But aside
[26:50] from establishing that everything is
[26:52] built up to through several shows in the
[26:54] last 3 years ultimately doesn't matter.
[26:56] The finale's biggest problem is again
[27:00] the scale. So yes, just like in the
[27:02] comics, the final battle of the boys
[27:04] takes place at the White House under
[27:06] drastically different circumstances, but
[27:08] still in the comics though, the battle
[27:10] of the White House is much, much bigger
[27:13] in scale. The military is there. There's
[27:15] a big soups war. It's absolutely
[27:18] bonkers. But again, the scale of the
[27:20] show in season 5 feels incredibly small.
[27:22] So the entire fight takes place between
[27:23] three people in the Oval Office. That's
[27:26] about it. It's sort of entertaining if
[27:28] you turn your brain off because if you
[27:30] stop for one second to think about it,
[27:32] this battle makes absolutely no sense.
[27:34] Homelander lasers Kimo like three times
[27:37] and she's only kind of knocked back for
[27:39] a second. But in episode one of this
[27:41] same season, he lasered Kimo once and he
[27:45] sliced her in half. She literally had to
[27:48] regrow the bottom part of her entire
[27:51] body. Anyway, I could point out a
[27:53] million of these things, but there's no
[27:54] point. I kind of accepted after season 4
[27:56] that I couldn't use my brain for this
[27:58] stuff anymore. The fight is okay. It's
[28:00] nothing really impressive. It has its
[28:03] moments. I just expected them to deliver
[28:05] on the scorched earth promise that had
[28:07] been shoved down our throats for the
[28:08] past like 4 years. If you haven't seen,
[28:10] after the finale air, there are
[28:12] incredible 3D artists who made little
[28:15] short films depicting Homelander truly
[28:18] going scorch earth, destroying cities,
[28:21] killing countless innocent people in
[28:23] stadiums and highways. Kind of like what
[28:25] he fantasized about doing that one time
[28:27] in season 2, I think. And those are
[28:30] [ __ ] crazy. And that's kind of what I
[28:33] expected him to do. I always believe
[28:35] there would be a final moment of
[28:37] Homelander going way too far and showing
[28:41] the absolute monster he is for everyone
[28:44] to see. The fact that we never actually
[28:46] got to see him fully going berserk and
[28:49] unleashing his power and all the rage
[28:52] he's been bottling up for years is a
[28:55] little disappointing. The boys has never
[28:58] shied away from being so balls to the
[29:01] wall, and I found this was the worst
[29:03] moment to choose restraint. Instead,
[29:05] they make his big going too far moment
[29:08] more of his religious psychosis thing,
[29:10] which is dumb. I don't like the
[29:13] religious psychosis storyline. I think
[29:15] it's so stupid. He didn't need that to
[29:18] snap. We've been watching that
[29:20] escalation for years. He didn't need
[29:22] something like that to bring him
[29:24] overboard. It works in the idea that
[29:26] Homelander can ultimately never accept
[29:28] love. He wants so desperately to be
[29:31] loved, but he wants it on his own terms.
[29:33] And he needs it to be fundamentally
[29:36] unconditional. He needs to be worshiped.
[29:39] He needs to be adored. But even when
[29:42] people do love him, it's never enough
[29:45] for him. He will always find a reason to
[29:47] reject it. And he will never be
[29:50] satisfied. Thematically, it works.
[29:54] narratively.
[29:56] So, we get a WWE match in the Oval
[29:58] Office. Kamiko blesss everybody and they
[30:01] all lose their powers.
[30:10] The end of Homelander is pretty much
[30:12] everything I expected it to be, and I'm
[30:14] okay with that. I think he's a character
[30:16] who had to be stripped of any shred of
[30:19] dignity he could possibly have left. He
[30:22] had to be so overwhelmingly pathetic in
[30:25] his last moments and I think they pulled
[30:27] that off. Anthony Star once again is
[30:30] just a beast of an actor in this show. I
[30:33] think regardless of the quality of the
[30:34] boys going down, his performance as
[30:36] Homelander is something for the ages. It
[30:39] is unbelievable what he did with this
[30:41] character to its very last moment.
[30:44] Watching Butcher beat the ever living
[30:46] [ __ ] out of him and seeing him beg for
[30:48] his life in the most disgraceful way
[30:50] imaginable. Even if I found that ending
[30:53] a little unambitious and predictable, it
[30:56] still felt satisfying to watch. And
[30:58] that's sort of the emotional point of
[31:00] the finale that really worked for me.
[31:01] Butcher accomplishes his ultimate wish
[31:03] to kill Homelander and get revenge for
[31:06] Becca. But he realizes that doesn't
[31:09] really change anything. It doesn't make
[31:12] a difference. They kill Homelander, but
[31:14] with Vault still at the top of the
[31:16] world, it's only a matter of time before
[31:18] another soup takes his place. So, he
[31:20] wants to keep going. Let's not just kill
[31:23] Homelander. Let's kill all the soups in
[31:26] the world with that [ __ ] ass virus.
[31:29] Butcher dying at the hands of Huey was
[31:31] kind of the most predictable thing of
[31:33] all time. I'm pretty sure everybody knew
[31:35] that was coming. The scene is fine. I
[31:38] didn't really feel that much emotion
[31:40] watching it, but it's executed well
[31:43] enough that I could just shrug it off.
[31:44] It just all feels very rushed and
[31:46] underdeveloped. See, my personal opinion
[31:48] of the finale is that it's trying to
[31:50] force two episodes of TV into one when
[31:53] it really didn't need to do that. I
[31:55] think that defeating Homelander should
[31:58] have been the second to last episode and
[32:01] then the finale should have been about
[32:04] Butcher's heel turn and Huey being
[32:06] forced to stop him. This is what I was
[32:08] saying earlier about writers not
[32:09] properly using the episodes of a final
[32:12] season to end things, but rather try to
[32:14] make everything happen in the finale.
[32:16] This whole section of the finale from
[32:18] Butcher snapping and Huey following him
[32:21] to Vaude, it all happens so fast and you
[32:25] can really tell the episode had to blast
[32:27] through it because it was running out of
[32:30] time. But it really didn't need to be
[32:32] like that. Bro, focus. You wasted so
[32:35] much time during the season with some
[32:37] [ __ ] nobody cared about. That one
[32:39] wasn't hard to figure out. To me, the
[32:42] ultimate issue with this ending is that
[32:43] it fails to fulfill any promise it set
[32:46] up. If you wanted Scorch Earth, well,
[32:49] you get slightly beaten down Room. You
[32:51] wanted a thematic resolution to the
[32:53] commentary behind the story? Well, there
[32:56] isn't any of that really because
[32:58] starting in season 3, there's a very
[33:00] important shift to the show in terms of
[33:02] what the endgame is going to be. See,
[33:04] the original big bad of the series
[33:06] wasn't Homelander. It was VA vault as an
[33:10] entity as everything it represents.
[33:13] There was an understanding in the DNA of
[33:16] the story that this wasn't a show just
[33:18] about beating up manchild Superman. It
[33:20] was about dismantling a system engraved
[33:23] in society and run by a corporate entity
[33:26] with too much power. From the literal
[33:28] superpowers of the maniacs it controls
[33:30] to puppeteering the government,
[33:32] orchestrating wars, manipulating crime,
[33:36] all of it for the sake of profit. That's
[33:38] where the biggest part of the commentary
[33:40] that made the show lied. Sure, the show
[33:43] promised that Butcher's endgame was
[33:45] going to be his final stand against
[33:46] Homelander, but as a whole, it was
[33:50] always kind of understood that the
[33:52] show's endame would be with VA. And then
[33:56] the show kind of just forgot about that.
[34:00] In fact, yes, Butcher was kind of right.
[34:02] By the end of the series, nothing has
[34:04] really changed. And while Homelander is
[34:06] dead, the characters didn't really solve
[34:08] the problem of the show. Homelander
[34:11] wasn't the problem. VA was the problem.
[34:14] Homelander was a symptom of the problem
[34:17] created by VA. I never really thought
[34:19] the show would end with Butcher
[34:21] exterminating Soups, but for a while, my
[34:24] personal theory was that the show was
[34:25] going to end with the boys destroying
[34:27] everything that is left of Compound V,
[34:30] which would have ensured that soups
[34:31] would die out with the current
[34:33] generation. Because remember, Homelander
[34:36] was an anomaly and soups are not
[34:38] supposed to be able to naturally
[34:40] reproduce, which is something the show
[34:42] also forgets about because Annie is
[34:44] pregnant at the end. So, I guess that
[34:46] idea was never going to work out. But
[34:48] since the show shifted its focus from
[34:50] dismantling a system to just being like,
[34:52] "No, we got to kick Homelander's ass and
[34:54] that's the end all be all." For me,
[34:56] watching this finale left me with a
[34:59] feeling of the show being weirdly
[35:01] incomplete. So yeah, the series finale
[35:04] was entertaining at times, but
[35:06] emotionally I came out of this final
[35:09] season feeling absolutely nothing. Eric
[35:11] Krypkkey has recently said that he
[35:13] apologizes if people did not like the
[35:15] ending, but that he really did tell the
[35:17] story he wanted to tell, and I believe
[35:19] him when he says that, which is more
[35:22] than I can say about the showrunner of
[35:24] Euphoria.
[35:27] I'm in my round
[35:30] still without
[35:33] cowboy up
[35:36] 6 years again.
[35:39] Don't break my groove again. Got nothing
[35:44] to prove. Yeah. So, Euphoria finally
[35:47] returned with its third and final
[35:49] season, which means two things. One, we
[35:52] are free from this [ __ ] And two, so
[35:54] is the cast. I don't think anyone is
[35:56] happier about the show being over than
[35:58] the cats. It took four [ __ ] years for
[36:01] this season to come out, which is
[36:03] absolutely ridiculous. And you would
[36:05] think that after all this time, we would
[36:07] be coming back with a season that would
[36:09] have been worth the wait.
[36:12] You would think. I would also think that
[36:14] if I didn't know any better. This is Sam
[36:16] Levenson we're talking about. You just
[36:18] kind of know you're in for a bunch of
[36:20] nothing. Somewhere along the way,
[36:22] Euphoria stopped being a show people
[36:24] watched because it was powerful and
[36:26] emotionally resonant with themes that
[36:28] reflected modern youth and became a show
[36:31] people watched to laugh at. It's the
[36:33] latest hatewatch contestant in pop
[36:35] culture. While season 3 was airing, a
[36:37] friend told me that she felt Euphoria
[36:39] had become the new Riverdale. And
[36:41] honestly, I haven't been able to get
[36:43] that comparison out of my head ever
[36:44] since. a show nobody can take seriously,
[36:47] but that for some reason they keep
[36:49] coming back to out of morbid curiosity.
[36:51] And I think that's why so much of the
[36:53] discussion around season 3 felt
[36:54] different. In the early days, people
[36:56] were talking about the characters, the
[36:58] themes, the performances. But now, most
[37:00] of what I've seen about the show in
[37:02] recent weeks is people sharing clips on
[37:04] TikTok being like, "What the [ __ ] was
[37:07] that?" This show is nonsense. It's bad.
[37:13] It's
[37:14] Sam Lemonson needs to be arrested. I
[37:16] finally finished Euphoria. Wh what a
[37:19] terrible season of television.
[37:20] >> Are y'all genuinely enjoying this season
[37:22] of Euphoria? And if you say yes, I'm not
[37:24] going to lie. I don't fully believe you.
[37:26] Like, this is not Euphoria.
[37:28] >> So, Euphoria has finally ended, and I
[37:30] feel like everyone is relieved. And much
[37:32] has been said as the season has gone on
[37:34] about how wildly disjointed this season
[37:37] has felt, how tonally inconsistent all
[37:39] of the characters and their stories have
[37:41] felt from each other, and also just how
[37:43] completely different this season feels
[37:46] to the first two seasons of Euphoria. It
[37:48] literally feels like a completely
[37:50] different show.
[37:51] >> I despised the Euphoria season 3 finale.
[37:53] I think it's bad in the most
[37:54] irresponsible and harmful way. And if I
[37:57] said that episode one of season 3 of
[37:59] Euphoria was like probably one of the
[38:00] worst episodes of television that I have
[38:02] ever watched cuz it's not it's like it's
[38:05] obviously shock value, right? Like it
[38:07] doesn't even make any sense.
[38:08] >> Season 3 of Euphoria was absolutely
[38:10] awful so far. The vibes, the characters,
[38:14] everything.
[38:14] >> Why did any of them do any of that?
[38:17] Everybody needs to make the most
[38:18] illogical choice ever all the time in
[38:21] order for the plot points that you set
[38:22] in place to make any sense.
[38:23] >> It's so hard to watch. It's so boring.
[38:26] It's got this weird creepy vibe to it.
[38:31] Like,
[38:32] >> check Sam Levenson's laptop. Check that
[38:35] man's devices.
[38:36] >> And that's the Sam Levenson way. Every
[38:38] episode feels like a competition to
[38:40] produce the next viral moment,
[38:42] regardless of whether it serves a story,
[38:44] which spoiler alert, it never does. It's
[38:46] kind of like looking at a car crash. You
[38:48] know, it's a disaster. You know, you
[38:50] probably shouldn't be staring, but at
[38:52] this point, you're weirdly committed to
[38:53] seeing just how much worse it's going to
[38:55] get. And boy, does it get worse. Season
[38:59] 3 of Euphoria is without a doubt some of
[39:01] the worst writing the show has ever
[39:03] produced, which is honestly impressive,
[39:05] considering season 2 was essentially 8
[39:07] hours of absolute nonsense. Although,
[39:10] the biggest problem isn't that the
[39:11] season is messy. Euphoria has always
[39:13] been messy. The problem is that the
[39:15] chaos used to come from the characters.
[39:18] It used to serve the characters. It used
[39:20] to serve the story, but now it feels
[39:23] like the characters exist to serve the
[39:25] chaos. All of that to be shoved in to
[39:27] try and justify the existence of a
[39:29] narrative that doesn't even make sense
[39:31] anymore. In other words, season 3 of
[39:33] Euphoria is Brain Rod, a shallow piece
[39:36] of media with no meaning and no depth
[39:39] that throws [ __ ] at you just for the
[39:41] sake of it. This season takes place 5
[39:43] years after the end of season 2. The
[39:45] characters are now adults out of high
[39:47] school and college and their lives are
[39:49] very different. I could sit here and
[39:51] walk you through it, but the reality is
[39:53] it doesn't matter. All you need to know
[39:55] is that Ru now works for this guy and
[39:57] she has to do some really illegal stuff
[39:59] to pay off a debt she owes. Kind of.
[40:02] Everything else that happens around this
[40:04] one plot point is completely pointless
[40:07] and has no correlation to anything
[40:09] you've seen in the past two seasons.
[40:11] Come to think of it, this is basically a
[40:13] reboot of the show. Visually, the show
[40:15] remains stunning, although different now
[40:17] that Sam isn't just ripping off yet
[40:19] another woman he hired to work on his
[40:21] project before kicking them out and
[40:23] stealing their ideas, but it does look
[40:25] good. The visuals are packed with like
[40:27] gorgeous cinematography, dreamlike
[40:29] imagery, and enough slow motion shots to
[40:31] give Zack Snder a boner. Trust me. But
[40:33] narratively, the season kind of feels
[40:36] more interested in shocking the audience
[40:39] for no real reason than telling a
[40:41] coherent story. I found the main story
[40:43] of the season to be incredibly contrived
[40:46] and utterly boring. The crime underworld
[40:49] story with Alamo was a snoozefest only
[40:52] there to let Sam Levenson be the edge
[40:54] lord he is. I don't care about any of
[40:56] these characters anymore. They no longer
[40:58] have anything to do with the characters
[41:00] I knew at the beginning of the series.
[41:01] None of them are likable except maybe
[41:03] from Rue. None of them are redeemable.
[41:06] Some of them die out of nowhere.
[41:08] Honestly, I don't think the show has
[41:09] ever made me laugh harder than when they
[41:11] reveal Nate's dead body. That scene is
[41:14] so ridiculous and again funny. It
[41:17] reminded me of that scene in Pretty
[41:18] Little Liars when the girls open the
[41:20] trunk of the cop car and find a dead pig
[41:22] in it. Like, you have to be 12 years old
[41:25] to gasp at this. But I'm certain Sam
[41:27] wrote this thinking, "Ooh, I'm so dark
[41:30] and edgy. I'm such a provocator." I did
[41:33] like big man and in the role of Alamo,
[41:36] though. He's always so good in whatever
[41:38] he does, and I don't care what anybody
[41:40] says. His ultimate role is as one of
[41:42] Emoteep's right-hand men in The Mummy
[41:44] Returns. The character though is just
[41:46] whatever. Kind of a generic kingpin type
[41:49] of guy. Kind of a nothing burger. Alamo
[41:51] only works because of the performance of
[41:53] the actor playing him, which you could
[41:55] say the same thing about virtually
[41:56] everyone in the show after the first
[41:58] season. The genre is completely
[42:00] different. The entire season feels like
[42:02] Sam Levenson watched Sakario or a
[42:04] Tarantino movie and he was like, "I
[42:06] could do that, too." And then he spends
[42:08] eight hours proving he absolutely
[42:10] cannot. This might as well have been a
[42:11] new show because even the characters
[42:13] feel like completely different people.
[42:15] And at the exception of Ru, nothing that
[42:17] happened in the first two seasons brings
[42:19] any sort of coherence to what's going on
[42:21] with them in season 3. And that's if
[42:23] they're lucky enough to even have
[42:25] something going on in season 3. I'm not
[42:27] even being sarcastic here. This is a
[42:29] real question. Can somebody explain to
[42:32] me why Sam even bothered to write jewels
[42:36] into this season? Genuinely, I mean,
[42:38] good for Hunter Schaefer. Get that
[42:39] paper. Get that yacht. But it's so
[42:41] apparent the whole season that Sam
[42:44] Levenson has absolutely no [ __ ] idea
[42:47] what to do with this character.
[42:48] Generally speaking, Jules is a character
[42:50] Sam never really put any thought into
[42:52] past season 1. She is a [ __ ] tourist
[42:56] in season 3. She doesn't do anything the
[42:59] entire season and then she doesn't even
[43:01] get an ending. And I get it. She can't
[43:04] have a conclusion because there is no
[43:06] story to conclude. She hasn't had an arc
[43:09] since the special episode about her
[43:11] after season 1, which is probably one of
[43:13] the best episodes of the show. But
[43:15] overall, we just kind of lost the plot
[43:17] here. The wedding episode is probably
[43:19] the clearest example of this. This
[43:21] appeared to me as the moment where the
[43:22] show fully jumps the shark and stops
[43:24] pretending there's a larger purpose
[43:26] behind any of it. Drama no longer exists
[43:29] to further character themes or push the
[43:31] story forward. It exists because the
[43:33] show has become addicted to escalation.
[43:35] Every scene has to be louder, crazier,
[43:38] more shocking and edgy than the last,
[43:41] regardless of whether it makes any
[43:43] sense. And the result is a season that
[43:45] feels strangely empty despite all the
[43:47] screaming and crying. It's constantly
[43:49] throwing things at the audience, but
[43:51] very little of it actually means
[43:53] anything. It's chaos, sure, but it's not
[43:56] compelling chaos. It's narrative brain
[43:59] rod dressed up in expensive
[44:00] cinematography and a Labyrinth
[44:02] soundtrack. Oh, oops. Actually, no,
[44:05] because Labyrinth [ __ ] off the show.
[44:07] If I had a nickel for every person who
[44:10] had a falling out with Sam Levenson in
[44:11] the past few years, I probably would
[44:13] have enough money to buy HBO. I'm not
[44:16] going to get into that, though. I think
[44:17] everybody knows about it. We've been
[44:19] hearing about Zenaia and Sam Levenson
[44:21] having a terrible relationship all year.
[44:24] We all saw that incredibly awkward video
[44:26] of Sam asking Zenaia to take a picture
[44:29] with him on the red carpet at the season
[44:31] 3 premiere and she just ignores him and
[44:33] walks the other way. We've all heard
[44:35] that Zenaia and Sydney Sweeney are not
[44:37] on speaking terms and Zenaia refused to
[44:39] shoot with her in season 3, which is why
[44:41] they don't have any scenes together.
[44:43] We've all noticed that the cast barely
[44:45] promoted the season, if at all. We all
[44:48] know Barbie Ferrer was treated like [ __ ]
[44:50] and left. We all know Labyrinth was
[44:52] treated like [ __ ] and left. You all know
[44:54] that stuff. I don't need to talk about
[44:56] it. And this is the thing. If I'm trying
[44:58] to be honest and fair to it, it's not
[45:00] like the season is devoid of any merit.
[45:03] Like I said, and like I've been saying
[45:05] since I made my first Euphoria video 4
[45:07] years ago, it's still one of the best
[45:10] looking TV shows ever made. It's
[45:13] visually gorgeous. The cast is still
[45:16] amazing. Everyone is really good in it.
[45:19] Performances are very strong, as they
[45:21] have been throughout all three seasons.
[45:23] Like, there is a lot to appreciate about
[45:26] Euphoria. Every single problem I have
[45:29] with the show comes down to Sam Levenson
[45:32] and his writing, his script, his [ __ ]
[45:36] ass dialogue, the very weird ideologies
[45:38] he seems to pass through the characters,
[45:40] the faux deep nature of his storytelling
[45:43] that tries really hard to appear
[45:44] profound, even though everything about
[45:46] it is superficial and very poorly
[45:48] constructed. A huge portion of season 3
[45:51] revolves around sex work, and the way
[45:53] the show handles that topic is strange,
[45:56] to put it mildly, because the more time
[45:58] you spend with these story lines, the
[45:59] more it feels like the series isn't
[46:01] actually interested in understanding
[46:03] these characters as people. Instead, it
[46:05] often comes across as viewing them
[46:06] through a lens of judgment and ridicule.
[46:08] Almost every sex worker in the season is
[46:11] portrayed as self-destructive, morally
[46:13] bankrupt, stupid, naive, or some
[46:16] combination of the four. And well, the
[46:18] issue is that when nearly every
[46:20] depiction points in the same direction,
[46:22] it starts to feel less like storytelling
[46:24] and more like Sam Levenson is working
[46:26] through a personal grudge. It is
[46:28] incredibly clear that he despises sex
[46:30] workers and he looks down on them and he
[46:32] sees them as brainless imbeciles. And
[46:34] the part that I feel uncomfortable with
[46:36] is that Sam seems to be taking great
[46:38] pleasure in humiliating these characters
[46:40] every chance he gets. This is something
[46:42] that has been very present in his
[46:44] project since season 2 and especially
[46:46] with the idol. Sam Levenson has always
[46:49] had this recurring theme of punishing
[46:51] promiscuity and there's no difference
[46:53] with season 3. There's a cruelty to the
[46:56] way some of these stories are presented
[46:57] as if the show is refusing to explore
[47:00] these people's lives and instead
[47:02] punishes them for having them. At times
[47:04] it really feels like he's standing
[47:05] behind the camera like, "See, aren't
[47:08] those people pathetic?" and he's
[47:09] expecting people to nod along.
[47:11] >> Sam Levenson seems to think that the
[47:13] most degrading and depraved thing women
[47:15] can do is engage in sex work. And he
[47:17] intends to make them suffer for it.
[47:19] Season 3 seems to be putting the
[47:20] majority of its female characters on a
[47:22] track to participate in sex work. And
[47:24] not just participate in, but be
[47:25] humiliated and degraded by, as evidenced
[47:27] by Cassie's choice to become a sexy dog
[47:30] emoji and a sexy baby, the most
[47:32] exaggerated, egregious, humiliating form
[47:35] of an Only Fans creator you could
[47:36] possibly imagine. And in the first 15
[47:38] minutes, choosing to have Khloe Cherry
[47:41] specifically gagging and choking and
[47:43] spitting all over the fentanyl balloons
[47:45] that she's trying to swallow um feels
[47:47] pretty indicative of how Sam Levenson
[47:50] actually feels about these choices.
[47:52] Jules is a shadow of a character that
[47:54] also feels like is a character that's
[47:55] just being punished being put in this
[47:57] superficial like sex work prison that is
[48:00] a much nicer prison than the one Maddie
[48:02] and Cassie got put in, but still is like
[48:05] a cage for her, a pretty gilded cage.
[48:07] And I feel like all of these characters
[48:09] are put in their cages by the end of
[48:11] this series or killed. And again, this
[48:13] is something that I would maybe actually
[48:15] be interested in if any of these topics
[48:17] were explored with like a modicum of
[48:19] nuance, but they absolutely aren't. Like
[48:21] Cassie is a great example of this, a
[48:23] character that essentially just became
[48:24] absurd comedic relief that by the way
[48:26] was hugely offensive to sex workers and
[48:29] like Only Fance models. In fact, there
[48:30] was a controversy after like the episode
[48:32] the Cassie Zilla episode came out, which
[48:35] God knows how much of the budget went to
[48:37] making Sydney Sweeny's tits as large as
[48:39] [ __ ] possible. Yay, nuance.
[48:42] Wonderful. Um, but like the stuff that
[48:44] she's depicted as doing on Only Fans,
[48:46] like the baby play and the pet play, is
[48:48] literally not even allowed on the
[48:49] platform. And it feels like a
[48:51] conservative guy trying to fearmmonger
[48:54] like what the most depraved idea of an
[48:57] Only Fans model could possibly be.
[48:59] What's the most offensive thing?
[49:01] Sexualizing literal babies. Not even
[49:04] something that these women are allowed
[49:05] to do. And again, for a show that is so
[49:08] obviously and violently anti-ex worker
[49:11] specifically, um it never ever ever
[49:15] even tries to get into the systemic
[49:17] issues at play here. It never gets into
[49:19] who the clientele is or why they are
[49:21] dangerous or the real life dangers and
[49:23] lifestyle of what life is like for sex
[49:26] workers. Um, this show just seems to
[49:28] think that these women are stupid and
[49:30] they get themselves into these
[49:32] situations by being dumb and naive and
[49:36] greedy.
[49:37] >> I'm not going to school you guys on all
[49:38] of this. I'm obviously not the most
[49:40] qualified person to talk about that in
[49:42] depth. All I have is my own opinion and
[49:44] I'm not a sex worker. But you can look
[49:46] it up. A number of sex workers have come
[49:48] out to stand against the show's
[49:50] depiction of them, especially throughout
[49:51] the second half of the season. Whether
[49:53] they be porn stars, Only Fans, models,
[49:56] strippers, you name it. Hundreds of them
[49:58] have been very open and vocal about how
[50:00] harmful and damaging this show is to
[50:03] them, the image of their profession, to
[50:05] the public, and by proxy to their
[50:07] safety. Sam very clearly looks down on
[50:10] those people, and he's not shy about
[50:11] showing it. And it's made even worse by
[50:13] the overwhelming religious angle of the
[50:16] season. Somehow, despite discussing two
[50:18] completely unrelated final seasons in
[50:21] this video, both of them have to do with
[50:23] religion overtaking the story out of
[50:25] nowhere. I wonder if this is a
[50:27] coincidence or if this is a theme that's
[50:29] starting to grow in Hollywood. The
[50:30] season becomes increasingly obsessed
[50:32] with themes of sin, shame, guilt,
[50:36] redemption, God, and when you combine
[50:38] that with the show's portrayal of sex
[50:40] work and how reductive it is towards sex
[50:42] workers, it creates a worldview that
[50:44] feels surprisingly judgmental, not
[50:47] nuanced, not complicated, just
[50:49] degrading. The further the season goes,
[50:51] the more it feels like the characters
[50:53] aren't really being filtered through a
[50:55] human lens. And that's the Sam Levenson
[50:57] way.
[51:03] And this is where we have to talk about
[51:05] Sam Levenson, who is definitely the real
[51:08] antagonist of this show. By the way,
[51:10] I've heard people refer to Sam as the
[51:12] most overrated man in Hollywood. And um
[51:17] no, he's not. News flash, uh you can't
[51:21] be overrated if nobody likes you. And
[51:24] Sam knows people don't like him. He's
[51:26] very aware of that because he constantly
[51:28] uses his shows and his movies as a way
[51:30] to complain about the fact that people
[51:32] don't like him. Malcolm and Marie is
[51:34] pretty much just Sam Levenson being a
[51:37] crybaby and thinking it's unfair that
[51:39] critics don't like his [ __ ] but at the
[51:41] same time, he kind of likes it. Like,
[51:44] okay, let me explain. See, the thing
[51:45] with Sam Levenson is his head is very,
[51:49] very far up his own ass. He made the
[51:52] first season of Euphoria. It was
[51:54] successful. And now he actually deluded
[51:56] himself into believing he is a living
[51:59] legend and a genius even though
[52:01] literally everything else he's ever made
[52:04] sucked ass. The reason why he loves the
[52:06] controversy around his work is because
[52:08] he thinks he's a [ __ ] mastermind. He
[52:11] 100% believes he's the [ __ ] best. He
[52:15] himself refers to the Idol as
[52:18] revolutionary.
[52:20] He genuinely thinks it's brilliant. When
[52:23] The Idol premiered at a festival and all
[52:25] those articles started to come out about
[52:27] the production troubles of the show, the
[52:30] one thing he had to say about all the
[52:32] criticism was
[52:33] >> when my wife read me the article,
[52:37] I looked at her and I just
[52:40] I just said, "I think we're about to
[52:42] have the biggest show of the summer."
[52:45] >> And that right there is the big tell.
[52:47] Like I think Sam just wants people to
[52:50] talk about him. He doesn't care if it's
[52:52] positive discourse or negative
[52:54] discourse. He just wants the attention.
[52:57] As long as you're talking about him, he
[52:59] loves it. After all, he is the ultimate
[53:01] edgeward. He does edgy things because he
[53:04] wants people to notice that he's doing
[53:06] edgy things. And because he deluded
[53:08] himself into thinking he's a super
[53:10] genius, he one thinks he's a true master
[53:13] at work, and two, continues to make his
[53:16] stuff more and more edgy to try and get
[53:19] more and more attention. If you don't
[53:21] know what I'm talking about, Sam
[53:23] Levenson has a certain track record with
[53:26] the types of stories he tells. See, he
[53:28] loves to portray young women being
[53:31] sexually abused and or exploited. And I
[53:34] don't mean that he does it with a point
[53:36] or a message. No, no, no. What I mean is
[53:39] his stories often are excuses for him to
[53:43] simply depict gratuitous artsy imagery
[53:46] of young women being mentally or
[53:48] sexually abused just because it feels
[53:52] more like a weird fetish he gets to put
[53:54] on screen for himself rather than him
[53:56] having to say something about the
[53:58] topics. Some examples of that are the
[54:00] infamous Russian roulette sequence in
[54:02] Euphoria, the Lily and Nick scene from
[54:05] Assassination Nation, the studio scene
[54:07] from The Idol, or even the hairbrush
[54:10] scene where Tedro spends an entire night
[54:12] repeatedly beating Joselyn with a
[54:15] hairbrush because her mother used to do
[54:17] the same thing. And they think that if
[54:20] he makes her experience that again,
[54:22] it'll inspire her to make good music.
[54:26] I wish I was lying, but that's a real
[54:29] sequence. And of course, there is one
[54:31] little moment from the pilot of the idol
[54:33] where he kind of explains it out loud
[54:36] through the mouth of one of his
[54:38] characters.
[54:39] >> Are we romanticizing mental illness?
[54:41] >> Absolutely.
[54:42] >> Mental illness is sexy.
[54:44] >> No, it's not.
[54:45] >> Yeah. If if you live in Sous City, Iowa,
[54:48] you are never going to meet a girl like
[54:50] Joseline. She didn't go to your high
[54:51] school. She doesn't work at the bar or
[54:53] the diner. and she did not marry your
[54:55] best friend. And if on the off chance
[54:57] she did, she is still never ever going
[55:00] to [ __ ] you unless she has some very,
[55:02] very serious mental problems. And that
[55:04] right there is why mental illness is
[55:07] sexy.
[55:08] >> Yep. Given how his shows usually are, I
[55:11] am convinced that this scene is
[55:13] literally just Sam Levenson telling his
[55:16] audience why he writes female characters
[55:18] the way he does. Whether it's Jocelyn in
[55:21] the Idol, Marie and Malcolm and Marie,
[55:23] literally any female character in
[55:25] Euphoria, the depiction of young women
[55:28] in brutal emotional distress as a result
[55:30] of abuse or mental health issues is
[55:33] almost like a kink to him. He doesn't
[55:36] repeatedly show it in every single one
[55:38] of his projects to drive a point across.
[55:41] I think he does it because he just
[55:43] thinks it's hot. He just finds it really
[55:46] cool. naked, crying, abused young women
[55:50] in distress. That's his type. The
[55:54] funniest thing about this season,
[55:55] though, is just how obvious it is that
[55:57] its brain deadad narrative is entirely
[56:00] constructed around the schedules of the
[56:02] actors. There are so many things
[56:03] happening in this season solely because
[56:06] they had to work around schedules.
[56:07] Nate's entire storyline where he is
[56:10] mostly by himself until he dies in the
[56:12] dumbest way possible just screams we had
[56:15] Jacob already for maybe a week where
[56:17] nobody else was really available so we
[56:19] had to get him to do something by
[56:21] himself. Even the scene where his dead
[56:23] body is revealed to Cassie and Maddie.
[56:25] You can tell from how it's edited that
[56:27] he definitely was not on set with them.
[56:30] The entire story line with Rue meeting
[56:32] up with Jules is very obviously set up
[56:34] the way it is because they probably
[56:36] couldn't have Zenaia and Hunter together
[56:38] for more than like a day or two. So
[56:40] like, okay, let's stick them together in
[56:42] a condo and have them yap about nothing.
[56:45] >> You don't want to kiss me like now?
[56:48] >> Yeah, I'd kiss you.
[56:50] >> But do you want to? I
[56:51] >> mean, I find you very attractive.
[56:53] >> That wasn't the question.
[56:55] >> I'm confused. Do you want me to kiss
[56:56] you?
[56:56] >> That's all you want?
[56:57] >> What do you want?
[56:59] a lot of things. Like what? You want to
[57:03] kiss me?
[57:04] >> Then more nonsense happens. Cassie is
[57:06] well, you know, she's never really up to
[57:08] anything, but Sam Levenson really likes
[57:11] certain things and Sydney Sweeney is
[57:13] down for anything, so that's that.
[57:15] Anyway, a bunch of [ __ ] happens for
[57:16] no reason. And then Rue dies. That's
[57:18] kind of the big thing this season. Ru's
[57:20] death is incredibly contrived and not
[57:24] earned at all. The way we get to it is
[57:26] kind of stupid. But again, to be fair,
[57:29] the scene itself, cinematically
[57:32] speaking, is very well executed. It's
[57:35] visually beautiful. It's incredibly well
[57:38] acted. Han Zimmer suddenly remembers how
[57:40] to make good music because he was asleep
[57:42] the entire season. Like, it's a very
[57:44] pretty scene. It's very nice to watch.
[57:47] It's so well put together. It doesn't
[57:49] change the fact that it is narratively
[57:51] dumb as hell. It's trying really hard to
[57:53] be poetic, but again, depth is not
[57:56] something Sam Levenson is particularly
[57:58] good at. He's about as surface level as
[58:00] a leaf in the ocean. Like, if you cried
[58:02] at this scene, I think it's very easy
[58:04] for filmmakers to manipulate you, but
[58:06] that's a whole other conversation for
[58:08] another video one day. Ru's death
[58:10] doesn't feel like the end of an arc. Sam
[58:12] Levenson said it felt like an honest
[58:14] ending. And okay, sure, I would have
[58:17] understood that if the season would have
[58:19] been about her relapsing or a more
[58:22] connected story about the addiction that
[58:24] has been such a part of her character
[58:25] since season 1, but no, she's just
[58:27] tricked into overdosing on fentinel. And
[58:29] it's not like I'm surprised. I expected
[58:31] Ru to die. The second the season starts
[58:34] and they're like, Rue has been clean for
[58:35] a while, it's like, okay, she's dead. I
[58:37] know Sam Levenson way too well. He's not
[58:39] doing that for any other reason that
[58:41] he's gearing up for something shocking
[58:44] because shock value is everything to him
[58:46] and he seems to believe that doing
[58:47] shocking things means the show is like
[58:49] deep and whatever but it's not and it's
[58:51] stupid. I guess it works for the
[58:52] narrative Sam was going for, even if
[58:55] it's a bad one, but I just found it very
[58:57] cheap. Ali going to get revenge for Ru
[58:59] in this [ __ ] ass western shootout is
[59:02] just
[59:04] What are we doing? This is so [ __ ]
[59:06] stupid. I'll see you in hell, you
[59:09] mother.
[59:17] >> Okay, John Wick.
[59:20] Ali abandoning everything he believes in
[59:22] and giving this dumbass speech,
[59:24] essentially saying that helping people
[59:26] the way he has is futile, only to get
[59:28] into a shootout because we're trying to
[59:30] be Tarantino here. Just put me to sleep
[59:33] already. I'm glad at least that Ali is
[59:35] played by Coleman Domingo that makes him
[59:37] stomachable to watch. I genuinely
[59:39] believe Coleman Domingo is like
[59:41] genetically unable to flop. Despite the
[59:45] horrifyingly atrocious script, he
[59:47] manages to still remain present and to
[59:51] deliver and to give Ali a screen
[59:53] presence that makes it bearable to
[59:55] watch. But my god, that story line is
[59:58] stupid. God, it's so dumb and it betrays
[60:01] so much of his character. But whatever.
[60:03] I just I just can't get over how stupid
[60:06] this is. This moment in the finale made
[60:08] me realize that at some point Euphoria
[60:11] turned into a show for fans of Ryan
[60:13] Murphy. And if you've seen this video,
[60:16] you know what I think about Ryan Murphy.
[60:18] I think he's a disgusting human being
[60:20] who exploits people to profit on the
[60:22] tragedies that ruin their lives. And
[60:24] there are very few people in this
[60:26] industry I respect less than him. And
[60:28] his shows suck. And this is kind of how
[60:30] I feel about Sam Levenson now. It's just
[60:32] Edgeelord content with a pretty color
[60:34] palette, but it doesn't make it any less
[60:36] of lazy Edgeelord content. So,
[60:38] congratulations, Ryan Murphy fans. You
[60:41] now have a new weirdo to worship. Let's
[60:43] hear you guys defend this one. And
[60:45] that's ultimately what makes so much of
[60:47] season 3 feel hollow to me. Euphoria
[60:50] constantly wants credit for tackling
[60:52] serious subjects, but it often treats
[60:54] those subjects like visual accessories
[60:56] rather than meaningful character
[60:58] exploration. The trauma becomes the
[61:01] spectacle. The suffering becomes an
[61:03] aesthetic. At a certain point, it just
[61:05] feels performative and frankly really
[61:07] boring. If this sounds familiar, it's
[61:09] because it's the exact same criticism
[61:11] many people, me included, had of The
[61:13] Idol. Different show, same pattern. I
[61:16] don't want to spend forever rehashing
[61:17] that argument, but I think it's
[61:19] impossible to watch season 3 and not
[61:21] notice how many of the same creative
[61:23] instincts have followed Sam Levenson
[61:25] from one project to the next. It gets
[61:27] tiring to watch this show being so
[61:30] utterly convinced to be much deeper than
[61:32] it actually is to be much smarter than
[61:34] it actually is because it is just trash
[61:36] TV trying really hard to cosplay
[61:39] prestige television. You're not that
[61:41] guy, Sam. You're never going to be. I
[61:44] really thought I would have more to say
[61:45] about the season, but surprisingly, not
[61:48] really. It was just really boring. And
[61:50] despite the fact that in terms of
[61:52] viewership, this was the most popular
[61:54] season of the show, the response to it
[61:56] online has been shockingly quiet. There
[61:59] just wasn't that much of a big response
[62:01] to it. People very much received this
[62:03] season as something anecdotal. It just
[62:05] kind of came and went and people have
[62:07] already moved on. Three seasons in seven
[62:10] years, and it feels like the majority of
[62:11] people experienced the ending of it with
[62:13] a bit of a shrug. I still have
[62:15] appreciation for season 1, which is the
[62:18] only good season of Euphoria. the only
[62:20] one where the commentary felt like it
[62:22] had a soul. And I genuinely believe that
[62:24] had Euphoria been a one season limited
[62:27] series that shook pop culture back in
[62:29] 2019 and it had ended there, it would
[62:32] have been remembered as probably one of
[62:35] the best limited series of our time. But
[62:37] now, Euphoria is just this neverending
[62:40] punchline that everybody will remember
[62:42] for being unhinged and stuff. And okay,
[62:44] cool. I guess that's also a legacy. But
[62:47] it's just crazy that this is where the
[62:49] show ended when you look at where it
[62:51] started.
[62:54] I'm in my
[62:57] still
[63:00] cowboy up
[63:03] 6 years again.
[63:06] Don't break my
[63:09] got nothing to prove. Yeah. Astro
[63:13] vision.
[63:15] Yeah, you will be disapproved.
[63:19] I'm in my rank
[63:22] still at without
[63:25] cowboys
[63:27] and six years born again.