The original post: /r/television by /u/Ok-Economics-4788 on 2026-05-17 06:54:34+00:00.
Earlier in the year, Eric Kripke said this in what was obviously a reference to the Stranger Things final season and finale:
“It bums me out when you have a big, epic sci-fi show, and then at the end, it’s like, ‘Oh, everyone’s fine.’ I keep yelling at the screen, ‘Things cost things, you can’t just get away with this!’ So yes, I wouldn’t get too attached to any single character.”
Hot tip, don’t bag another shows final season before yours comes out. Obviously the final episode of The Boys hasn’t come out yet, and who knows, maybe it could be fantastic. However the season as a whole has in my opinion (and many others) been incredibly lacklustre.
I think the importance of killing main characters is overstated. I agree someone should’ve died in Stranger Things’ final season (at least), but that was nowhere near the biggest issue with that season (as someone who didn’t hate the ending), and killing main characters doesn’t equate to good storytelling. The Boys has already killed off a number of characters who have been mainstays throughout the show (or at least the past few seasons) but that hasn’t made the show any better.
This season has felt like seven episodes of meandering around before we can get to the events of the finale. Despite the fact that characters have died, there hasn’t been a rise in stakes or danger. I care less about all of these characters than I did two seasons ago, because the show hasn’t given me any real reason to care about them since then.
Ultimately, killing characters doesn’t make a final season good or bad. What makes it good or bad is the quality of writing, and I would argue that the quality of writing in season 5 of The Boys is no better than season 5 of Stranger Things (in fact I’d probably say it’s worse; at least the first half of the season had more momentum and it actually felt the story was progressing).
Anyway, hopefully they can pull off a good finale.