"The Boys" showrunner Eric Kripke has strongly dismissed fan complaints about some episodes being "filler" in the show's latest season — the fifth and final — stating that if viewers are expecting a "giant battle" every episode, then they are "watching the wrong show."
In a recent interview with TV Guide, Kripke defended the writing choices in the new season, arguing that the ending of the series will only have meaning if the show takes the time to "flesh out" its roughly 15 main characters. He noted that television is a "character business" and that he owes it to the cast and audience to humanise their stories.
He explained that fans often mistake character-driven narrative developments for "nothing happening" simply because they don't involve an action-packed spectacle. Kripke defended these creative choices — the emotional or psychological shifts, that is — as some of the "craziest, biggest moves" in the season, and that they are required for what comes later — the climactic events — to feel more heavy. However, he also acknowledged the budgetary constraints for staging big action moments, adding that "The Boys" is not "Game of Thrones" when it comes to this department.
Kripke also speculated that the weekly release schedule might be aggravating viewers. He suggested that the people binge-watching the season later would likely find the pacing more natural than those waiting seven days between slower, character-focused chapters.
The general audience response to the fifth season of "The Boys" has been notably more positive than the previous year, with many viewers considering it a "return to form" after a divisive fourth season. The Season 5 premiere was the highest-rated in the series' history, with the Rotten Tomatoes' critics' score currently at 97%. However, the audience score (currently around 73-85%) remains lower than the heights of Season 1 (90%) and Season 2 (83%).
Some viewers still find the pacing uneven, with some episodes feeling like they are "spinning their wheels" before the showdown. And like Season 4, a section of viewers remains critical of the show’s increasingly overt political satire and reliance on "shock value" humour, which some feel has overshadowed the relatively tighter writing of the first two seasons.