- Both began their 5th season.
- And both are on the home stretch to a series finale.
- And both say “Fuck” a lot!
From there, the shows paths diverge.
Let’s start with The Boys.
Season 5 begins with Homelander solidifying his super powered grip on the United States government, overseeing a country where Christian nationalism is running amuck.
Even when Starlight gets the infamous Flight 37 video out for everyone to see (the one where Homelander allowed the plane to crash with everyone on board), the damage is quickly mitigated by a PR apparatus that immediately springs into action with claims of “fake news” and allegations of AI manipulation.
There remains the one option to kill him, the virus that in order to be strong enough to unalive Homelander would also kill every single person with super powers on the planet.
So Billy Butcher gathers up the team to put this final option into effect. First, Billy, Starlight and Komiko (who can talk now!) have to bust out Hughie, MM and Frenchie from a “Freedom Camp”, an internment facility for those Homelander calls enemies of the state.
It's scary how much the world of The Boys reflects the world we're actually living in and show runner Eric Kripke's kind of annoyed about that actually.
“I am really tired and weary of the world reflecting the show before we get a chance to do it. I appreciate the marketing. I’m just like, can you just please give us a chance to put some absurd satire out there before you prove that it's more realistic than we ever intended?”
Homelander has egomaniacal delusions of grandeur, of ascending to godhood. A vision of the deceased Madelyn Stillwell tells Homelander “Who is more loved than Jesus? And why should he have more love than you?”
Kripke felt confident this plot development would not be matched by the real world. "Homelander saying he’s God is so out there. We have to be careful about how we even introduce the idea to the public because they’ll say he’s gone too far."
Then Donald Trump drops an A.I. image of himself as Jesus Christ.
Kripke can only shake his head and comment wearily, "It’s just really hard to out-satire this world."
And now we’re off to Hacks.
The fall out from Deborah’s season 4 decision to not capitulate to studio boss Bob Lipka about what she can say or do on her Late Night talk show and who she can hire continues to impact her life. Bereft of a TV show and unable to score any work anywhere due to the non-compete clause in her contract, Deborah is lost.
Lipka has his fingers in so many media pots, he has effectively erased her from pop culture existence, pulling not just the clips from her talk show but also all her comedy specials as well. His retaliation against Deborah for her daring to stand up to him has been total.
Her legacy is more than just diminished and tarnished. Her legacy is just plain gone.
And Deborah is understandably pissed off about that.
Deborah stages a secret stand up comedy set where everyone's phones are confiscated.
But someone records the show anyway and puts it online and Bob Lipka immediately sues Deborah. On the courthouse steps Deborah frames the non-compete restrictions as a first amendment issue and announces she will be back on stage at Madison Square Garden when she beats this contract.
Who leaked that video? It was Ava. But that's OK, it's all part of the plan. Lipka's lawsuit was just what Deborah needed to put herself in front of the cameras in the first phase of reclaiming her legacy.
Although securing MSG might be harder than expected. The only date available for the venue is... September 11th.
Well, that's gonna make for some awkward comedy.
Leave it to Hacks to make September 11th a punchline.
That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Next week, everything old is new again as we look in on the return of Scrubs and Malcolm In the Middle.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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