‘I think it’s for the best that Eric Kripke plans to leave this series at five seasons, but we’ve gotten occasional glimpses at a version that could work as a longer ongoing series. That’s something I thought about a lot throughout “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son,” especially during these sequences at the farm. Yes, there’s plenty of plot movement: In the final scene, we learn that ABC and XYZ secreted EFG away to make more of the KLM, chopping off PQR so everybody assumes he UVW. But the isolated setting and episodic nature of it all makes me imagine a more procedural version of this show, shuffling characters around into new sitcomlike groupings and sending them out on missions each week while offering political satire suited to shifting real-world American politics. That version wouldn’t be the tight, purposeful narrative that The Boys is at its best, but an episode like this one shows me that it could work.’
Damn I love it when reviewers and editors cut through the fat and get to the bare bone.
The fact of the matter is, S4 has shifted tone and delivery, and the whole narrative suddenly feels a little forced and gimicky. It has a sitcom-like feel to it, pandering to its humor base, sometimes forcing the issue instead of letting it happen like in previous seasons. The editing is choppy and the narrative falls behind, catching up via clunky revelation, mostly after the fact. It works, but the sputtering is too loud not to notice, and the procedural nature of the new approach is enough to set the tone for a new kind of audience, but barely. It’s a shame, because this show has always punched way above its weight, and still can (could) if the producers were inclined.
https://www.vulture.com/article/the-boys-recap-season-4-episode-5-beware-the-jabberwock-my-son.html