Prime Video's The Boys Season 5 Must Avoid The Ending Disaster That Ruined Netflix's Anti-Superhero Series

Huge pressure is on The Boys to stick the landing in season 5, but Netflix's botched attempt at ending its own subversive superhero series should serve as a cautionary tale. The glut of superhero movies and TV shows that dominated the 2000s and 2010s triggered an anti-superhero wave in response. At the vanguard of that counter-movement were Prime Video's The Boys and Netflix's The Umbrella Academy, but now that rebellious second wave has gently started receding.

The Umbrella Academy ended in August 2024 with its fourth season, while The Boys season 5 will bring Prime Video's show to a close in 2026. Netflix may have jumped off the "superheroes with a twist" train first, but the form and execution of that leap left a lot to be desired. The Umbrella Academy season 4 went as smoothly as Hughie's New Year's resolution to go an entire season without getting covered in blood, and reviews and reaction were vastly inferior to past seasons. Next, it's The Boys' turn, and The Umbrella Academy's failure shows Homelander and the gang exactly what not to do.

The Boys & The Umbrella Academy Have Been Sibling Shows Since They Began

Two Very Different Responses To MCU Domination

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The Boys and The Umbrella Academy share plenty of DNA beyond just positioning themselves as anti-superhero superhero franchises. Both debuted in 2019 as pillars of their respective streaming services, and both were based on existing non-Marvel/DC comic franchises - The Boys on a comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and The Umbrella Academy from the original story by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá. On a core level, both The Boys and The Umbrella Academy began exploring the darker side of superheroes at a time when Marvel's MCU was dominating the media landscape.

The Boys may be more political and The Umbrella Academy more fantastical, but both stories ultimately point the finger at the concept of the superhero.

The Boys delved into how the facade of being a superhero resulted in corporate corruption, rampant greed, and decaying morality, while The Umbrella Academy looked at the more personal impact of joining a superhero team - the pressure, the grief, the daddy issues. With The Boys and The Umbrella Academy, Prime Video and Netflix were effectively taking different routes to the same destination. The Boys adopted a more grounded and crass tone, reveling in the R-rated antics of its characters, whereas The Umbrella Academy's My Chemical Romance connection naturally made it more quirky, offbeat, and gothic.

Despite giving off very different vibes, The Boys and The Umbrella Academy have existed in tandem over the past five years. Over the course of The Boys, Homelander has leveraged the entire superhero system to garner himself more power, creating a divide between those who possess powers and those who do not.

Related 10 Best Episodes Of The Umbrella Academy, Ranked The Umbrella Academy had its ups and downs, and for the most part, the show had them in that order, with early episodes standing out as the best.

The Umbrella Academy unfolded in a very similar way, as the Academy itself was unveiled as a tool used by Sir Reginald Hargreeves to rewrite reality at the expense of destroying the multiverse. The Boys may be more political and The Umbrella Academy more fantastical, but both stories ultimately point the finger at the concept of the superhero.

What Went Wrong With The Umbrella Academy's Ending

The Umbrella Academy Rivaled Game Of Thrones In The "Bad Ending" Stakes

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The Umbrella Academy season 4's problems began with the announcement of its ending. After season 3, The Umbrella Academy still had an array of mysteries, plot points, and character arcs to resolve, and while wrapping up everything inside a single season might have been narrowly possible, cutting the episode count from 10 to six nixed any chance of giving the Hargreeves siblings a proper farewell. With so little time, The Umbrella Academy completely dropped entire storylines - Sloane's disappearance and Ben on the subway train being just two examples.

The threads that did survive were then rushed to completion, and what remained was a muddled melting pot of underdeveloped concepts getting lost in the ether. At the same time, it cannot be said that The Umbrella Academy season 4 made the best of its allotted six episodes.

Related Where Sloane Is During The Umbrella Academy Season 4 Sloane is conspicuous by her absence in The Umbrella Academy season 4, leaving major questions over her fate when she show draws to a close.

The out-of-nowhere love triangle between Five, Lila, and Diego was as frustrating as it was nauseating, and ending the story with The Umbrella Academy's seven main characters dying made the entire show feel pointless. The Umbrella Academy at least attempted to navigate serious topics in season 4 - Klaus' addiction relapse the most overt - but without any narrative room to grow, such stories became redundant.

The Umbrella Academy's Ending Is A Warning That Even A Great Show Can Falter

No Show Is Safe From Botching Its Ending

For The Boys, the most concerning takeaway from The Umbrella Academy's near-disastrous ending is that Netflix's series was not on a steep downward slope prior to season 4. The Umbrella Academy seasons 1 and 2 were both received very warmly, and while season 3 attracted a more mixed response, there were mitigating circumstances due to filming mid-COVID. Certainly, there was no obvious warning sign quality-wise that The Umbrella Academy season 4 would collapse quite as drastically as it did.

The Umbrella Academy season Tomatometer Score Popcornmeter Score The Umbrella Academy season 1 77% 85% The Umbrella Academy season 2 91% 87% The Umbrella Academy season 3 91% 54% The Umbrella Academy season 4 55% 18%

Across its four seasons thus far, The Boys has largely maintained a high bar of quality. The first two seasons earned widespread acclaim, and while season 3 received a dash of criticism over The Boys' underwhelming Herogasm episode, the season overall was still a resounding success. The Boys season 4 maintained that tradition of high quality, but endured arguably the most divisive responses since the series started.

A good portion of that was politically motivated, but The Boys season 4 also suffered from slow pacing as it set the board ready for season 5. Characters and storylines often appeared to be treading water, deliberately saving big swings for further down the road, and other ideas fizzled to an anticlimax - most notably the long-awaited arrival of Hughie's mother in The Boys season 4. Elsewhere, a delicate angle involving Hughie and Starlight's doppelganger was wrongly played for laughs.

The Boys season Tomatometer score Popcornmeter score The Boys season 1 85% 91% The Boys season 2 97% 84% The Boys season 3 98% 75% The Boys season 4 92% 54%

If the minor dip between The Umbrella Academy season 2 and 3 was a prelude to the far bigger gulf between seasons 2 and 4, it's plausible that the gentle lapse in quality between The Boys season 2 and season 4 should be seen as a worrying omen ahead of season 5 ending the show. If The Umbrella Academy can accidentally stumble into a disappointing climax from a perch of critical acclaim, The Boys' strong record is no guarantee that season 5 will deliver a satisfying conclusion.

Why The Boys Is Well-Placed To Avoid The Umbrella Academy's Mistakes

The Boys Has Two Major Advantages

It is disconcertingly easy to draw parallels between the fates of The Boys and The Umbrella Academy, but several key indicators suggest the former is in a far better position to finish with a flourish. For one thing, Prime Video's investment in The Boys as a franchise appears - from the outside, at least - a lot stronger than Netflix's investment in The Umbrella Academy was near the end. Intentionally or otherwise, the decision to strip The Umbrella Academy season 4 down to six episodes looked like Netflix was very ready to pull the plug on Project Hargreeves.

The Boys has left itself the ideal amount of room to reach its intended destination.

The Boys may be ending, but Prime Video still has the successful Gen V spinoff on its books, and more shows are in the works, including a The Boys spinoff set in Mexico and a Vought prequel starring Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy and Aya Cash's Stormfront. Despite the main show nearing its finale, therefore, the overall franchise appears to be in rude health, giving The Boys a far better chance at ending its story in the proper way.

More importantly, The Boys is ending at a considerably more natural point in its story. In terms of material available, The Umbrella Academy could have easily stretched to a fifth season, with the Commission's origin, Sir Reginald's home planet, season 4's Phoenix Academy, Luther and Sloane's romance, and much more all ripe for further exploration.

Related The Boys: Every Upcoming Spinoff Explained The Boys is about to expand its lore and worldbuilding with many exciting upcoming spin-offs that'll unfold in myriad timelines and diverse settings.

By contrast, The Boys season 6 would be overkill. The Boys season 4 ending with Homelander as the de facto president and Billy Butcher preparing to commit genocide against supes perfectly teed-up Garth Ennis' comic finale, and the series will be left with nowhere to go once that battle resolves itself. The Umbrella Academy season 4 found itself cramming as much into the final six episodes as it could, but The Boys has left itself the ideal amount of room to reach its intended destination. That's an important balance to find when ending any long-running TV series.