The Boys Season 5 Targets AMC And Nicole Kidman With A Hilarious Parody

We come to this place for spoilers. Stay away if you haven't seen "The Boys" Season 5, Episode 6, "Though the Heavens Fall."

Remember when "The Boys" was a satire of pop culture and giant corporations? Currently, the show is disturbingly close to our dark and dystopian reality, to the point that it's seemingly predicting the wild stuff that the U.S. President does, despite "The Boys" Season 5 being written before the 2024 election. But before the Prime Video superhero series became about parodying Trump, it was primarily about satirizing the superhero cinematic industrial complex (and the Amazon corporation itself).

That idea comes back in Episode 6 of Season 5, which begins with the titular anti-supes team tracking down a former Vought exec who is now working at a movie theater — and not just any movie theater, but a VMC cinema. Then we get arguably the best parody "The Boys" has done in years, as we get a in-universe commercial for VMC theaters starring the late Firecracker (Valorie Curry) that starts with her saying, "We come to this place..."

That's right, it's a Nicole Kidman AMC commercial parody! Heartbreak might feel good in a place like AMC, and at VMC, Firecracker talks about the magic of movies and the magic of Vought merchandising, like the complimentary The Deep popcorn bucket you get with every large combo meal.

The Deep popcorn bucket is absolutely horrifying, and totally in line with the ridiculous popcorn buckets of our reality. It's a fantastic parody, and it echoes the best parts of "The Boys."

There's been a lot of criticism about Season 5 of "The Boys," particularly around its pacing. For what's supposed to be the last season of the show, it sure feels like we're taking our sweet time building up to the final confrontation, right? Then, although not as big or common a criticism, there's the change in target for the satire.

"The Boys" has targeted many aspects of American culture in its jokes over the years, from mega-churches to Scientology to right-wing media. But the show is always at its best when parodying superhero media, fandom, and Hollywood. Whether it's the time "The Boys" did a hilarious takedown of the whole Snyder Cut movement, or making jokes about Comic-Con-like conventions, or just taking jabs at Amazon via all the bonkers Vought policies and subsidiaries, the meta aspects of the Prime Video series made it stand out. It also helped balance the darker and gorier elements of the story. Now? This show is just gloom and doom. It's not unjustified, mind you, but it also feels like it's too much to take sometimes.

So to see "The Boys" go back to what it does best and offer a delightful parody of Hollywood in the form of the Nicole Kidman AMC ad is a welcome surprise. It's especially welcome when everything else in the world of the show is extremely dire and bleak.

As "The Boys" races toward a finale with the fate of the world at stake, we all better enjoy whatever little moments of levity we have left ... even if they include gross popcorn buckets.