The Boys viewers divided over ‘obscene’ new episode: ‘How do they keep doing this?’

‘The Boys’ has a reputation for being shocking and provocative, but the latest episode has left even hardened fans with their jaws on the floor

The latest episode of The Boys has shocked fans on social media, with viewers calling it “beyond obscene” and “f***ing weird”.

The hit Prime Video show is deep into its fourth season – which is officially the Amazon subscription service’s penultimate installment – with only two episodes left to round out the eight-episode run.

The provocative superhero series has disturbed fans before, but the sixth episode of season four has taken things to a new level.

Titled “Dirty Business”, the episode follows Hughie (Jack Quaid) and the rest of The Boys as they sneak into a party at the home of billionaire superhero Tek Knight (Derek Wilson), with Hughie pretending to be the spider-themed superhero Webweaver.

Hughie spends most of the episode trapped in the “Tek Cave”, a parody of Batman’s lair that is kitted out to accommodate Tek Knight’s many and varied sexual desires.

On X/Twitter, viewers say they’ve been left truly shocked by the prolonged graphic and sexual scenes.

Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman in the shocking ‘The Boys’ episode ‘Dirty Business’ (Prime Video)

One user wrote: “Getting through episode 6 of The Boys is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done

“I’m only halfway through.”

Another stated: “I’m only 30 minutes into episode 6 of the Boys and it’s already beyond obscene. How do they keep doing this?”

A third added: “Episode 6 of The Boys was both insanely f***ing weird and... actually nevermind, it was just f***ing weird. Worse than Herogasm imo.”

“Herogasm”, from the third season of The Boys, was set at an annual superhero sex festival and had previously been considered the most obscene in the show’s history. It is also currently the show’s highest-rated episode on IMDb with a rating of 9.6 stars out of 10.

“Dirty Business” has proven to be more divisive, with the graphic nature of many scenes proving too much for some fans.

One X user wrote: “This episode of #TheBoys was so disgusting they really do too much with all of the over the top graphic sexual content. It really takes away from the storyline.”

On Reddit, another viewer added: “Say what you want about season 4, but I think we can all agree this was the worst episode thus far. Just a hole lotta nothing.”

Some fans complained that the sheer number of outrageous scenes seemed to overshadow the story, with one writing: “I know there is an overarching plot - but, man this season just feels like a collection of random, crazy scenes. Not nearly as focused as S1-3.”

Another replied: “Seems like this season is the weakest by far and unnecessary.”

Last month, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke announced that show would come to an end after five seasons, writing on X that he was “thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax.”

The final two episodes of season four are set to arrive on Prime Video on 11 and 18 July.