The Boys Season 5 Skewers Taylor Sheridan’s Biggest TV Blind Spot

If you pay any attention to modern TV drama, you already know there’s nobody out there quite like Taylor Sheridan. With this guy, you’re either full fandom or total bafflement—there's not really a middle ground. Some folks worship his work ethic and endless output (the man practically runs a TV factory), while others snicker about the uneven quality: one season you'll be hooked; the next, you’ll wonder if he lost a bet.

Sheridan’s also famous, or maybe infamous, for keeping most of his writing “in the family” (read: himself), mostly ignoring Hollywood’s usual team-sport approach of running writers’ rooms. Sometimes that leads to tight, binge-worthy television. Other times? You get stories that clearly needed another set of eyes. That tendency—to go it alone—recently made its way into the latest season of 'The Boys,' and if you caught the joke, congrats: you’re officially Too Online.

'The Boys' Roasts Sheridan With an AI Twist

So, here’s what went down on 'The Boys' Season 5 (yeah, sadly, it’s the show’s last lap): Within the show’s world, Vought International—the amoral megacorp that manages superhero PR—is also pumping out movies and TV, basically as big-budget propaganda. Vought being Vought, they fire their entire writing team and hand the creative reins to AI, with zero resistance from anyone, because Homelander (the world’s strongest psycho) is calling the shots these days.

By Episode 7, our anti-heroes sneak into Vought Studios, trying to find a preacher-superhero hybrid (“Oh Father”) who’s been up to, well, bad things. While lurking around, Starlight and Mother’s Milk stumble onto the set of 'American Eagle,' a fictional western apparently pulling in big streaming numbers. When the lead actor whines about the show ending suddenly—despite decent ratings—the old-school writer/director, known as The Worm, just shrugs him off: “Order from above.” The actor begs for a script rewrite (“This story is a dogpile!”), but The Worm is unmoved. Then comes the punchline:

"The Taylor Sheridan AI wrote the thing, and it does not take notes."

Ouch. Yes, that's a double shot—first at AI eating Hollywood jobs, and second, a pretty pointed jab at Sheridan’s rep for ignoring feedback.

Sheridan’s Lone Wolf Approach: Not Just a Rumor

If you’re wondering whether this stereotype about Sheridan is fair—well, he basically admits it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he spelled it out: He flat-out dislikes writers’ rooms. Apparently, nobody but him nails the specific flavor of messy relationships in every scene. When others try? He thinks they just swap in their own ideas rather than following his lead. So, he cut them out. His own words:

"I’m really interested in the dirty of the relationships in literally every scene. But when you hire a room that may not be motivated by those same qualities – and a writer always wants to take ownership of something they’re writing – and I give this directive, and they’re not feeling it, then they’re going to come up with their own qualities. So for me, writers rooms, they haven’t worked."

Why so stubborn? Sheridan’s background plays a role. He says he spent decades in Hollywood doing what everyone else wanted, and now that he has the clout, he’s writing his way—period. If studios don’t like it, those scripts go in the drawer or maybe up on a stage somewhere nobody’s watching. In his words:

"I spent the first 37 years of my life compromising. When I quit acting, I decided that I am going to tell my stories my way, period. If you don’t want me to tell them, fine. Give them back, and I’ll find someone who does – or I won’t, and then I’ll read them in some freaking dinner theater. But I won’t compromise. There is no compromising."

Suddenly, that joke about AI that “does not take notes” sounds almost like a twisted badge of honor.

Why Is Amazon Okay With This? And What’s Actually at Stake?

Some fans wondered if 'The Boys' would really get away with poking fun at one of the industry’s big names. The answer: Sure, because Paramount (home of 'Yellowstone') is one of Amazon’s rivals. Hollywood loves a little inter-studio snark when it’s not coming back to bite them. Plus, the joke cuts deeper than just Sheridan bashing—it taps into that real anxiety every writer in Hollywood is buzzing about: Will AI eventually swallow up creative jobs, or is this all just clickbait panic?

Kripke vs. Sheridan — Not Exactly TV’s Tom and Jerry, but Close

Here’s another twist: 'The Boys' isn’t just ribbing Sheridan for the giggles. Showrunner Eric Kripke (yes, the guy responsible for both 'Supernatural' and this spandex fever dream) has been on record criticizing Sheridan’s solo act. During the last WGA strike, when writers fought for minimum staffing protections, Kripke told Deadline exactly how he felt about Sheridan’s shade for writers’ rooms:

"There’s no way that one season can come out of a single person’s head. It’s a collage, and that’s the best part. Whatever Mr. Yellowstone and all this stuff about like, ‘I don’t want to have a room’ or ‘I don’t need a room.’ My feeling is, you’re missing out on the best part of this job. All of it is a grinding s--- show. Except you get to hang out with the smartest people you’ve ever met at a cocktail party that never ends. That’s the best part. So I don’t understand why that’s even an issue."

“Mr. Yellowstone”—that’s not exactly love and roses! During the strike, the WGA did create a rule to force more hiring in writers’ rooms, but apparently there’s a sneaky loophole: If a studio officially hires just one writer for a whole season, they're off the hook for the new minimums. So Sheridan, for now, basically gets to keep being... well, Taylor Sheridan.

• Takeaway: Sheridan isn't going to change, and Hollywood will keep poking at him anyway–with or without AI. And now, thanks to 'The Boys,' we all get to laugh (or maybe cringe) at how weird and self-aware the industry has become.