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score 8/10
The title of this show is an interesting one because the show's setting isn't exactly in 'the boondocks' of American society. The Boondocks is about two children named Huey and Riley Freeman who move from the ghettos of Chicago to the fictional, peaceful (and very white) neighborhood of Woodcrest, where they embark on hilarious misadventures with their grandfather Robert Freeman as they adjust to their new environment.
Huey Freeman is The Boondocks' main character and narrator (as well as the person I chose as my profile picture), an Afro-wielding martial arts master, a gun-toting terrorist with a Che Guevara poster on his wall, a supremely intelligent prodigy of few words (and one of my all-time favorite characters). Riley Freeman is Huey's younger brother and someone I was never fond of, a cornrowed hip-hop enthusiast famed for his expletive-filled rants and someone I find mostly one- dimensional, extremely egocentric, and unbelievably selfish. Robert Freeman is similar to Riley but is equipped with depth to his character (and a bizarre habit of dating psychotic women). The Boondocks offers a variety of richly detailed supporting characters like the politician Tom DuBois who looks exactly like young Barack Obama (and has a peculiar phobia), the infamous Uncle Ruckus, a racist who passionately despises his own kind (and someone whose voice I can imitate very well), Jazmine DuBois, who is Tom's innocent daughter, and Ed Wuncler III, a red- headed delinquent who looks a lot like Eminem. The Boondocks offers one of the best cast of characters I've ever seen.
There are more than a few notable Boondocks episodes like "The Story of catcher Freeman", an attempt to analyze Huey and Riley's slavery- era ancestor who is profiled in three ways (Robert's version of Catcher is a beloved and brave hero who freed black people from slavery, Uncle Ruckus' version is a primal and vicious slavecatcher preventing black people from escaping the plantations, and Huey's version is an intelligent playwright who accidentally kills his white father). There's the episode "Smoking with Cigarettes", where Riley befriends Lamilton Taeshawn, a juvenile felon who punched his grandma and hijacked a car for a joyride (the detective chasing Lamilton sounds and looks similar to Obi-Wan Kenobi). There's also the episode "The Color Ruckus", an extremely emotional journey into Ruckus' past, and the episode "The Fundraiser", where Riley's attempt to make money from selling chocolates becomes out-of-control (highlighted by an unforgettable speech by Riley). "The Fundraiser" and "The Color Ruckus" are two of my three favorite Boondocks episodes.
After the third season concluded, The Boondocks fell into a dry spell, only airing re-runs as America furiously pushed for Season 4. Four years after Season 3, The Boondocks returned. Season 4 was the show's first attempt at a running plot and it unfortunately aired for a pitiful 10 episodes. In those 10 episodes, The Boondocks mostly tried to recycle ideas from episodes of previous seasons (lowlighted by a return of the notorious Colonel Stinkmeaner as a mechanically modified clone to once again fight Grandpa Freeman), but there were a few shining moments in Season 4. The episode "Early Bird Special" was an interesting one but it didn't hold a candle to the classic "I Dream of Siri" (my third favorite Boondocks episode), where Robert's malfunctioned phone came dangerously close to destroying his life. The 10th (and final) episode of Season 4, "The New Black", was about Riley being targeted for calling a kid 'gay' and 'retarded', and the episode ended with Riley getting pummeled by a gigantic group of mentally disabled children as the show played Lethal Interjection Crew's "Stomp 'Em In the Nuts", a homage to the earlier seasons. It was a classic ending to a sub-par episode in a disappointing season.
Sadly, when Season 4 concluded, Aaron McGruder (the creator of The Boondocks) quit his involvement in the beloved animated series for Black Jesus, a hilarious comedy that is nowhere close to The Boondocks, which was the last African-American classic, a show with supremely solid characters, first-class comedy, and occasional martial arts scenes, a show that casually ventured into polarizing social topics (race, snitching, homosexuality, etc.) and incited controversy along the way (The Boondocks labeled BET as "Black Evil Television", a sinister enterprise corrupting America, and the show suggested the famous playwright Tyler Perry is gay). With its memorable main theme, and historical and pop culture references, The Boondocks is a show that doesn't deserve to be ignored.
bmoore07 3 February 2015
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3176489/ |
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22-11-2019 06:01:52
