The Boondocks: The Complete First Season

4 Comments

1. Huey4Prez

   November 7, 2010 at 3:49 pm

   Review by Huey4Prez for The Boondocks: The Complete First Season
   Rating:
   I really love this show. It’s just genius. Huey’s deep/ revolutionary personality coounters Riley’s gangsta persona perfectly. The only reason for people not liking the show is the language (of which we hear way worse at school) and the stereotypes (hey Family Guy has stereotypes too so stop hatin!). I own all of the comic books which are funny as heck (just read A Right to be Hostile). I wouldn’t mind seeing Cindy in the series and I hear Caesar’s comin next season (MC!). I’m buying this on DVD and UMD so I can watch it at home and on the road even though I have all the episodes on my computer already. The hidden messages in the show are crazy. Just watch an episode. This show is too deep. I hope it doesn’t get cancelled like most black cartoons. I miss Waynehead!

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2. Wheelchair Assassin

   November 7, 2010 at 2:54 pm

   Review by Wheelchair Assassin for The Boondocks: The Complete First Season
   Rating:
   Huey Freeman is angry. And can you blame him? As a ten-year-old aspiring black revolutionary living in the almost entirely white suburb of Woodcrest with his stern, authoritarian grandfather and his thug-worshipping younger brother Riley after relocating from Chicago’s tough South Side, Huey is faced with the grim realities of both white condescension and black ignorance as he tries to call to light the truths people would rather not face. In the opening scene of The Boondocks, Aaron McGruder’s confrontational, profane, and brilliantly satirical adaptation of his comic strip, Huey envisions himself inciting a riot at an all-white garden party by reporting some unpleasant truths (at least in his mind) about Jesus, Ronald Reagan, and 9/11, but when he actually gets a chance to do so he merely finds himself praised for being “articulate.” And when he tries to bring his vision of a black Jesus to the masses via his school Christmas play (with some help from Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, and Quincy Jones), his work becomes the target of a boycott by parents angry at the exclusion of their children. Not to mention, he has to watch a race-baiting white laywer exploit black-white divisions to get R. Kelly off on underage peeing charges, and witness two wanna-be master criminals exploiting wartime paranoia to rob a store when he just wants to get his friend out of jail. All in all, Huey faces un uphill climb in his quest to shake a comfortable populace out of its complacency.

   Huey’s attempts at fomenting revolution, however, are just the tip of the iceberg in The Boondocks, which presents viewers with a mix of the political, social, philosophical and sentimental that I have yet to see in animated TV. It comes along at just the right time, too, as many cartoon giants have come to feel increasingly calcified: South Park, while still a frequently brilliant show, has become increasingly reliant on excessive toilet humor and often contrived topicality; The Simpsons ran out of ideas about eight years ago; and the “revived” Family Guy has become a lazy, unfunny mockery of its former self, weighed down by interminable, punch line-less “jokes” and rapid-fire successions of random, context-free pop culture references. Viewed in this context, the Boondocks feels refreshingly raw, witty, and character-driven in its approach; and more importantly, it’s frequently, gut-busting hilarious regardless of whether you’re always in agreement with its subversive viewpoint or whether you approve of its near-constant use of the N-word among other choice terms. There are some overtly topical episodes-taking incisive aim at such subjects at hip-hop culture (The Story of Gangstalicious); the legacy of the civil rights movement and the post-9/11 closing of the American Mind (The Return of the King); and traditional attitudes regarding Christmas (A Huey Freeman Christmas)-but they never diminish the episodes as vehicles for telling stories or exploring characters. Some of the best episodes are actually more personal and familial than political-in Riley Wuz Here, Huey’s ignorant younger brother explores his artistic side with the help of a kindly but insane gun-toting art-teacher, while Wingmen sees both Huey and Granddad confronting figures from their pasts in a return to their old neighborhood for the funeral of Granddad’s friend. And throughout, there’s the show’s examination of the generation gap and the dynamics of a decidedly atypical family, as we frequently see the size of the gulf between Huey, Riley, and their old-school, tough-loving grandfather.

   The voice acting is top-to-bottom terrific, starting with Regina King, who deserves special props for taking on double duty by performing the roles of both Huey and Riley (most impressively, I heard that she read all her Huey lines and all her Riley lines separately, no small task considering how different the voices are and how frequently she has to act against herself). In the other principal role, John Witherspoon is suitably grizzled and cantankerous as Granddad, while Gary Anthony Williams (aka Stevie’s father from Malcolm in the Middle) is hilariously over the top as Uncle Ruckus, an elderly Uncle Tom with a freakishly large right eye who in one episode actually turns his hatred of his own people into a religion. An array of one-off and recurring guest stars including Adam West (R. Kelly’s slimy lawyer), Ed Asner (rapacious capitalist Ed Wuncler), Charlie Murphy (inept criminal and George W. Bush mockup Ed Wuncler III) and Samuel L. Jackson (Ed III’s partner in crime and Donald Rumsfeld caricature Gin Rummy) helps expand the show’s stable of memorable characters even more, bringing it close to prime-era Simpsons in terms of creating a far-reaching and (somewhat) lifelike make-believe world.

   Where the Boondocks really outshines much of its competition, though, is its appearance. Simply put, this show looks incredible: rich, colorful, and expressive it a way most animation scarcely approaches. Owing a heavy debt to Japanese anime, especially in its occasional, but brilliantly shot, fight scenes, The Boondocks far surpasses the likes of Family Guy and South Park in its attention to detail, be it the astonishingly lifelike background scenery or the intimate (if not always pleasant) details of its characters’ appearances. Hell, Huey’s afro and Uncle Ruckus’s oversized eye alone are practically worth the price of the DVD set.

   Along with the 15 episodes on these discs, the season one DVD set is laden with the kind of time-wasting extras hardcore fans crave: several insightful commentaries (plus two not-so-insightful ones with Uncle Ruckus, which are just plain funny), animatics, three deleted scenes (all of them hilarious), and a 20-minute featurette, heavy on McGruder’s commentary, regarding the process of bringing his vision to the screen. In all, this season set is more than worth the price for those in the mood for a departure from the animated-TV norm.

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3. Andre M.

   November 7, 2010 at 2:36 pm

   Review by Andre M. for The Boondocks: The Complete First Season
   Rating:
   If you get this title-you’ve seen the DVD and KNOW what I’m talking about!

   Aaron McGruder’s THE BOONDOX has provoked a lot of thought and controversy in the newspaper cartoons-and the animated version is (amazingly) even better!

   Huey and Riley & co. tackle some really important issues in Black America with raw, biting social commentary and humor. As was the case with Richard Pryor, I didn’t like the repetitive use of the N-word and soem scenes get really graphic (such as the portrayal of the urination scene of the infamous R. Kelly video).

   But I wouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath on this one. In THE TRIAL OF R.KELLY, Huey and Riley take on the manner in which some Black celebrites (and their lawyers) brainwash the masses into thinking their crimes are really racist persecution rather than their own personal stupidity. Having seen this sickening scenario with Mike Tyson and Marion Barry in the 90s, I wanted to stand up and cheer when Huey told the court R. KELLY AIN’T NO NELSON MANDELA-LET’S HAVE SOME G—–N STANDARDS!” Three cheers and a pumped fist from me Aaron!

   The same is true when MLK comes back from a coma and curses out some fools acting like a BET video come to life. “DID I GET KILLED FOR THIS!?” Bill Cosby would love it (I know I do)!

   Black self-hatred is viciously lampooned with the Uncle Ruckus character, who longs for the return of slavery and worships Ronald Reagan and all things white. When the cops shoot him in one episode, he says, “I can’t blame y’all for doing your job.”

   Ed Asner plays a corrupt (and racist) businessman who cheats little Jazmine out of her lemonade business (among other things). Any Black person who has had to endure patronizing conversation from White liberals will identify with THE GARDEN PARTY.

   I would advise skipping the commentary. The creators laugh so much and tell so manyinside jokes that we get very little insight at all. But that can easily be skipped. The DELETED SCENES (especially the Rosa Parks-fried chicken gag) would give Al Sharpton a fit and I can see why that was never aired.

   The humor and satire is rough and raw. It takes a lot of familiarity with African-American culture and pop culture in general to “get” a lot of this (such as the biz about a Black Panther named “Shabazz K. Milton Berle” that I mention in my title). I would not let the kiddies near this one. But even when I disagree with Aaron McGruder, I think that he is using this medium to say a lot of important things that need to be said.

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4. Jason Wendleton

   November 7, 2010 at 2:33 pm

   Review by Jason Wendleton for The Boondocks: The Complete First Season
   Rating:
   This show BLEW me away when it came on earlier this year. I’d heard of, but not read, the comic strip…but I had no idea really how incindiary, topical, scathing, and brilliant this show was going to be. I thought “oh gee…another attempt to bring a little comic strip to TV.” I should have detected brilliance when the show was knocked from BET to Adult Swim (Catoon Network…the only channel with BALLS big enough to air something like this).

   Like the dearly departed “Chappelle Show,” Boondocks is about racism and the culture wars in modern America. It attacks stereotypes (of both whites and blacks)…but evern better, the show also attacks reality. The best example of this would be the infamous “Dr. King” episode, in which in an alternate timeline, we see what would happen if the famous civil rights champion had not died but merely been placed into a coma. When King wakes up and speaks out against the War in the Middle East he’s labeled a “traitor.” Brilliant. Some people may miss the irony, and humor, of the show. If you take it at face value, the show is the most racist thing on TV today. However, if you examine the context, and the intent of the creators you’ll find that this show speaks volumes on the problems of today’s world. The people who work on this show obviously are supremely talented, and have a lot of important things to say. I’m eagerly awaiting the release of this DVD, and the second season.

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