Amazing satire, still very relevant 5 years later with social justice being as rampant as ever.
2 Reviews
Probably my favorite episode of S4
evilman-9494619 October 2019
S4: Lines up the subjects but does little to nothing with them in another in a series of disappointing seasons
bob the moo26 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Although it was not perfect, the first season of Boondocks came with a lot of bite and indeed won a Peabody award for one of its episodes. The second season didn't live up to that and the third season was a silly affair which showed no interest in being satirical and was practically just a sitcom without edge. I returned for the fourth season just out of curiosity - I have enjoyed the characters and the potential since the days when Okayplayer used to run the strips on their front page, so although I had low expectations, I still came to try it.
Although it is noticeably shorter than the other seasons, it must be said that the season does at least appear to offer satire and topical relevance. So in this shorter season we have subjects such as: the black hair industry; Chris Brown's inability to shock people out of liking him; celebrity culture; slavery; technology; drone strikes; political correctness, and shows that reference Breaking Bad and the film Her. None of this means that the season will be good because of these, but aside from one or two episodes, the majority are at least based on something that could be interesting or challenging. And in a way this makes this season more frustrating than the third, because with the latter you never felt the show was even interested in such things, but in this fourth season it does seem to know it should be built on issues but at the same it seems to have no clue how to do it.
The plots are roundly silly and lacking in substance; if such devices as a slavery theme park, male prostitution and other nonsense were used as a means to an end (that end being social comment or satire) then fine, but they are not. The Chris Brown episode is the only one that even gets close to this, and even this one is pretty basic. For the rest of the season the topics get nothing done with them of any note and I never really felt like anyone was trying to engage me, challenge me or make any sort of intelligent comment. Instead we get mostly Granddad-driven story lines, fight sequences and silliness; all of which would be fine if they were not the only thing on offer. I don't mind if the show goes away from its roots, but it needs to do something better if it does this - not replace satire with nothing of value.
The writing is therefore pretty poor but luckily only once or twice it is just simply in bad taste. This does occur in the final episode of the season, which starts out appearing to be a clever discussion about political correctness but, as with other episodes, ends up just being silly. In this episode however there are several jokes where a homosexual characters phrases sentences badly to suggest that he wants to have sex with Riley - it is a joke made several times and it is a very strange piece of innuendo. Having grown up on Carry On films, I'm not adverse to a bit of smutty word play, but doing so to equate homosexuality with paedophilia seemed a matter of poor judgment.
The animation remains of a high standard but outside of that this season was disappointing, and in a way more-so than the previous two disappointing seasons. By lining up many episodes with good subjects for satire and comment, the season teases us with the potential for it to return to its roots in the strips and in the first season, so it additionally stings when it doesn't do anything of the sort. Another poor season in a show which is now defined by them.
Although it is noticeably shorter than the other seasons, it must be said that the season does at least appear to offer satire and topical relevance. So in this shorter season we have subjects such as: the black hair industry; Chris Brown's inability to shock people out of liking him; celebrity culture; slavery; technology; drone strikes; political correctness, and shows that reference Breaking Bad and the film Her. None of this means that the season will be good because of these, but aside from one or two episodes, the majority are at least based on something that could be interesting or challenging. And in a way this makes this season more frustrating than the third, because with the latter you never felt the show was even interested in such things, but in this fourth season it does seem to know it should be built on issues but at the same it seems to have no clue how to do it.
The plots are roundly silly and lacking in substance; if such devices as a slavery theme park, male prostitution and other nonsense were used as a means to an end (that end being social comment or satire) then fine, but they are not. The Chris Brown episode is the only one that even gets close to this, and even this one is pretty basic. For the rest of the season the topics get nothing done with them of any note and I never really felt like anyone was trying to engage me, challenge me or make any sort of intelligent comment. Instead we get mostly Granddad-driven story lines, fight sequences and silliness; all of which would be fine if they were not the only thing on offer. I don't mind if the show goes away from its roots, but it needs to do something better if it does this - not replace satire with nothing of value.
The writing is therefore pretty poor but luckily only once or twice it is just simply in bad taste. This does occur in the final episode of the season, which starts out appearing to be a clever discussion about political correctness but, as with other episodes, ends up just being silly. In this episode however there are several jokes where a homosexual characters phrases sentences badly to suggest that he wants to have sex with Riley - it is a joke made several times and it is a very strange piece of innuendo. Having grown up on Carry On films, I'm not adverse to a bit of smutty word play, but doing so to equate homosexuality with paedophilia seemed a matter of poor judgment.
The animation remains of a high standard but outside of that this season was disappointing, and in a way more-so than the previous two disappointing seasons. By lining up many episodes with good subjects for satire and comment, the season teases us with the potential for it to return to its roots in the strips and in the first season, so it additionally stings when it doesn't do anything of the sort. Another poor season in a show which is now defined by them.
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