The Boondocks: Black Exploitation At Its Finest.

Hello everybody! For this week’s anime club we have the American blacksploitation show The Boondocks.

THE BOONDOCKS

STARRING:  Regina King, John Witherspoon, Cedric Yarbrough, Gary Anthony Williams, Jill Talley, Gabby Soleil

DIRECTOR: Aaron McGruder

NO. OF EPISODES: 55

GENRE: Animated sitcom, Adult animation, Action, Satire, Black comedy

YEAR: 2005-2014

COUNTRY:  United States

The Boondocks is based on the satiric Aaron McGruder comic strip of the same name. The show follows the adventures of two black boys, Riley and Huey Freeman, who experience a culture clash when they move from southside Chicago to the “boondocks” to live with their grandfather. When Robert ‘Grandad’ Freeman becomes the legal guardian of his rambunctious grandkids, he moves the family from the south side of Chicago to the quiet and safety of The Boondocks – aka suburban Woodcrest – in hopes he can ignore the kids alltogether and enjoy the fourth quarter of his life in peace.

But neither Huey, a ten-year-old Leftist revolutionary, nor his eight-year old misfit brother Riley are thrilled about the new environment. Although the boys torture each other and provoke the neighborhood, they are still no match for Grandad, who is eccentric even by ‘crazy-ass-old-black-man’ standards.

 

Finally watching the show in its entirety, this has to be my favorite American show designed in the anime style. The Boondocks tackles many social issues in the African American community, especially on racial relationships. The voice acting is phenomenal, the voice cast actually knows what they are doing. Each one of the characters fit into any number of stereotypes, but they it if anything.

 

I know I am going to sound like a prude for saying this, but I am super uncomfortable with the sheer amount of the “n-word” used in the series. While I enjoy there are some episodes that tackle the use of the word, it is just a little too much even if they are trying to be realistic. Also, along with any long running series, there are way too many filler episodes.

 

PROS:

• Black exploitation at its finest.
• Enjoyable characters.
• Social issues.

CONS:

• Overuse of the “n-word”.
• Filler episodes.
• Weak supporting characters.

SCORE: 7.8 / 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RobRy74FoWI

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