SPECIAL REVIEW!: The Boondocks: Season 4 review

THE BOONDOCKS: SEASON 4:

UNDERWHELMING FOURTH SEASON STILL HAS SOME LAUGHS!

By Nico Beland

Show Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

SONY PICTURES TELEVISION

(From top to bottom) Robert “Jebidiah” Freeman, Huey and Riley Freeman, and Uncle Ruckus, No Relation in the fourth and final season of The Boondocks

            So it has come to this, the fourth and final season of the critically praised animated series on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, The Boondocks. Based on the popular comic strip by Aaron McGruder about two young African-American boys, Huey and Riley Freeman (both voiced by Regina King-Friday, Mighty Joe Young (1998), Ray), living in a white suburbia with their grandfather, Robert “Jebidiah” Freeman, better known as Granddad (voiced by John Witherspoon-Friday, Soul Plane, Little Man).

            Granddad ends up going bankrupt and owes billions of dollars in debt, in comes Eddie Wuncler Jr. (voiced by Sam McMurray-The Tracey Ullman Show, Dinosaurs, The Critic) the son of Mr. Ed Wuncler (voiced by Ed Asner-JFK, Elf, Up), who makes a deal with Granddad to get his money back in a month. He then starts getting jobs to pay Wuncler back such as working at a car wash owned by self-hating black man with Revitiligo, Uncle Ruckus, No Relation (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams-Malcolm in the Middle, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Soul Plane), escorting women for crazy old bitches, working in a slavery themed amusement park called Freedomland, and facing off once again with his arch nemesis, Colonel H. Stinkmeaner (voiced by Cedric Yarbrough-Reno 911) who is back with a vengeance…again.

            Other situations in this season involve District Attorney and friend of the Freeman family, Tom Dubois (Also voiced by Yarbrough) standing tall against a rapper named Pretty Boy Flizzy (voiced by Michael B. Jordan-Chronicle, Fruitvale Station) who is looking for “White Wife Booty” and plans to do Tom’s wife, Sarah Dubois (voiced by Jill Talley-SpongeBob Squarepants, Camp Lazlo, Adventure Time), Granddad, Huey, and Riley unintentionally selling themselves into slavery, making exploding hair care products in an homage to the hit series, Breaking Bad, Granddad dating a lost Kardashian sister with a huge ass (voiced by Grey DeLisle-Batman: The Animated Series, The Fairly OddParents, Avatar: The Last Airbender), and the true story of Robert Freeman as he fights for his rights during the Civil Rights Movement.

            Overall, I wouldn’t say season 4 is as clever or outrageously funny as the previous three seasons, especially since this season was made without Aaron McGruder’s involvement, which is quite sad. But for what it is this season isn’t bad, in fact when the episodes are funny, they’re really funny.

            Good Times, Freedomland, and Breaking Granddad are three of my new favorite episodes of the series and are probably my favorite episodes in this season, along with the final Stinkmeaner episode, Stinkmeaner: Begun The Clone War Has. Most of the episodes still have plenty of laughs like Pretty Boy Flizzy, Granddad Dates a Kardashian, and I Dream of Siri, which reminded me a lot of last year’s Spike Jonze movie, Her, except more psychotic albeit not exactly a Boondocks kind of topic, that's more along the lines of South Park, I still found the episode entertaining.

            Unfortunately my main problem with this season was the last episode, it was a decent episode overall, but it was an underwhelming way to wrap the series up because nothing gets resolved by the end (Granddad is still in debt, Eddie Wuncler Jr. still poses a threat to the Freeman family, BET still exists, etc.), and it wasn't even initially meant to be the series finale. The season finales from the previous seasons were funny, often epic, and rather emotional at times, The Passion of Reverend Ruckus (From Season 1), The Story of Gangstalicious Part 2 (From Season 2), and It’s Goin’ Down (From Season 3) were all solid finales to those seasons, unfortunately this finale lacked the emotional drama, and intense dilemmas of the previous episodes.

            Aside from a disappointing finale and no involvement of McGruder, season 4 certainly isn’t terrible, it has plenty of funny and smart episodes and most of the characters we all know and love are back, and there’s more satire of what’s going on in the world.

            I heard about Aaron McGruder’s new series coming to Adult Swim, Black Jesus and honestly I’m curious to see how it turns out. Hopefully I’ll love it just as much as I did with The Boondocks.

            The Boondocks: Complete Fourth Season DVD is out today, so if you love the show (like me), I’d suggest grabbing a copy, enjoy all the episodes uncensored for generations to come, and "Do the Homie", that's a line from Season 2, but I don't give a fuck!