The Boondocks

In terms of character writing (and thus, imo, the character humor) I still say Season 1 was leagues above the rest of the series. Though the later seasons did have their many moments.

Everyone in the later seasons became more of a character type and less of a character to various extents, but Huey especially.

edited 11th Aug '16 7:35:33 PM by KnownUnknown

Later seasons getting Denser and Wackier in general didn't help for subtle characters.

If this show was still around, what current events could they satirize, and what pop culture could they parody?

Yeah, I agree. Another problem I had with Huey is that he might be right, but he's not likable either. But the show rarely treated his character flaws as actual flaws, which made him occasionally insufferable. Another issue is that when a show encourages you to revel in the antics of the characters, I sometimes end up finding the straight man to be a boring killjoy, instead of a sympathetic character. I've had similar feelings about Kyle from South Park.

For the longest time, I thought I was the only one who thought season 1 was the show's peak. It was a relief to find out that I wasn't. The latter seasons still had a lot of great moments, but the first season seemed more interested in making a point instead of just being funny, and the Freemans were given more sympathetic qualities. It's strange that Tom and Ruckus got additional character development, but the main characters devolved into caricatures.

edited 16th Aug '16 6:41:19 AM by Austin

I think Riley continued to grow as a character, it was Huey and Granddad who devolved.

It was always a disappointment of mine that Riley's art skills never came up again.

I think Riley also got hit by some of the Flanderization.

Riley and Granddad both got with with lots flanderization that knocked off a lot of the shades of their character. You'd never see an episode like Riley Wuz Here later on in the series, or even stuff like Riley going up against Huey in the R. Kelly episode - it took longer than it did with Grandded, but over time the series started focusing solely on being a super flashy and ignorant jerkass, and gave him less variety and such.

He always reminded me of what happened to Daffy Duck.

Huey's flanderization was, if anything, a reaction to the two of them becoming over-the-top personalities that took over the show.

edited 16th Aug '16 11:08:21 AM by KnownUnknown

It's surprising that the comics and show were created by the same writer, considering the drastically different ways they evolved.

With Riley you had the late-season-2 episode where Gangstalicious was outed as gay and you saw Riley react to that in a manner that had more depth. "Ballin'" was another good episode with him.

I've really got to watch this now that i've dug the DV Ds out of storage.

Given Donald Trump's presidential campaign, I could see the writers pulling a South Park and have Uncle Ruckus run for public office, probably even try to join his campaign ticket.

Oh yes, it's obvious that Ruckus would try to suck up to Trump somehow. On the other hand, I could see Huey being totally apathetic towards the whole election, as was the case in 2008.

With all the controversy regarding police shootings, it would be interesting to see this show's take on the matter. Huey would probably sympathize with the BLM movement, but he would be annoyed by Rollo Goodlove hijacking it for his own purposes.

@Austin

Its funny you mention South Park, as the humor in the comics was in the same vain as it, as it was made side by side the current events of today. Boondocks the show...was made over long periods of time, and the way they made fun of stuff could sometimes feel like reading an old newspaper.

And yes the series peaked PRETTY early, first season being more down to Earth, having more actual character moments, and Riley and Grampa were flanderized to no end. The last time Grampa got real development was that one where he dated the perfect woman after comitting facebook suicide after attracting crazy women for so long, giving him the courage to be his actual self on line rather than lying to get women....but nothing really came out of that afterwards so whatevs.

Remember how this show lampooned Bill Cosby in Seasons 1 and 2? Now imagine how they would crucify him for the sexual assault allegations.

It'd probably be a repeat of the Trial of R. Kelly where the show would criticize Cosby's defenders who are only defending him on the basis of the "America's Dad" image they've projected on him.

OOF-no more episode repeates, PLEASE, this show got addicted to them after a while.

Well if they did make an episode bashing Cosby's behavior, it doesn't necessarily have to play out like the R. Kelly episode did.

See, I would see McGruder doing something siemwhat opposite. Lampoon the charges and savage him through of the dissonance between his image and his actions, but in terms of the response to it he's more likely criticize people for trying to make it into an "angel turning out to be a demon" narrative from both the pro and anti-Cosby sides, and instead make a point about how this is just another thing that needs to be accepted as it is.

It's what he did with Michael Jackson's charges too. I'd see it be more like the Obama episode than the R. Kelly one.

The Obama episode was the last time Huey's character was really examined, and even then it was just a proxy for the left's disappointment in Obama in not being the complete anti-Bush (even if he's been a damn good president overall).

It was also the beginning of Huey basically checking out from the show.

How else could they cover this year's election?

I know it's really late, but here's a good example of the kind of thing the comic would do with Huey that made Caesar a good foil there, but the show would never have done.

As well as pointing out he had faults, unlike the power-glove weilding kung-fu master he was in the show. We get it Aaron, you like Japanime.

I understand pointing out faults but what exactly is supposed to be wrong with the other stuff? It's entirely different medium, that just lends itself much better to things like that. I'm glad they had fun with it.

The latter was a joke, the former was just saying Huey was almost a Gary Stu.