Sanoussy Cisse
28 October 2013
Boondocks
TV shows are entertaining and really educative. Every TV shows pass along a message and entertain at the same time. The Boondocks is a TV show created by Aaron McGruder in 2005. Based on the original comic strip Boondocks, Two young brothers (Huey and Riley) move away from their birth city (Chicago) to live with their quick-tempered grandfather out in the suburbs. With one brother being socially and politically motivated and the younger brother a stereotypical black youth who likes rap music and culture etc Biting socio-political commentary ensues when they meet a whole cast of crazy exaggerated characters set in a mainly white middle upper class neighborhood of Woodcrest. It has 3 seasons with a total of 15 episodes each. The TV show talks mostly about the culture of African-Americans, their point of views and way of analyzing; and ridicules the American politic.
The main characters of the show are the freeman family. When Robert Freeman became the legal guardian of his grandkids, he moved the family from Chicago's South Side to the quiet and safety of Woodcrest, in hopes that he can ignore the kids altogether and enjoy the rest of his life in peace. Things aren't working out that way. And although the boys torture each other and provoke the neighborhood, they are still not what Granddad expects them to be. He has been a freedom fighter a really long time. He’s witnessed some of the most monumental events in history, and Malcolm X died still owing him five dollars. Though Granddad is retired, that doesn't mean he isn't looking for a nice girl, or even a nasty one, to spend a little bit of time with. His age is unknown; nobody knows it, not even himself. He is often dragged into frustration and anger due to his grandsons. He usually reacts by beating them with his belt. He also has a bad time finding a woman; he constantly ended dating either a dangerous woman or a psycho.
The 10 years old Huey freeman is a very intelligent kid, a passionate reader and is very informed about various subjects. he is also known as the guy the family refers to for a wise advice or in case of crisis but he is also constantly ridiculed and underestimated by his family, who think he is a fool for having goals and values that aim higher than those of the lower class environment from which they came. A future revolutionary, he's a present-day pessimist and intellectual terrorist. Unlike the other characters, Huey rarely smiles; He is also a skilled martial artist, beating Riley with easily in all of their fights, and has only lost to a few other opponents.
Riley freeman is Huey's younger brother, the trouble maker of the family. Unlike his brother, Riley is a passionate follower of contemporary African-American pop culture also knows as hip hop. Though he is clever, and artistically gifted, Riley maintains loyalty to those pop culture ideals. He is also a basketball player and one day hope to spread his philosophy through rap music. Most episodes of the series focus on Riley's misadventures, most of them stimulated by his passion of rap music or other people he admires. Even with his wild nature and attempts to appear tougher than he actually is, Riley tends to show a softer, innocent side sometimes. Unlike his brother who is skilled in martial art, Riley is skilled in street fighting, but his techniques always fail to work when he fights against his brother. He is also talented in art.
Uncle Ruckus is another character of the show that appears in every episode. He hates black people. This is kind of awkward, since he appears to be a black man himself. But more than that, he has a deep respect, admiration and love of white people. To him, there's only one King, and that's Elvis, not Dr. Martin Luther King. Later in the show, it’s mentioned why ruckus hates black people. Ruckus biological parents were white but he was abandoned. He also has a skin disease, his skin tend to turn blacker and blacker as he grew. He was raised by an African-American where he was constantly abused. It’s curious that Ruckus and Granddad can stand to be around each other. Granddad has spent most his life fighting for the freedom of black people and Ruckus hates black people.
Tom is Huey and Riley's next door neighbor. As a successful African-American, he probably could qualify as a role model to these boys. But instead, he's seen more as a tool of the establishment, working to keep the black man down. And to top it all off, he's married to a white woman.
Jasmine Dubois is tom’s 10 years old daughter. Jasmine has to deal with being the child of an interracial relationship, and survive the teasing of Huey and Riley, her next-door neighbors. Despite all this, she manages to remain optimistic and slightly naïve.
I interviewed my friend Shellie whom watched the show as well. I asked him what does he think of the show, does the show have any positive aspect?
The show passes along a lot of message for people that are interested in behavior of African-American and it also satirize the media. For example in the thirteen of the third season “the fried chicken flu”; in which the African-American society went insane when the country ran out of chicken. We all know the relationship between black people and chicken right? Later on in the episode, an excessive amount of people appear to be sick due to the consumption of the fried chicken. The media goes on that the chicken flu is responsible of any other disaster hitting the world. By the end the chicken flu never existed, it was all Medias speculation.
In conclusion, we will retain that all TV show pass along a message to his viewers. The boondocks tend to clarify more the life of African-American through a TV show; what they like, what they don't and they act the way they do. Only by watching the show people learn a lot about African-American, and on top of that, the show is very entertaining and interesting. I think the TV show is great and I will recommend it to anyone. The language is sometimes inappropriate or offensive in order to pass along the message like in the episode twelve of the season two called "the S word". Riley was called the "N" word by his teacher whom had been suspended after acting so. In the meantime granddad and riley find that situation hilarious and think about suing the school, while Huey don't see anything wrong with it because granddad and riley both use the "N" word all the time. Granddad goes on to say that the "N" word is a word that black people use to describe your best friends. We all don't mind being call certain words by our best friends but as soon as a stranger call us so, it's a disaster. The boondocks pass along a lot more messages; it is a show that is worth watching.