The Boondocks: Season 2

Description

Product Description Popular Adult Swim show on Cartoon Network! Based on Aaron McGruder's comic strip which was distributed in 350 newspapers nationwide. Granddad sneaks the boys into the movies to be cheap. Sarah's obsession with Usher after meeting him threatens her relationship with Tom. Riley and Granddad refuse to talk with cops about two local thieves, even after Granddad's car is stolen. Stinkmeaner's spirit possesses Tom and he tries to get revenge on Granddad. Riley joins the basketball team, and the boys fight over who will be boss while Granddad's on vacation. desertcart.com Fans of Aaron MacGruder's The Boondocks (based on his popular daily comic strip) should take note that all 15 episodes of the fearless animated series are included on this second-season boxed set. While complete seasons should be a given for the DVD presentation of most television series, most programs didn't undergo the same level of scrutiny and negative press as The Boondocks, which saw two of its second season episodes pulled from its network run over allegedly offensive statements about the cable channel BET and its senior executives (including filmmaker Reginald Hudlin, who is also credited as executive producer on The Boondocks). Both episodes--"The Hunger Strike" (which sees Boondocks hero Huey Freeman protest BET's negative programming) and "The Uncle Ruckus Show" (BET airs a reality series built around the self-loathing title character) – are presented here in their entirety, and include fairly straightforward commentary by MacGruder and producers Rodney Barnes and Carl Jones which, while never going so far as to point fingers at individuals who may have caused the episodes to be banned, does provide a succinct history of the troubles they incurred for the show. It should also be noted that while both episodes are solid and ruthless pieces of satire, they're not the high points of the season--episodes that strike a stronger balance between humor and social commentary include " Or Die Trying" (Granddad, Huey, Riley and Jazmine sneak into a screening of Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking! and wrangle with Uncle Ruckus), "Invasion of the Katrinians" (Granddad learns to regret taking in his displaced New Orleans relative Jericho, voiced by Cedric the Entertainer), and "The Story of Catcher Freeman" (a Rashomon-like take on the history of the Freeman's saintly ancestor). These and others come closest to achieving the level of quality of "The Return of the King," the best episode of The Boondocks' first year, and do much to suggest that the show will continue to hit high-water marks in subsequent seasons. In addition to the previously mentioned commentaries, MacGruder, Barnes and Jones are heard on two other episodes ("Stinkmeaner Strikes Back" and "The Story of Gangstalicious, Part 2"), and MacGruder is seen in video introductions for the banned episodes, as well as a making-of featurette which profiles the behind-the-scenes elements of the show in detail. "Trouble in Woodcrest" is a light-hearted look at a supposed feud between voice talent Cedric Yarbrough and Gary Anthony Williams, while "What N****s?" pokes fun at criticism of the show's use of the epithet by compiling footage of the voice-over artists repeating it in recording sessions. Five-minute interviews with the main cast and minisodes of "Spider-Man" and "Married With Children" bring the extras to a close. -- Paul Gaita Review: Still the best all-around animated show on television - So what do I think about "The Boondocks"? It's good. How good? Reeeeaaaal good. What do I like about it specifically? Everything. the first season knocked me upside my head and made me laugh until I begged it to stop. Season two is a step down, but still has the show going strong and laying the social satire, cutting parody, and excessive vulgarity nice and thick while battling the evil forces trying to make the world a stupider place. Aaron McGruder is a superhero. Do not doubt this. Not only did he create a successful and controversial newspaper comic strip that lashed out at nearly every reader who came across it and dared them to say they didn't deserve it, but he created an even less friendly animated version pairing the most crude and vulgar content imaginable with even more in-your-face racial commentary and somehow got it aired on basic cable. Unbelievable. This man has enriched my life and given me hope for a better future. God bless him and Cartoon Network. 10 things I love about the Boondocks season two DVD set: 1) Killer kung-fu wolf b!+ches voiced by the heavenly Aisha Tyler. 2) "Soul Plane" sequel parodies featuring a mumbling 50 Cent as a heroic air marshal. 3) An episode commenting on the baffling "no snitching" culture while simultaneously mocking bluetooth headsets and other useless technology. 4) Katt Williams reprising his role as A Pimp Named Slickback (That is his actual full name. Like A Tribe Called Quest) to act as marriage counselor to an emasculated Tom Dubois. Example: "Has NOT hitting the b!+ch been working? I mean, scientifically speaking, has not hitting the b!+ch achieved the desired result?" 5) Lines like "It's not the fact that you clearly have a possessed man tied to a bed upstairs...it's that you lied about it." GOLD! 6) Watching the voice actors at work on the extras with the N-bombs all cut together. 7) Spending an entire episode systematically linking gay and hip-hop cultures while puzzling about how rappers and those who idolize them could be so homophobic. Then giving you the answer. Come out of the closet already, Fiddy. 8) Not one, but TWO unaired episodes blasting the corporate ignorance-peddlers known as BET for their incessant mongering of negative black stereotypes to the world at large. Talk about selling out your own people. 9) Not one but TWO episodes parodying a certain overweight, overexposed media hog posing as a civil rights activist for personal gain. 10) Showing us the truth behind snarky Fox News darling Ann Coulter's parade of ignorance. Speaking of hot conservative bee-yatches, I long for the day when Michelle Malkin's racist BS comes back on her and Rupert Murdoch only allows her to speak using the Vietnamese prostitute's lines from Full Metal Jacket . "Me so horny, baby." What else is there to say? This show still swings for the fences, devours every sacred cow, pays homage to the finer things in life (like Bruce Lee flicks), and causes fits of laughter that could be mistaken by a passerby for epilepsy. There are a few bits that don't work out as well as they could have (did we need an entire episode about Usher macking on somebody's wife?) and the gaps in production are starting to take a toll, but I still can't get enough of "The Boondocks". There is no more socially relevant series out there and even South Park dares not tread where this show lives. It asks the hard questions and delivers the answers that some may not want to hear, but that's reality. This is the show that dared to wonder aloud in it's very first season just what the immortal Martin Luther King Jr. would think of what his people have done with the freedom he and so many others sacrificed so much for. Uncalled-for message from the soapbox incoming. Screw BET, Fox News, MTV, and every other corporate entity feeding and profiting from our country's ignorance epidemic. Why bother teaching pride in one's race while glorifying ill-gotten material wealth, demeaning women, promoting violence, and ridiculing any sign of intelligence? Every person who sees a person different them them, be it ethnicity, nationality, religion, or political party and sees them as the other side only plays into the divide-and-conquer strategy that allows us all to be perpetually exploited by those in power. And as for an entire cable channel that claims to represent the values of entire race, what happened to "a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character"? What kind of character is being fostered in American culture by the garbage on BET and MTV? Forget race. That's WHAT you are. What matters is WHO you are. This is what Dr. King taught, this is what Boondocks preaches, and this is what I personally believe. But it's way funnier when Boondocks tells it. 4 1/2 stars rounded up for telling it like it is. Review: Boondocks Season 2 - This is a great continuation of the Boondocks series. It seemed that the whole Season 2 focuses more on the experiences of Riley instead of Huey, who seemed to be the focal point of Season 1. With Riley, there are more Hip-Hop flavored situations to satirize and funnier situations to laugh at. I've had the intention on buying this box set for a long time, but have been unwilling to spend thirty or forty bucks on it. Thankfully, I caught it during the holiday blitz and it was only fifteen bucks during what I suppose was a special. I look forward to Season 3 airing. If you're a fan of great satire, great animation and funny-as-all situations, look no further than this. The Boondocks is a great alternative to "The Simpsons," "Family Guy" or "South Park." It's very Afro-centric so finally, something that satirizes the Black Experience is here for any of us to enjoy and laugh at. Anyone can enjoy "The Boondocks" and appreciate the comedy that ensues with each episode.