Rating
4.0

Photo courtesy of adultswim.com

“Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan was the Devil, and the Government lied about 9/11.”

This is one of the defining pieces of dialogue from the first episode of The Boondocks, a brutally intelligent series on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Created by Aaron McGruder and based on his hugely popular comic strip, the show has one several awards, including a Peabody in 2006, and has been a consistently funny and witty satire on American society in the 21^st century. After corporate disputes and a two-year hiatus, The Boondocks is back on May 2 for the third—and what is apparently the final—season of the series.

For those who don’t know, The Boondocks centers on Huey Freeman (voiced by Regina King), a highly intelligent-yet-cynical ten-year-old who views himself as a black activist in a white dominated world. His younger brother Riley (also voiced by King) embraces the “hip-hop” image of black men, and expresses his love for guns, graphitti and the “gangsta life” amid his many tantrums and hissy fits. The boys’ grandfather, Robert Freeman a.k.a “Granddad” (voiced by John Witherspoon), is Huey and Riley’s legal guardian, spends his time trying to keep his grandkids in line while chasing any attractive woman he sees. There are several other side characters in the series, including Uncle Ruckus (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams), a black white supremacist, and Tom DuBois (voiced by Cedric Yarbrough), a black attorney who should be a role model to the boys, but is seen more as a “tool of the man.”

The last original episode of The Boondocks aired on March 23, 2008, before the election of Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States, and so the third season obligatorily begins with a reference to the historic event. The episode is titled “It’s a Black President, Huey Freeman,” and it features a German documentarian following the Freeman family during the 2008 election.

The episode’s storyline plays out as we expect, with Obama’s election and eventual inauguration, and the insight provided by the main characters is as poignant as ever—with the exception of Huey. Riley brags about a world where cops can’t mess with a friend of “Obeezy,” Granddad proclaims that it was his work for civil rights that led to this historic event and Uncle Ruckus is proclaiming the end of humanity. But Huey barely seems interested in the conversation. When people ask him what Obama’s election means, he says, nonchalantly, “The end of America.”

It has always been perceived that Huey is an outlet for McGruder, who wrote the episode, and it’s difficult to tell how he wants this interpreted. When the first episode in two years gives such a mixed message, I have to wonder: Is Huey (McGruder) making the point that the election hasn’t changed a thing? Does he disagree with the expectation that he would be immediately on board with Team Obama? Or maybe he just plain doesn’t care anymore? The episode’s final moment, which has a somewhat astonishing reveal for those loyal to The Boondocks’ storyline, could be interpreted as the answer to those questions, and may be setting the tone for the show’s final season.

Regardless or perhaps because of the mixed message, “It’s a Black President, Huey Freeman” is a smart return for The Boondocks. The art of the episode is as well composed as ever, with the stark shadows and rich color pallet setting the tone of the many complexities the show offers. The jokes hit the right notes, in particular an Obama tribute song by Will.I.Am. and show regular Thugnificent (voiced by show producer Carl Jones), but one can’t help but think they would have been slightly more potent had the episode come out sooner than a year and a half after the election. In any case, I expect The Boondocks will return to its more witty self now that the requisite election episode is out of its system.

“It’s a Black President, Huey Freeman” airs on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on Sunday, May 2 at 11 p.m.