“The Boondocks”

Comedy Central, Sundays, Midnight



Charlie Brown and company made the jump from newspapers to TV look easy. Of course, there were some words Charlie Brown never got around to saying.

“The Boondocks” began its life as a comic strip, and its animated counterpart shares a plot setup: Huey Freeman (voiced by “Ray” girl Regina Hall) is a 10-year-old who lives with his brother (also Hall) and grandfather in a largely-white suburb of Chicago. Huey is unhappy with that particular aspect of the situation, and is the series’ narrator and social commentator.

The animation is loyal to Aaron McGruder’s comic. Yet, somehow, the show also boasts an anime style that shows up in its directing, its pace, and its penciling. It’s certainly nice to look at, and full of interesting character design.

In this week’s episode, Huey’s grandfather (voiced by John Witherspoon, who appears to be channeling his character from “The Wayans Brothers”) gets beaten up by a blind man and challenges him to a rematch. The narrative proceeds to an anime-style tangent comparing the blind man to legendary cinematic swordsman Zatoichi. He is subsequently dubbed the “blind N_____ Samurai.”

It’s all kind of ridiculous. The jokes feel trite, the commentary feels forced, and, at times, offensive. One can’t help but feel that this is much better off compressed into three small squares on a newspaper page.