Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks ran for four seasons and 55 episodes on Adult Swim, from November 6, 2005 to June 23, 2014. It is a comedy about a family, and it is also one of the most sustained arguments about race ever put on American television. The show earns its place. It does not always earn its laughs.
Trailer, via Adult Swim.
The Freemans of Woodcrest
The setup is simple. Robert “Granddad” Freeman becomes legal guardian to his two grandsons and moves them from Chicago’s South Side to the upscale suburb of Woodcrest. He wants safety and comfort in his golden years. He gets Huey and Riley instead.
Huey is 10, a leftist revolutionary, an avid reader, and the family’s moral compass. He has been declared a “domestic terrorist.” He is also a highly skilled kung-fu fighter who beats Riley with ease in any physical altercation. Riley is eight, a fanatic of gangsta rap and street culture, charming and artistically gifted and loyal to ideals that will destroy him. Regina King voices both brothers. John Witherspoon voices Granddad. Gary Anthony Williams voices Uncle Ruckus.
The mixture of cultures, classes and racialized identities in Woodcrest is where the satire lives. That is the engine, and for long stretches it runs hot.
What the Show Does Best
McGruder built The Boondocks from his manga-influenced comic strip of the same name, and the show keeps the strip’s contempt for easy answers. Huey is openly scornful of gangsta rap for glamorizing extravagance, self-defeating lifestyles and ignorance. Riley embraces all of it. Their arguments are the spine of the series, and the show refuses to let either brother win cleanly.
The bulk of the episodes follow Riley’s misadventures, most of them fueled by his love of gangsta rap. In “The Fundraiser,” Huey warns him directly about where his choices lead. Riley brushes him off. That pattern repeats, and it works because the writing takes Riley seriously as a character rather than a punchline.
The show also got real recognition. It won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and a Peabody Award. Those are not consolation prizes.
Where It Stumbles and Where It Landed
Season four was produced without McGruder’s involvement, reportedly because a mutually agreeable production schedule could not be determined. The drop is visible. A satire this specific needs its author in the room, and the last season often reaches for the joke instead of the point.
The setting itself never quite settled. The show says the Freemans came from Chicago, and the first season shows the Sears Tower, Grant Park, Lake Michigan and elevated rapid transit resembling the Chicago “L.” In “The Trial of Robert Kelly,” Riley asks to go watch the R. Kelly trial and says it is 40 miles away. But other details point to Columbia, Maryland, where McGruder was raised. Huey’s cellphone number in the comics carries a 443 area code, which belongs to the Baltimore area. The show never resolves it.
Ranking what the series got right:
- Huey and Riley as opposing arguments, not opposites.
- Granddad’s vanity as the show’s most reliable comic engine.
- Uncle Ruckus, the show’s sharpest and most dangerous creation.
- The first three seasons’ willingness to sit in discomfort.
- Season four, which too often settles for noise.
The best episodes are the ones that trust the audience to find the horror funny on its own.
Key facts
- Premiere: November 6, 2005
- Finale: June 23, 2014
- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 55
- Network: Adult Swim
- Metacritic: 72/100
A reboot was announced in June 2019, with Sony Pictures Animation producing and McGruder involved. Witherspoon was set to return as Robert Freeman before his death in October 2019. HBO Max picked it up that September. In February 2022, development had stalled. That is a real loss. The Boondocks still has no replacement.
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