Just watched the first 7 episodes of Boondocks. It's seems to be just finding it's stride, the timing could be tighter at times, but it's most definiately smart and most definitely art. The comedy pushes the envelope constantly, and the visuals are quite cinematic.

I, of course, enjoy the politics. I mean, the episode with the two whiteboy gangsters named W and Rummy, and W's voiced by Charlie Murphy and Rummy's voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, and he's shouting, "The absense of evidence is not evidence of absence!" and "That's an unknown unknown!" while on a spree of robbery disguised as vigilantism... that was fucking funny.

I torrented the pack of episodes because I'd been curious about the show (have enjoyed the comic strip) but then I heard somewhere it wasn't good. Since I don't have cable, I never saw for myself. But then I read this post by Steve Gillard:

Besides the gorgeous, anime-level animation, the politcs here are much more aggressive than in the strip. The word nigga is the least reason to complain about the show. The grandfather beats a man to death over an argument, Uncle Rukus is a self-hating black man who would surpass the clowns who work for NRO. In short, there is a lot to dislike about the show.

But, the fact is that this is the first time a non-rapper, non-novelist gets to have a forum to discuss black life from someone under 50. This is a nearly unique perspective on modern African American life and it is not comfortable at times. But it is not ignorant either. It is extremely well thought out and makes points in a way which need to be made.

That sounded interesting, so I decided to check it out. Ironically, Steve's blog post was in response to Al Sharpton asking Aaron McGruder (the creator of the show and strip) to apologize for a recent episode which I have not seen that they did with Dr. King. So, you have me getting turned on to a show because Al Sharpton called for the creator to apologize for the show being offensive. Fucking postmodern, yeah.

Anyway, enjoyable comedy. I heard they got renewed. Many happy returns to McGruder and cheers to Comedy Central Cartoon Network (thanks Stephen... it's all bittorrent to me) for taking a chance on something nonstandard.