C&C - Boondocks - "Shinin'" [11/26]

[J'onn J'onzz]

Riley becomes a member of a rap group only to get his chain stolen.

I thought it was really funny, especially the ending, which was pretty unexpected.

The one group member who was talking about Wendy's and how he would improve the music was hilarious, and the group's reactions to him were priceless too.

One of the best episodes of the season so far in my opinion.

[Lightning Tiger]

watching Ed interogate that little kid made my day.

[Neo Ultra Mike]

This episode did start off rather slow. In truth Cribs parodies got old like years ago (even before they started making this show years ago, though Epic Movie did a decent parody of it) so the whole cold opening (besides Riley popping up) wasn't very good. However it did pick up more in the actual meat of Riley wanting to get his chain. Unlike other episodes this one didn't prattle onto other sidepoints and just stuck with Riley with only Grandad and Huey making appearences of the main characters (like them but still like seeing eps that don't need Tom or Rucks in them for some reason or another). With the three tests (agreeing with Thugnificent's taste of music and seeing the one guy who didn't get beaten, riding on top of the car and using Myspace to order some hoes. That's a good way of tieing in the whole myspace plut actually), Huey questioning why having a chain is so important and then agreeing that Riley's going to have his "hatin" if he keeps living the way he does (felt like a line from the actual comics thinking about it), Riley showing off his chain and the bully nailing him, the one punch kid beating up the auidence on Maury, Grandad's Friday based story (thought they'd pull that joke later but glad they didn't. Only really works one time per episode) Riley vs the bully (at least Riley put up more of a fight then most victims and was actually able to dodge some punches even if non of his hit), Huey getting Riley to admit he'd kiss a man to get his chain back, Grandad's plan on that bully, Ed grabbing the wrong kid (though the scene did go on a bit too long for me), the Thugnificent crew saying they don't fight fair and don't care about acting like a man to prove yourself and the end with Riley taking the chain and still being impressed. More then anyone else he barley ever seems to get the moral of an episode and this was one of those cases. Though it did start off slow and have a few meh segements, pretty good ep. I am glad to see that Thugnificent was staying more then once in the neighborhood but hope they don't overuse him and his crew this season.

[v1cious]

wow, i find it interesting that all three of you despised the last episode, but loved this one. i actually didn't think it was that great. i mean it wasn't horrible, just ok really. Huey as usual, made more sense than anyone; but it just seemed like there was way too much exposition.

[R. Escobar]

That ending had me DYING for a good 5 minutes

[livingfruitvirus]

Anyone else think there's too much swearing in this show? The bleeps are making it near unlistenable.

[R. Escobar]

Anyone else think there's too much swearing in this show? The bleeps are making it near unlistenable.

I think the Thugnifcent episodes do get quite profane, but last weeks episode had no cussing if I remember correctly

[RomanMack]

I think the Thugnifcent episodes do get quite profane, but last weeks episode had no cussing if I remember correctlyNo, it did.

[R. Escobar]

LOL oh yea i remember now

nutty as squirrell s*&t LMAO

[RomanMack]

Anyone notice Huey is a lot more subdued, calmer and respectful now? I mean, in the first episodes he use to say the dreaded "N" word quite a few times, but in this season he's barely used it (other than the Stinkmeaner returns episode). His speech also seems largely cleaned up. Just something I seem to be picking up on the more season 2 goes further.

[Djm912]

I'm a Huey fan, so this episode didn't quite strike as hard for me. It had its moments that I liked, the guy in Thugnificent's crew talking about Wendy's for one, but sometimes Riley and his.....Riley-ness is a bit much for me. And the fact that he never gets the message at the end of every episode (just like in the comic) is kind of...wearing down on me.:shrug:

[J'onn J'onzz]

Anyone else think there's too much swearing in this show? The bleeps are making it near unlistenable.
If it was unbleeped it wouldn't bother me as much. The fact that it's constantly bleeping makes it seem even more... heavy-handed. It can be annoying, or it can be funny, it depends on how they use it, IMO.

[kewlmyc]

Anyone else think there's too much swearing in this show? The bleeps are making it near unlistenable.
Well, this episode was based on a rap group and a wannabe gangsta (Riley), and a good number of rap groups and gangstas use bad language.

[Ekaj-Prime]

I also agree that the cold open was a bit....slow. But as soon as the episode started, things picked up quickly. There were quite a few laughs to be had here, and were introduced to a new character (seeing as he wasn't killed off like some of the enemies of the Freeman family, Butch may return). This time, it's Riley's show and Huey and Granddad take a back seat. Its also interesting to note that Rukus and Tom were absent from this episode...but when you think about it, they weren't really needed. Thugnificent and Ed Wuncler the third easily filled in for both, in my opinion.

My personal favorite gags include the "Wendy's" comments, the conversations between Huey and Riley, the Friday flashback (It was cool to see a few of the characters animated) Ed's shocking, but hilarious interrigation, and the ending of the episode. The fight between Butch and Riley was predictable, but it was enjoyable at the same time. The fights in this show don't feel tacked on at all....in fact, they seem to be a requirement in episodes, and I've liked them thus far. ^_^

All in all, you get another episode with not much to complain about. My only issue with this episode is Ed's new character design. He looked perfectly fine in "Thanks for not Snitching!", but he looked a bit....different here. Charlie Murphy's voice made up for it but he just looked a bit odd here. Still another great episode that dosen't require a moral. After all, this was Riley's episode.

"Know what? It's still better than that old, funky necklace."

5 out of 5

[Kitschensyngk]

Mr. Booty Buttcheeks is back, and he still personifies everything I hate about mainstream rap.

You'd think Riley would have learned a lesson about Myspace after last week's episode.

"You know that wa'n't no chain, that's a necklace!"

Sucker punch first, ask questions later.

How did S&P let Butch get away with paddling that nun?

Another Friday reference.

"Is it worth kissing a man?" :D

That kid is scarred for life. Was that an unknown unknown?

How does it feel to be owned by a five-foot-four fat kid?

"My dad had it appraised! He said it was worthless!"

Good episode. Nice little warped Aesop towards the end.

[tb4000]

Ding....dong.

I swear that had me laughing the first time, then when you find out what's making the noise, I laughed more.

[silverfox1027]

Honestly, that was probably one of my least favorite Boondocks episodes ever (I heard "Tom, Sarah, and Usher" was pretty bad, but I never saw it). I think I laughed only once the entire episode.

I dunno...the season on the whole has been pretty disappointing so far, IMO. I mean, not terrible, but these episodes really pale in comparison to the episodes from last season.

And season 2 needs more Huey. I'm tired of MySpace and Riley.

[shany94a]

Not as laugh-out loud funny overall as other eps this season, but still some good scenes. Thugnificent may have set a record for greatest usage of the n-word before the opening credits, telling poor n*ggas that they would never have what he owned - and then you find out he was merely renting the water slides and bikinied babes ...

Granddad's telling Riley how he fought off Deebo was hilarious, made more so by the fact that John Witherspoon's character actually just stood on the sidelines during that fight in "Friday".

Wonder if BS&P will raise hell about Ed III torturing that poor kid - the wrong kid, of course, but then, it's Ed III. After that sequence I half-expected Lethal Interjection to go after Butch Magnus with guns drawn, but what happened was a lot funnier. Guess LI is more lethal against old black men than 12-year-old white kids. Where's a killer kung-fu wolf ***** when you need her?

And where was Uncle Ruckus this time out? Although he'd probably would have told Riley that he should have been honored to have been beaten up by a white boy ...

[Blackstar]

Eh, this was definitely not one of their better outings. Not "Tom, Sarah and Usher" bad, but not one of the best either.

I guess it's only fair that Riley be given his own episode for a change, but IMHO, Riley works best as a supporting player, as his character is best taken in small doses. Also, the "urban" characters (Riley, Ed, Rummy, Thugnificent, etc.) work best when the non-urban characters are around to provide contrast. An entire episode with just them gets long in the tooth after a while. After all, The Odd Couple with only Oscar isn't as funny. Finally, I hate one-dimensional bully characters with a passion. I wanted to see the bully suffer at the end of the episode, which didn't happen, but Riley did at least get his chain back, which counts for something, I suppose.

2 out of 5.

[Hades]

Another good episode, but they really seemed to just rip off the Richie Rich Robot Chicken skit at the beginning.

[Freedom Fighter]

So that's what it's about? The more reasons you have for people to hate you, the better your rep? Talk about backwards! Though, admittedly, as hilarious as it is wrong.

That's kinda where the laughs end.

Riley's initiation tests? Okay. The legacy of Butch Magnus? Uh... scandalous! Ed torturing the wrong kid? A bit much. The ending? Doy... when they meant 'ask for the help of the krew,' that meant more than one helper! One helper that seriously now has a bum ankle.

One week after the season's best episode, here's the season's worst.

"Shinin'": 2.5/5.

[tb4000]

It's all about makin' the other mofos jealous. Represent. :yawn:

[v1cious]

Another good episode, but they really seemed to just rip off the Richie Rich Robot Chicken skit at the beginning.

uhh... it was just like all the other million shows that parodied Cribs.

[Deadman]

well i thought it was very funny.

[Hades]

uhh... it was just like all the other million shows that parodied Cribs.

What's Cribs?

[Kitschensyngk]

What's Cribs?

Some pop star gives an MTV camera crew a tour of his/her house.

[bigdeath]

Mr. Booty Buttcheeks is back, and he still personifies everything I hate about mainstream rap.

You'd think Riley would have learned a lesson about Myspace after last week's episode.

"You know that wa'n't no chain, that's a necklace!"

Sucker punch first, ask questions later.

How did S&P let Butch get away with paddling that nun?

Another Friday reference.

"Is it worth kissing a man?" :D

That kid is scarred for life. Was that an unknown unknown?

How does it feel to be owned by a five-foot-four fat kid?

"My dad had it appraised! He said it was worthless!"

Good episode. Nice little warped Aesop towards the end.

You summed up what I love. It was great!

[bigdeath]

Mr. Booty Buttcheeks is back, and he still personifies everything I hate about mainstream rap.

You'd think Riley would have learned a lesson about Myspace after last week's episode.

"You know that wa'n't no chain, that's a necklace!"

Sucker punch first, ask questions later.

How did S&P let Butch get away with paddling that nun?

Another Friday reference.

"Is it worth kissing a man?" :D

That kid is scarred for life. Was that an unknown unknown?

How does it feel to be owned by a five-foot-four fat kid?

"My dad had it appraised! He said it was worthless!"

Good episode. Nice little warped Aesop towards the end.

Wow, I loved this eppy and you summed up the great parts of it. :D

I'd like to paddle me some nun as well ;) :evil:

[maczero]

I liked this one. I actually want to see Butch again. He reminds of the bully from "Everybody Hates Chris".

Couple of questions:

1) Who does the voice for Thugnificent?

2) Are the character designs or personalities of the Boondocks rappers based on real world rappers? I swear one of Thugnificent's crew looks like the light skin dude from the Black Eyed Peas. I also get the feeling that "Eat Dirt" is supposed to be a parody of Little John.

[BigLouMan20]

Producer Carl Jones does the voice of Thugnificent. I'm pretty sure the rappers are parodies of other rappers or the type of rapper. I'm sure Thugnificent is the rapper that starts beef with the crappiest thing.

Tomorrow we get another Riley episode with him joining basketball.

[Blackstar]

Two Riley heavy episodes in a row? I don't know if that's a good thing or not. However, this might be the episode where Cindy makes her TV debut, If I'm remembering correctly from the original previews for season 2.

[Master Moron]

I'm a Huey fan, so this episode didn't quite strike as hard for me. It had its moments that I liked, the guy in Thugnificent's crew talking about Wendy's for one, but sometimes Riley and his.....Riley-ness is a bit much for me. And the fact that he never gets the message at the end of every episode (just like in the comic) is kind of...wearing down on me.:shrug:

He didn't talk about Wendy's. He talked about Mcdonald's and Burger King.

[Bunai]

i'm trying to figure out
if they see Ri as a child...or a little adult?

even when they said "girls your age"
that was quickly over shadowed by Ri stating he could get Adult Women

BLEH...he even called the crew a good influence!
come on Ri. i love Ri but he needs to be double back hand slapped

[Dr. Collect]

Come on, this was hands down the best episode of Boondocks ever. I usually love to hate this show (see Ballin' for what I consider a standard, bad Boondocks ep), but in this it seems like everybody got together and did everything right!

First off, the animation was beautiful! Did anyone else notice the quality jump? I used to blame the bad animation on their attempt to ape anime, but this ep proved me wrong. It's not the faux-anime look that makes the show look so awful most of the time, it's just general incompetence. I didn't notice any visual mistakes this time. No odd coloring or drawing angles; no forced, badly-timed anime takes (Ballin' was full of them, via Tom. See the streams of tears displayed for every sniffle. Also his complexion looked off). No awkward composition or ineffectively choppy animation. Just perfect the whole way through.

Second the humor worked well throughout - I don't recall any bombs. It's all timing, I think. The bombs that are standard in this show are from clumsy timing I think. I'm always thinking to myself that whatever gag should be funny, but for some reason it's not. That never happened this ep. Good example, when the bully punches out the kid for his sandwich - the sandwich stays suspended in the air while the kid goes down; the bully smoothly snatches it out of the air before it falls too, and says: "Let me get a bite of your sandwich!", gently overlapping the narration that sets this up. Any other ep, any one of those elements would have happened too quickly.

And yes, Ed looked way different, but he didn't look "ugly". He wasn't rendered in an aesthetically awkward way that many characters are in other episodes. And his ranting at the kid for looking scared was way too familiar.

So what do you think happened? Was there some new animation director on the team? This reminds me of Drawn Together, where two episodes from the 3rd season had noticeably wonderful animation specifically for the two "cartoony" characters (Toot - the 30's cartoon and Wooldoor, the Spongebob clone, who exhibited inspired wild takes thoughout the eps in contrast to their button-down roommates of either limited animation or "serious" source material origin).

[Bunai]

every series goes through a rough animated episode.
anime has ALWAYS had them lol. geez they still even do the "running but not getting anywhere" scenes.


just had to add.
ACK Ed torture (if you can call it that)
that poor little kid...too Shota-con