("The Boondocks, A Huey Freeman Christmas.” Screen Shot, Property of Aaron McGrunder and Sony Pictures Television.)
In this Christmas episode from The Boondocks (2005-2014) first season “A Huey Freeman Christmas” (2005), follows the various different ways that Huey, Jazmine, and Riley interact with the holiday, with Huey’s seizing of the school play being one main focus, and Riley’s violent Santa Stalking being the other.
This was a strongly written episode that satirizes some of the various mentalities surrounding Christmas, such as the mixed origins of the holiday interpreted through the conservative view, the liberal view, the historically accurate view, and the consumerist view. Jazmine in particular, who mixes Santa Claus as Jesus, was actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the episode.
The Santa Stalker through Riley was amusing as hell with his epic attacks with that pellet gun, and then the replacing of Santa with Uncle Ruckus was rather brilliant, culminating in a nice scene between Ruckus and Jasmine…which then caused an equally hilarious back fire as another child’s belief in Santa was renewed as well.
The various story arcs could be argued to perhaps compete for space within the short episode running time, but they do oddly sort of sync with each other into a balanced whole and giving something for everyone to enjoy by balancing out character self-involvement, the ridiculously naive and confused, mildly grotesque, comedy, and violence. The various elements of the arcs worked together to keep one particular element from becoming too much.
All in all, it was exactly the right amount of everything: Satire, violence, ridiculousness, seriousness, and warmth. recommend to anyone looking for a good holiday short with high entertainment value and some commentary.
Original post: https://screensquinty.wordpress.com/2015/12/24/the-seven-days-of-christmas-the-boondocks/
Screen Squinty's Reviews: https://screensquinty.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/screensquinty/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/screensquinty
No comments:
Post a Comment