‘The Boondocks’ Season 4 Trailer: Fall of Woodcrest

[reaper]

The Boondocks is, personally speaking, one of my favorite animated series, and I was proud to be one of the first to get the scoop that The Boondocks season 4 was happening - but that was about three years ago. It’s been a long wait- full of some twists and turns – but season 4 is officially coming to Adult Swim at the end of April; however, series creator Aaron McGruder won’t be a part of it.

As the Boondocks season 4 official trailer indicates, brothers Huey and Riley Freeman (voice of Regina King) and their Granddad (John Witherspoon) are coming to the end of their time in the suburban enclaves of Woodcrest. With Granddad facing foreclosure on the house (and apparently a lot worse than that), the boys and their comrades – like Tom Dubois (Cedric Yarbrough) and maybe even Uncle Ruckus (Gary Anthony Williams) – have to get out of the ‘burbs alive and free from bondage.

A lot of the hardcore fanbase behind The Boondocks (which is pretty much THE fanbase of this cult-hit show) are apprehensive of the fact that Aaron McGruder is no longer involved with production (scheduling conflicts, allegedly). Then again, this isn’t new territory for The Boondocks.

Seasons 1 and 3 of the show were pretty much exclusively written by McGruder, while season 2 had scripting duties split between McGruder and a team of staff writers. The results? The McGruder seasons had the more socially conscious (at times controversial) episodes that could often be narratively stunted; on the other hand, season 2 had tighter, self-contained episode arcs, with slightly less edge and commentary. In the end, it’s a split between which fans prefer which seasons.

That’s all to say: McGruder being gone – and this trailer above – are clear indication that overarching narrative and comedic hijinks will be the focus of season 4. However, the suburban slavery bits hint that maybe not all of the commentary and subtext that distinguished Aaron McGruder’s comic strip and cartoon will be lost.

At the very least, we’ll get plenty of nods and winks to all our favorite characters from the series in this, what is sure to be the show’s final run. (…How is Stinkmeaner back AGAIN???)