Caltrops - Peter Molyneux's The Movies - Re: Is Boondocks any good?

Forum Overview :: Peter Molyneux's The Movies

by jeep 12/23/2005, 12:02pm PST

If you've ever seen The Shield, you know when a show is trying too hard to be controversial, and you will recognize it here.

The first episode was pretty good, the recent episode with Gangstalicious was pretty good, but he's reaching far beyond his grasp with most of it. It's obvious he's most comfortable when writing for Huey and Riley, and he isn't able to bring life to the other characters he introduces. My guess here is that 2 well-developed characters, 2 sketch characters and 2-4 cardboard caricatures per episode isn't enough for a post-Simpsons series, and he's not delegating enough of the writing.

It's very rare that I'll argue against "one man-one voice" art, but his current problem is that Trent Reznor-style egomania only works if you release one hour of said art every five years. If he had a full team of writers, came up with one of these stories, then left it to the writers to write the secondary dialogue and sight gags, he'd get a lot more quality in there without compromising his point.

I'll keep watching to see if it gets better, partially because the artwork (by the Samurai Champloo team) is fantastic. I hope he lets go a little, because good visuals and no fear is a good environment for great work, but it's no guarantee of it. As of now there's no way I'd buy this on DVD, because there isn't anything there I'll miss the first time around. I won't watch a show forever on potential alone, and it's a shame that's all it's been so far, because that means Adult Swim won't give anyone else a similar shot.

/jeep/