Slate's Aisha Harris reviews the season premiere of The Boondocks.
Like McGruder’s takedowns of R. Kelly and Tyler Perry in two of the show’s best earlier episodes (“The Trial of R. Kelly” and “Pause”) “Pretty Boy Flizzy” features an impressive supply of such zingers, along with an unrelenting indictment of both the performer and a culture that seems to condone and perhaps even foster his behavior. But only a few of the jokes really land, while the rest sound familiar—at this point, a parody of Brown needs to be uncommonly clever and thoughtful not to feel warmed over. It doesn’t help that the show’s three main characters are relegated to the background in favor of lawyer and frequent punching bag Tom, who takes on Flizzy as a client.
