Monsters of Television

“What if they tell me I only have a month to live? That would totally ruin the rest of this month for me.”

Ah modern medicine. Nowadays you can take a pill or a shot or a laser treatment for just about everything. But all that can get awfully expensive. According to Thugnificent (nice to see you back prominently in an episode, dawg) the ultimate panacea for all that ails you is ganja. Reefer. Mary Jane. Hemp. Nuggies. Skunk. That’s right: a Boondocks episode all about weed.

Now before we go and get all racist, this isn’t an episode just about a bunch of black people sitting around smoking weed and neglecting to pay their child support. It’s a satire of the pharmaceutical companies as well as a push for the legalization of marijuana. May the state of California and those kids that lived down the hall from me in college rejoice.

Robert has some stress issues. Naturally, he’s an angry, elderly black man. But his doctor says if he doesn’t get it under control his stress could kill him. So he gets prescribed a million different pills with about a billion different side effects including dry mouth, upset stomach, blindness and mild death. But hey, it will help lower your blood pressure. Most notable of these side effects was a condition known as total scrotal implosion. I’m no doctor, but that doesn’t sound so good. Fortunately it was suggested that if you experience total scrotal implosion you should call your doctor immediately. Sound advice to be sure. Doesn’t that seem to be the case with most medicines today? The list of possible side effects is always longer than the benefits that the medicine (possibly) provides.

So rather than deal with the possibility of his scrotum exploding, Robert turns to Thugnificent’s solution and starts smoking weed. And it works. He mellows out, his blood pressure goes down, colors are more vibrant, he takes up playing the bongos. Life is good…until he gets arrested. Apparently Obama legalizing pot was misinformation on Thugnificent’s part. Robert gets a free pass but wastes it getting arrested again for protesting against the illegality of weed. He’s sentenced to house arrest, community service and has to do an anti-marijuana PSA.

So there’s a good mix of subtle and not so subtle reasons for why pot is ok and why it’s legalization is not a big deal. There’s your commentary part of the episode. Overall “Mr. Medicine” blended the usual comedy well with the aforementioned comedy. It wasn’t an amazing episode but it was a familiar formula for the things that make The Boondocks work.

Final Thoughts:

• Mark Hamill’s guest role as Robert’s dealer was a nice surprise.
• While I’m enjoying the inclusion of a lot of the supporting cast, I miss good Huey and Riley centric episodes.
• Honey Nut Cheerios are the best Cheerios I’ve veer had in my life too, Robert.
• Both “Boondocks” and “Scrotal Implosion” were Twitter trending topics last night.