When concerning itself with its base three characters and whatever each is able of getting into, there doesn’t seem to be a more rewarding cartoon on television. Figuring Boondocks as the greatest cartoon ever might be a stretch, but it’s certainly tops amongst the current crop of willfully edgy drawn fair.

With the show’s end creeping closer and closer each week, entering “Lovely Ebony Brown” in the show’s catalog is both a hopeful thing and a disappointing one. The up side is that McGruder found the focus for a single show to work within the easy confines of the family dynamic he worked so hard to set up in the first few seasons. The bummer is that there won’t be too many more shows.

Either way, Granddad’s pursuit of women – and the wheels eventually falling off – is pretty well documented in the show’s history. He’s dated hookers and the run down of crazy people at the head of this episode was enough to make anyone feel sorry for the cartoon grandfather. Where his wife went hasn’t ever been addressed, but we’ll leave that one alone.

Meeting Ms. Ebony Brown while she was jogging in the park doesn’t seem likely to any of Granddad’s acquaintances. And really, Ebony doesn’t seem real for most of the episode: a much younger, attractive and intelligent women interested in a retirement aged man with two occasionally troublesome grandkids.

But Granddad, like so many other men on the face of the earth saw something he wanted, obsessed over it and eventually ruined it. Courting the younger women didn’t prove difficult for Granddad. And while most of the scenes involving the process weren’t too amusing – save for Granddad’s attacking some random onlooker – it ended badly.

Traveling the world over after a well contrived dinner at the Freeman house to find Ebony didn’t yield the results the family figurehead desired. But that’s how life actually is. And with McGruder reining it all in, the episode was at once a commentary on interpersonal relationships, how friends perceived a new flame and what not to do.

Best Moment: Sarah takes off for the bathroom during the family style dinner serving to introduce Ebony to all involved. When she returns and Ebony’s in the middle of describing some disease an organization that cured an esoteric disease, Tom’s wife looses it, starts crying and hugs the newcomer. Not overly comical, but the episode was almost more about tone than jokes.

Notes: The episode could have used a bit more Huey and Riley, but the small part each played was more than adequate, if not littered with punch-lines.

Episode Rating: 4.99 (Nothing’s perfect)