The first season of The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder, a sequel series to the original 2001-05 Disney Channel show The Proud Family, ended on a cliffhanger. We’ve never seen a non-adult cartoon do that, but we don’t put such sophistication past the creators of The Proud Family, which plays out less like a kids’ show and more like a frantic and funny family sitcom.
THE PROUD FAMILY: LOUDER AND PROUDER SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: The first season ended on a cliffhanger, with Suga Mama (Jo Marie Payton) leaving her family reunion in Oklahoma, because of the decades-long feud she has with her Pa (Glynn Turman).
The Gist: While the Proud family competes in pig races and other events in order to get ready for the Towne rodeo — Oscar (Tommy Davidson) wins the pig race by feeding the pig some of his gooey snacks — Penny (Kyla Pratt) sees Suga Mama walking into the wilderness. She decides to join her, especially after a clipped FaceTime home, where Dijonay (Karen Malina White) shows Penny that Kareem (Asante Blackk) has been talking to LaCienega (Alisa Reyes).
After getting attacked by sticker bugs, Penny and Suga come across Quanah (Wes Studi) and his grandson Tyee (Forrest Goodluck); one of the reasons why Suga ran away was that she and Quanah wanted to get married, but the state of Oklahoma didn’t allow Black people to get married to people who weren’t Black. In a flashback, though, we see young Suga (Dominique Fishback) watch Quanah run in the other direction as she confronts Pa, who constantly put her down merely because she was a girl.
During the rodeo the next day, Penny and Tyee get to know each other a little better, while Oscar and Bobby (Cedric The Entertainer) both do well — especially for city folk — in the contests they enter. But during the bull-riding contest, the only one who can last for the required eight seconds doesn’t show up until the perfect time: Suga Mama.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder continues the sequel series to the original 2001-05 Disney Channel run of The Proud Family.
Our Take: As we watched part 2 of the first season cliffhanger, then the second, standalone episode, we marveled at how much story is packed into a typical half hour of The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder.
In the second episode, for instance, Penny is getting rebellious at home and spending more time with Kareem. She’s even getting detention from Brother Kwame (Leslie Odom Jr.), the best-looking teacher at her middle school. Her mom Trudy (Paula Jai Parker) decides to lock Penny out of the house; Oscar, who can’t stand to be hard on his baby daughter, sends her to Suga Mama’s house. But Suga Mama isn’t running a hotel, and Penny has to work hard to earn her place, which extends to a week when the rest of the family visits Trudy’s parents in New York. Then Suga Mama hurts herself on a run and the tables are turned.
We don’t generally see that much story in live-action sitcoms. In fact, the second episode doesn’t even really have a B-story; every story element presented by Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar has relevance to the main plot and is stitched together seamlessly. Not every episode is expected to be that well-layered, but given how well-developed the characters in the Proud Family franchise are, it’s not a surprise that an episode can turn out like this.
What we hope to see as Season 2 goes along is more of the push and pull of Penny maturing into young womanhood, especially as she gets closer to Kareem, but we also hope that her friendships with Dijonay, Michael (EJ Johnson), Zoey (Soleil Moon Frye) and Maya (Keke Palmer) are featured in some of the episodes, too.
What Age Group Is This For?: During Season 1, we said kids 7 and up would appreciate this show, but now we’re going to age the recommendation up a year, based solely on how our 8-year-old daughter liked the show a lot better than she did last year, when she was 7 and still clinging to shows like PAW Patrol.
Parting Shot: In a post-credits sequence, Penny is back at school, reading a book about the history of Blacks and Native Americans. Kareem tries to explain what went on with LaCienega, but Penny says it’s fine, puts on the hat Tyee gave her, and walks out, mystical butterflies flitting in her wake.
Sleeper Star: Can we mention some of the ridiculously famous guest voices that we haven’t mentioned above? Anthony Anderson, Jane Lynch, Kevin Michael Richardson, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Billy Porter, Zachary Quinto, Chance the Rapper, Lil Nas X, and others we’re likely forgetting lend their voices to the first two episodes.
Most Pilot-y Line: Penny accidentally drops her phone from the roof of the barn (she’s trying to get reception) into a trough of water. It’s there for awhile, but pops up when Trudy tries to call her. We know new phones are splash resistant, but all that time in the water and it still works? That’s one miraculous phone.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder continues the layered storytelling and well-thought-out characters that highlighted not only the original series but Season 1 of the reboot.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.