In the sophomore season of The PJs, arguably one of the better comedy projects Eddie Murphy worked on at the turn of the millennia, the show continued its non-committal attitude towards serious commentary on urban African-American culture and instead focused more on honing its wordplay within the sitcom formula. Within the first episode of the season it plows right into the educational crisis faced by minorities living in districts where schools are underfunded, and never really relents. As Arya pointed out in his review of the show’s first season, The PJs never really goes far enough to boil the blood and settles for just scoring the cheap laughs and walking away. That’s still true, but the writers for the show clearly bumped up the depth of their comedy a bit for the second season, not to finally offer that truly incisive dissection of the culture it splashes about in, but to give audiences some comedy that isn’t quite as superficial – though perhaps that makes it worse.
With a higher aim of comedy in mind, The PJs strays slightly further out of the safe boundaries of good natured fun to condescending criticism. When the comedy no longer lampoons the culture on very simplistic level, and goes a few layers deeper, then its criticisms are no longer the same for every audience. While this is something we applaud in a children’s film, which has the basic moral for kids and a few grown up jokes for the parents, when it plays with racial sensitivities the touch has to be tenderer. The PJs can’t really be credited with having a sense of subtlety or tact. Funny as it is and even though it still deals with meaningful themes like caring for the elderly and educational decline, the second season marks The PJs’ departure from lighthearted jests to insult comic stabs. A comedy routine based on a crackhead being inept is funny, but it’s hard to argue against the minstrel aspect when the episode features an adaptation of Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on first?” skit translated into ‘hood vernacular.
DVD Bonus Features
There are no extras.
"The PJs: Season Two" is on sale July 5, 2011 and is not rated. Animation, Comedy. Directed by John Logue, Sean Burns, Paul Harrod, Mike Dietz, Mike Johnson. Written by Eddie Murphy, Steve Tompkins, Larry Wilmore. Starring Cassi Davis, Eddie Murphy, Janet Dubois, Loretta Devine.
