Review: Legends of Chamberlain Heights “Come Out to Play”

Note: This contained two separate storylines that touched upon Grover and his little brother “Malik” within this episode.

Spoilers Below

Story-A

Grover, Milk and Jamal proceed to go to the mall and pick-up chicks which in a series of awkward moments fail miserably and to make things worse, Grover’s worn-out “Starberry” Sneakers turn him into an easy-target for bullies and he becomes a reviled laughing-stock on the internet to the point that even the President insults the shoes during a public hearing. (Ouch!)

So after seeing a painfully and shockingly racist commercial for a particular brand of shoes called “Shackles” Grover decides to go on a quest to upgrade his shoes in an effort to restore his “street-credit”.

Their first attempt to get the shoes online fails miserably, Which motivates Milk to attempt to search in a “black search engine” he uses frequently called “Yoo-hoo” (Get it? because it’s a ghetto version of “Yahoo.com”.) which also doesn’t work out and Grover ends up asking the most face-palmingly idiotic question: “Where do people find kicks before the internet?”

Their first in-store attempt is at a local “Feet Locker” where they tell Grover they’re sold out and ends up going to his to his Brother Trim and asks for any “Plugs” (Which I’m guessing is slang for the word “connections”) and Trim provides him information for 10 bucks and gives Grover a business card at a location in “East Chamberlain” and to ask for someone named “poo-pook” and as they leave Trim warns them not to stay out there “after dark in the east side” hinting that there’s danger at night time.

The boys take a long bus-ride to the other town which is surprisingly cleaner and borderline suburban in contrast to the ghetto they live in and are told by the bus driver “the last bus is at 7”.

On the way to the location there’s a monumentally large line of other people who also want these shoes as well.

As Grover eventually gets his desired pair of “Shackles” the worst thing begins to happen. Grover and the boys end up getting the last pair in that location and it’s now night-time while a group of unfriendly, angry & impatient thugs who were in line as well.

The boys while being chased end up missing their bus-ride back home and now are being chased by the angry mob of people who also want these shoes. (It’s not like they all have his shoe-size right? Grover says he’s a “size-10”.)

They decide to hide in a cemetery late-night and lose the mob since they “don’t mess with dead people” and out of forced contrivance, Milk & Jamal’s phones have “no bars left” and decides to take a route to a subway lead my Jamal.

The Angry Mob decides to put the word out in an effort to keep them to leaving with the shoes out of East chamberlain and suddenly it begins to parody the Cult-Classic film The Warriors with a radio DJ putting the word out on the last pair of Shackles.

Grover, Milk and Jamal are now primary targets of various other gangs, From a group of Jewish thugs called the “Shaloms” to the “L-Street Bleeders”

When they get to the Subway it turns out not to be what Grover envisioned but they end up eating while hiding out and encounter a group of hot women who offer to get them a ride to the basketball game they have a deadline to comeback to in an hour.

Of course if you’ve seen “The Warriors” it doesn’t work out as the girls who were just flirting turn out to be the “L-Street-Bleeders” who are fans of the WNBA and are large and muscular in physique and Grover was quick to figure it out. (I’m guessing this is their version of The Lizzies.) They quickly escape but Grover is now put into an ethical dilemma when he’s forced to choose between his friend and his shoes and in a comedic twist, Grover chooses the shoes while Jamal is subjected to a clockwork orange-style torture scene and forced to watch WNBA footage.

Grover and Milk later encounter cops asking for a ride back and one of the cops becomes enticed enough to want his shoes because he just happens to be a size 10.

Grover & Milk finally make it to the game with Grover now wearing black police shoes and Jamal ends up being there with newly acquired skills from the “brainwashing” and makes a shot at the basketball game and as they leave, Grover ends up being the subject of jokes once more for the small black police shoes he’s wearing since he had to pay for a ride back with his Shackles.

Story-B.

Malik goes on a blind-date with he girl he meets in a social media phone-app and they meet in a “Black Panther Meeting” which shatters his expectations as the woman he supposedly got the hook-up with who calls herself “Ebony” is a white girl who’s has embraced an African-like lifestyle and at first it takes a small optimistic direction when they both bond over scars from the protests they were part of until Malik begins to care about what the other Black Panther members think of him due to him conversing with a white girl and contemplates in the bathroom and calls “Trim”.

Trim Picks up the phone and the best advice he can give Malik is to “go west to the white part of town” and just as he’s about to leave the bathroom, Ebony becomes the life of the party. 🙂

They both decide to leave and Malik assures her he wants to surprise her with how “spontaneous” he is which excites her only to take her to a movie she ends up not liking it but Malik assures her they can do something else but it ends up being a Hockey Game only for it to be a “boyz in the hood on ice” event and due to some a-holes making fun of him for dating a white girl, it escalates to the point that Ebony breaks it off with Malik for “not being black enough” and Malik proceeds to go back to resuming his life but de-friends her from the app with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

Our Take

While the Malik sub-plot had a subtly-conveyed message about the importance of being yourself and not caring what others think of you, the main sub-plot was a direct parody of “The Warriors” that ends on a cringe-worthy bittersweet note since Grover didn’t get his shoes and even after everything that’s happened he’s still the subject of jokes. It also didn’t help that most of the jokes were painfully unfunny and many of them were built around stereotypes.

Please Comedy Central, putting your shitty new show after your older good show isn’t going to make me want to watch it anymore. It’s a cheap tactic to try and piggyback on the other shows success and the laziness of viewers.

I miss Moonbeam City and Brickleberry.