Review: Black Dynamite ‘American Band Standoff or the Godfather of Soooul Train or Get On Your Goodfellas’

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Spoilers Below

Dick Clark wants to take over black music…FOREVER!  Don Cornelius has a problem with Dick and takes James Brown under his wing. Turns out, Black Dynamite used to be a hit man for Cornelius until Dynamite had had enough of Corenlius’ mafia ways. These ways continue to this day as Cornelius has kidnapped some of Dick Clark’s talent including Donnie, Marie, and even Stevie Wonder. Cream Corn seems to like chilling with Cornelius’ crew which irks Black Dynamite.

Dick Clark sends a bomb to Cornelius’ show Soul Train and Cream Corn is about to solve it when Black Dynamite finds it and is able to get rid of  the bomb before it explodes. Cream Corn gets a dance gig with Cornelius as reward for saving Cornelius and he joins the TV producer’s gang of underlings. We actually find out that both Dick Clark and Cornelius both serve under a TRUE godfather and he orders the two to take part in a dance-off in order to solve their personal issues. Creamed has to dance for Cornelius, and if he doesn’t win he’ll die. Clark tries to rig the outcome, but Black Dynamite joins Cream Corn in the dance-off and their team wins leaving Dick Clark out of the Black music biz for good.

Our Take

I’m a bit disappointed this week. From the onset of the episode, it appeared that we were getting a REALLY good mafia war or fist fight, but we got a dance off, which is a trope that has been used 10,000 times in other shows. Not to say Black Dynamite dancing wasn’t entertaining, it was, but I can’t help but feel a bit let down from third act. I continue to love Black Dynamite’s depictions of famous celebs, Stevie Wonder, Donnie, Marie, and most importantly Dick Clark and James Brown. Dick was almost a take on Mr. Burns, but maybe a tad more maniacal, and you couldn’t understand most of James Brown and what he was saying, which is fairly accurate if you ever watched his interviews. I also thought we were going to get a bit more of a conflict between Black Dynamite and Cornelius…as a matter of fact…I can’t recall very many episodes where some who tries to kill Black Dynamite is able to walk away without a swift kick to the cranium.

In terms of Adult Swim, now that Mr.Pickles and Squidbillies have both finale’d and Mike Tyson Mysteries is off until January, your best bet for a stout original animated series on Adult Swim is Black Dynamite and that’s not a bad place to be.