Season Review: The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder Season Four
The fact that the previous season ended on a cliffhanger showed that the “Proud Family” revival certainly has as much storytelling guts as the original. But at the same time, it did leave me frustrated by this choice, as I had to wait almost an entire year to see what happens next for Penny and Kareem. It wasn’t a very long wait like some shows with longer seasonal gaps, but it was an excruciating one at best. For the fourth and final season of “Louder and Prouder”, the first episode provided the answer we’ve been waiting for in the second part of “Wild, Lost, and Free”, in which Penny and Kareem ran off to Los Angeles to become music stars. Of course, in similar fashion, their future together didn’t last long, resulting in their breakup.
With “Wild, Lost, and Free Part II”, the fourth season suffered a familiar issue as when the revival started, which is that the first part acted as a season finale and the second part commenced the next season. Personally, it would’ve been a lot less frustrating if “Wild, Lost, and Free Part II” acted as the season three finale rather than the fourth season premiere. That way, if the series doesn’t move forward with another season regarding its cliffhanger ending, it would’ve been less controversial. Besides that, amid its predictable narrative involving Penny and Kareem, it serves as another solid piece of character development, with Penny facing the consequences of young love as teased in the season three finale. It not only showcases that love isn’t always easy regardless of age, but also comes equipped with some of the wacky teen drama shenanigans we’d expect from “The Proud Family”, including the Area 51 gag.
This aspect played a role in a couple of episodes following that, concluding with the fourth episode involving Wiz Kelly’s family-friendly version of Squid Game. Though sweet in its own, proud way, the execution of their reunion is surprisingly anything but. Given Kareem’s immaturity in the first episode, we could’ve gotten something that has him learning to act like a man to win back Penny. Instead, we got a love competition between Penny and LaCienega, which was enjoyable for its humor, but story-wise, Kareem’s development felt almost nonexistent. It’s a shame since Kareem seemed like a suitable new addition to the revival’s cast, only to see him not getting the proper closure for his arc.
As for the other episodes, the fourth season happens to be more on the wackier side of the show’s slice-of-life spectrum. That includes an episode involving BeBe getting superpowers and the other featuring Oscar becoming a ruthless monster. It did offer more mature topics, celebrity guest stars, pop culture references, and messages within these shenanigans from previous seasons, including wokeness in “Space Oddity”. But most of the time, it’s just Penny and the family getting into cartoony shenanigans amid the mild drama, which is pretty common for “The Proud Family”, and believe me, they’re as fun, wacky, and inventive as I expected from the series. However, their approach to their usual slice-of-life narratives doesn’t quite match the thematic impact of the revival’s first two seasons.
The fourth and final season of “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” may not have concluded things on a high note in terms of execution. However, it’s still proud enough to make the revival’s run worthy of the return of the proudest family in television. It tends to go more on the wackier side of the series in its final ten episodes, which may not be bad by “Proud Family” standards since some were more entertaining than others. Plus, Kareem’s arc that started in the first episode wasn’t very satisfying in terms of its direction. Nonetheless, it still offers the usual zany and consistently charming slice-of-life elements that made the show popular in the first place, primarily due to its slapstick humor and inventive art designs. Overall, this is another revival that made me happy I revisited one of the classic shows from my childhood, especially when it combines the same elements we loved about the original with modern vibes, notably its topics and heartfelt messages. It started strong with the first two seasons, only to fall off a bit towards the end of its run, but even with that, the revival was a solid ride that any fan would be proud of, including me.
