Review: Legends of Chamberlain Heights “Inspired by Isis”

I’ve got nothing.

DISCLAIMER: I am not knowledgeable on the religion of Islam in any meaningful way. I’m probably going to get some terms wrong, and for that I apologize. I mean no disrespect. Unlike this show, which might have.

SPOILERS

After pranking his step-dad one too many times for his Youtube channel, Milk is forcibly sent on a student exchange program to…*sigh* U-bomb-astan. Without him around, Grover and Jamal have to deal with his share of their usual bullying from Randy, leading them to need a replacement white friend. Hm…kinda like when Kenny died for a longer time than usual in South Park, so they had to replace him with Tweek. After try-outs, they settle on Brad Deekenmouf. Huh…kinda like South Park’s Ms. Choksondik. He’s also voiced by Tom Kenny, famous for his work as Spongebob and Ice King from Adventure Time, but was also Woody in Brickleberry, so…that kinda evens out.

Eventually, we meet the exchange student taking Milk’s spot and who the guys will be chaperoning: a girl named Isis (yes, really) in a form fitting burqa for her hourglass figure. All the boys are instantly into her, all the girls are jealous of the attention before quickly deciding to wear burqas too. Randy makes a deal with Grover to get a nude pic of Isis in exchange for time on the court during their next game, but then also plans to use said nude pic to get him and Jamal expelled.

Meanwhile, Milk arrives in…that country and meets Isis’s sister, ISIL. Because…that’s another name for the terrorist group known as ISIS. Turns out she’s a big partier like Milk, so he gets to live it up for who knows how long until they notice the Yarmulke on his step-dad’s head, which sets off the locals’ suspicions. Despite assuring them he’s only “step-Jew”, the secret police soon try to kill Milk. This leads to a high speed chase where Isil is killed in the pursuit and Milk hides out in the American embassy.

Back at home, the guys try to figure out ways to get Isis naked by following her around, but see her making suspicious trips and purchases. The only conclusion is that she must be…a HOBBYist. LOLOLOLOLOL BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT THEY WERE GONNA SAY TERRORIST BUT IT WAS ACTUALLY A DIFFERENT KIND OF IST. They follow her back to Milk’s home, where she is constructing a rocket while naked. She explains that she is planning to make a firework rocket to set off at city hall, and she was naked so the smell of the chemicals stink and can’t get out of clothes. At the same time, Cindy’s pastor(?) father makes a ruckus about her pink burqa. When Cindy tells her that she was “inspired by Isis”, the dad gets a mob together to go kick her out of town, and this devolves into hating her for being Muslim. Isis and the guys try to set up her rocket, but the mob and the cops threaten her to stop. After tasing Grover and Jamal, Isis manages to launch her America-centric rocket before getting shot herself. Luckily, she had a bullet proof vest because she read about the cops being trigger happy! Sure hope she’s this prepared to find out her sister died protecting Milk. In the end, Milk returns to the school, and because he couldn’t get the nude to Randy, Grover has to wear a niqab to practice. For some reason, all the girls are really into it.

This episode topic is 8 years too late, and just because we’re still technically at war with terrorist groups using Islam for their ideology doesn’t mean we have to step back. Or at least, if you’re going to use this plot, put your own spin on it. It certainly seems like Legends does this by making the new Muslim character a hot girl AND somehow never having anyone say outright that the organizations ISIS or ISIL really exist to them. Or that terrorism in general exists, beyond a few small jabs by Randy. But without that, there’s no clear idea of what this episode is really about. American Dad’s version was about the paranoia of the right-wing getting in the way of regular people trying to live their lives while practicing their religion. South Park’s was a 24 parody that escalated into fighting the British Empire again. This episode tries to play up the suspicion angle, but everyone is mad about other things, none of which is whether or not Isis might be a terrorist. Even with the rip-off stories from the past few episodes, at least you could see that the pilot was about acceptance from peers, the second was about taking care of responsibilities, and the third (at least the B-plot with Malik) was about trying to accept someone despite your own prejudices. This, though…what did we accomplish?