'Moesha' needs mo' comedy

Broken engagements, cheating boyfriends, boot camps, illegitimate children, finding out your cousin is really your brother, your uncle is really your father, and your mother isn't your mother at all. Did you get all that? These seven elements make up the new season of the supposed sitcom "Moesha."\n"Moesha" began five years ago as a family show about a teenage girl growing up in Leimert Park, a culturally rich suburb of Los Angeles. Now that Moesha (singer Brandy Norwood) has started college, the show has turned into a straight-up soap opera. This change could be a result of what's going on behind the scenes. Last season Countess Vaughn (Moesha's friend Kim) left the show, and rumors are that she and Brandy could not get along. More rumors surfaced this season as Dee, Mo's stepmother, portrayed by Sheryl Lee Ralph, is absent from the show because she and Brandy cannot get along. The show has almost completely lost its comedic edge. This is partly because of the rumors flying around but also because Brandy, now one of the producers, wants to explore more dramatic plots. \nLast season revealed that Frank (William Allen Young), Mo's father, was actually Dorian's (Brandy's real-life brother Ray J) father, not his uncle, and the show went downhill. Out of nowhere, Dee leaves to take a job in Jamaica, leaving the family motherless. So while her family is going through all these problems, she's sitting on a beach somewhere sipping on mai tais. \nIn last week's episode, the drama continued as Dorian pleaded with Moesha to help him find his biological mother, but as usual, she had her own problems. After Mo dissed the poetry of Lady Lunatic, an ex-con, Miss Lunatic challenges Mo to a poetry slam. The poetry slam was a meager attempt for about two minutes to pay tribute to Black History Month with a poem about assimilation. As Lady Lunatic spits out verses about her frustration with "sistas claiming they're not black, they're brown," the camera pans to show everyone of different races in the audience nodding in agreement, acknowledging both Dr. Martin Luther King's dream as well as Rodney King's plea that we all can get along. \nNews flash. "Moesha" is a sitcom. It's supposed to be funny not dramatic. A show once about a positive African-American family has now become a dramatic show about a broken home with more problems than a guest on Jerry Springer. "Moesha" needs to recapture the comedic satire, which made it popular during the years like the snappy comebacks and humorous punch lines. There are enough talk shows and dramas on TV.