Is South Park going south?

Like it or not, South Park is a cultural phenomenon, often quoted, reminisced about or each episode carefully dissected. The fact that South Park just finished its 16th season does nothing to lessen its appeal; in fact the show has now been extended to finish in 2016 bringing it to 20 seasons. The 16th season finished on the 7th of November, and the reviews are mixed. There was some good as well as some bad. Here are my opinions of the latest season.

The first half of the season overall was somewhat disappointing. On first viewing of almost all episodes I either was confused at the story line or disappointed at the missed opportunities for great and memorable episodes. “Reverse Cowgirl”, the season’s opener about an apparent need for toilet safety and an attempt to sue the dead, parodied the security checks in airports (which was quite fitting) as well as the US legal system. It was a promising start and it did have some funny moments, however it will not be a South Park classic so to speak. That summary can be applied to most of the other episodes of the first half – “Faith Hilling”, “Cash For Gold” and “Butterballs” all had very promising beginnings, but either fizzled out quietly or ended on an incomplete note. The most memorable in this set of episodes was “I Should Never Have Gone Ziplining”. Parodying the adventure/reality documentaries that usually run on the Discovery Channel, History Channel etc., it featured an extended scene in which Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny were all acted out in live-action. While not adding anything in particular to the plot, it is a memorable moment in the season as all of a sudden you see actors in the place of your favourite cartoon characters.

The second half of the season was markedly better, with the majority of episodes impressing on the first viewing. Here, the real defining episodes of the season were revealed. “Raising the Bar”, dealing with the whole Honey Boo-Boo situation and with James Cameron saving the day, was almost perfect, hitting exactly the right places. “Insecurity” tapped into the Batman mania that surrounded that time. I chuckled quite regularly during that episode, and must say it is vying for a place for my favourite with the previous episode mentioned. All the other episodes, bar “A Scause for Applause,” were of that same high standard and in my regard, restored South Park to its high pedestal, from which it had fallen during the first few episodes. The last episode of the season – “Obama Wins!” – was the perfect ending for a much improved set of episodes. Hailed the best episode of the season (which I agree with), it deals with the US presidential race and in a stroke of genius ties it in with the purchase of Star Wars by Disney (starring the absolutely phenomenal Mickey Mouse).

All in all this season of South Park, while not one of the best, is one of the better ones, mainly thanks to the strength of the latter episodes. These later seasons do not have the great plots of earlier episodes, however their success in dealing with current issues is astounding. Generally with this season and other recent episodes, I found on second viewing that even the first half of the season was enjoyable. This may be attributed to the fact that once I knew that the plot really wasn’t going anywhere, I could focus on the jokes within the episode itself. South Park is a show that is at times very random, and so perhaps I should have expected this from the start. However one thing I did not like about this season, is the apparent change in the character of Cartman. Cartman used to be the kid you just loved to hate. Nowadays he just seems to have lost his touch; in fact he gets quite friendly with Kyle and even seems to follow some kind of moral code. This is not the Cartman I love watching, maybe he will come back again. Nevertheless let us hope for the future that Trey Parker and Matt Stone do not lose their touch and keep churning out entertaining television.