South Park

[Daikun]

South Park will be doing a time skip.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Kind of a bleak episode. Stan's all of the worst fears fans had when watching the "You're Getting Old" episode years ago, a cynical washout with nothing to live for besides binge drinking (I later found out "online whiskey consultant" is indeed a real job, but odds are Stan isn't actually one and he's just been mooching off of Sharon's life savings for the past few decades). And Kenny becoming the most successful out of all of them, but the most resentful to his old friends was difficult.

So it's obvious Cartman's playing the long game against Kyle, but are his family also scheming against him or are they just pawns?

[Daxdiv]

My money is on pawns since his wife was a little concerned when Kyle brought up that time Cartman and him got AIDS, though that doesn't really explain why his son is basically a carbon copy of him as a child downright to the fact that he just hates Kyle. Either way, I'm curious to see how much of a role Butters will play in the next special.

[Daikun]

The sequel to Post-Covid premieres next week.

Here's the teaser.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Rewatching a few episodes in preparation for the new SP, and it's interesting seeing how many of the themes from past episodes a decade or two ago are still shaping the current show's character decisions, but from an inside-out POV. Take the episode where Stan meets his future self who turns out to be a washed-out addict whose life was ruined by weed, and then remember that's pretty much his plot to the new special in a few days except that did really happen to him and his kid self did grow up to be a fuckup. Or like I said a few posts ago, how the You're Getting Old episode made a bigger change to the show than it seemed when it first aired. Because I look at the seasons since that one, and there's a definite narrative shift. Less episodes of Stan paling around with Kyle, Randy and Sharon's relationship degraded even more until it reached its current state, and a general malaise at the status quo. The shift to arc-heavy seasons was likely based on that annoyance at everything going back to normal by the end of each episode.

I say this because I think SP's in a more introspective phase than it was over a decade ago. Old ideas the show previously held tightly onto are now subverted (if PC Principal were introduced back in Season 8 or 10, they probably would have killed him off or humiliated him in 1 episode instead of giving him a character arc and deciding he's not entirely wrong), characters second-guess themselves more than ever, and there's been that recurring message throughout the last few specials going "Yeah, we miss the old days too where the boys used to go on adventures, but it's harder to get back to that groove than it looks". Obviously, the Trey and Matt making the Paramount+ specials aren't the Trey and Matt who made the first 3 seasons of South Park anymore, and the show's (and the game's) writing in the last few years is their recognition of this.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Spoiler

Okay, Cartman genuinely loving his family and sacrificing his own happiness just so Stan, Kyle, and Kenny could have good futures wasn't what I was expecting. Now I feel bad for him, especially with what his state's like in the new future.

[close]

[Daikun]

So, I guess the show is rebooting for season 25?

The new season premieres tonight, and here's the episode synopsis:

After failing to show respect for their teacher, PC Principal revokes Pajama Day privileges for the entire 4th grade class. Cartman is distraught. The kids aren't going to stand for it but PC Principal refuses to back down.

This storyline (and clip shown) seems extremely basic. No masks, no politics, no current events...it just looks like South Park has reverted to season 1.
EDIT: Also forgot to mention that Mr. Garrison is back as a teacher.

[LumRanmaYasha]

No masks, no politics, no current events...

Last night's episode was about all these things, lol. The metaphor of pajamas standing in for masks was used inconsistently and seemed redundant to do considering they already did a satire on masks and the anti-mask crowd in the first pandemic special, but I appreciated them pointing out the hypocrisy of people who compare reasonable inconveniences to being the same as living in Nazi Germany despite having actual fascist leanings they're trying to obfuscate, perfectly exemplified with the newscaster who was decrying the school's pajama day ban dressing up and acting like a nazi himself. I also appreciated the episode as a commentary on folks refusing to simply acknowledge when they're wrong and instead go through hoops to justify themselves, even if ultimately PC Principal did find a way out of it. I was worried that they were writing out PC Principal when he said he was gonna resign and am relieved that didn't happen. I honestly liked that beyond the political and social satire, this episode was just funny on a conceptual and character conflict level where something mundane is absurdly blown out of proportion due to the hubris of the characters, and liked seeing Wendy have a prominent role again after so long. It was also nice to see Garrison returning to his teaching role and the love triangle with his lovers that he took out on the kids was hilarious, goes to show he can still be a great antagonist just through his narcissism and selfishness even after so many years of just being a Trump stand-in. I wouldn't say this was a great episode of the show, but I did like it as a return to more straightforward episodes, even if some elements from the past few years like Tegridy Farms are sticking around in the new status quo.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The episode was fine, but after all the specials where everyone's lives and/or futures were at stake and all the shit that happened in Tegridy Farms, just an episode where the consequences are whether or not the kids wear pajamas was pretty low stakes. I was waiting for it to go an extra step and escalate, like I was expecting the Matt Damon references to turn into its own plot or something to go off the rails, but outside of an off-screen school shooting, it didn't take much for Wendy and PC Principal to resolve things. Think it needed things to get more intense, or add a B-plot, because it's fine on its own, but there's definitely a lot of padding in place of a more interesting plot.

Oh, and I guess Trey's daughter is a recurring character now. And everyone's pointed out something was off with Mackey's voice.

[Dr. Insomniac]

You know, I thought the Harry/Meghan episode was funny, but not "breaking news for 2 whole weeks" funny. Wasn't expecting it to strike that deep a nerve, especially since other people have done Harry/Meghan jokes.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Finally, somebody made a video calling out this bad yet evergreen take on SP. I'm not gonna pretend the show's made bad calls or opinions I disagree with, but "South Park is nihilistic and teaches whole generations that caring about the world is bad!" becoming a popular opinion always confounded me when the show can be incredibly earnest, almost saccharine, at times.

[Peanutbutter]

Even while never being a huge nor dedicated fan of it, South Park does NOT teach nihilism to people. Quite the literal opposite proven with any episode ending with one of Stan or Kyle's summation speeches.


Jeez, these journobros.....

[Daxdiv]

Blooms is a pretty good channel & I liked this recent vid of his. The most problems I've seen with the "Cool to not care" take being the dumbest argument ever is the fact that over time, both Trey & Matt's opinions on things have changed. He even pointed it out with the episodes on global warming being a thing where they went from mocking it to going "OK, maybe climate change is a real threat to humanity". They also regretted making the Ramseys & to a lesser extent, Gary Condit out as the bad guys in "Butters' Very Own Episode" being the one few times where they regretted mocking someone. People just like to cling onto views people express many years ago without wondering if said views have changed or not, especially if said person is a creative individual that has shown it in their work.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, looks like we're going to lose Mr. Garrison again for a few years unless SP just decides to ignore the election entirely (possible, I guess).

On the bright side, at least we'll probably get a lot more comedic scenes with The Whites finding new things to bitch about.

[Daxdiv]

This time, I hope they actually have the balls to have Trump appear or go the generic president route. Please Trey and Matt, do not rob us of Mr. Garrison by making him the Trump stand-in like he was years ago. That really had to hurt your writing.