For the one or two of you that may have an interest in this review that have never seen the show, South Park follows the everyday antics that come from a group of, to put it lightly, foul mouthed fourth graders in a small town in Colorado. Over the years, the show’s outlook has evolved to allow for more characters and character development (if you’re a fan reading this, think about the depth and understanding the audience now has on who used to be periphery characters like Sheila and Butters). And there has been a shift in its core narrative structure, from simple toilet humor surrounded by geeky references to all out satirical assaults on the most salient of issues and powerful folks in the national and world media spotlight. Season Fourteen expands this redefined mold while also paying homage to some of its own roots.
In this season, there was nary an episode that did not tackle some over arching event or person while supplying side-splitting comedy the entire way through. The first episode, “Sexual Healing,” is a perfect example. The episode opens with the melee that took place two Thanksgivings ago between Tiger Woods and his now ex-wife Elin Nordegren. As the fight ends, the shot pans out to reveal that it was simply Cartman and Kenny playing the latest version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour. I won’t play spoilers to anyone that hasn’t yet seen it, but the theme of celebrities not being able to keep it in their pants is ripped on like only Matt Stone and Trey Parker can, while still offering plenty of dirty jokes and profanity to stay true to the South Park lore.
Going with that thought, this season featured the 200th episode in this series’ extended run. The two part “200” and “201” is my favorite multi-installment story arch from the season, as it brought back the best two groups of antagonists in the show’s history, celebrities and gingers, and reopened the case of Eric’s father to put an end to the debate once and for all. These selections are incredibly funny, and it was a cool way of taking a trip down memory lane of sorts. But most people probably remember this point in the season best by the controversy that was attached to the episodes. As another way to bring back the old, the creators revisited a group of protagonist to save the small town from sure destruction (again) that appeared during Season Five called the Super Best Friends, which feature religious figures like: Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Krishna (a central figure of Hinduism), Lao Tzu (mystic philosopher of ancient China), and Muhammad (regarded as the founder of Islam). And although not much came of the Season Five episode that carried Muhammad’s “image,” the popularity and exposure of the series has grown tenfold in the nine years separating. So after the stigma of two previous (albeit unrelated) “issues” surrounding depictions of the founder (Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy of 2005, and the Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy of 2007), the powers to be at Comedy Central/Paramount/Viacom decided to censor the animation of Muhammad in both parts and even bleep out his name and the speech that criticized censorship in “201,” which, honestly, was probably the right thing to do given the time and circumstances. The one negative I will say is that this set features the episodes in question as they aired with the “adjustments,” so while every f-bomb can be heard loud and clear, a fan still cannot enjoy the episode as the South Park Studios team saw fit. Boo.
Of course anymore, a season wouldn’t be complete without a trilogy, and Fourteen is no different. In the second half that aired in the fall of last year, television audiences were introduced to a new “super” group Coon and Friends, which features Cartman reprising his alter ego from the Watchmen inspired “The Coon” episode last season with a host of other kids in the neighborhood that have their own “get-ups.” The first episode in the “epic” entitled “Coon 2: Hindsight” I felt was really funny as it perfectly blended in the plot of boys playing super hero with the BP oil spill that devastated the Gulf last year. The other two, “Mysterion Rises,” and “Coon vs. Coon and Friends” fell rather flat considering how good the opening episode was. I respect the fact that they wanted to pull off another hour long story (with each episode actually only being about 20 minutes minus commercials), but this one doesn’t even come close to measuring up to a classic like “Imaginationland” (which was so good, it got its own DVD release).
The presentation of the Blu-Ray disks is superb, considering the “crude” animation. So every Maya created alien-wizard, Vagisil tube, humping shark, and Mega Streisand is presented in crisp, clean high definition. The audio is also stellar, with a sweet Dolby True HD track and a Dolby Digital Stereo (2 channel) selection in case you may not be viewing the set on your home theater system. The biggest letdown of the entire package (that’s what she said) is the lack of Special Features, which boils down to commentary from Matt and Trey, some “deleted scenes,” and the aforementioned “The Coon” episode from Season Thirteen.