South Park: The Complete Twenty First Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

South Park: The Complete Twenty First Season

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I really do feel like the old man now. Looking back, South Park came out in 1997, when I was still a 15 year old boy giggling about fart jokes and aliens sending signals out of a fat kid’s butt. So when I look back and realize that I’m 36, and we’re 21 seasons in, I have to just sit here and wonder HOW Matt Stone and Trey Parker made a series that has lasted nearly as long as The Simpsons out of fart jokes and Kenny dying every other episode. I guess it may come down to the fact that South Park takes no prisoners in their scathing commentaries. It doesn’t matter if you’re right wing, left wing, Muslim, Gay, Jew, Black, White, Presbyterian, or an alien from outer space, you’re going to get roasted in brutal fashion. The series has ebbed and waned over its lifetime (with season 20 being one of the weakest yet), but season 21 of the long running cartoon is back in action and on an upward climb once more.

This season of South Park continues on with a few recurring plot points from season 20. Mainly Mr. Garrison being President of the United States (his Trump like run in previous seasons was hilarious), Cartman is still dating Heidi, and the town is up in arms about Zuckerberg and other lunacy to keep the town of South Park on the map as looney bin central. One thing that really surprised me was how mild the political barbs were this season. With every TV show on earth trying to disparage Trump, Matt and Trey kept the political barbs to a minimum, while still being poignant and hilarious (I have zero problems with political barbs, no matter what side of the political fence they are, but with so much backlash over the media sensationalize our sitting president, I think the dynamic duo in the creator’s chair decided to not be as over the top as they COULD have been so as not to alienate their right wing viewers as other TV shows have done the last year).

The biggest recurring episode arcs goes back to Cartman and Heidi, with Cartman being his usually douchey self trying to manipulate her to do his bidding, as well as his own self destructive behavior undermining anything positive he could do in his relationship. However, the show’s episodic nature still shines through with some really hilarious ones regarding Mark Zuckerberg, Bomb threats from North Korea, The Coon makes an appearance again, the Opioid crisis, PC principal is in high form once again, and once again the 10 episode “trimmed down” season cuts out quite a bit of the bloat that the series was getting in previous years.

Honestly, South Park is not high art, but I have to hand it to Matt and Trey for having the guts to make fun of anything and EVERYONE. No one is safe and that’s partially why the show is so successful. They have a biting wit which allowed them to make fun of people equally, and not show favorites like other ones. For 21 years they have been the king of rude, crude, hilarious comedy that can shock just about anyone over the years. Sadly they have lost some of the barbed bite, and the show’s shock value has dropped a bit from the first 10 years or so. That doesn’t mean season 21 is boring, or that it doesn’t make fun of people, just that it is no longer AS shock value oriented as it once was.

The only problem I have with some of the show is that the funnier characters aren’t as funny due to the fact that many of their jokes have been told and retold over the last 21 years. The biggest breath of fresh air was PC Principal, but even he has lost some of his flair and humor (the opening few episodes with him a few years back was probably some of the best humor that the show had in years), but there are still quite a few standouts. Randy is still the fan favorite and Mr. Garrison as the president makes for some great laughs. Cartman is not longer as insane as he once was, but his relationship with Heidi had me in tears, as his narcissism once again proves to be his undoing.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

Ever since the show switched over to 1080p material on TV Paramount has done so with their Blu-ray releases. Each year we get the same consistent transfers that eek out the absolute best that the minimally animated show can get on high definition. The series is very monochromatic at times, with a flat style of “cutout” animation that doesn’t lend itself to massive detail levels, but the colors are bright and garish, with deep saturation levels that really pop off the screen. Even though the series doesn’t lend itself towards a TON of detail, you can still see very cutout and line of the animation, and the black levels show no signs of artifacting or crush. There’s some MILD amounts of banding in some of the opening credits, but overall the show looks great on Blu-ray and truly representative of the cheaply animated source material without any encoding flaws.





Audio:

Just like the video score, Paramount Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is very typical of previous seasons quality. The mix is largely front heavy, but there are some good moments of surround usage in some of the more excited episodes (the one about The Coon comes to mind) with rabble yelling in the background and the occasional crash and bang. Dialog really is the main feature of the show, and the track replicates the talking and minimal background noises with ease. Nothing is out of balance, and the show’s ambiance is handled with relative ease. The only “drawback” to the show is that it’s not really a wild and exciting mix by nature, so the 5.1 track’s abilities aren’t really taxed at all. That being said, the encode from Paramount does everything just right for the talky show.





Extras:

• Never-before-seen deleted scenes
• Season commentary by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone
• #SocialCommentary on all episodes

Final Score: ​

Season 21 of South Park is a return to form in a way for the show. Seasons 19 and 20 were stumbling around a bit, but Matt and Trey seem to have gotten a tighter hold on the show’s humor, and trimming the season down to 10 episodes like last year has helped cut out a lot of the bloat that the show was suffering from in previous years. I had more than a few belly laughs this year and was greatly impressed with the direction the season took. Paramount’s Blu-ray release is great as always (and I’m super excited that the first dozen years have finally been released on Blu-ray a few months back), but the extras are a tad slim. Still, if you’re a fan of South Park in any way, be pleased that at least ONE studio is still releasing TV shows on Blu-ray consistently (I’m looking at you FOX and Warner) and this is a welcome addition to any South Park lover’s collection. Fun Watch



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, April Stewart
Creator: Matt Stone, Matt Stone, Brian Graden
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Paramount
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 223 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: June 5th, 2018

Recommendation: Fun Watch​

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. This series can go on forever.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm a fan... but haven't watched the show in quite a while. I might need to check some of the new material out...