South Park came back swinging after last week’s lackluster launch and actually made some good points. It wasn’t perfect, but vastly improved from the first episode.
Full spoilers after this, as always.
South Park is gripped with a wave of parents murdering each other, and the blame for their deaths has fallen squarely on the shoulders of ‘murder porn’ shows that frequent networks such as Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, and their ilk. The boys decide to take action by activating the v-chips in their cable boxes that will block their parents from watching these violent shows unless they can answer the security question, which no parent could possibly understand — it involves Minecraft.
Not to be outdone, Randy and the other horny dads who are unable to get their jollies off without murder-porn turn to a kid in town who is willing to teach them the ways of Minecraft — for a price. Of course, this backfires and as more parents end up killing thier spouses, via Minecraft now, the boys have no choice but to go after the culprit behind all of it — the cable companies themselves.
Due to the draconian rules cable lays down on those who want to continue to get channels that show murder-porn, Randy and Sharon ditch TV and start enjoying their sex life once again by repeatedly killing each other in Minecraft; thus ensuring the cycle of violence continues despite everyone’s efforts.
Tonight’s episode was a huge step up from last week, but I wonder if most audiences will catch the real message behind the episode because it was so fleeting and came almost moments into the show. Sharp eyed viewers would have noticed that Wendy’s report in the first 30 seconds of the episode about Syria and whether or not the US should be involved in that conflict was quickly and effieciently overrun by the scandal of murder-porn. Not only did no one in the classroom care about it, they were completely engrossed by something utterly vapid and meaningless in the first few seconds after she left the stage. More than all the grandstanding and satire that was to follow, THIS was the point of the episode — the general public cares more about fake TV drama (even when it’s based on real life) than what is actually happening to real people across the globe. Politics aside, I can guarantee you that the average American was more invested in who made it through on The Voice than what we decided to do about Syria or how the effects of the government shutdown (currently taking place) will impact the lives of their fellow Americans.
Unfortunately, this smartest and best aspect of the show was pretty much forgotten almost immediately after it happened, and while the rest of the episode was really good (had to love the poking fun at the abuses of cable companies, the acceptance of violence by our society, blaming TV shows instead of video games, and explaining the futility of Minecraft), they should have stuck with their original concept and ran it for all it was worth.
Still, this episode was a huge improvement from last week and might have vindicated my view that Trey, Matt and the other writers work best when under a strict deadline.
Whatever it was, tonight gave us a much better South Park that helped me forgive last week’s flop. It may not have been up to par with past episodes, but it was a damn fine effort that I truly enjoyed. Keep it up, guys; it’s obvious you’ve stengthened your comedy muscles over the last week.