3.
I watched 26 seasons of South park and 5 movies. Which is to say, everything, unless I've missed something.
The beginnings were quite humble. Which is to say, I didn't like it that much, and was a bit grossed out by it. But I kind of wanted sth to watch because well I didn't play anything anymore, and unlike random movies, at least the writing was always sharp.
The early seasons are also super critically praised, and I always thought that was a bit weird. It seemed like the show can do no wrong. You'd think something this offensive would attract more criticism, but somehow, they'd do the most outrageous thing imaginable and everyone loved it. That's sort of flipped 180 by the end. The show doesn't get nearly as much praise anymore, whereas I feel like for a show with 26 seasons, the quality is remarkable. None of the last few seasons are my favorites, but they're all good. In fact, I don't know any other show which stayed this good after this long.
Occasionally there's also a terrible and boring episode, but that's not new.
Anyway, the shock factor, toilet humor, and excessive violence goes down over the course of the show, and instead it gets more satirical. Which I liked, or at least I like the absence of violence. Still too much gross stuff for my taste, but alas. It also gets more genuine, which I definitely like. In fact that's something I need in everything I watch; there need to be genuinely well-meaning characters that I can emphasize with. They don't have to succeed, but they have to try. Maybe a movie can get by without that if it has something else going on (Under the Skin was like that), but in a show it's a must.
As far as I know, the unique things about South Park, despite the ruthlessness and lack of shame, are that (a) the original creators still run the show, and (b) that episodes are usually written and produced in the week before they air, which means the show can react to social events way faster than other shows. In one season it covers the 2016 election, and it very much feels like they were setting up for Trump's campaign to fizzle out, and then just changed course mid season when he actually won.
Initially the animation is also extremely rough, but that got much better.
I also watched the last couple of seasons (minus the final one I think) while being sick and sleep deprived, and that makes it difficult to tell how good they are because you're barely capable of feeling joy in that state. So maybe they're worse than I think, but I doubt it.
I guess a lot comes down to whether anything it says offends you, but I was only very rarely offended. Actually I think the thing that bothered me the most was it being dismissive of climate change, most notably by depicting Al Gore as just out for attention. And well that's the one case where they did a complete 180 and had an double episode later about how Al Gore was right after all. So I'm definitely not mad about that anymore.
Anyway. I should probably also talk about this guy since he's the most beloved character and short of the face of the show
It's kinda not obvious that Cartman would be a good character because in theory is personality is pretty simplistic; he's a perfect psychopath with zero empathy and also an extreme anti-semite. But they just sell his character so well, and they keep finding good things to do with him.
And let's do a top 5 episodes, in no order
- Make Love, not Warcraft (s10e08)
- Scott Tennerman must die (s05e04)
(these are the easy picks since they're also the most popular episodes, but well I don't disagree)
- Cartman Joins NAMBLA (s04e05)
- Tsst (s10e07)
- Woodland Critter Christmas (s08e14)
Would probably change this a lot if I rewatched everything, but certainly those were all amazing
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Topic: The Necro Wars (Read 415873 times)