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The Simpsons
had just about peaked by the time Season 10 reared it's ugly head, and
despite the general consensus that it's still one of the best comedy
shows on TV, the white elephant in the room is that the show has been
steadily decling in quality.
In the case of South Park,
the cut-out paper creation of Trey Parker & Matt Stone, it seems
that Season Ten is something of a revival - with no sign of slowing
down (or losing any of it's wit, bite or bark).
From the get go
of this superb, and highly controversial series, Parker & Stone are
at the top of their game. The opening episode addresses the shock real
life resignation of Isaac Hayes (the baratoned voice of Chef) who quit
the show citing the show clashed with his Scientology beliefs. In a
perfect example of South Park's amazing
ability to turn around an episode in under a week (the public scandal
only came out a week and a half before the Series 10 premiere -
prompting a new episode being made to address the situation) the
opening episode see's Chef returning to South Park... only this time
spouting phrases like:
"Suck on my balls...Children" and "I'm gonna make love... to your asshole..Kyle".
In
one of the cleverest moves I've ever seen, the creators glue together
audio and phrases from previous episodes, making reference to the fact
that the "Fruity little club" Chef has joined (The Super Adventure Club
- which supports men to travel the world to have sex with children from
around the world) is to blame for Chef's abnormal behaviour.
The
opening episode really sets the tone for this tenth series. Unlike
previous series, in which jokes episodes were less themed and more joke
based, Series 10 sees Trey & Matt at their satirical best - with
each episode attacking some major issues in a completely unsubtle ways.
There's just so much material on offer, with topics ranging from the
smug owners of hybrid cars, Family Guy
(an episode which finally hit the nail on the head as to why the show
is so low-brow), depictions of animations of Mohammad, The Dog
Whisperer, World of Warcraft (a superb ep which was made in conjunction
with the WoW designers), 9/11 conspiracies (easily the cleverest of the
entire season), religious wars to name but a few.
There is
hardly a weak point here, bar perhaps the final episode which simply
parodies 'Underdog Sports Movies' (which, when compared to everything
that had come prior during the year, seems too easy an option). Some
may find that the show does begin to get to 'preachy' for it's own good
(something which the creators acknowledge during the commentaries -
suggesting that Season 11 was going to be much less self aware) with
the episodes in danger of being to topical for their own good. You get
the feeling that unless you are well versed on each issue (which will
be irrelevant in a few years time) the majority of the episode seems
utterly pointless.
None the less - this is one of the rare situations where satire is actually humerous. And for those in the know, this is comedy at it's best.
EXTRAS
Sadly,
not much on here besides the commentaries on each ep by Parker and
Stone (which themselves are quite half arsed - with the guys only doing
commentary for 5 minutes on each episode).
When the first few
series were released on VHS, there were original intros filmed by
Parker & Stone - and I was really hoping that they would also be
included here - but that doesn't seem to be the case.
None the less, a great box set which will be a welcome edition to any South Park fans collection. Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 55%
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