Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ The State Of The Show, Have they run out of material?

[Will]

Found on another message board:

I haven't watched South Park in years, but I'm tempted to watch tonight just to see what kind of inevitable hamfisted message it will have. Considering their political leanings, it probably won't even be a "answer is somewhere in the middle" kind of message- more likely it will be "Stop bitching and don't give the powers that be a hard time."

This show was better in its first couple of seasons. The novelty of eight-year-olds swearing a lot wears off after a while, so I can understand the change in direction, but from what I've understood, the kinds of episodes they've done recently are fairly limited:

• Cartman does wacky shit
  
  
• Randy Marsh does wacky shit
  
  
• Everybody makes fun of the pop culture/celebrity phenomenon du jour (these episodes will age as gracefully as your average "______ Movie," if they haven't already)
  
  
• Political posturing on the hot button issue of the day
  
  

It's too bad, Trey and Matt are funny people when they want to do something else (The Book of Mormon comes to mind here).

What do you think? We know they often don't know what to make an episode on when the new week begins, but are they limiting themselves?

[Wickedjack]

I only agree with this:

[*]Everybody makes fun of the pop culture/celebrity phenomenon du jour (these episodes will age as gracefully as your average "______ Movie," if they haven't already)

These are the kinds of episodes that I dislike because I feel like they aren't lasting and they're usually less funny. It's like The Soup. The actual clips are funnier than Joel McHale's jokes.



(Writing this while nannying and 5 year old Maya wanted to add something) :chodaboy:

[tuhinal]

First of all, what the hell does this line mean...?

"Stop bitching and don't give the powers that be a hard time."

I tried reading it over and over again but it just makes my brain hurt :wacko:

I do think that almost all the recent episodes go in one of those categories. However, they can all still be good. I think the shows that don't belong to any of these (but have to do with character development or just kids being kids) tend to be much better than any of these.

[Zwerg-im-Bikini]

I don't prefer the older episodes. There are some downs in the newer seasons (like the 2nd half of season 13), but then there are many great episodes in a row.

But there is one big thing I miss for severals years now: Why don't they develop new characters anymore? Tweek, Timmy, Jimmy, Towelie, Mr Slave... there was a time when they established new characters and used them in many episodes. Not all of them were great but at least they tried to do it. It keeps the show fresh.
Today they still make up really cool characters (Kip, Larry) but only use them for one or two episodes. WHY? That's something I don't understand. Even when they center a 2- or 3-parter around an old background character (Craig, Bradley) they are forgotten the week after.
Something like Mr. Garrisons's story about his sexual preferences would be nice too. This was a topic for several years and now it's not even mentioned anymore. That's why I am a bit disappointed about the fact the Marsh family is back to normal. This was a big chance.
I get the feeling they could still do things like that but are afraid to change too much. They focus on the same old characters all the time.

[southparkpike]

The show has evolved over the years and can be formulaic at times, but, it's a show. A show that went from cult-humor to very-damn-funny around the time of season 5/6 and, for the most part, has only gotten better.

But everyone is a critic, these days. Overly-critical, usually.

Most of these overly-harsh critics from the other forum need to get over themselves and change the channel to the other 99% of tv that is complete G_A_R_B_A_G_E. ....Because, more than likely, they're already glued to that other crap, anyways. And their senses have been dulled by face tattoos and spray-on tans, and false reality, and it is..... too late for these lost souls.

After South Park, there is nothing.

[Will]

First of all, what the hell does this line mean...?

"Stop bitching and don't give the powers that be a hard time."

I think it's that they don't want to be pigeon-holed as liberal or conservative, so they go after talking heads on both sides without really attacking, say, global warming or smoking.

[Misty]

But everyone is a critic, these days. Overly-critical

After South Park, there is nothing.

Agreed

[pot_noodle]

Season 8 is when the show stopped being as funny. I have accepted that they are never going back to the way it used to be. But i still enjoy watching the show cause i love ol Trey'n'Matt.

God i miss the 90's.

[Loonts]

seasons 6 & 7 are the greatest for me. That was when they reached the peak
seasons 8 & 9 - still great
season 10 - not so good (although "Miss Teacher bangs a boy" episode was hilarious)
season 11 - so-so, "The List", "D-Yikes" and "Lice Capades" really saved that run
season 12 - awesome
season 13 - so-so, the energy of the last episodes was very low
season 14 - very bad, only the Coon saga and the New Jersey episode saved it
season 15 - awful, although "The Last of the Meheecans" was gold, it kinda left me with with a feeling, that it was an old draft, rejected earlier. It was WAY too well structured and they hadn't come up with such episodes in years

[tuhinal]

First of all, what the hell does this line mean...?

"Stop bitching and don't give the powers that be a hard time."

I think it's that they don't want to be pigeon-holed as liberal or conservative, so they go after talking heads on both sides without really attacking, say, global warming or smoking.

Yeah, that's true. I like them doing that. But can that sentence above really be correct? It just doesn't seem to make any sense to me grammatically :wacko: