Review: South Park: Post COVID: The Return of COVID

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The awaited follow-up to South Park: Post COVID has come and the adult versions of Stan, Kyle and Cartman, are in a fight to save their futures. As Stan and Kyle seek out their old friend Butters to return to the past, Cartman races to stop them and save the perfect life he’s made for himself. In this second Paramount+ exclusive feature, everyone will be wondering “Can you ever really go home again?”.

Our Take

The pandemic altered everyone’s lives at the drop of a hat, and the special wastes no time in hammering that point home, showcasing the last pre-COVID moment for the boys of South Park. Already brewing up a plan to blackmail a fellow classmate to secure courtside seats to the Nuggets, the children’s world comes crashing down the moment they learn of a virus that will be shutting down the school. From there, an adult Stan narrates his confusion and anger as the quarantine isolates him from society, accelerates the destruction of his parents’ marriage and leads to the break up of his oldest friend group.

Much like The Pandemic Special or South Parq Vaccination Special, Return to COVID explores the frustrations caused by the outbreak of COVID-19. But unlike the previous events, the gang is getting proactive, determined to go back in time, stop the pandemic and save their relationships.

Central to this plan is Butters, aka Victor Chaos, who was noticeably missing during the last special until teased in its cliffhanging ending. As Kenny’s former business partner, Butters is the only one with access to Kenny’s system to allow Stan and Kyle to go back in time and stop the pandemic. As he usually does, Cartman stands in the way, refusing to let the past be altered and take away his wife and children. The dramatic set up is refreshing return to normalcy for South Park with Stan and Kyle once again placed in opposition of their crafty friend.

Though the stakes are raised much higher than usual for the show, it’s no less full of the humor one would come to expect from it. Instead of the mad scientist “Professor Chaos” awaiting them in South Park Mental Asylum Plus, he grew up to be Victor Chaos, an NFT-selling huckster. And because this is still the wacky world that Christmas poo once inhabited, Butters ability to convince people to trade their life savings for digital goods is treated like an actual superpower (to be fair, he is pretty good at it) and winds up escaping before inevitably falling in the clutches of Cartman. Some things never change.

Much like Randy, who is convinced his Tegridy can save the world. He aims to work towards the future instead of trying to fix the past. Cartman is similarly inspired to stop his friends attempts at time travel by creating the Foundation Against Time Travel (yes, FATT). But unlike Randy, Cartman is centered on the present, and what he currently has with his family. And his devotion begins to send him back to his old ways, using his friends as pawns and threatening others to get in line.

Amid all these conflicts are some hysterical and timely ribs to the current state of the “future”. Not even a month from the previous special, and already the supply chain blockages, the Omicron variant and of course, NFT trading become humorous and relevant plot points in the hour long event. The crew behind South Park have not missed a beat in that regard.

The special comes to a head as Cartman’s machinations work. He gains the upper hand and steals the time travel equipment to send Craig to the past in order to kill Kyle and stop him from ever ruining Cartman’s future. However, a heart-to-heart with his wife changes Cartman’s mind, and the three venture into the past to stop Craig. Though they do successfully (and violently) stop Craig from murdering the younger Kyle, the three adult versions of the boys are unable to stop the pandemic from occurring.

And this is the crux of the special, perhaps even where everything has been building to since The Pandemic Special first aired last year. None of us can go back in time and change what happened. We can’t change the state of the world as it is. But just as Stan, Kyle and Cartman learn, we can change how we react to it. We can forgive others and we can forgive ourselves. We can learn from our past and work on our present in order to create a better future for ourselves.

South Park: Post COVID: Return to COVID is a fantastic follow-up to the previous specials and once again, a great return to form for Trey Parker and Matt Stone. South Park has benefitted from taking time off to figure out how to direct itself in this new era of uncertainty, but absence makes the heart grow fonder and if the quality of future specials can be inferred from this one, I’d say the future won’t be so bad.