Review: South Park “The Pandemic Special”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The most exciting part of South Park is that you actually don’t have a clue what’s going to go down in any episode. Even with a clear title in the form of “The Pandemic Special”, you can probably get a good idea that creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker will have COVID-19 in it’s bull’s eye, one could even surmise that “The Pandemic Special” would have something to do with a new weed strain coming from Randy’s “Tegridy Farms” much in the same way “The Christmas Special” did. Fortunately, these would be all correct, and yet you would have missed out on so much more.

What makes this crop of Randy’s weed so special is that it contains a special ingredient that, at one point, was meant to cure COVID, only to find out it spreads mustaches all throughout South Park. The hypothesis being that Randy’s DNA was the crucial component in curing the Chinese-borne virus which made it’s way over here as a result of Mr. Marsh’s drunken shenanigans with Mickey Mouse who now wants Randy dead so that HE can get the cure and bring business back to his failing parks and movie businesses.

Meanwhile, one kid who doesn’t want anything to do with the cure is Eric Cartman who is doing everything he can to ruin South Park Elementary’s chance at reopening for business, albeit with COVID restrictions and a new faculty comprised of South Park PD’s finest. The rest of the kids want as close to normal as they can get it, especially Butters who is bummed that his birthday party at Build-A-Bear did not come to fruition as a result of the lockdown. Stan opts to help Butters live his Build-A-Bear dreams which leads to a showdown with the cops and Randy nearly getting the key to the cure to the proper authorities only for the President of the United States Mr. Garrison to show up with a flamethrower and stop this from happening. Garrison’s plan is to make sure the COVID-19 outbreak stays as long as it can so that it suppresses minority votes in time for the election.

Our Take

There’s a lot going on in this hour-long special for South Park which we can officially place next to the likes of “Imagination Land” and “The Black Friday Trilogy” as one of the best specials this series has ever done. In what was almost a sequel for the well-received “Banned in China” episode, Randy continues to be the vehicle in which Trey Parker takes on important issues, most likely because they are of similar age, so it makes sense that he would go this way. At times, it can seem like the kids get the back door, but Randy’s attack on subjects is so friggin’ funny I almost don’t even notice.

I tried explaining to myself that Randy’s DNA unloading all over his special strain of weed would not have the consequences that it ended up happening in real-life, but then again, I recall this is the same show that has had invading hamsters, talking pieces of shit, and Jesus H. Christ, so if the show is going to continue to go down the avenue of things that could never happen, I’m happy to see that supporting “scientific” explanations are in tow to make sure it really convinces the viewers of just that.

As for the kids, I didn’t feel as invested in their contributions. It almost seemed like we were at a crossroads for Cartman’s war on the establishment and Stan’s campaign for Butters with a shot of Mr. Garrison thrown in there for good measure, giving us a blended mixture of almost montage to help continue to feed the Randy storyline until we get to the climax which was well worth the wait. South Park kicks off the new season with a hefty bang and a certain kudos has to go to the producers of the series who were able to pull off a friggin’ hour-long special all from the confines of their home. It continues to dazzle me the technical heights South Park achieves, certainly outpacing everybody else, and showing all the kids at home that nobody is safe.