Season Review: South Park Season 22

That’s the smell of desire.

For all the talk about the best animated programming being on streaming services, I’m not sure if there have been more talked about animated franchises being watched today than The Simpsons and South Park. All year long, and probably more so for The Simpsons, both series have been topics of controversy, memes, and countless headlines for the 2018 year and that’s despite the fact that they are the two longest running adult animated series on television.

For South Park, this kicked off the first week. Producers Matt Stone and Trey Parker very much challenged most liberal and conservative minds alike during the course of the show’s tenth season. Yes, they are totally fine with canna-business, but vapes are perceived as being way more douchey. Yes, the guys care about gun control as seen in seasons’ past, but are we so numb to today’s coverage of mass shootings that maybe they don’t even last the day in the news cycle before they are replaced with standard sports coverage. In the days of Columbine, we had nationwide moments of silence with flags at half-mast, today? Not so much. And yes, Santa thinks that people who are easily offended are probably a bunch of cunts. It’s all here folks!

That’s not to say that this season wasn’t without its missteps. “A Boy And A Priest” featured a bunch of the Catholic Church jokes that have been told for centuries, even if they are warranted, and the guys have some standard baseball pitches in their arms in the form of “Butter and Cartman get into trouble and Kyle’s the one who has to get on them” that we usually see every year that can almost be written out completely multiple times over, just switch out the different plot points, and as such can be rather cliche at this juncture.

But when South Park is good, South Park is GOOD. Episodes like “The Scoots” and “The Problem with A Poo” are excellent mirrors shown to modern society that showcases the lunacy of our simple way of life. To do this, the producers gave us a lot of items from their classic bag of tricks by shepherding classic characters like ManBearPig, Al Gore, Towelie, and Mr. Hankey while introducing  and accentuating new characters like Jeff Bezos and the PC babies, the latter of whom might be the show’s most important dig at the stereotypical PC police on Twitter that just can NOT wait to find something else to complain about.

That said, you’ll be hard-pressed as to find complaints with the 22nd season of South Park. Multiple arcs were introduced and that two-part finale is just as good as anything these guys have done in terms of wrapping everything up into a bow all the while touching on the “greatest hits” of the season’s highlights. It’s actually a showcase of South Park’s best feature, a binge-worthy effort that gives you enough hooks to keep you coming back for more and featured enough of the show’s classic characters to keep old school fans guessing. Sorry PC bitches, South Park’s here to stay and not going anywhere anytime soon.