Season Review: South Park Season 26

Some publications lament the fact that South Park deploys shorter seasons, but fail to recall the fact that Matt Stone & Trey Parker also have been released made-for-TV movies for Paramount+ the last couple of years and that expects to continue this year so I’m sure this isn’t going to be the last of South Park premiering in 2023. Maybe not on Comedy Central, but in some sort of capacity.

With that said, Comedy Central wraps 26 seasons of its iconic animated comedy that has been terrorizing extremist viewpoints from all sides of debate be it conservative, liberal, or anything and everything in between. Like any good season of South Park, this was a season that got people talking and brought with it loads of surprises. From a VERY controversial episode parodying the Duchess of Daytime Hollywood that nearly led to a lawsuit to an episode written via ChatGBT. Hell, even the season finale was a big ol’ crazefest set during Stan’s rather menial game of Warhammer40k. 

I personally like the shorter portions of South Park because then we don’t get the exhaustion that comes with 22-episodes of anything year in and year out that would surely lead to creative delinquency given that Matt Stone and Trey Parker writer all of the episodes. Quality always trumps over quantity and season 26 of South Park is a perfect representation of that old adage. Yes, I kind of miss the more serial type elements that we got a few years ago, but if we have to sacrifice that for more movies I’m all for it.

South Park is currently inked up for more seasons and movies through 2027 with Paramount which may or may not piss off WB Discovery, but we the fans will be the beneficiaries regardless. The ratings aren’t where they used to be for the franchise but I blame that more on the network not having a lot of original programming over the last several years…that and the breaks the producers take every couple of weeks which doesn’t help with continuity of a fan base that needs to be made more aware of “appointment viewing”.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are at the apex of their respective skill sets. South Park shows no signs of slowing down after 26 seasons, and hopefully this isn’t the last we hear of the franchise before the year lets out. In the meantime, I’m heading to Casa Bonita for a drink.