Disc Reviews
South Park Season 16 Review
South Park rampages on with Trey Parker and Matt Stone leading the warpath with their take on life as seen through the lives of their small Colorado mountain town. Season 16 consists of 14 episodes (two 7 episode runs for shows aired in 2012).
Getting right back into form the season starts with typical South park commentary on life – this time on the eternal dispute between men and woman about leaving the toilet seat up. Of course Trey Parker turns this into a global issue and before you know it we are having security checks before using the loo, and seat beats attached (a highlight then being with Stan’s dad, Randy randomly being given a ticket by the police for not wearing it toilet restraint).
Cartman as ever is looking for schemes to make money; Bullying gets put under the microscope; James Cameron gets into a fight at the bottom of the ocean with Andy Newman, the boys dress up as the Avengers; Cartman tried playing cupid at school and the boys are depicted by real life teenagers for the first time.
As per usual there is plenty of loo orientated gags, and a ton of film references (The biggest this season perhaps being The Shining when Randy decides to go crazy after buying Blockbuster Video).
As per previous releases, Parker and Stone provide their well know commentary mini’s (Basically they sit for around 3-5 minutes on each episode to talk about that episodes background before getting bored and moving onto the next. There is also a few deleted scenes throw in for good measure.
South Park has a generally better quality average than most network shows – mainly because it is conceived and animated the week before it is due to air. Parker and Stone may add a few stress wrinkles and grey hairs with this approach, but largely it pays off for the audience and they can keep up to date with times way ahead of most of the programmes.
Steven Hurst
Available on DVD