When South Park is on, like it was last week, few shows are better. However, some episodes of the show just fall flat to me, and this week's with Towelie was definitely one of those. While the show still had some laughs, there was nothing special about it to elevate it past an average episode plucked from the show's back category.
As with most episodes, there were two simultaneously plots going on that kind of weaved together. First, shows like Intervention and Celebrity Rehab were mocked a bit, as Towelie was shown doing ridiculous things in order to get money to buy weed, crystal meth and other drugs. And second, there was a slight spoof of Warner Brothers, as all of the Looney Tunes were re-cast as retarded kids at a summer camp.Unfortunately though, both plots felt stale to me. Every episode Towelie is in deals with his love of marijuana and how it interferes with his life, and this episode wasn't that different, except that he was now using hard drugs as well. (Note: Comedy Central has no problem with Towelie tying off his arm to do heroin, yet won't let South Park show Muhammad. Good times, good times!) On top of this, the whole addiction thing was tackled in the first episode of the season, with Tiger Woods.
As far as the second plot goes, the summer camp kids were on two different teams vying for a statue for the camp... which is suspiciously like "Up The Down Steroid" minus Cartman.
Although Jimmy and Timmy were the good guys this time, and the episode cribbed quite a bit from Looney Tunes while mixing in Intervention stills, but the whole thing just felt too close to previous episodes. Excluding the "200" and "201" episodes, this season of South Park has been a bit disappointing, and this episode doesn't buck the trend.
Grade: C-
I almost felt as though the whole joke behind the episode was a statement on what you have in parentheses--that Comedy Central will allow them to have a towel doing heroin, mock kids with disabilities, and have Cartman do a rant about Jews that spans between commercial breaks--but it won't let them show Muhammad and will bleep out whatever the moral was of Episode 201. That might be giving the creators of the show too much credit, but the silly plot seemed mostly to be an excuse to try to be as offensive as possible. I thought the episode had its moments (certainly better than The Marriage Ref), but I agree it wasn't a strong episode of South Park.
ReplyDeleteBob, you ignorant slut! I still insist that The Marriage Ref is OK. It's nothing special, but there are 20 other shows on TV that deserve to be canceled before it, probably.
ReplyDeleteI don't really think they were making a statement on Comedy Central with this episode, just because it had a lot in common with their past episodes. Also, South Park doesn't normally work on incredibly subtle levels - Matt and Trey prefer the flat-out "here is what we are saying" message.