TV-Reviewed

After way too long, South Park has returned. While I have been so properly trained to sit back and take anything that Matt Stone and Trey Park decide is worth their select amount of annual airtime, I was a bit disappointed by the events of Summer 2008 that they decided to focus on: China and the Indiana Jones sequel. Of course the episode was brilliant, but really – No Sarah Palin? Batman? Economic Crisis? There are many more installments in which I’m sure the historic election can be featured in, but I don’t know how to feel unless South Park tells me!

The episode itself was running on all cylinders. It is clear that Cartman and Butters (as well as Randy Marsh) are the writer’s favorite vessels, and tonight was no different. Cartman recruits Butters, who was preoccupied playing bath, to help him in the war to protect America from China’s increasing technology and power.

In a parallel story, Kyle, Stan and the rest of the boys are all haunted by the memories of seeing someone they cared about brutally attacked. Initially (and pitch perfectly) I was so taken aback by this that I sat there trying to think if I had missed an episode or forgotten a recent storyline in which someone got hurt. Just when I couldn’t take it anymore, the reveal – the boys all saw Steven Spielberg and George Lucas rape the concept of Indiana Jones with their recent Crystal Skull movie.
South Park is a show that always resonates most when they blend the melodramatic reactions and interpretations of the boys with adult issues. That particular innocence and naivety of being a nine year old boy, still interested in playing pretend than liking girls or being the most popular is their best hook. Recall Cartman’s recent desire to be able to swear, so he fakes Tourette’s and somehow ends up addressing Chris Hansen and the To Catch a Predator conspiracies? Or, Stan’s infamous encounter with Scientology when he tries to have fun one afternoon without spending any money?

The episode has its highlights: Cartman saying the word “Dick” repeatedly – which by the use of and quantity of times, I assume means something with the FCC has changed, Cartman and Butters dressing up as Chinese stereotypes and going covert into a PF Chang’s, the graphic, Deliverance style rape scenes of Indiana Jones, and perhaps most of all, the still lingering pains of Star Wars, seen through the raping of a Stormtrooper.

By the end, the episode ultimately failed to live up to its built-in potential. Cartman and Butters had held up a restaurant, taken hostages, and shot three men in their respective crotches. Cartman was ready to go national, again, with his war on the Chinese. But the plots intertwined, and the costumed terrorists were able to simply walk away, when the cops too began to cry over the memories of Indiana Jones being raped. So much was left to explore with both subjects, and yet, it just kinda faded out in what felt like should have been the midpoint of an episode. Still, South Park is better than every other comedy, especially animated, on television.

Rating: 8