South Park: The Complete Fifteenth Season

"South Park season 15 is... South Park. This March, South Park s***s in your eyes, ears and mouth. South Park, season frrrp, rated Arg for Pirates, f*** you!"

Oh, how many times will I head on down to South Park? Likely until the series ends. Still, these last two seasons have found my interests shift, not that I don't love the show and respect Matt and Trey as much as I always have, but priorities change and like Stan, I fear I'm getting old. There's something poetic about Stan only turning 10 and my having found this show when it started airing right as I turned 10. While I'll always follow this unique trailblazing show these last two seasons have found me picking up a lot of the episodes after initial airing due to life circumstances. Many times I forgot a new episode was on or that the new season had started. That said, when I found time to watch the episodes I enjoyed the majority of them.

I will say this is a standout season from recent years. Many episodes this season follow the series' best of formulas, they aren't one-off episodes as much as they are a cumulative effort. A lot of quality ideas tossed together in a blender with some weirdness and some abstractness. You know what you have when you do that? You have yourself that classic South Park we all love. It's a shame not every episode can capture that old fresh charm the show once had but shows have to evolve and viewers change/desensitize. In the end this is a season worth owning for anyone who is still a fan or for those who possibly grew up on this more recent evolution of South Park. The purchase for those individuals is made even easier to justify given that they've included the insightful, and hilarious, documentary "6 Days to air: The Making of South Park". I actually think that is a highlight of this set along with the Getting Old/A$$ Burgers episodes.

So what exactly are you getting yourself into with this season? Well, "frrrp, dee derp frrrp". But I'll break it down in a simpler fashion. 14 Uncensored (Yes Actually Uncensored this time) episodes:

HUMANCENTiPAD
Kyle doesn't know what he's signed himself up for when he agrees to iTUNES latest terms of service and user agreement. This episode perfectly mocks apple, social networking and the low budget horror film about a human centipede. Some people I know thought it missed the mark but I think they were unaware of the HC reference.

Funnybot
Germans create a robot that plans to take comedy to its logical extreme, global annihilation. Jimmy and Tyler Perry must save the day. To me the funniest part of the episode was Token being unable to keep a straight face at Tyler Perry. "Oh Lor-awd!"

Royal Pudding
Matt and Trey have always loved Terrence, Philip and the Canadians more than their general audience. So an entire episode about mocking the Royal Wedding with Canadian characters probably didn't sit well with most American viewers. As a Canadian I likely found it more enjoyable than I imagine they did, you know what I mean, eh there buddy-guy!

T.M.I.
When Cartmen believes the school has posted the boys wiener sizes he freaks and lands in anger management, soon after Randy joins him and they start a riot and the form a political party with demands for the government. A simple concept that I found enjoyable, the notion that all anger management is correlated with small manhood size may have some merit.

Crack Baby Athletic Association
Kyle gets roped into Cartmen's new racket of helping crack babies by making them play basketball and raking in profits. I'm told, and it seems to be a commentary on the NCAA but I don't know enough about that to say anything meaningful. I know the episode all started from wanting to mock those commercials with the sad Sarah McLachlan song and I now know that Slash may or may not be real, but he is definitely a feeling in your heart.

City Sushi
Butters is diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and the City Wok guy deals with new competition in town (and within himself). I found the idea of Butters being diagnosed MPD for playing pretend to be funny, then the idea that his therapist is the real sick person really topped it off nicely. I wonder, do younger fans appreciate the Psycho reference at the end as much as older ones? I liked it.

You're Getting Old (1)
Stand turns 10 and everything looks and sounds like crap to him. This episode, as mentioned, sparked a great deal of interest in the show again. Leaving off on a potential cliffhanger and actual serious moment like the show had never really seen. This episode will hit so close to home with many fans of the series, it sums up not just the majority of thoughts on the series itself, but a true aspect of growing up.

Ass Burgers (2)
Stan's negative attitude might be the result of a mild form of autism. Meanwhile Cartmen and Kyle start selling burgers of a special variety. This episode was hilarious. "If there really were a social developmental disease you wouldn't call it ass burgers, that's, that's just mean". Unfortunately for me this episode is funny and comes up with a resolution to the last episode that seems fitting but the continuing storyline will end here. The answer to all life's problems seems to be becoming an alcoholic.

The Last of the Meheecans
A game turns Butters into the last Meheecan (or Mexican). Cartmen becomes a boarder patrol guard as Butters travels to Mexico and a lot of the stupidity regarding the hysteria over illegal immigration is mocked.

Bass to Mouth
A new gossip website is posting about the students at South Park elementary. The funniest thing here is that nobody cares until a post effects them and then they are all on board. Also nice to see Lemmiwinks return to take down his rival Wikileaks.

Broadway Bro Down
Randy learns the secret rewards of taking you wife to a musical and decides to write his own. A good episode that satirizes the Broadway scene, or 'Brod Way' in this case. All this is obviously on account of Matt and Trey's huge success with their own broadway hit, The Book of Mormon. It's fun to see the guys get to satirize something you know they've been wanting to.

History Channel Thanksgiving
A history channel documentary leads the boys astray in regards to Thanksgiving and Natalie Portman's wormhole must be opened. A nice satirizing of how pointless and speculative the supposed history channel has become and the movie Thor among other things. This was a good episode that is sure to become a Thanksgiving classic.

1%
Cartmen's screw ups in phys. ed wind up finding all the other students being punished for his failings. Then they all gang up against him. A relevant episode that satirized and mocked the whole OWS movement in a classic South Park fashion.

Poor Kid
Kenny's parents get taken away for shouting loudly and Cartmen doesn't know who to rip on for being poor anymore. Mysterion makes a welcome appearance and the concept of parents not being allowed to parent anymore is well explored. This was a well done finale for the season and if the giant reptilian bird at the end through some for a loop, think back to the agnostic foster parents speech.

So there you have it. I think some people have stopped caring about the show as much after Comedy Central seemed to castrate it by foolishly censoring the 200&201 episodes last season, even on DVD/Blu-ray. I still and always will have a soft spot for this series. I may not keep up with the new episodes like I used to but it doesn't seem the show is going away just yet (3 more seasons) and I can always catch up on Blu-ray if I start missing the episodes altogether. I do hope that when the show does end Matt and Trey will find a way to give it a fitting end, obviously not a resolution exactly (there can't be one to a series like this) but something hilarious or shocking enough that it encapsulates the true spirit of the series. There would be no Animation Domination without this series. As much as people can say this series was possible only because of the Simpsons opening the door, none of the recent animated comedies would have been possible without South Park being the first ones to really push the boundaries, break down some more doors and punch some people in the face. This series truly founded adult oriented animated series'.

I'll be buying this season because I loved the getting old episode and enjoyed most of the others in this batch. I always enjoy Matt and Trey's mini-commentaries. Then there is the great documentary I've already discussed which is included as a special feature along with behind the scenes of City Sushi and some deleted scenes. I felt slightly compelled by Stan and others getting old who see everything as crap to give this season only 4 stars. But in re-watching it before this review I have to say it is a marked improvement over other recent years with only the usual debatable misstep or two. The second half is especially solid.

I opened with a rephrased quote from the season and another one seems to fit adequately in regards to my purchasing decision, lol:

"Is this season worth owning? It's the boys from South Park in... whatever, you'll pay to go see it, f*** you, coming March something. Derp-dee derp frrrp."

Hilarious episodes, even with some serious undertones at times. I really enjoyed season 15, I certainly was not disappointed. Recommended if you still love South Park after all these years.

I still love South Park and I have all 15 dvd volumes and the awesome bigger longer uncut movie.this show is brilliant and so edgy that no other adult animation program except for Archer can compare. I highly recommend buying this dvd to add to your collection or start one. You will not be disappointed with Amazon's prices.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 16 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars