South Park
Episode 6: Death
Episode 7: Pinkeye
By: Carlos Uribe
South
Park is a cartoon that follows the adventures of four children. It
has aired since 1997 on Comedy Central.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
The
first episode I'm reviewing is called “Death”. The episode title
should hint that this is an episode that is going to deal with the
fun subject of death. In this specific case, it has to do with Stan's
grandfather. His grandpa is old and wants to die, but he can't seem
to succeed at killing himself. He wants his grandson to put an end to
him and the whole episode has the characters discussing the morality
of assisted suicide. When the children don't get much guidance from
adults, who all seek to stay away from it, they eventually decide to
help kill Stan's grandfather. This all fails when the grimm reaper
shows up to kill Kenny and Stan's grandfather's grandfather comes and
tells Stan's grandpa that having Stan kill him will negatively affect
him and that it's ultimately best to wait for nature to take it's
course. The episode doesn't attack assisted suicide because suicide
is immoral but because of the effects it would have on the person
doing the assisting. It's a plot that isn't really that funny,
although the fake interview that ties into the plot of the other
episode and the scene with the cop both are. It was all a bit
predictable.
What's
even more underhanded is the other plot. This plot concentrates less
on death and more on television's content. When Kyle's mother notices
that a program that the children of South Park watch, Terrence and
Phillip, is crude and offensive, she decides to protest the network.
This leads to her being so busy organizing a rally at the network
that she isn't involved in her child's life. The theme of the episode
is spelt out to any viewer watching: it's a parent's responsibility
to raise a child and not television and censorship is bad. It is said
that great television will only mention it's theme in passing, good
television will state the theme once, and bad television will state
it twice or more. This was an episode that stated it's point multiple
times. It ultimately wasn't very funny and it was all very
predictable. This was an episode that was spending too much time
justifying the existence of South Park, addressing criticisms, and
dealing with assisted suicide that it forgets that it needs to be
funny. If it was less busy and concentrated on only one issue then
this episode would have been much better and maybe even funnier.
The
second episode I'm reviewing is “Pinkeye”. This was the first
Halloween episode that South Park had and it was pretty funny. This
might have also been the first episode that established that Kenny is
poor. The episode's plot isn't focused very well. The main plot has
to do with zombies, but it doesn't really take over until the second
half of the episode. There is a slow build-up as the zombie infection
is seen slowly spreading but it remains the background for most of
the episode. This allows the two sub-plots to have a lot of focus.
The sub-plots remain largely seperate. The first sub-plot is who wins
the Halloween contest. This sub-plot reaches an end about halfway
through the episode, but it's the plot that determines the costumes
of the characters. The only thing funny about the sub-plot is
Cartman's Hitler costume followed by his accidental KKK costume.
While Stan's Raggedy Ann costume was used as the butt of many jokes,
only a few actually landed.
The
second sub-plot is where the characters go trick-or-treating. This
sub-plot is cut short by the main plot but it does have some pretty
good jokes. The best part about the episode is at the end, when Kyle
calls a hotline for help in the zombie outbreak. He learns that they
shouldn't decapitate zombies left and right, which is exactly what
Stan and Cartman are doing. All they have to do is kill the original
zombie, which is Kenny. Once Kenny is killed for the second time this
episode, the town is able to return to normal. The main plot was a
great way to make fun of the walking dead and while some jokes
flat-lined, the episode largely worked.
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