South Park – The Complete Ninth Season
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: B-
South Park is edgier and bolder than ever,
but is it at the cost of growth. Forget
about throwing out Chef for personal reasons, we are not getting enough new
characters to go with the boldness and it seems more pointed than the previous
season (reviewed on this site) as we looked through The Complete Ninth Season.
The biggest shock is the first show where Mr. Garrison
gets a sex change operation. On a narrative
level, this is ruining the long standing joke about the suppression of his
sexuality, though the larger shock is the science documentary footage of a male
sex organ being surgically altered to be like a female one. The show goes downhill from there, making me
miss the earlier shows and as I wrapped up the season, realized the
introduction of new characters or situations that built the show into a hit.
The Best Friends
Forever episode is a great showcase for Kenny, while the Trapped In The Closet episode became a
classic in content, boldness and especially because it was part of a censorship
fiasco. Did then #1 Paramount Pictures
star Tom Cruise have the show temporarily censored or refuse to promote Mission: Impossible III? Was he right to be unhappy about attacks on
his faith and personal self? Should the
other persons, including all of Scientology, also be outraged, or was at least
some of the criticism of an organization never openly criticized fair? That is the debate and Cruise may have left Paramount,
but now co-owns United Artists, so Trey & Matt’s attack may have partly
backfired. For this and many more
reasons, it is a remarkable episode that will continue to grow in importance
and interest.
We get all 14 half-hours in all and even if the show is in
a mixed period, but Trey & Matt have not sold out and the show continues to
be a big hit. It will be interesting to
see where they go from here.
Once again, the 1.33 X 1 full frame image is not bad with decent color
for its time, but evidence of analog-like/composite digital transfer, while the
limited animation looks good. There are
no scratches, noise, or flaws in any of it.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 is available in the brief Stone/Parker
commentaries, Spanish Mono, French Stereo, and English Stereo with limited
surrounds. The “4th Grade”
credits with the score back to normal and with altered graphics to keep it
fresh. The mini commentaries are the
only extras again and Paramount uses a folding DigiPak to store the three
DVDs. This is a quality way of doing
this without taking up a ton of room, plus the artwork on the box is top notch.
- Nicholas Sheffo
