Return_of_the_STAR wrote:Egg Knog wrote:Given that the latest episode title is "The End Of Serialization As We Know It" and spends a while at the end almost directly asking the audience for forgiveness and a second chance, coupled with last week's episode containing this:
Can we hope for an end to the series long story arc, and a return to the stronger stand alone episodes? I'd much prefer the method they used, I think, two series ago, where the episodes wold reference what had gone on the week before, but remain largely self contained.
The two most recent episodes have been pretty good, but the rest of the series up to this point has been pretty weak as a whole. Meandering, and not really heading anywhere, each week has felt like a set up for a joke that never quite lands in the next episode. Their desire to be both topical, and serialised, seems to have led to the show becoming reliant on the next week's news being funny enough to carry them and the plot forward, and it's left the show a bit empty as a whole.
Have you been reading this article by any chance?
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/feature/a816455/why-south-park-needs-to-go-back-to-basics-after-a-bad-season-20/
No, but that does seem to reflect my thoughts on the series so far quite well.
I wouldn't go so far as that though. I think there's been some great stuff from South Park since season 10, and the show certainly hasn't lost it's heart. It's focus has shifted, sure, but if it had remained the small town focused comedy in the way the writer of that article wants, it could easily just have gone the way of The Simpsons, becoming an eerie shadow of it's former self, but recycling the same plots, and gradually running one well loved character after another into the ground. South Park has always changed, and continuing to do so, ironically, keeps it the same quality show. It can remain entertaining, and cutting edge, by constantly shifting focus. The trouble with this season is it bit off more than it could chew. Whilst season 19 was a series with a strong through plot and a consistent theme throughout, it took on topical issues in a broader context. It didn't focus on specific cases that were live on the news right then, but more general trends, or specific people and things at a removed distance. Season 20 took this a step further, and left itself fully at the mercy of current events. This clearly became too much for the show, even before Trump won the election. There's even that deleted clip they released from the episode that aired the day of the election results, which had clearly been made in anticipation of a Clinton win. It didn't work, but it was something new, and Parker and Stone have always been two people capable of looking at something, and acknowledging that it has or hasn't worked. I think it's pretty clear that they understand it hasn't.