South Park: The Streaming Wars

Honestly, one of the most snooze-fest South Park outings I think I've ever been on.

Feels like a script they wrote a couple of years ago with outdated jokes like "Karen" and forgot to add in any laughs.

Nothing edgy, nothing particularly witty and the so-called satire in this episode seems more geared toward TV executives than at regular joes like me watching the show.

They were doing good with the new episodes, but this "special" seemed unnecessary and pointless. These hour long shows drag out, the jokes are much less punchy because they need to be stretched out and by the 45th minute they've gone stale.

Got absolutely nothing out of the characters/boys either which is weird. I don't mind the Randy's Farm storylines but they have to land and this one didn't.

The streaming wars "analogy" just... isn't very funny? But it was nice to a-see a-Pi-Pi again, I'll give 'em that! Get back to the episodes I say.

It was entertaining enough to see how the plot evolved, but there weren't a lot of laughs. It just felt very light on jokes. The creators continue to focus on Randy and Tegridy weed, as well as rehashing ManBearPig, both of which have gotten tiring. If you're a South Park fan, you'll probably still enjoy it, but don't expect nonstop laughter. The "streaming" play on words had a chance to be funny, but they didn't really utilize it well. All in all, I laughed exactly twice. A far cry from South Park's prime.

Yes, South Park has always been satiric. Fine. But the focus over the last few seasons has shifted from the core of Kenny, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman (and Butters) to Randy, Tegridy Farms, PC Principal, blah...blah...blah. I like good satire, but they have drained the storylines for all they are worth. Remember Jared beating a dead horse in Season 6? We are now at that point. Shift the focus back to the kids. Please....

...that I just watched South Park s**t on its parent company for 48 minutes straight, all the while poking fun at its viewers to continually show up for any content they put out, no matter what service it's on. South Park on Comedy Central is not enough...how about Paramount+ , who is personified by the not-so-subtle "Pi Pi". Most South Park is completely allegorical at this point, which hits or misses. This was a semi-hit with me, the best part is biting the hand that feeds and it just giving them more and more. This was purposefully a sub-par episode - err, "special" - that proves its own point.

I know a lot of people found it dull, uncreative, repetitive, and too dependent on current trends in society and pop culture. But I disagree for the most part. They successfully found a fun way to bring elements from many previous episodes, and merge them together with a mockery of modern day streaming services as the glue. They make a lot of great critical points about streaming services in fun, hilarious ways. Like how anybody can "sell content" for streaming services, how quickly they get canceled, and how the content can be garbage and yet people will still pay for it. And don't forget how competitive the streaming business has become in such a short period of time.

On top of all that, you have the usual antics from Cartman, driven by his greedy, incessant need for attention and material gain. And the boys are the focal point of one of the three main story arcs of course that play a part in the mockery of streaming services. And the story of Tegridy Weed continues. And yes, I do agree, South Park should be all about the boys and not so much about Randy and his farm, but I don't feel like he really hogs the limelight.

And to those complaining about it being oversaturated with parodies and references to current news, where have you been the last 10 seasons? That's basically what they do now, and have been doing for some time.

Overall it's pretty funny, not the best, but when you take a step back to see what the creators are doing, it certainly becomes an episode worthy of watching. On a streaming service of course.