Wednesday, March 21, 2007

South Park - The Complete Ninth Season [The Complete Ninth Season]


A decade ago, when my best friend Steve and I headed to our friend Josh´s house to play the exciting new Playstation game "Resident Evil," we didn´t expect to spend a lot of the night watching a VHS tape with a handful of episodes from some new show called "South Park." This was back before On-Demand and even DVD. Josh loved this show and recorded the episodes when we were forcing him to work at the local Giant Foods. I remember my first night watching "South Park" and though the show had only shown about five episodes, they were damn funny. Cartman with an alien anal probe coming out of his derriere was the first episode I remember and to this day, when one of us screws up, we still quote the aliens and say "My Bad. I´m new around here." I miss those days of hanging out over at Josh´s house and since then, the Sony Playstation and VHS are ancient technology and I can´t believe that I´m reviewing a DVD collection of the ninth year of "South Park."

Season 9 contains fourteen episodes. Each tackles various elements from pop culture, or hot political or social topics. This has been and still is the strength of "South Park" and as long as Hollywood keeps pumping out any degree of crappy films and actors and other public figures continue to do stupid and asinine things, "South Park" will have material to run for another nine seasons. Of course, one of the most infamous episodes in the long history of the show are contained on the third disc of this DVD set. Titled "Trapped in the Closet," this episode tackles the religion *cough* of Scientology and details the story of Zenu. I can´t discuss the story of Zenu, as Scientology specifically states that you can die of pneumonia if you are not at OT3 or properly prepared for the knowledge that is revealed in this South Park episode. I´ve known the stories of Scientology for a couple years now and haven´t died yet and think that "Trapped in the Closet" is easily one of the best episodes they have done in years.

The other episodes are certainly entertaining and are as follows:

Mr. Garrison´s Fancy New Vagina: If you cannot figure it out from the title, this episode is about sex change surgery and also touches on racism. Mr. Garrison loses his testicles and earns a highly desired vagina to become a ´true´ woman. Somebody else becomes a dolphin and Kyle becomes a tall African American so that he can be a better basketball player. Grade: A-

Die Hippie, Die: This episode combines "Ghostbusters" with "Armageddon" and contains a token black guy (Chef) in case the plan backfires as Cartman is enrolled by South Park´s city counsel to remove the ever growing hippie pandemic that has infected South Park. Grade: B+

Wing: The boys decide to become talent agents and make their mark on the world and a lot of money by exploiting their clients. After losing their only profitable client to a real talent agent, a songstress Asian wife becomes their new cash cow and they are unable to get her an audition on a crappy reality show and end up putting her in the ring. Grade: B-

Best Friends Forever: Kenny becomes Heaven´s version of Keanu Reeves, as his prowess on a PSP game have made him God´s "The One" to fend off a massive assault by the devil on the pearly white gates of Heaven. I´m still wondering how Kenny´s family had the cash to buy him a Sony PSP. Grade: C+

The Losing Edge: This was one of the few episodes that I felt faltered badly. The basic premise is that all boys want to lose in Little League so they don´t have to play all summer. There were some funny moments, but this one struggled to keep my interest. Grade: F

The Death of Eric Cartman: Combine a little "The Sixth Sense" with the fact that nobody truly loves Cartman and you get a very funny episode where Cartman believes he is dead and Butters is the only boy who Cartman believes can see him. Butters thinks he sees dead people. Everybody thinks the two boys are completely insane, but has no problem ignoring Cartman. This was a good one. Grade: A+

Erection Day: The topic of this show is Jimmy´s entrance into puberty and his sudden problem with untimely hard-ons. With Cartman giving Jimmy advice on how to get laid, you can just imagine the hilarity of this episode. Lots of great Jimmy jokes are included. Grade: A

Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow: Al Gore´s global warming and the craptacular "The Day After Tomorrow" are the hot topics for this episode. I´m not going to get into the whole global warming thing. January made me a believer and February a doubter. However, regardless of my beliefs, this was a pretty funny episode. Everything goes to hell when Stan breaks a beaver dam. Grade: B+

Marjorine: Do you remember the little paper answer boxes that the girls made in grade school? The boys think this is some messiah-like device and a few similarities to "Stargate" emerge in this episode where they fake Butters death so he can pretend to be a girl and nab the device. This was one of the lesser episodes of the season. Grade: D

Follow That Egg: Do you also remember the grade school assignment where you needed to be the parent to an egg? Did you eat the egg? This episode is about jealousy, relationships and those darned eggs. A lot of it also resolves around the social and political hotbed of same-sex marriages. Funny stuff and one of the better Mrs. Garrison episodes. Grade: C+

Ginger Kids: Cartman tackles racism against red-haired, fair skinned freckled kids in yet another South Park assault on racism and cults. The prerequisite Ron Howard joke was included and the hotel concierge jokes were funny, but this was another episode that was on the lower end. I did like the concept of Stan being a ´Daywalker.´ Grade: C-

Trapped in the Closet: One of the best South Park episodes ever. Travolta, Cruise, R. Kelly and the entire concept of Scientology is attacked in this one and the result is absolutely hilarious. I laughed for the entire length of this episode and have always considered Scientology to be hokey and this was a home run as far as I´m concerned. The Travolta and Cruise parodies were pretty funny too. Grade: A+

Free Willzyx: The boys find that a killer whale actually came from the moon and he communicates to them and pleads to be sent home. Of course, NASA, the Russians and any other reputable space agency laughingly turn them down. Fortunately, the Mexicans save the day and put the whale into space for $200. This was about as average a South Park episode that you will find. Grade: C

Bloody Mary: The disease of alcoholism is half of the episode´s topics. The other half is a Mary statue that bleeds from a lower body orifice. Do I really need to say much more? Grade: B

Season 9 was yet another very good episode for a show that is at times crude, rude and downright funny. I drifted away from South Park for a few years, but this DVD set has rekindled my interest in the show. I´m four seasons from owning all of them, so I need to get shopping (unless Paramount can find some kindness and help fuel my love for South Park… but I don´t know if we need to review those seasons here). There are a few very good episodes that fell into Season 9, but "Trapped in the Closet" is the full reason to own this set. Kenny doesn´t die much at all in this season, but he gets a gold PSP for a death in this season. Lots of laughs and it is good to see that Trey Parker and Matt Stone haven´t lost their ability to be complete smartasses and slam whatever they damn well wish.

A decade ago, when my best friend Steve and I headed to our friend Josh´s house to play the exciting new Playstation game "Resident Evil," we didn´t expect to spend a lot of the night watching a VHS tape with a handful of episodes from some new show called "South Park." This was back before On-Demand and even DVD. Josh loved this show and recorded the episodes when we were forcing him to work at the local Giant Foods. I remember my first night watching "South Park" and though the show had only shown about five episodes, they were damn funny. Cartman with an alien anal probe coming out of his derriere was the first episode I remember and to this day, when one of us screws up, we still quote the aliens and say "My Bad. I´m new around here." I miss those days of hanging out over at Josh´s house and since then, the Sony Playstation and VHS are ancient technology and I can´t believe that I´m reviewing a DVD collection of the ninth year of "South Park."

Season 9 contains fourteen episodes. Each tackles various elements from pop culture, or hot political or social topics. This has been and still is the strength of "South Park" and as long as Hollywood keeps pumping out any degree of crappy films and actors and other public figures continue to do stupid and asinine things, "South Park" will have material to run for another nine seasons. Of course, one of the most infamous episodes in the long history of the show are contained on the third disc of this DVD set. Titled "Trapped in the Closet," this episode tackles the religion *cough* of Scientology and details the story of Zenu. I can´t discuss the story of Zenu, as Scientology specifically states that you can die of pneumonia if you are not at OT3 or properly prepared for the knowledge that is revealed in this South Park episode. I´ve known the stories of Scientology for a couple years now and haven´t died yet and think that "Trapped in the Closet" is easily one of the best episodes they have done in years.

The other episodes are certainly entertaining and are as follows:

Mr. Garrison´s Fancy New Vagina: If you cannot figure it out from the title, this episode is about sex change surgery and also touches on racism. Mr. Garrison loses his testicles and earns a highly desired vagina to become a ´true´ woman. Somebody else becomes a dolphin and Kyle becomes a tall African American so that he can be a better basketball player. Grade: A-

Die Hippie, Die: This episode combines "Ghostbusters" with "Armageddon" and contains a token black guy (Chef) in case the plan backfires as Cartman is enrolled by South Park´s city counsel to remove the ever growing hippie pandemic that has infected South Park. Grade: B+

Wing: The boys decide to become talent agents and make their mark on the world and a lot of money by exploiting their clients. After losing their only profitable client to a real talent agent, a songstress Asian wife becomes their new cash cow and they are unable to get her an audition on a crappy reality show and end up putting her in the ring. Grade: B-

Best Friends Forever: Kenny becomes Heaven´s version of Keanu Reeves, as his prowess on a PSP game have made him God´s "The One" to fend off a massive assault by the devil on the pearly white gates of Heaven. I´m still wondering how Kenny´s family had the cash to buy him a Sony PSP. Grade: C+

The Losing Edge: This was one of the few episodes that I felt faltered badly. The basic premise is that all boys want to lose in Little League so they don´t have to play all summer. There were some funny moments, but this one struggled to keep my interest. Grade: F

The Death of Eric Cartman: Combine a little "The Sixth Sense" with the fact that nobody truly loves Cartman and you get a very funny episode where Cartman believes he is dead and Butters is the only boy who Cartman believes can see him. Butters thinks he sees dead people. Everybody thinks the two boys are completely insane, but has no problem ignoring Cartman. This was a good one. Grade: A+

Erection Day: The topic of this show is Jimmy´s entrance into puberty and his sudden problem with untimely hard-ons. With Cartman giving Jimmy advice on how to get laid, you can just imagine the hilarity of this episode. Lots of great Jimmy jokes are included. Grade: A

Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow: Al Gore´s global warming and the craptacular "The Day After Tomorrow" are the hot topics for this episode. I´m not going to get into the whole global warming thing. January made me a believer and February a doubter. However, regardless of my beliefs, this was a pretty funny episode. Everything goes to hell when Stan breaks a beaver dam. Grade: B+

Marjorine: Do you remember the little paper answer boxes that the girls made in grade school? The boys think this is some messiah-like device and a few similarities to "Stargate" emerge in this episode where they fake Butters death so he can pretend to be a girl and nab the device. This was one of the lesser episodes of the season. Grade: D

Follow That Egg: Do you also remember the grade school assignment where you needed to be the parent to an egg? Did you eat the egg? This episode is about jealousy, relationships and those darned eggs. A lot of it also resolves around the social and political hotbed of same-sex marriages. Funny stuff and one of the better Mrs. Garrison episodes. Grade: C+

Ginger Kids: Cartman tackles racism against red-haired, fair skinned freckled kids in yet another South Park assault on racism and cults. The prerequisite Ron Howard joke was included and the hotel concierge jokes were funny, but this was another episode that was on the lower end. I did like the concept of Stan being a ´Daywalker.´ Grade: C-

Trapped in the Closet: One of the best South Park episodes ever. Travolta, Cruise, R. Kelly and the entire concept of Scientology is attacked in this one and the result is absolutely hilarious. I laughed for the entire length of this episode and have always considered Scientology to be hokey and this was a home run as far as I´m concerned. The Travolta and Cruise parodies were pretty funny too. Grade: A+

Free Willzyx: The boys find that a killer whale actually came from the moon and he communicates to them and pleads to be sent home. Of course, NASA, the Russians and any other reputable space agency laughingly turn them down. Fortunately, the Mexicans save the day and put the whale into space for $200. This was about as average a South Park episode that you will find. Grade: C

Bloody Mary: The disease of alcoholism is half of the episode´s topics. The other half is a Mary statue that bleeds from a lower body orifice. Do I really need to say much more? Grade: B

Season 9 was yet another very good episode for a show that is at times crude, rude and downright funny. I drifted away from South Park for a few years, but this DVD set has rekindled my interest in the show. I´m four seasons from owning all of them, so I need to get shopping (unless Paramount can find some kindness and help fuel my love for South Park… but I don´t know if we need to review those seasons here). There are a few very good episodes that fell into Season 9, but "Trapped in the Closet" is the full reason to own this set. Kenny doesn´t die much at all in this season, but he gets a gold PSP for a death in this season. Lots of laughs and it is good to see that Trey Parker and Matt Stone haven´t lost their ability to be complete smartasses and slam whatever they damn well wish.

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