SOUTH PARK ON TV

South Park: The Complete First Season on DVD

South Park: The Complete Second Season on DVD

The most creative (and controversial) animated series since The Simpsons has finally been released in TV season form.

South Park began on Comedy Central in mid 1997. It was panned by critics and mothers everywhere for its offensive – and sometimes blasphemous – content. But five years later, South Park is still a huge success, and critics (though still not mothers) praise it for its willingness and ability to give society a kick in the ass.

Season one of South Park introduced us to the four elementary school kids the show centers on: Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman, and proved it wasn’t afraid of what the whiny PC girlie men wackos thought. In fact, in merely its first year it was willing to make fun of Kathie Lee Gifford, Barbra Streisand, and even Jesus himself. We were introduced to such classic characters as Chef, Mr. Garrison/Mr. Hat, and Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.

I have to admit I was not a fan of the show at first. I felt it was far too immature to be likable by someone as mature as myself. Now that I’m older and wiser (Editor's note: relatively speaking), I’m much more willing to admit to my immaturity, and therefore more able to enjoy a show as brilliant as South Park. Those who pride themselves on being politically incorrect cannot help but appreciate the commentary evident in the show.

The 13 episodes on this 3-disc set are: “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,” “Volcano,” “Weight Gain 4000,” “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride,” “An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig,” “Death,” “Pinkeye,” “Damien,” “Starvin’ Marvin,” “Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo,” “Tom’s Rhinoplasty,” “Mecha-Streisand,” and “Cartman’s Mom is a Dirty Slut.”

For even the most casual of South Park fans, this phenomenal first season is a must have.

Now that Warner Bros. has decided to release the show in full seasons, rather than the lame “best of” collections they’ve done previously, we can finally see it how it was meant to. Each episode is presented in its original full screen aspect ratio, and the picture quality is pretty good for a TV show. Whichever way you look at it, the animation sucks, so you don’t really care how the picture looks. The fun of the show is in the dialogue.

The audio is Dolby Digital surround, and you don’t need anything more. It’s a television cartoon series, so the most important part is the words. You can hear them as well as you need to, and having 5.1 or more wouldn’t add any enjoyment in this case.

Special features are slim, but entertaining. Trey Parker and Matt Stone offer intros for every episode, and they’re very amusing. They seem to be mocking interviews you see with other celebrities. There is also “A South Park Thanksgiving” as seen on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, two music videos, South Park promos, and the boys presenting at the 1997 CableACE Awards.

Parker and Stone had originally recorded audio commentaries for each episode, but Warner Bros. wasn’t happy with the content and nixed them. They’ve already taken much heat for the decision, so hopefully we won’t run into this problem with future season sets. Besides, what could they possibly say that’s worse than anything on the show?

South Park: The Complete First Season, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
310 minutes, 1.33:1 full screen, Dolby Digital surround
Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Written by Trey Parker
Voices by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and featuring Isaac Hayes as “Chef”

South Park: The Complete Second Season on DVD

After South Park became a huge mid-season success, it’s no surprise that the highly controversial show was renewed for another season.

So Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman were subjected to a whole new series of adventures, many of them even more politically incorrect than the previous season. Season one ended off with a cliffhanger as Cartman was trying to find out who his father was. Season two began on April Fool’s Day with an entire episode featuring Terrance and Phillip (and had nothing to do with the first season’s finale), a joke that creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone thought was funny, but that the public didn’t find quite as amusing.

A few years later, it’s much easier to look back and laugh, though we can understand why the viewers would have been upset. But then, if South Park didn’t annoy everybody, including its legions of fans, it just wouldn’t be South Park.

As with so many other shows, the second season of South Park is even better than the first. This is saying a lot, because season one was pretty damn funny. Most shows start off slowly, but once they find their stride they can just focus on being funny. South Park had its stride early on, so by the second season they were well into just being controversially hilarious. Highlights from this brilliant collection include “Chef’s Salty Chocolate Balls,” “Gnomes,” “Summer Sucks” and “Conjoined Fetus Lady.”

The 18 included episodes are: “Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus;” “Cartman’s Mom is Still a Dirty Slut;” “Chickenlover;” “Ike’s Wee Wee;” “Conjoined Fetus Lady;” “The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka;” “Flashbacks;” “Summer Sucks;” “Chef’s Chocolate Salty Balls;” “Chickenpox;” “Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods;” “Clubhouses;” “Cow Days;” “Chef Aid;” “Spookyfish;” “Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!;” “Gnomes;” and “Prehistoric Ice Man.”

As with season one, each episode features an introduction by Parker and Stone, and they are quite amusing, even if we’re not quite sure why.

South Park’s main saving grace is its innate ability to give today’s politically correct world the kick in the ass it needs. It may be controversial, but only because it’s saying what needs to be said. The only people who would actually get offended are the very people it’s trying to offend.

If you’re just a little bit immature and not afraid to admit it, South Park is extremely enjoyable. If you’re a fan (and we know who we are), we don’t need to tell you to pick up this phenomenal second season.

The 18 episodes are spread across three DVDs, with audio/video presentations much like season one, but with a collection of extras that is slightly better.

Presented in 1.33:1 full screen, the picture quality on each episode is exactly as good as it needs to be. The show has plenty of bright colors, but there’s no reason to care whether or not there is any grain or anything. The animation is terrible (but it works very well), but most of the intrigue is in the dialogue. True, there are plenty of visual gags as well, but the picture is definitely good enough to catch them all.

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital Surround, which, again, is more than adequate. Dialogue and sound effects are perfectly audible, and there are even a few cases of left-to-right pans (or vice versa).

Once again there are no audio commentaries, which is a real shame. Apparently, Warner Bros. wasn’t overly pleased with the ones recorded for season one and scrapped them. To prove their disappointment, they didn’t even give the boys a chance to record commentaries for this season.

Extra features include a music video for “Chocolate Salty Balls,” and a 40-minute “Goin’ Down to South Park” documentary. The doc is very well made, features interviews with Parker, Stone, and a few others, and is highly entertaining. It’s a very nice addition to the set.

South Park: The Complete Second Season, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
404 minutes, 1.33:1 full screen, Dolby Digital Surround
Starring and created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Tell us at TechnoFile what YOU think