Sorry for the lack of imagination on the header..
Episode 12: The F Word
This episode was a bit of a mess. I felt that Matt & Trey just wanted to make their point about Harley riders and because of that the unneccessary things like plot and humor got left bit half-assed. Characters acted at times bit out-of-character and in the end it was a bit of a mess. Besides there's not that much of stuff inside this, there's no b-plot or anything, it's all about Harley riders being gay. Well, at least Harley-riders craving for attention ie. in the cafeteria was good stuff. But that's only enough to get them up to rating 2/10.
Episode 13: Dances with the Smurfs
I don't know about this. It has the same characteristics that most episodes this season have had. I mean that it was a bit of a mess. But then again, you can't go too wrong with Cartman vs. Wendy -plotline. It's solid old matchup and it works again. Avatar is being rightly mocked here and for that including the smurfs works fine. But I'm rambling again a bit. I'm starting to feel like this review is as big of a mess as the episode was. The biggest failure in this episode was obviously the start. It's not funny, at all. There's always been the fair share of shock laughs in South Park and I feel that this season they have just forgotten about the laugh part. Just going for shock value is.. kind of a douchebag thing to do. All in all, there's enough funny shit to lift this episode barely to 3/10.
Episode 14: Pee
This was perhaps the best episode of the season. It too had it problems, but most of it was good and it had more of the old South Park feel than the rest of the episodes. Cartman's song about minorities was great. If there's any certain way that any South Park -episode could be improved it's always a song by Cartman - anything will do. I guess they are starting to notice this considering how many Cartman's songs we got this season. 2012 was always the easy thing to target and they made a decent job in it. But enough about the positives, there were annoyances in this episode too. Or to be honest only one, the character Pi Pi. Rest of the episode was pretty solid, but it's not that great when you compare it to the earlier season's best works. I rate it 5/10 anyway.
So overall, this season averaged a rating of.. 2,93. Now that's pretty pathetic. There was no real high points, and not enough solid episodes and couple of real downpoints. It's fair to say that there needs to be improvement for next season, cause this season crushed season two for the lowest rating. The series has been on a decline for few seasons, but this season the quality just came down crashing. At least for me it came.
Perhaps I someday revise these ratings too like I did to the earlier ones. The rating might still see improvement that way, but like I've said, there will probably not be that big of a difference.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Season Thirteen, Episodes 7-11 - Almost Finishing It Off
I'll try to do as many as I can in this post..
Episode 7: Fatbeard
So it's the last episode of the halfseason and unlike the usual end-of-the-run episodes this doens't get way out of hand. It's pretty basic stuff plotwise. When this episode was coming up I remembered waiting it with expectation of it being a solid episode.. Well, it fell a little short. Whole pirate idea felt kind of good, it just didn't work out as well as I expected. It's not bad at all, just not that good either (my feeling for pretty much half of these episodes). There was couple of solid moments with pirate stuff, but I feel that it didn't quite use it's potential. At least I was glad that Kyle got what he deserved for openly wishing Cartman would die.. I mean, Kyle's supposed to be the good guy, right? Good guys don't wish for anyone to die, even if it is an asshole like Cartman. I also felt the somalese guy's speech about pirating was stupid and overly preachy. It was used in moving the plot forwards anyway, so it's acceptable. But anyway, enough about that. In summary, it was near-decent episode, so I rate it 3/10.
Episode 8: Dead Celebrities
Could the be more disgusting way to open a new run of episodes than having Gerald & Sheila having sex? Well, it gets worse with most of the episode dealing with bloodstains on underwear and then having two old guys jacking off to a bunch of children. There was lot of stuff in this episode that disturbed or appalled me. So was it funny in any sense? Well I guess there was something good, but there wasn't anything that good. There was too many references I didn't get and the Dr. Tangina's speech was dragged waayy too long. I guess the writers hated her too since she got such a violent death. The parts about purgatory didn't entertain me, they made me feel just like those dead people - waiting for something to happen. So in the end, this episode failed pretty miserably and the only question is, whether I rate it 1 or 2 out of 10. Well, there is one fact that manages just lift it to 2; Michael Jackson reintroduction. It's blatant recycling of old jokes, but it works, so anything goes. Unfortunately that's what it has came to.. So it's 2/10 and we'll move on.
Episode 9: Butters' Bottom Bitch
I don't know if I like this episode or not. I remembered liking it when I first saw it, but it has lost much of it's power after that. I think both storylines were fairly funny, though I understand what I've been reading over the discussion boards that the Stoley's prostitution sting was more disgusting than anything else. I guess I'm just a sick bastard who can handle that sort of shit and still think it's pretty good. But to be honest, Butters going around calling girls bitches and Stoley's ridiculous plotline weren't as funny as they were. That's not to say that they sucked, but I feel that this episode lacks staying power. When I just watched it again, I thought for some moments "what the fuck am I watching?", and I don't know if it's good or bad thing. Still, for the great first impressions only and Butters being so awesome, it gets to 4/10.
Episode 10: W.T.F.
I didn't like this episode originally simply on the basis that real wrestling is more funny than what this episode was. It got a bit better though during the rewatch. I still feel it didn't live up to it's potential, but it managed to attack the matter on a different angle than expected. The boring thing was that there were all the obvious jokes about WWE being soap opera and "that isn't real, idiots" stuff. The wrestling itself were pretty fucked up stuff and I liked the fact that the real wrestling guy got a place in the WWE in the end. So this episode failed to deliver much of it's humor potential, but it still had it moments. Lastly, what's with the "they took our jobs"? They must really like that line, they've fuckin' recycled it to death. I give it 3/10, but it's close.
Episode 11: Whale Whores
I know it's common for South Park to use ridiculous plotlines, but when it's such a lazy writing like in this it sucks. I won't get into detail about it, but I just think the whole Enola Gay thing was stupid & not at all funny and the whole japanese killing whales like they were at the beginning weren't a very good start for an episode. But enough moaning, there was sweet stuff also in this episode: Cartman doing Lady Gaga. I also liked how Whale Wars were mocked, though I'm not familiar with the show. Though I love the Cartman's rendition of Poker face, it isn't enough the lift episode higher than 2/10. If the rest of the show would've been just mediocre, rating could've gone higher, but it's terrible for me, so that's it.
This leaves three episodes for the last post. Will do it pretty soon, but see ya for now.
Episode 7: Fatbeard
So it's the last episode of the halfseason and unlike the usual end-of-the-run episodes this doens't get way out of hand. It's pretty basic stuff plotwise. When this episode was coming up I remembered waiting it with expectation of it being a solid episode.. Well, it fell a little short. Whole pirate idea felt kind of good, it just didn't work out as well as I expected. It's not bad at all, just not that good either (my feeling for pretty much half of these episodes). There was couple of solid moments with pirate stuff, but I feel that it didn't quite use it's potential. At least I was glad that Kyle got what he deserved for openly wishing Cartman would die.. I mean, Kyle's supposed to be the good guy, right? Good guys don't wish for anyone to die, even if it is an asshole like Cartman. I also felt the somalese guy's speech about pirating was stupid and overly preachy. It was used in moving the plot forwards anyway, so it's acceptable. But anyway, enough about that. In summary, it was near-decent episode, so I rate it 3/10.
Episode 8: Dead Celebrities
Could the be more disgusting way to open a new run of episodes than having Gerald & Sheila having sex? Well, it gets worse with most of the episode dealing with bloodstains on underwear and then having two old guys jacking off to a bunch of children. There was lot of stuff in this episode that disturbed or appalled me. So was it funny in any sense? Well I guess there was something good, but there wasn't anything that good. There was too many references I didn't get and the Dr. Tangina's speech was dragged waayy too long. I guess the writers hated her too since she got such a violent death. The parts about purgatory didn't entertain me, they made me feel just like those dead people - waiting for something to happen. So in the end, this episode failed pretty miserably and the only question is, whether I rate it 1 or 2 out of 10. Well, there is one fact that manages just lift it to 2; Michael Jackson reintroduction. It's blatant recycling of old jokes, but it works, so anything goes. Unfortunately that's what it has came to.. So it's 2/10 and we'll move on.
Episode 9: Butters' Bottom Bitch
I don't know if I like this episode or not. I remembered liking it when I first saw it, but it has lost much of it's power after that. I think both storylines were fairly funny, though I understand what I've been reading over the discussion boards that the Stoley's prostitution sting was more disgusting than anything else. I guess I'm just a sick bastard who can handle that sort of shit and still think it's pretty good. But to be honest, Butters going around calling girls bitches and Stoley's ridiculous plotline weren't as funny as they were. That's not to say that they sucked, but I feel that this episode lacks staying power. When I just watched it again, I thought for some moments "what the fuck am I watching?", and I don't know if it's good or bad thing. Still, for the great first impressions only and Butters being so awesome, it gets to 4/10.
Episode 10: W.T.F.
I didn't like this episode originally simply on the basis that real wrestling is more funny than what this episode was. It got a bit better though during the rewatch. I still feel it didn't live up to it's potential, but it managed to attack the matter on a different angle than expected. The boring thing was that there were all the obvious jokes about WWE being soap opera and "that isn't real, idiots" stuff. The wrestling itself were pretty fucked up stuff and I liked the fact that the real wrestling guy got a place in the WWE in the end. So this episode failed to deliver much of it's humor potential, but it still had it moments. Lastly, what's with the "they took our jobs"? They must really like that line, they've fuckin' recycled it to death. I give it 3/10, but it's close.
Episode 11: Whale Whores
I know it's common for South Park to use ridiculous plotlines, but when it's such a lazy writing like in this it sucks. I won't get into detail about it, but I just think the whole Enola Gay thing was stupid & not at all funny and the whole japanese killing whales like they were at the beginning weren't a very good start for an episode. But enough moaning, there was sweet stuff also in this episode: Cartman doing Lady Gaga. I also liked how Whale Wars were mocked, though I'm not familiar with the show. Though I love the Cartman's rendition of Poker face, it isn't enough the lift episode higher than 2/10. If the rest of the show would've been just mediocre, rating could've gone higher, but it's terrible for me, so that's it.
This leaves three episodes for the last post. Will do it pretty soon, but see ya for now.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Season Thirteen, Episodes 1-6 - Back in Business
It's good to be writing the short reviews once again. Let's get to it!
Episode 1: The Ring
Technically speaking this is a pretty solid episode. It's got pretty good plot with some really funny jokes. But it's far from flawless. First thing that catches an eye is the fact that the rest of the guys are so amazed about Kenny having a girlfriend. It shouldn't be that amazing considering Kenny has always been into girls and already had one for short time in third season. Aside that there's also the ending that once again gets a bit out of hand, and I'm meaning the Mickey Mouse turning giant etc. part. Still it has couple of very funny jokes, the Jonas brothers concert was good shit and Mickey's inclusion overall was insane but amusing. Decent start to the season and I rate it at 4/10.
Episode 2: The Coon
I love these kind of episodes that make parody of some other style. So this is your modern superhero -style episode and it's pretty good stuff, albeit it seems to have lost pretty much of it's power since the first viewing already. It's well constructed but kinda repetitive episode and the fact that it's so memorable means that it isn't that good for repeated viewings. It's still funny stuff and the best parts were Professor Chaos' inclusion and the schetch of Mysterion. The only question is.. Who is Mysterion?! I rate it 4/10.
Episode 3: Margaritaville
This episode got an Emmy. That's pretty much it. I guess it's clever use of biblical plot in sync with satirizing the economic recession, but.. It just didn't feel that funny to me. I think it's fair to say that both earlier episodes were better than this. I don't really get why they would give and Emmy for such an episode. I'm not saying it's terrible or even bad, it's just plain mediocre. Once you got into the groove that it was going to be the Jesus all over again, you knew everything in advance and there was no surprises. I'm trying hard to think something especially funny about this episode, but I can't think of anything, so it gets 2/10. Also, I'm starting to hate Randy.
Episode 4: Eat, Pray, Queef
To be honest, I was disgusted with this episode, but at least it had couple of decent jokes unlike the previous episode. Seeing Martha Stewart again in South Park was a pretty good one and the Road Warrior -queef was just sick and funny at the same time. Even thinking about that makes me smile, and that's cool. Still I have to say that it doesn't make this episode good enough for a better rating than a 2/10. It's just that it was overall rather stale episode with most of it involving Terrance & Phillip & Queef sisters - and that is boring and not at all funny.
Episode 5: Fishsticks
This was a small improvement on the previous episode. We finally get a peek inside Cartman's mind how it works things, and it's the best part of the episode. Obviously Kanye West and Carlos Mancia getting murderer (latter literally) is good too, but the main thing for me was Cartman's mind changing everything everytime. "..And you're totally not fat", was the best thing. Kinda brings memories from season one, from the tea party in "Cartman's Mom is A Dirty Slut". I guess it narrowly edges as high as 4/10.
Let's do one more.
Episode 6: Pinewood Derby
"Well that sucks", says Randy just before credits at the and that just perfectly sums it all up. This episode was atrouchious. It was fuckin' suffering of the mind. It was torture to sit through it again, but I did it just to write this review. This is probably the worst South Park episode ever, and I hardly think it will be possible to do worse than this. It's not even the fact that Finland gets bombed back to the stone age (I'm a Finn). I'm fine with that. It's just that.. It was so god damn stupid! Nothing is even remotely funny or interesting and even South Park can't get away with such idiotic stuff. I also said earlier in this post, that I'm starting to hate Randy.. Well now I officially fuckin' hate him. I loved him in the earlier seasons, now seeing him makes my blood boil. He as a main character practically equals bad episode. I'll never watch it again. 1/10, and the 1 comes from Randy as Princess Leia. That's only funny thing this episode offers.
Episode 1: The Ring
Technically speaking this is a pretty solid episode. It's got pretty good plot with some really funny jokes. But it's far from flawless. First thing that catches an eye is the fact that the rest of the guys are so amazed about Kenny having a girlfriend. It shouldn't be that amazing considering Kenny has always been into girls and already had one for short time in third season. Aside that there's also the ending that once again gets a bit out of hand, and I'm meaning the Mickey Mouse turning giant etc. part. Still it has couple of very funny jokes, the Jonas brothers concert was good shit and Mickey's inclusion overall was insane but amusing. Decent start to the season and I rate it at 4/10.
Episode 2: The Coon
I love these kind of episodes that make parody of some other style. So this is your modern superhero -style episode and it's pretty good stuff, albeit it seems to have lost pretty much of it's power since the first viewing already. It's well constructed but kinda repetitive episode and the fact that it's so memorable means that it isn't that good for repeated viewings. It's still funny stuff and the best parts were Professor Chaos' inclusion and the schetch of Mysterion. The only question is.. Who is Mysterion?! I rate it 4/10.
Episode 3: Margaritaville
This episode got an Emmy. That's pretty much it. I guess it's clever use of biblical plot in sync with satirizing the economic recession, but.. It just didn't feel that funny to me. I think it's fair to say that both earlier episodes were better than this. I don't really get why they would give and Emmy for such an episode. I'm not saying it's terrible or even bad, it's just plain mediocre. Once you got into the groove that it was going to be the Jesus all over again, you knew everything in advance and there was no surprises. I'm trying hard to think something especially funny about this episode, but I can't think of anything, so it gets 2/10. Also, I'm starting to hate Randy.
Episode 4: Eat, Pray, Queef
To be honest, I was disgusted with this episode, but at least it had couple of decent jokes unlike the previous episode. Seeing Martha Stewart again in South Park was a pretty good one and the Road Warrior -queef was just sick and funny at the same time. Even thinking about that makes me smile, and that's cool. Still I have to say that it doesn't make this episode good enough for a better rating than a 2/10. It's just that it was overall rather stale episode with most of it involving Terrance & Phillip & Queef sisters - and that is boring and not at all funny.
Episode 5: Fishsticks
This was a small improvement on the previous episode. We finally get a peek inside Cartman's mind how it works things, and it's the best part of the episode. Obviously Kanye West and Carlos Mancia getting murderer (latter literally) is good too, but the main thing for me was Cartman's mind changing everything everytime. "..And you're totally not fat", was the best thing. Kinda brings memories from season one, from the tea party in "Cartman's Mom is A Dirty Slut". I guess it narrowly edges as high as 4/10.
Let's do one more.
Episode 6: Pinewood Derby
"Well that sucks", says Randy just before credits at the and that just perfectly sums it all up. This episode was atrouchious. It was fuckin' suffering of the mind. It was torture to sit through it again, but I did it just to write this review. This is probably the worst South Park episode ever, and I hardly think it will be possible to do worse than this. It's not even the fact that Finland gets bombed back to the stone age (I'm a Finn). I'm fine with that. It's just that.. It was so god damn stupid! Nothing is even remotely funny or interesting and even South Park can't get away with such idiotic stuff. I also said earlier in this post, that I'm starting to hate Randy.. Well now I officially fuckin' hate him. I loved him in the earlier seasons, now seeing him makes my blood boil. He as a main character practically equals bad episode. I'll never watch it again. 1/10, and the 1 comes from Randy as Princess Leia. That's only funny thing this episode offers.
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