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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Comedy > TV > South Park – The Complete Ninth Season

South Park – The Complete Ninth Season

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Episodes: B-

 

 

South Park is edgier and bolder than ever, but is it at the cost of growth.  Forget about throwing out Chef for personal reasons, we are not getting enough new characters to go with the boldness and it seems more pointed than the previous season (reviewed on this site) as we looked through The Complete Ninth Season.

 

The biggest shock is the first show where Mr. Garrison gets a sex change operation.  On a narrative level, this is ruining the long standing joke about the suppression of his sexuality, though the larger shock is the science documentary footage of a male sex organ being surgically altered to be like a female one.  The show goes downhill from there, making me miss the earlier shows and as I wrapped up the season, realized the introduction of new characters or situations that built the show into a hit.

 

The Best Friends Forever episode is a great showcase for Kenny, while the Trapped In The Closet episode became a classic in content, boldness and especially because it was part of a censorship fiasco.  Did then #1 Paramount Pictures star Tom Cruise have the show temporarily censored or refuse to promote Mission: Impossible III?  Was he right to be unhappy about attacks on his faith and personal self?  Should the other persons, including all of Scientology, also be outraged, or was at least some of the criticism of an organization never openly criticized fair?  That is the debate and Cruise may have left Paramount, but now co-owns United Artists, so Trey & Matt’s attack may have partly backfired.  For this and many more reasons, it is a remarkable episode that will continue to grow in importance and interest.

 

We get all 14 half-hours in all and even if the show is in a mixed period, but Trey & Matt have not sold out and the show continues to be a big hit.  It will be interesting to see where they go from here.

 

Once again, the 1.33 X 1 full frame image is not bad with decent color for its time, but evidence of analog-like/composite digital transfer, while the limited animation looks good.  There are no scratches, noise, or flaws in any of it.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is available in the brief Stone/Parker commentaries, Spanish Mono, French Stereo, and English Stereo with limited surrounds.  The “4th Grade” credits with the score back to normal and with altered graphics to keep it fresh.  The mini commentaries are the only extras again and Paramount uses a folding DigiPak to store the three DVDs.  This is a quality way of doing this without taking up a ton of room, plus the artwork on the box is top notch.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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