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South Park Season 25 Review

The 25^th season of South Park is a terrific return to form for Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It is ridiculously short, but most of the six episodes are incredible and wonderfully old-fashioned.

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“It’s okay to be scared, Eric!

I know that I’m the only family you have,

but you’re making everything worse for us!“

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My main issue is the length. This is why I took minus points in the overall rating for this season, which otherwise would have ranked even higher due to its quality. The guys are getting lazy, this is obvious, but having in mind that Paramount is now paying them enormous amounts of money, they should start cranking this content up more.

After the last batch of specials that basically constituted a season, this season consists of regular episodes, but just six of them. Still, most are great and the traditional elements, such as panic in town, characters reacting in a very over-the-top manner and strong commentary are all back here in what reminded me so pleasingly of older South Park seasons. Finally, serialization and overly political storytelling are a thing of the past and real humor is back on this show.

The first episode is called Pajama Day. I adored this one. It is so simple, yet standing perfectly as a metaphor for the whole rift between maskers and those who refused to wear them in the Western countries. PC Principal got a surprisingly solid, meaningful arc here while the chaos that ensues in the second half was so funny. The highlight, though, is Garrison. Finally, he is back. This is the character that we all fell in love with in the first place. The beginning where he literally talks to children about his love life was both relevant for what is happening in the US right now and absolutely hilarious.

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The Big Fix is overly concerned with the subject of racism and some moments are too political. With that being said, this was a very smart deconstructing episode that literally changed the name of Token’s character to Tolkien. Stan’s racism was so funny here while Randy using Token’s dad to make a profit by being woke was perfectly in line with his character and those scenes were the funniest.

City People is actually the most emotionally complex and deepest episode here. Yes, in a show that usually refuses to down that route, it was wonderful seeing an emphasis on Cartman and his mom. She wants to find work, but he refuses to let her work. His obsession with his mother stems from him having nobody else and that was surprisingly touching to witness. But the episode is also very humorous with Cartman killing it in the real estate coming as no surprise to anybody. The real estate business was hilariously made fun of here and the episode’s depiction of migration to smaller towns is very timely.

Back to the Cold War thankfully wasn’t overly political, but actually a very funny take on the current Russia-Ukraine war. The final scene with Putin was ridiculous, which is why it worked. This was Mr. Mackey’s hour to shine and he did just that. His extreme paranoia and nostalgia made for a very entertaining, goofy episode.

Help, My Teenager Hates Me! is actually the weakest episode of this bunch. It is sweet in the emphasis on the boys’ friendship and it does get teenagers’ behavior right, but it is a one-joke, one-note story that gets repetitive pretty quickly.

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Credigree Weed St. Patrick’s Day Special ended the season on a very high note. It is both a great commentary on current issues and a genuinely funny episode at the same time like all the best SP episodes are. Randy’s feud with Token’s father continues here in hilarious fashion and his speeches about this holiday were hilarious. It’s a classically structured two-character, two-storyline episode that connects them together very well. Butters is fantastic here and the episode cleverly mocks people’s sudden panic at the idea of even being slightly touched by anybody. Everything is sexual harassment now and the creators cleverly acknowledged that.