The Seventh Season of South Park gives us the wonders of Casa Bonita and the lame Hooters rip-off Raisins, the music of Faith + 1, and the return of the visitors. The season also contains satires of the Metro-sexual fad, the tobacco industry, and the basis for the Mormon religion. The boys take a trip over the rainbow to Canada, the town celebrates the 100th episode, and more celebrities hit the sleepy town including Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeves. While not the best season there’s still plenty here to enjoy.
South Park – Season Seven
3 & 1/2 Stars
While not up to the level of Season Five (“Cripple Fight,” “Scott Tenorman Must Die”, “The Super Best Friends”) or Season Six (“Simpsons Already Did It,” “Red Hot Catholic Love,” “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers,” and “Free Hat.”) this season does have its moments including allowing Cartman to be Cartman – in all his glory.
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The series hits its stride when it does two things: satirizes something America (or the world) is taking too seriously and allows Cartman to be the evil little prick he is. This season does a little of both.
The set starts out with a remake of the visitor episode that involves a taco that craps ice-cream. Swing, and a miss. Then there’s the Christopher Reeve episode that includes cripple gangs, attacks Reeve for his support of stem cell research, and jokes about the issue by turning stem cell research into sucking fetus cells from their necks for super powers. Wow, swing and a big miss for the show here as all good taste is thrown out the window and more than a little macabre now after Reeves death. Let’s just say the beginning of Seventh Season is pretty crappy.
Then comes Cartman trying to kill Kyle with a wiffle bat and then the 100th episode of the series “I’m A Little Bit Country” where the town argues over how the founding fathers would view the war in Iraq and now (finally) we’ve got it going. Other really good episodes involve two Jennifer Lopez’s (the real one and the one on Cartman’s hand – guess which one Ben Affleck and the music studio prefer), Cartman doing whatever it takes to go to “Casa Bonita,” Cartman, Token, and Butters forming a Christian Rock group with songs like “Touch Me Jesus” and “Body of Christ” just to win a bet with Kyle (also includes a nice look at the “damage” Napster does to musicians), the retelling of Joseph Smith’s story – dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, and the show where the AARP invades the town.
Then again there’s also the episode attacking the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy popularity that’s quite good until it degenerates into crazy-wacko-funland-time that includes a plot to takeover the human race by the crab people. Along the same lines is the episode involving the takeover of the town by the Native Americans (including a plan to give the town blankets infected with SARS). Yeesh.
Season Seven is kind of a mixed bag. In the end the whole season doesn’t quite work but there are enough individual episodes to keep you entertained throughout the set. Still, when it’s funny it’s damn funny and well worth picking up. Fans of the show won’t be disappointed to add this to their collection.