21x05 Hummels & Heroin

[9.1/10] Count me as someone in favor of South Park’s serialization experiment over the prior three seasons, and who’s also enjoyed their topical takes on current events. But damn if this wasn’t the funniest and cleverest the show’s been in a long time, in an episode that feels like classic South Park.

Sure, there’s the patina of topicality with tying everything to the opioid crisis, but for the most part, this is just soom good old fashioned South Park insanity. Taking the old chestnut that most drug issues start in prison, and instead having everything run through a nursing home, is a delightful twist. Mapping the prison system of respect onto an old folks home setting paid immediate dividends, from the rap song back tracks to the “Top Bitch” throwing her weight around.

The B-story worked just as well, with the introduction of Marcus Preston, a determined young fourth grader who witnesses “Chuck E. Cheese” die of an overdose at his birthday party, leaving him deadset on finding what’s causing this. The conviction in Marcus’s voice and mission, contrasted with the ludicrousness of the lens he processes all of this through -- cartoon characters suffering from addiction -- makes for a wonderful comic marriage.

It also makes for a nice cat and mouse game between Marcus, who’s trying to get to the bottom of this problem, and Stan, who’s helping his grandfather get hummel figurines in exchange for crochet pillows to stay afloat in the nursing home pecking order and move product onto the streets. It leads to some amusing heist and prison riffs, and even Cartman’s little modern barber shop quarter is hilarious. I could do without the recurring “old lady farts” bit, but it’s in the DNA of the show and you just can’t deny it.

Overall, this is as pure an episode of South Park as we’ve had in a while, one that was less concerned with offering any particular commentary (though that’s certainly there too) and one more concerned with just telling a nicely insane little story. A big winner and one of the show’s best in a long time.