22x03 The Problem with a Poo

[5.3/10] Sigh. I know not everyone loved South Park’s adventures in serialization, but it felt like that focused the show and gave it a clearer focus. This season has been ok so far, but still guilty of the stagnation that plagued the show prior to the inadvertent continuity bit got started in earnest.

This is another episode that is offering commentary -- about public disgraces and public shaming, about PC culture, about the cost of standing by people in the face of controversy -- but it comes off totally muddled, with no real point or corresponding complexity. There’s a chance to make hay of the issues surrounding Rosanne or Apu or disgraced public figures or all stripes, but South Park doesn't really do that, just kind of aimlessly riffing on them instead.

There’s some fatalism point it seems to be making, that we both banish people who’ve brought us joy without remembering the good things they’ve brought us, while at the same time acknowledging, that it sucks when public figures taint the good things they’ve done. And there’s some commentary about how people who stand by their disgraced friends become disgraced themselves. (Maybe aimed at Norm MacDonald?) But it’s all very nebulous, and never really seems to land anywhere, other than on a pretty weak jab at The Simpsons, which feels like a “we don’t know how to end this one” ending.

The B-plot, with Strong Woman turning out to be pregnant with PC Principal’s children is mild but mostly enjoyable. The whole idea of the PC babies getting annoyed by insensitivity and cooed by social justice was a good running gag. But it too felt like it was a story grasping for a point and never really finding it.

Overall, there’s been a disappointing trajectory to this new season so far, where one of our sharpest cultural critical voices feels diminished, but maybe Matt and Trey will be able to turn things around soon.