21x10 Splatty Tomato

[6.3/10] Maybe I would have enjoyed this one more if I’d watched Stranger Things or the new IT. I’ve seen the original, and I know enough of the tropes to get it, but the kids going on the 80s aping adventure felt like flat reference humor without much of a point or perspective. I did, however, get a kick out of the kids realizing that wide swaths of 1980s music was awful.

The idea of Garrison-as-Trump hiding out so as to avoid retribution from the Canadians, while seeming like Pennywise, was pretty weak. And worse yet, the commentary here was on the nose and blunter than I like from South Park. I mostly agree with the show’s perspective, but a guy named Bob White, complaining about a War on Christmas, and yelling about Hillary would be worse despite Garrison’s misdeeds, and ranting about how they’ve “taken away everything else from the Whites” is just too ham-fisted as political satire goes.

The same goes for the finish of this one. South Park rarely goes uber-dramatic or emotional, and it’s not super-equipped for it. I can appreciate the theme of not wallowing in victimhood, something that provides an epiphany for Heidi, and a subtextual connection to the White family and Trump. But it’s too much, done with too much faux solemnity that the show tries to earn but can’t quite present in a compelling way.

Overall, it’s another disappointing season finale for South Park, in a down year for the show that has me missing the shot-in-the-arm that the effort toward more serialization provided.