[9.5/10] A definite classic. I love both parts of this episode, and how they weave together. The story of Joseph Smith is great, and has the chipper spirit of those olden times videos or scenes from history your third grade teacher might put on for you. It perfectly captured the same “gee whiz” tone and bouncy score, making good comic use of the “dum dum dums” of the half-singers/half-narrators.
But I love the part of the story set in South Park too. The “kill em with kindness” vibe of Gary and his family is delightful in how disarming it is to both Stan and, ultimately, Randy. Just seeing them be kind of baffled but eventually awed by this dorky but loving family is a great setup.
And I love where the show lands on this. I’m not a Mormon myself, but I’m sympathetic to the show’s notion that despite some hard-to-believe things in the story of Joseph Smith, the core teachings in the present have done a lot for people like Gary, and he values them independently of any literal truth of his prophet’s origin story. And some almost-as-unbelievable levels of kindness and camaraderie among the practitioners are the genuine fruits of the good life and family Gary gets to enjoy.
Overall, it’s a shockingly ecumenical and optimistic take from a show prone to taking the stuffing out of any institution near or far, replete with tons of laughs from beginning to end. One of the show’s all time great eps.
I like the Episode, but I wish they had shown the modus operandi of basically every cult a bit more on the nose, since the mormons seem more harmless than they actually are.
In the end they are made to look like just any other church.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-02-01T23:07:05Z
[9.5/10] A definite classic. I love both parts of this episode, and how they weave together. The story of Joseph Smith is great, and has the chipper spirit of those olden times videos or scenes from history your third grade teacher might put on for you. It perfectly captured the same “gee whiz” tone and bouncy score, making good comic use of the “dum dum dums” of the half-singers/half-narrators.
But I love the part of the story set in South Park too. The “kill em with kindness” vibe of Gary and his family is delightful in how disarming it is to both Stan and, ultimately, Randy. Just seeing them be kind of baffled but eventually awed by this dorky but loving family is a great setup.
And I love where the show lands on this. I’m not a Mormon myself, but I’m sympathetic to the show’s notion that despite some hard-to-believe things in the story of Joseph Smith, the core teachings in the present have done a lot for people like Gary, and he values them independently of any literal truth of his prophet’s origin story. And some almost-as-unbelievable levels of kindness and camaraderie among the practitioners are the genuine fruits of the good life and family Gary gets to enjoy.
Overall, it’s a shockingly ecumenical and optimistic take from a show prone to taking the stuffing out of any institution near or far, replete with tons of laughs from beginning to end. One of the show’s all time great eps.