Denmark declares war on Col-uh-reedo.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
All the pieces are falling into place as South Park's twentieth season moves towards its big climax. This week's episode might just be the best of the season so far. It continued to build on various ongoing plot threads while finally making Cartman a more active and amusing participant for a change.
And not a moment too soon. The Cartman/Heidi subplot has easily been the weakest element of the season, mainly hinging on Cartman's played out "Women are funny" shtick and the saccharine sweet nature of their romance. It's an odd status quo for a character who's so often the driving force of the show, or its main villain, or both. But finally, Cartman was shaken out of his post-Twitter bliss by the realization that he stands to lose as much as anyone when the Danish expose the world's online trolls. I think the episode could have found a funnier moment to flash back to than Cartman's surprisingly tame takedown of the Ghostbusters reboot, but no doubt he has far worse skeletons in his closet just waiting for Heidi to discover.
The glimpses into Cartman's mind were much more entertaining, thankfully. With no Internet to distract him, Cartman is now living in a mental fantasy land on Mars, complete with neon-lit roller coasters and vagina-shaped space pods as far as the eye can see. But as reality crept in, suddenly Cartman found himself playing the role of Matt Damon in The Martian. The Mars scenes were completely random, but that was half the fun. And they did serve to illustrate that Cartman hasn't quite buried his old, selfish personality after unplugging and joining forces with Heidi.
It's pretty impressive how well Trey Parker and Matt Stone have tied their various threads together over the past two months. Gerald's online trolling, the situation in Denmark, Mr. Garrison's struggling campaign and the rise of the Member Berries all dovetailed this week as a few good men like Randy worked to prevent a nostalgia-fueled apocalypse from overtaking the globe on Election Day. It's probably safe to say, given the emphasis on that ticking clock, that the November 9 episode will serve as the grand climax of this ongoing storyline. It would be appropriate timing. And that would still leave two more episodes for Parker and Stone to play with. Maybe there's still a chance to get a couple traditional, standalone chapters this year.
"Oh, geeeez...."
As the trolling/hacking conflict intensifies, it's clear that the show is directing its attention more towards recent hacking-related scandals, with Denmark filing in for both Russia and WikiLeaks. This episode offered a disturbing yet hilarious taste of what threat Denmark poses to the US way of life, with the entire city of Fort Collins descending into chaos once its citizens' online activity was leaked. And now Gerald's troll ring is down one member. Farewell, MLKKK.
This episode also delivered a poignant little subplot as Gerald resisted the friendly overtures of Dildo Schwaggins. It's both amusing and a little sad that Gerald seems so ignorant of the consequences of his actions and oblivious to the fact that his fellow trolls aren't just "doing it for the lolz." Gerald and Dildo represent two very different views of what online trolls are actually like in real life. This episode made a strong point when Dildo pointed out that at least he has his reasons for devoting his life to terrorizing others online. There's something far more pitiful and evil about a man who has everything and yet still spends his free time being a jerk on the Internet.
But probably this episode's biggest strength was its focus on the Member Berries. These cute yet sinister fruits have essentially become characters unto themselves now. It was pretty great watching Randy decked out in his lab coat and torturing the little buggers, only to realize that Member Berries can't be destroyed by any weapon known to man. And now a small group of them have set out on their own , resulting in an amusing road trip scene. As far as villains go, the Member Berries already rank pretty high on the South Park list, and it should be interesting to see what mischief these wayward berries have in mind. Everything seems to be going to according to JJ Abrams' master plan.
The Verdict
South Park's 20th Season keeps getting weirder and more entertaining with every new episode. This week added new drama to the growing Denmark conflict and finally brought Cartman back into the spotlight. But none of the show's regular cast could compete with the Member Berries, who are now emerging as some of the best South Park villains in recent memory.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire