South Park episode: You're Getting Old

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takenoko
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South Park episode: You're Getting Old

Post by takenoko »

Every once in a while, South Park holds up this enchanted mirror that reveals the ugly nature of reality for the hideous beast that it really is. And this was one of those episodes.

Sure, it started off simple enough. Stan is getting old, poop jokes galore. Randy? He's doing more dumb shit stuff. Same old, same old.

But as Stan sat in the doctor's office, and you begin to understand what's happening, you go, "Oh my God, that's happened to me." Then poop comes out of the doctor's mouth and you laugh.

The truth is, I can't count the number of times I've felt the way Stan did. "All action movies suck. My friends are idiots. Everything's kind of lame. Etc etc." At the same time, don't we all know someone who's become an unbearable person to be around, because they're just no fun and spend all their time complaining?

The other big highlight was the revelation with Randy. Randy Marsh, he's just someone you want to punch in the face, any time he says or does anything ever. But when he's arguing with his wife and he goes "Oh, I'm just not happy!" you kind of go "Huh..." So the guy's just acting out? That seems kind of reasonable. Plus I liked the use of their marriage as a way of criticizing their own show for being stale and repetitive.

So what do you do with a show that's become formulaic, having something wacky and then resetting everything before the next week?

Changes. I really liked that the ending was kind of depressing. A kid going through divorce, losing his friends. A lot of shows fix a stale show by adding a baby plot or a a new character. What South Park did with its fundamental shakeup of a main character changing his personality, his family changing, his friends forming friendships of their own, that's a major reworking of all the character relationships. It might be interesting to see what next season's stories will be like with this new base set. Also, goodbye Randy!
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Re: South Park episode: You're Getting Old

Post by Catastrophe »

I can't see that being permanant, Randy is kind of a breakout character, despite the fact he is a moron.

South Park does have some good humdingers like this, just if the message gets a across or not depends on whos watching it.
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Re: South Park episode: You're Getting Old

Post by Arigomi »

The permanent loss of a character in a show can be a very tricky situation. It really depends on how important the character is to the show overall. If nobody cares about the character, then it is an opportunity to explore different aspects of the main cast. Change in shows based around social commentary don't work very often because the focus shifts from the plot to the characters.

When Topher Grace left That 70s Show to work on his movie career, the show fell apart. The show was built around Eric Foreman and his friends hanging out in the basement at his house. Things only got worse when the writers introduced a new character.

If the changes are permanent, it could be a sign that South Park is preparing to end.
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