South Park: The Ungroundable
By fred | November 20, 2008
(S12E14) Well, this sucks. We’re not even in December, but already this was the last episode of South Park we’ll get in a while, not because the show goes on a break but because this was the season finale. Now we have to wait for months before next season, which should premiere sometime in April or May 2009. In the mean time, when looking back at this season, we’ll have plenty of stuff to laugh about.
It was a pretty good season, sometimes episodes weren’t that good but we’ve also had some awesome ones. While it’s possible that, this being the season finale, I was really expecting/hoping for a really great episode, I have to say I was disappointed this week. This episode wasn’t that bad, but it really was not great per se.
I’ve always been a fan of Butters, he’s a great character, but it’s not the first time I feel that too much of Butters kills it, he’s better in small doses and, more importantly, when interacting with others characters. That being said, I loved how he of course took the whole vampire thing very seriously, how scared he was during the “Big Texas Butters Show” incident, and how once transformed he kept hissing at everyone – very funny stuff.
Sadly though, this episode was really not that good, and while as I was watching I liked to see the Goth kids react to everything, and seeing them dressed up in Gap clothes was surely great, but all along and despite Butters best effort I wasn’t laughing. Maybe it’s because I don’t know nothing about Twilight and missed references, but this all felt relatively flat and predictable to me. More importantly, not really funny.
Of course, seeing Butters – certain he’s a vampire – sneaking into Cartman’s bedroom and trying to suck his blood, only to have Cartman to explain his mother that Butters he’s gay and very much attracted to him, and puked on the floor due to his sexual confusion, was priceless. But all along I kept waiting for something to happen, to break away from the safety zone this episode seemed to be and go into crazy territory, to get really out there, or at least funny.
Alas, it didn’t happen per se, and while some things did work — loved the opening scene with all kids playing some Call Of Duty-like online throwing flames at Japs, since they’re everywhere, while the adult was trying to understand how to deal with computer, or the “scorn online porn” poster in the back; or Butters’ dad yelling at his son, “What keeps a family together, Butters? A well organized pantry!” — they were too few to make this a good episode.
It’s sad that, for its last episode of the season, South Park didn’t managed to get out a really good episode. I wish they had kept this Twilight/vampire-centric episode for next season or something, and instead ended with an episode involving the kids. Or you know, just air this one last week and last week’s as season finale, because at least things would have ended on a high note per se.
Am I wrong ? How did you feel about this episode ? Which butters did you prefer, the radio host or the vampire kid ? And why is Hamburger Helper in my glass of milk !!?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: South Park
