Disc of the Week (4/26/11)

I’ll be honest with you, reader. I haven’t got much of anything for you this week. Sure movies like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Blow Out are getting Criterion Blu-ray releases. The problem is that—and I will lose credibility here—I haven’t seen either of those movies yet. So, while I get on that, how about you check out the fourteenth season of South Park? Yes? No? Maybe?

Sure, the show no longer has the kick of its older says, but each show is always good for a laugh or two. In fact, season 14 has a few pretty awesome episodes that are more than worthwhile. The season premiere, “Sexual Healing,” is a pretty solid spoof of the Tiger Woods scandal, while “You Have 0 Friends” takes an interesting, Tron-esque look at the Facebook phenomenon. (A few years late, to be sure. But I laughed.) Other high points include the Inception spoof “Insheeption” and the chaotically awesome “It’s a Jersey Thing.”

Despite all this, season 14 will most be remembered for the 200^th episode debacle that came midseason. While both episodes are pretty funny, they seem to only be notable for the fact that the show had to censor their animated version of the prophet Mohammed, as well as bleep any and all mentions of him. Ever since the episode aired, it has been unavailable for streaming on the South Park website. Only now, with the DVD release, is it seeing the light of day again.

Season 14 probably isn’t the weakest season of South Park, but even its best episodes fail to hit the highs that have come before. The season was at its worst toward the end, when the creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to devote three entire episodes to a relatively lame storyline about The Coon: Eric Cartman’s secret identity. Ignore that whole debacle and you’ll be able to enjoy yourself.