South Park: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

South Park's fourth season sees the show settle into a comfortable routine of pop culture shenanigans, political commentary, character growth, and crude humor. The season comes packed with a number of episodes that are quintessential of the series experience, tackling issues such as overmedication and poor medical diagnoses, racism, handicaps, and various cultural controversies, such as one episode that explores the Confederate flag issue, replaced here, of course, by the South Park town flag that is very overtly racist rather, as some would rightly or wrongly argue with the Confederate banner, suggestive of it. Add infant camp, Helen Keller, Charles Dickens, and a return of Mr. Hankey, and it's as diverse as it is crass. Nearly every episode goes above and beyond to be as crude and crass as possible. Parker and Stone certainly know their way around the show at this point, and there's a confidence of character, style, and language that permeates every minute of all 17 season four episodes.

• The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000: When Cartman gets two whole dollars for a tooth, he attempts to talk the boys into pulling teeth to build up enough money for a Sega Dreamcast game console. Cartman finds more and more teeth to put under his pillow, but when his mom tells him the truth after running out of money, he and his friends are devastated. They hatch a plan to con parents of local rich kids to acquire more money for their game console.
• Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000: Cartman earns himself two weeks in detention after hitting Token with a rock. But that’s not enough punishment for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He’s charged with a federal hate crime, put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to juvenile dentition until his 21st birthday. Meanwhile, the boys try to figure out how to win a sledding contest against the girls without their secret weapon, the incarcerated Cartman.
• Timmy 2000: Timmy is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. When the boys learn that Timmy is excused from homework following the diagnosis, they all con their way into receiving the same diagnosis. They are prescribed Ritalin and begin to feel the effects. Timmy finds himself the center of attention after joining as local Rock group, but one man -- Phil Collins -- is not happy about his success.
• Quintuplets 2000: The boys find themselves initially bored by a circus act but ultimately enthralled by a group of little Romanian contortionists. Turns out they are on the run and find themselves holed up in Stan’s house. The boys have hopes of using them in their own show which they are putting together in order to make some money.
• Cartman Joins NAMBLA: Cartman decides he has outgrown his friends and turns to the World Wide Web to make some new ones. He receives a ton of attention when he announces that he’s a young boy looking for older men for companionship. Little does he know that they’re online predators. Several are arrested, and activists from NAMBLA -- The North American Man Boy Love Association -- come to advocate for their rights.
• Cherokee Hair Tampons: Kyle is super sick and he’s scheduled for surgery. Prior to going under the knife, his parents attempt to heal him naturally and holistically. Meanwhile, a recently released Mr. Garrison turns to writing as an outlet to rediscover himself.
• Chef Goes Nanners: Chef takes a stand against the town’s flag, which depicts a black man being hung by several white individuals. Jimbo and Ned stand up for it, claiming it honors the town’s history and heritage rather than promote racism. Chef attempts to create a protest coalition but is having trouble gaining any traction around town. Meanwhile, Cartman curiously joins Wendy in a school debate against the flag.
• Something You Can Do with Your Finger: The boys, spurred on by Cartman, form their own boy band, hoping to make millions. There’s only one catch: they need a fifth member and wind up with Wendy. Mr. Marsh is repulsed by the idea; he was once in a boy band, and the experience scarred him for life.
• Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?: Saddam Hussein shows up in hell to try and win Satan back, who is currently in a relationship with a man named Chris. After a fire-and-brimstone service, the boys attend Sunday School in order to avoid eternal damnation. However, they find the process -- communion, confession -- a bit more difficult than they imagined.

• Probably: Concluding the previous episode, Cartman preaches to the townsfolk. Meanwhile, Satan finds himself depressed and confused in hell.
• 4th Grade: The boys graduate to fourth grade and discover that their new teacher is none other than Miss Choksondik, a saggy but hard-edged educator who makes the boys miss their old teacher, Mr. Garrison. The boys, with the help of a few local Sci-Fi nerds, concoct a scheme to time travel back to the previous year.
• Trapper Keeper: Cartman one-ups everyone in school with the best trapper keeper on the market, but it's wanted by a time traveler from the future. Meanwhile, three-year-old Ike finds himself running for kindergarten classes president.
• Helen Keller! The Musical: The fourth grade class is forced to put on a Helen Keller musical but are encouraged to spice it up to compete with kindergarten's lavish production.
• Pip: Malcolm McDowell narrates a South Park retelling of Great Expectations.
• Fat Camp: Cartman is playing hooky and eating junk food while his classmates are dissecting manatees. Several adults appear for an intervention and send him to fat camp. Meanwhile, Kenny is paid to consume ever more grotesque things.
• The Wacky Molestation Adventure: The boys find a way to get to the town to themselves when they have their parents put in prison for molesting them.
• A Very Crappy Christmas: Ike grows concerned when Mr. Hankey doesn't appear for Christmas and Hanukkah. Turns out he's too busy with his family, and with the people not overly concerned with Christmas, it's up to the boys to return the Christmas spirit to South Park by making their own animated program.

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season's 1080p presentation has its struggles but trudges through well enough. The first two episodes set a disappointing tone. A steady barrage of jagged lines, noticeable particularly during movement -- heads, eyes -- are unmissable components of practically every scene. Such issues are not entirely consistent, with some episodes showing the problem with a notably more invasive push than others. It's been not an uncommon theme through the first handful of seasons on Blu-ray, and while distracting, the series' core animation excellence and bold colors still carry the day. Textural qualities are by-and-large excellent, offering impressive core image reproduction that captures the series' essential textural goodness with commanding ease. When not jagged, lines are clean and the overall image's stability and clarity see a major boost thanks to the 1080p muscle. Colors are South Park through-and-through, offering little in the way of nuance or wide ranging subtlety, but core blues, reds, oranges, greens, and all of the classic hues are presented in perfectly fine working order. The image has its ups and downs, but fortunately the former largely proves far more dominant than the latter.

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack delivers a fine, enjoyable, stable listen. Clarity is consistently strong, whether scene-commanding dialogue, the bass-heavy opening title music, or various support elements in school or around town. The track offers some decent surround usage and reverberations during the circus episode, and again when Kenny has a nightmare about having to take care of a new sibling in episode five. The track stretches when it can but is more or less a fairly straightforward, front-heavy, dialogue-propelled experience.

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season contains only the "mini commentaries" for each episode. Parker and Stone talk up the episodes in short-burst chunks.

South Park: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the best seasons? Certainly. South Park's fourth is packed with memorable episodes, introduces a few new dynamics and staple characters, and sees the show settle into a groove of not only humorous excellence but pointed and irreverent social and political commentary with a whole heaping helping of side-splitting crudity and laughter. South Park: The Complete Fourth Season features good but sometimes troubled video, stable and enjoyable audio, and the famous Parker and Stone "mini commentaries" representing the bonus content. Highly recommended.