Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

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

What better way to head on down to South Park than on Blu-ray?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 12, 2013

Toilet time is the last bastion of American freedom.

South Park is the only show on television that can get away with doing the same thing episode after episode and still feel fresh. Sure the story specifics change from week to week -- sometimes literally "as the world turns" -- but at its core the program remains about the world as seen through the eyes of a handful of Colorado mountain town boys. Through that perspective, series Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker poke fun at popular culture and politics, often meshing the two with crude humor and bad language to incredibly intelligent result. It's TV's only program that can be so smart even when it's so foul, so enticing even when it sinks to the level of shameless toilet humor, so watchable even when it becomes about as revolting as a cartoon can be. Indeed, never has a program so seemingly devoid of morals and standards or even any sort of artistic value -- physical or emotional -- so intelligently captured the true essence of the modern world in a way that's accessible, relevant, smart, and timeless all in a single 22-minute episode, episode after episode, year after year, and soon, decade after decade.

Truckin'.

Season sixteen doesn't stray from series norm. This is South Park at its biting best, a hodgepodge of the satirical, the lyrical, and the unbelievable. The show once again shows no boundaries, daring to take on anyone and anything so long as the end result is both humorous and, usually, in some way socially relevant. The season literally blends cutting social commentary with toilet humor in "Reverse Cowgirl." It pokes fun at social responsibility and the balance with making money in the Bully-influenced "Butterballs." It derides the loss of mainlines and the rise of political correctness embodied in the "wussification" of football and sports in "Sarcastaball." It examines the fine line between valid concern and conspiratorial obsession in "Insecurity," and it even has some fun with the 2012 Presidential election in "Faith Hilling" and "Obama Wins!" What makes these -- and almost all -- of the episodes so spectacular is that they really do explore the essence of the issue and not simply mock or mimic its superficial qualities, which is what sets South Park apart from the ridiculously vapid Parody films of the past decade. It's not enough to simply acknowledge a cultural flaw, characteristic, or trend; entertainment must actually poke fun at it in some context that exposes it for what it is. That's where South Park shines, and here's hoping Matt and Trey never lose their touch, because nothing comes close to their show's ability to so creatively and entertainingly critique the world in which South Park exists.

Highlight episodes include:

• Reverse Cowgirl: Clyde's mother fears falling in the toilet and admonishes her son for leaving seat up. She even comes to school to punish him, embarrassing him before his friends, which for Clyde is worse than Cartman doing the same thing. She's taking it far too seriously, it seems, but it turns out her fears are not unwarranted. One night, she's sucked in. The process slowly pulls out her innards and ultimately kills her. The event pits the men against the women of South Park in the war of the toilet seat, but worse, the "TSA" begins to inspect every toilet in town and modify them to meet Federal safety guidelines. Meanwhile, the boys search for someone to sue over the matter.
• Cash for Gold: Stan's grandfather decides its time for his grandson to own something pricey. He purchases him a Bolo tie from a television home shopping network. Stan isn't impressed and chooses to sell the gift for cash. Unfortunately, all of the cash-for-gold shops offer an insulting sum for the piece. While Stan laments the world of television home shopping rip-offs and vows to put an end to the scam, Cartman sees an opportunity to get in on the action and pitch cheap jewelry for big money.
• Faith Hilling: Stan and friends pull off a scheme to "Faith Hill" at a Republican Presidential debate and get in on the action of a hot new Internet meme in the style of "Planking" and "Tebowing." The boys are thereafter warned about the dangers of Internet memes in school but ignore the warnings. When they learn that "Faith Hilling" is dated and "Taylor Swifting" is the new in-thing, their opinions split and their friendship falls into jeopardy. Meanwhile, their anti-meme educator is tasked with learning why cats are now creating their own memes on the Internet.
• I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining: Boredom on the final day of spring break has finally reached its limit. The boys decide to kill off their final hours by taking a zip line adventure. What they believe will be a quick adrenaline rush turns into something else entirely: an afternoon of tedium the likes of which they have never experienced before. They're forced to wait, wait some more, watch a safety video, take a long shuttle ride with strangers, and learn about native flora. Then, to make matters worse, the zip line itself isn't all that it's cracked up to be. And they're scheduled to zip on more than a dozen. This is their story as told in the style of reality television.
• Sarcastaball: Football is a dangerous game. Players are suffering from concussions at an alarming rate, and despite the NFL's best efforts the problem is only worsening. When Randy Marsh learns that Stan's elementary school football team no longer performs kickoffs for safety concerns, he explodes and demands a safer sport in an obviously sarcastic manner. Unfortunately, his "demands" are taken seriously and he is offered to coach the new "Sarcastaball" team. The players wear bras and tinfoil hats as they play with a balloon ball and score by being polite to their opponents.
• Raising the Bar: Cartman may be overweight, but he's not yet as huge as some of the patrons at the local "Wall*Mart" who require a scooter to get around the store. Seeing so many overweight people makes him reconsider who he is. He admits he's fat, admits he's been living in denial, and wants to do something about it. But he uses his weight problem and these new revelations not to get fit but instead to get his own mobility scooter and enjoy the shameless world of the electronically mobile obese. He demands the world adapt to his "disability" despite the high cost to taxpayers. In response, filmmaker James Cameron travels deep under the ocean to "raise the bar" and elevate humanity above this crisis.
• A Nightmare on FaceTime: Randy Marsh announcers to his family that he's the new owner of the local Blockbuster Video store, purchased for only $10,000. Randy thinks it's easy money but finds he owns a decrepit store. Unfortunately, only he believes the physical rental business to still be viable; the rest of the family understands that progress has made the video store all but irrelevant. He has no customers, but he does begin to lose his mind and see ghosts in a tale reminiscent of The Shining.
• Obama Wins!: It's election day in the United States, and Cartman is voting in his own way. He's flying around the country and pretending to be the lost child of a voter, but to what end? The next day, it's announced that Obama has won, but Cartman calls Kyle and tells him he's in possession of thousands of votes from swing states that could alter the results of the election. Kyle isn't happy and sets out to expose the truth. Meanwhile, it's revealed that the Chinese have clandestinely aided Obama in his successful re-election bid, and their motives are far, far away from the purely political.

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

South Park: The Complete Sixteenth Season looks pretty much like all the other seasons on Blu-ray. Considering the show isn't one to visually evolve all that much over the years, that's not a surprise. As a rule, the transfer delivers brilliant, albeit basic, colors. Reds, greens, yellows, and blues absolutely sparkle. The image is also very crisp and well defined, despite a handful of very infrequent jagged edges. Largely, lines are clear and even, and the transfer picks up all of the nuanced textures that give it that construction paper feel, particularly seen across walls and clothes. Light banding appears in a few shots, but never to any sort of severely distracting level. There are some live action shots in a lengthy stretch of "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining" that shows young adult human version of the boys on a boat. The image, here, isn't particularly brilliant. It's midlevel HD video, lacking the superior crispness, definition, and color seen on better transfers. Overall, however, the animation is what really matters, and aside from a few brief bugaboos, it looks fantastic.

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

Much like the video, South Park: The Complete Sixteenth Season's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless audio remains, more or less, the same basic experience from all of the other Blu-ray releases. The opening music enjoys superb stage presence, with wide fronts, smooth surround support, and deep bass. The season is full of some unique sound effects, including light ambience and aggressive action elements alike. Everything from pleasing and lightly immersive elevator music heard in "Cash for Gold" and some fine ghostly dialogue reverberation at the end of "Reverse Cowgirl" come through very well. General music and dialogue both pay smoothly and effortlessly from a wide front for the former and a focus in the middle for the latter. There's nothing remarkable or memorable here, but every element comes through evenly and accurately in every episode.

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

South Park: The Complete Sixteenth Season contains deleted scenes on disc one and mini commentary tracks on each episode.

• Audio Commentaries: Matt Parker and Trey Stone again offer their famous "mini commentaries" for all episodes. The series Creators discuss each episode for a few minutes at episode start.
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 4:16): Scenes from "Reverse Cowgirl," "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining," "Sarcastaball," and "Going Native."

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

It's more of the same, but that's exactly as it should be. South Park: The Complete Sixteenth Season delivers hearty laughs and endless social and political commentary disguised as, literally in one episode, toilet humor. Only Matt Stone and Trey Parker's show could so expertly ravage the nanny state, the sad state of professional football, Internet memes, the decline of the video rental store, and the rise of foreign influence in even the most trivial matters with such precision. It's as deliciously entertaining as it is timely and timeless both. Sure it's not for the kids, but adults who can compartmentalize the crudeness and appreciate the high level of intelligence and sophistication underneath will be hard-pressed to find a better social commentary anywhere in media. Paramount/Comedy Central's Blu-ray release of South Park: The Complete Sixteenth Season features high end video and audio. Supplements are average for a South Park release. Very highly recommended.