South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review

The things that make South Park tick are not just the funny and familiar characters but also the show’s willingness to run with current events and find the humor -- and the truth -- in today’s crazy, to be kind, world. The show’s 22nd season is not a masterwork by any stretch of the imagination but it’s a quality, comfortable outing that explores some uncomfortable topics like the desensitization to school shootings. Season highlights include legal weed in Colorado (wasn’t that a boon for the show), a return of Al Gore and “ManBearPig,” Mr. Hankey and Towelie sightings, and a season finale two-parter focused on Amazon coming to South Park, complete with Jeff Bezos appearing as if one of the telepathic aliens from Star Trek’s long-unaired pilot episode “The Cage.” The season follows more Cartman exploits, particularly when he uses an anxiety diagnosis to his benefit, and there are several humorous moments with PC Principal and Vice Principal Strong Woman and their PC babies.

• Dead Kids: There is a school shooting at South Park Elementary. The parents are confused by Sharon's overreaction and Randy is desperate to help his wife get her emotions under control.
• A Boy and a Priest: Father Maxi is upset when the backlash over the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandals makes it into his weekly service. Butters feels sorry for Maxi and reaches out. A very special relationship develops between Butters and the Priest. One day, when the town finds the church doors locked and no sign of the pair, they call in the Catholic Church hierarchy.
• The Problem with a Poo: Mr. Hanky is overseeing South Park's Christmas pageant, but he puts his job in jeopardy by posting a series of offensive tweets while on Ambien. Meanwhile, PC Principal and Vice Principal Strong Woman deal with the aftermath of their affair -- PC babies.
• Tegridy Farms: Randy moves his family out to the country to start a new life on the farm. With a little help from Towelie, Randy's weed is poised to make a huge splash in the legal marijuana market. Meanwhile, Kyle tries to protect Ike when the vaping craze hits South Park Elementary.
• The Scoots: It's every boy and girl for themselves this Halloween when the kids head out for tricks or treats. This year, e-scooters - a revolution in mobility - is changing the holiday for everyone. Chaos erupts as every kid is out to get more candy than they have ever gotten before. Mr. Mackey and Kenny team up to stop the madness and save what's best about Halloween.

• Time to Get Cereal: ManBearPig returns and starts killing the residents of South Park. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny turn to the only man who might be able to put an end to its reign of terror.
• Nobody Got Cereal?: ManBearPig continues to lay waste to South Park but the townspeople are all too busy playing "Red Dead Redemption 2" to do anything about it. Meanwhile, Stan learns that his grandfather is partly responsible for ManBearPig's presence on Earth.
• Buddha Box: Cartman is diagnosed with anxiety. Working the diagnosis to his advantage, he uses it as an excuse to do absolutely anything he wants. Meanwhile, when PC Principal and Vice Principal Strong Woman lose track of their children, the PC babies end up becoming international pop sensations.
• Unfulfilled: The citizens of South Park are enjoying all the perks of being a company town when the Amazon fulfillment center moves in. Everything seems to be going fine until an accident at the facility and the contradictions inherent in capitalism threaten to bring down the entire system.
• Bike Parade: Amazon's CEO continues his efforts to crush the strike at the Amazon fulfillment center while the boys prepare for the annual bike parade. Meanwhile, Randy and Towelie's weed business grows in some unexpected ways as everyone in town tries to cope with the stress of not getting their Christmas packages delivered.

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

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season continues the long line of visually similar, familiar, and reliably strong 1080p Blu-ray images. This season offers nothing of note in terms of its core visual makeup, holding firm to that familiar construction paper aesthetic that is obvious in close-up. The Blu-ray manages the busy texturing nicely, offering a tactile feel along larger, single-colored surfaces like walls and floors. Lines are clean and well defined. Core character models are agreeably sharp and move seamlessly without any artifacts getting in the way. The image does reveal banding along some surfaces, but it's fairly rare and not particularly troublesome beyond a few moments of excess. Colors are vivid though, as always, but the show lacks color nuance. The Blu-ray carries the simplistic, but vibrant, reds, greens, blues, oranges, and other core colors with impressive depth and punch, all appearing exactly as they have for some time in the show and on Blu-ray. There's really nothing at all new here. The Blu-ray properly, efficiently, and accurately conveys the core model animations and color spectrums. Fans are going to get the show looking just about as good as the source and the format allow; that bugaboo banding is really the only major detractor at work.

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

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season features the series staple Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Gunfire pops across the front during the school shooting that kicks off the season, and the ten episodes offer a number of interesting and scene-complimentary effects that usually hold steady across the front but occasionally find a more rearward presence. The season is of typical sonic glee, with familiar musical refrains (including the always-aggressive opening theme music) as well as some more episode-specific musical elements finding good, grounded clarity and wide front end engagement. Overall sound design is nothing too involved; Parker and Stone and the team that puts the show together don't go out of their way to engineer the audio with any sort of stage-bending intensity but the core elements present nicely and usually along a wide front end. Minor support effects in locales such as the school are well-placed and nicely detailed and integrated. Dialogue, the show's audio core, presents with firm front-center positioning and natural clarity. The spoken word is always well prioritized.

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

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season conains "#Socialcommentary" and mini commentary for each episode. On-screen tweets shed some insight into each episode while Matt and Trey share a few brief comments about each episode. Disc one also features a collection of Deleted Scenes (1080p, 8:15 total runtime). There are scenes from "Dead Kids," "A Boy and a Priest," "The Problem with a Poo," "Time to Get Cereal," "Nobody Got Cereal?," and "Unfulfilled." Most are in a completed, or near completed, state. "Nobody Got Cereal?," appears in an early animation state.

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

South Park's 22nd season is about what one would expect it to be: ten episodes of socially, politically, and culturally aware insanity. There are some good episodes, one or two memorable ones, and a couple of less-than-stellar quality, but Parker and Stone continue to crank out season after season and maintain a consistent tone and level of quality and, most importantly, freshness. South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season's Blu-ray release delivers a basic South Park on Blu-ray experience: good video and audio and extras largely in the form of text and audio commentary tracks. Recommended.