South Park
Our Review
Still the sharpest satire on television after 25 plus years, which is almost impossible. South Park’s superpower is speed: a six day production cycle that lets an episode about Tuesday’s news air that same week, and a willingness to attack every side that keeps it from ever becoming the establishment it mocks.
The classic advice holds: anywhere is a fine entry point because episodes stand alone, but the all time runs are seasons 6 to 12, when the balance of character comedy and cultural takedown was at its peak. The newer seasons are serialized in stretches (the member berries and PC Principal eras) and genuinely ambitious, just different.
It is crude, it is mean, and it is smarter than 95 percent of prestige TV. Start with Scott Tenorman Must Die and go from there.
Our take: 9/10. The last satire standing.
