Gone are the days when “South Park” and Comedy Central put out a full season every year, but the show has also undoubtedly evolved and grown sweeter in it’s old age. After an extended wait however, season 27’s premiere was pushed back, which disappointed longtime fans and diehards. The reason for the delay was due to an overarching deal where Paramount (who owns “South Park”) would be acquired by Skydance Media, but Paramount had already made a deal with “South Park” creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Before the deal was complete, the soon to be owners of Paramount basically negated the upcoming agreement that Parker & Stone had struck with the network – for a reported 3 billion dollars over 10 years.
As Comic-Con opened, the companies finally came to a 5 year, 1.5 billion dollar agreement for 50 more episodes of “South Park”. The negotiations were finally over, while Parker and Stone got the premiere episode ready for the network, with zero F’s about any type of censorship worries from Skydance, Paramount or anyone else trying to control their artistic vision. The episode itself was very politically charged, but also relentless in it’s humor and portrayal of weakness on all sides of the political spectrum. Warning, beyond this point there are spoilers for the “South Park” season 27 premiere.
…[Creators] Parker and Stone got the premiere episode ready for the network, with zero F’s about any type of censorship worries from Skydance, Paramount or anyone else trying to control their artistic vision.”
The season premiere was able to attract nearly 6 million viewers in the first three days, a sharp increase from the 484,000 viewers that tuned in for the season 26 premiere although to be fair, this is the first time the series had a next day streaming deal at Paramount+. The episode itself was intent on bringing back some of the classics, including Saddam Hussein’s character, who’s essence has now been transferred over to President Trump. In a surprise turn, Cartman is devastated about wokeness being dead to the point that he no longer wants to be alive and decides to rope Butters into his scheme…which is not a surprise at all. Kenny was markedly silent during the episode along with the rest of the core kids, but the Trump scenes with Satan and in general seemingly ate up a lot of screen time.
Objectively, is this the best episode of “South Park” in a long time? Personally for the BR team, this episode was somewhere in the middle of the road, but far from the worse. The gimmick of this episode is the relevance of the subject matter which is affecting most Americans today. The flip-flop from PC Principal and Jesus definitely came out of left field, but at the end of the day, it’s unclear how long their characters will stay this way.
The premiere episode sparked immediate controversy online as conservatives claim that the show has gotten too political, but longtime fans pointed out that the show has made fun of everyone on the political spectrum…and pretty much every other spectrum there is. The show has relentlessly hammered liberals, conservatives and every religion imaginable so it’s hard to understand where the criticism really comes from. The White House commented on the premiere the next day, calling the series a “fourth rate show” and questioning it’s relevance. If the office on the most powerful person on the planet comments on it, how irrelevant is the series?
All politics aside, the episode was a solid entry in the franchise and a good return to form after an extended break. Going into their 5 year 50 episode deal, our minds drift to what else Parker and Stone have in store for us. Will “South Park” continue to antagonize the President? Will the town paying off the President’s lawsuit create conflicts for other episodes?
The Pro-Trump messaging requirement was a strange way to end the episode and we wonder if we’ll get more of those weird commercials through the season or if the creators feel their message was received and it’s time to move on.
Update: since publishing: No new episode of “South Park” will air the week of August 30th, but the show will return August 6th with another new episode.
What do you think? Did you watch the “South Park” season 27 premiere? Can the team piss off anyone else at this point? What’s next in store for Butters? Is Jesus starting an underground resistance? Will Mr. Hanky be chiming in at Christmas time? What other old characters might return? Could Darth Chef finally be coming back?
Did you see the premiere episodes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
