Starring Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Tom Cruise in a closet
Written By: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Directed By: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Studio: Paramount
Buy on Amazon.com link

South Park is back with another season that had people talking about the show. Mainly because of the infamous Tom Cruise in a Closet episode that Comedy Central pulled from rotation for awhile (or at least that’s how I remember it?). Besides that episode, there’s still a lot of funny & great episodes among the bunch. But you can also sense that this season wasn’t as strong as Season 8. Either way, South Park is still one of the funniest series on TV today.

South Park Season 9 starts off with Mr Garrison getting a sex change because he wants to carry a baby. Of course that bites him in the ass because he can’t have children even after the operation. Meanwhile, plastic surgery operations go off into weird directions when Kyle stinks at basketball and wants to be turned into a big black kid. Even weirder and funnier, is Kyle’s father turns into a dolphin human. Other notable storylines this season include Cartman finally killing hippies, Kenny helps Heaven beat Hell in the ultimate battle of Good versus Evil, Stan’s drunken father gets into fights at the kids baseball games, everyone ignores Cartman and he thinks he’s dead, and Stan takes a Scientology exam and everyone thinks he’s the reincarnated version of L. Ron Hubbard. Then Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and R. Kelly won’t come out of the closet!

Before each South Park season, the writers of the show go on writing retreats and come up with ideas for the show. Matt Stone said in one of the commentaries that this season he wanted to pull a Dave Chappelle because the pressure was on to make another great season. They didn’t think some of the episode ideas were that great and it kind of shows in some of the episodes. Although there’s still plenty of decent episodes this season, it’s just not as good as other seasons. I know I didn’t watch all of this season on TV because either I forgot or just lost interest this season. But thankfully on DVD I enjoyed the episodes more.

I think the top three episodes this season have to be “Best Friends Forever,” “Die Hippie Die” and “Trapped in a Closet.” I think having Cartman be the genius of coming up with the idea to kill all the hippies was great. They make this machine to kill them, and it’s similar to something from the movie The Core. I think Trey & Matt had a good point about hippies wanting to change things and make a difference, yet they just want to smoke pot at concerts and listen to bad music. I thought the Lord of the Rings spoof in the Best Friends Forever episode was hilarious. At the same time, the writers had something to say because it was all about the Terri Schiavo incident. I for one, wouldn’t want to be a vegetable and not have myself plastered all over the news. That’s what’s great about South Park, they have something good to say but at the same time they entertain you as well. The Scientology episode was great because it pissed off Scientologists and Tom Cruise. But sadly, that episode was the last straw for Issac Hayes since he believes in that hokey religion. So he ended up leaving the show after that episode and it’s kind of surprising because how many people the show had offended in the past. Chef has a final farewell in Season 10, and it’s quite hilarious on how it goes out.

Like all other South Park DVD sets, there’s mini-commentary with Matt & Trey. I always have to hear what they say about the episodes but sometimes I get disappointed that they don’t go into things deeper. They didn’t really talk about the Tom Cruise that much since they said they have talked about it way too much already. That’s kind of the problem when they do commentaries because things that were controversial at the time, aren’t then and then they don’t really go into it anymore. But whatever, the commentaries are still funny and I enjoy listening to them. This season is funny but could have been stronger in some episodes. I still think it’s funnier than season 7 but if you liked these episodes, then get it on DVD.

Features:
Mini-Commentaries by the Creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC

Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina, Die Hippie Die, Best Friends Forever, Losing Edge, Death of Eric Cartmen, Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow, Trapped in the Closet
Rating: NR
Running Time: 308 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: