Here, when does South Park get good, like?

[alan nagsworth]

So in a bid to convince myself I've been missing out on the wonders of this show all these years, I am rewatching it from the very beginning. In the last month or so, I've reached season four. Now, I'm not saying it's bad at all, because it's certainly enjoyable enough with a few great laughs per episode, but... it is beginning to wear a little thin. When I'm steaming through three or four episodes in an evening, I'm gonna need some more consistency, as I'm finding myself getting a bit bored with it.

I need to know if it's viable for me to skip a few seasons until it gets good, which I'm told is around the season 8 mark? Similarly, if I were to do this, are there any big standout episodes in the skipped seasons I should be sure to watch beforehand? Important pivotal moments, classic episodes, huge tonal shifts and the like.

I don't want to miss out, and my friend said I should watch it all for the full experience, but based on the hit rate so far, I'm not convinced what he says is true.

Also the dated cultural and political messages in the early episodes as well as the occasional bro misogyny is pretty trying. I can't really tell if I'm too late to the game on this one.

Help meeee

[Clownbaby]

I've had the same thing with south Park for ages. Any episode I catch leaves me cold and I've really caught a lot of episodes

[DrGreggles]

If you've reached season 4 and you don't like it, then it's not for you.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I've recently rewatched a bunch of early episodes and, nostalgia aside, the first series was fairly weak. Series 2 was where I think it found its feet in terms of humour, then 3 was when it really started to lean into its satirical side. If you're not enjoying it by series 4 there's something wrong with you it might just not be your cup of tea.

[selectivememory]

One episode that has to be watched, because it's so important in the development of Cartman as a character (in the same way that "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System" is to Dennis in Always Sunny), is the season 5 episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". So if you are going to skip ahead a few seasons, be sure to watch that one.

Personally, I would have recommended starting at around season 4 or 5 anyway, although there are few duff episodes in there, but to my memory (it's been a while since I've rewatched them) it's around then when it starts going up a level.

[Captain Z]

One episode that has to be watched, because it's so important in the development of Cartman as a character (in the same way that "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System" is to Dennis in Always Sunny), is the season 5 episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". So if you are going to skip ahead a few seasons, be sure to watch that one.

Personally, I would have recommended starting at around season 4 or 5 anyway, although there are few duff episodes in there, but to my memory (it's been a while since I've rewatched them) it's around then when it starts going up a level.

That was the episode I was coming in to recommend - although I wonder if it's impact with fans is because of the way Cartman's stories are just slowly pushed into ever more sadistic realms if you'd been watching from the start.

Awesom-O (S8E5) would be next recommendation.

[c]

There was a point where South Park completely changed and - I'm sorry, this was a long time ago - but I remember reading an interview with Trey and Matt in which they were asked why there had been a sudden shift from the purely puerile to satire. The reply was that they had run out of ideas so were forced to start reading newspapers to find them - and that had changed everything.

I think this was around 2004/2005? 

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Having looked at the episode list, the satirical stuff really began in earnest some time after series 3. Underpants Gnomes in series 2 and Sexual Harassment Panda in series 3 were early examples of the sort of thing the show would go on to do, though.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I always considered seasons 5-8 a perfect run, with season 6 being a particular highlight. Of course, there's amazing stuff either side of that.

The film is amazing, one of my favourite comedies.

[the]

I had the same problem with South Park that I had with Family Guy, where I liked it when it started, it steadily improved towards a really solid third series, but then turned to crud around series four/five. (Admittedly there were more acute reasons for this with FG.) I picked up series five of SP and remember thinking it was atrocious.

Never really bothered with SP since - its popularity seemed to spike again around series 9/10, caught a few around then but I couldn't stand the latterday atmosphere of "here's a load of Matt & Trey dogma" with 'cocks and ass' humour as a mode of denigrative attack.

Re. early episodes - it might be a personal thing, but I tend to prefer comedies while they're story and character based, rather than what long-running shows tend to become later (ie. a satirical vehicle for the snarky attitudes of the now-rich people that make it). Each new series commissioned tends to resemble an array of 13 assembled 'attitudes'.

[NoSleep]

If you've reached season 4 and you don't like it, then it's not for you.

This is completely wrong. I would say seasons 5-8 are the benchmark classic South Park episodes. Season 4 begins to hint at how much it was going to improve from thereafter but season 5 is solid ground.

[Petey Pate]

Trey Parker and Matt Stone put the whole first three seasons (except Not Without My Anus) in their list of least favourite episodes.

https://ew.com/gallery/south-park-matt-stone-and-trey-parker-name-their-15-best-episodes-and-53-worst/

I feel South Park has always been consistently hit or miss, no doubt due to the show's fast production schedule. As others have said, seasons 4-9 was probably its strongest run, but each subsequent season has the occasional stand out episode, along with some really rotten episodes that were clearly tossed off to meet the air date.

There was a point where South Park completely changed and - I'm sorry, this was a long time ago - but I remember reading an interview with Trey and Matt in which they were asked why there had been a sudden shift from the purely puerile to satire. The reply was that they had run out of ideas so were forced to start reading newspapers to find them - and that had changed everything.

I think this was around 2004/2005? 

The first satirical/political episode I can think of is Gnomes from season 2, though it wasn't a reaction to a current news story but more generally a satire of people opposed to large corporations.

[NoSleep]

Awesom-O (S8E5) would be next recommendation.

It's the first one that always comes to my mind. Maybe followed by Biggest Douche In The Universe or Butters' Very Own Episode or All About Mormons.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

series 9/10, caught a few around then but I couldn't stand the latterday atmosphere of "here's a load of Matt & Trey dogma" with 'cocks and ass' humour as a mode of denigrative attack.

I did think there was a noticable shift around then, where they dropped the pretence of being impartial and just seemed to spend entire episodes ripping into liberal types. Interestingly, the latest series saw seemingly them change their minds on some of the issues they covered in the past: criticising Amazon and (partially) apologising to Al Gore for Manbearpig.

[up_the_hampipe]

Out of all those long-running cartoons for grown ups, South Park has had the most longevity. Some of the later seasons have bad episodes, but they can still hit the mark quite regularly. I still get a lot of joy from the show.

[ToneLa]

Whenever I dip into new episodes I feel they're too topical. I sort of want timeless comedy, and if you stuck the writers in a cabin with no Internet and no papers I don't know how they'd write anything

[NoSleep]

That's why, in later seasons, everybody in the SP threads always like the episodes that are character-led over the ones that spoof a current movie or pick up on an issue. This can be exacerbated in the second category because often the issue has no significance to a UK audience.

[Noodle Lizard]

There was a point where South Park completely changed and - I'm sorry, this was a long time ago - but I remember reading an interview with Trey and Matt in which they were asked why there had been a sudden shift from the purely puerile to satire. The reply was that they had run out of ideas so were forced to start reading newspapers to find them - and that had changed everything.

I think this was around 2004/2005?

Yeah, I feel even some episodes in the first couple of seasons tended to be at least somewhat topical, and the movie (in 1999) was as satirical as any of the later episodes.

But aye anyway, if you've made it to season 4 and not got into it, it's probably not for you, but I'd recommend jumping into some of the episodes recommended here.  At its best, I think it's the funniest US show ever made, although I haven't liked much of it for the past five years or so.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

This is completely wrong. I would say seasons 5-8 are the benchmark classic South Park episodes. Season 4 begins to hint at how much it was going to improve from thereafter but season 5 is solid ground.

It's fair I think. The satire may have shifted the show up a gear, but the style of humour was locked in by the fourth series. If Alan isn't finding it funny, I'm not sure the addition of, now dated, cultural refences would help.

[ajsmith2]

I'm not a huge SP fan, but I do like the idea that it's become this 2 decades and counting repository of cultural and political history from the late 90s to the 2010s. Certainly most of the main cultural signposts and news stories of the noughties have their own SP episode or reference. Yes a lot of shows do this, but what gives SP unique zeitgeisty zing is that unlike most scripted (and certainly most animated) episodic shows, it was always conceived and delivered piping hot in the immediacy of the cultural moment it was reacting to. I find it kind of poignant and nostalgic in a way the way they've documented an era ( the world during my adult life  pretty much) so extensively.

[NoSleep]

It's fair I think. The satire may have shifted the show up a gear, but the style of humour was locked in by the fourth series. If Alan isn't finding it funny, I'm not sure the addition of, now dated, cultural refences would help.

The problem for me isn't that there aren't some good moments in season 4, but the idea of having just ploughed through seasons 1-3 before that (which for me I have no love for) and then assessing whether its worthwhile going on from what is really only a hint of what's to come after season 4. If somebody asked me what South Park to watch I'd say skip seasons 1-3 and start at 4 so the fatigue won't have set in.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's definitely a show that seemed to grow up along with its audience. To an extent anyway.

[Ludicrous Display]

When Butters starts to get involved more, anything involving Cartman and Butters in those earlier seasons is gold. Episodes like Casa Bonita and Awesom-O, that's peak South Park.

[Sebastian Cobb]

When Butters starts to get involved more, anything involving Cartman and Butters in those earlier seasons is gold. Episodes like Casa Bonita and Awesom-O, that's peak South Park.

Butters' overbearing dad episodes are gold too. Like the one where his dad thinks he's bi-sexual.

[rue the polywhirl]

Do a favour and watch all of season 6 then plough through later seasons and skirt around 5 and later day seasons as see fit.

[madhair60]

Seasons 5 and 6 are absolutely brilliant so I don't recommend skipping those at all.

[Captain Z]

Looking back through episode lists I do specifically remember 'The Jeffersons' episode (series 8, 2004) being extensively trailed on TV at the time. I don't think this is one of the funniest but it definitely seemed to mark a shift towards 'this is what we're doing now'.

[BeardFaceMan]

When did they switch to the 'write an episode from scratch every week' model?

[up_the_hampipe]

I think it was gradual, wasn't it? They kept cutting it closer and closer to their deadlines, so it eventually became their method.

[Petey Pate]

When did they switch to the 'write an episode from scratch every week' model?

Apparently it took three weeks to produce an episode in season one (except for the pilot, which was animated entirely by Parker and Stone using paper cut outs). I think pretty quickly technological advances and more staff meant that it wasn't long before they could produce episodes in less than a week. Some episodes with more elaborate production values, e.g. the World of Warcraft episode, take longer though.