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South Park

Started by bgmnts, August 19, 2019, 10:13:17 AM

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BritishHobo

I found the serialised stuff a real chore at first, but it was interesting to see them find their feet with it - the season with the trolls and Heidi and all that felt like they'd really nailed how they wanted to handle all that, but then the ending felt muddled again, like with the others. There's always so much build-up and then it just comes to a stop as they struggle to land it.

The last season is the first one I've not actually watched. I can't even remember how many I watched - think I stopped on the vaping one. I should give it another go before the next season.

Twed

Serialized is really unfocused. South Park has never dipped liked The Simpsons though, mainly because it doesn't have some weird, uncanny writing process that detaches it from humanity.

I too am fond of the earlier episodes, but it's always made sense.

The movie is amazing. It's very different in tone to the modern series, but I'm glad both exist.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Keebleman

Does anyone know why only Trey Parker is credited with the writing?  Perhaps it's because the credits whiz by so quickly that Matt Stone hasn't realised he's getting screwed.

NoSleep

I thought they were co-credited for writing, but Trey Parker was credited as director. That's what the documentary about the making of SP appeared to show.

EDIT: Actually they are co-credited for writing and direction.

bgmnts

Trey Parker literally does write the whole thing. The writing team seem to just push ideas around and maybe storyboard it, Trey Parker writes all the dialogue I think, which is quite impressive.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: The Giggling Bean on August 31, 2019, 10:32:47 PM
Resurrecting this thread, I have to say I've found the past few series a real chore to get through. I'm not keen on this series arc they've been doing for the past 3 seasons. I much preferred the self contained 25 minute episodes they used to do.

Yeah I feel the same.  I wish they'd ditch the James Hetfield-lookalike PC Principal and all the other PC shite because it's boring and is going nowhere.  At first I thought they might have had a good point to make but they clearly don't.   Plus they can't do story-arcs, they should go back to stand-alone episodes.

QuoteI know they get a lot of praise for being able to knock out an episode in 6 days to keep it topical but that also left me cold.

They say that's what they do, but then never take advantage of it.  It's many years since they've done anything really topical, referencing things that literally happened in that same week.

And it always seems like years since the last series, but I checked and it's less than a year.  When the seasons are so short I think I'd prefer them to show one episode a month.  You'd expect them to make really good episodes if they had a month to make each one instead of tossing them off in a week.

NoSleep

They're obviously still doing an episode a week, even with the longer story arcs, because it still syncs with the outside world. A good example being the complete surprise at Trump winning the election (I suppose they might have been forced to in that instance). I don't believe they have any reason for spending longer over episodes; they get the rest of the year to themselves.

up_the_hampipe

If you haven't heard, South Park has been renewed through to 2022. Good little interview with Parker and Stone here http://hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/as-south-park-gets-renewed-2022-matt-stone-trey-parker-have-new-movie-ideas-1238778

Ambient Sheep

Thanks for that.

Found this really interesting, especially Parker's closing remarks below.

QuoteCircling back to the previous season of South Park, Parker and Stone say, yes, of course the plot arc with ManBearPig (a creature used as a metaphor for global warming) and Al Gore was an attempt to atone for episodes years ago in which they joked about the former vice president's charge for climate change action. And, yes, they are aware Gore praised them for their efforts last year when he dropped by The Daily Show With Trevor Noah.

"We just felt like, of all of our episodes, that one has not aged very well," Stone admits. "And we came up with a funny idea how to use ManBearPig as a parable. I always felt like if we were going to rewrite that or comment on it or atone, whatever you want to call it, it's in kind. In other words, we didn't want to say in some interview, 'Well, we don't feel so great about that episode.' It doesn't feel as good as 'Fuck that, we'll do a whole two-parter.' And it is not just atoning. We beat ourselves up pretty good." Parker notes, "We could just do an entire season atoning. It's been fucking 22 years. We're pretty different people now."

Sebastian Cobb

Recently appeared on Prime Video if anyone's interested.

VelourSpirit

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 14, 2019, 02:26:24 PM
Recently appeared on Prime Video if anyone's interested.

It's 21 seasons too! I had just assumed it'd be like when Netflix used to get it in "volumes" of random episodes.
Incidentally I just googled and: https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a29042211/south-park-netflix-amazon-prime/
Other streaming services kind of show Netflix up for half measures. Like how nowtv would get every Star Trek film whereas netflix would just put up First Contact or something.

Sebastian Cobb

It's all becoming a bit too fragmented for my liking. It used to be that now tv, amazon and netflix were buying up film libraries en masse, so there were lots of films from previous decades in there so you could, for example, stick in pretty much any 70's thriller and it would be on one of them, these days they've dropped that and refined things so they're available to rent or buy on multiple services but not able to stream or they are on some obscure service.

I need to sit down and have a think, I need to bin my cable subscription because I don't use it, I think I need to park netflix for 6 months or so to let it fill up with things I've not seen and try out the bfi player and maybe now tv (although I don't really want to give money to Sky).

Mubi is the service I use the most.

ajsmith2

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on September 14, 2019, 02:18:11 PM
Thanks for that.

Found this really interesting, especially Parker's closing remarks below.

Yeah, I find it fascinating that they feel that episode in particular hasn't aged well, esp because if anything I feel the issue of climate change has become much more politicised since the mid 00s. I may well be wrong, but the impression I got was that it was generally if often lukewarmly accepted as real across most western governments in that time (at least to extent of giving it lip service), but that 10 plus years later in the Trump era it's become a lot more pointedly divisive, with ardent denial becoming a much more mainstream opinion, to the extent that it is now the unquestionable default right wing gospel.

It seems out of character for the SP guys, libertarian heroes, equal opportunity offenders and non apologisers for decades, to make an exception on this one issue. I wonder if it was some kind of combo of their personal opinions on the subject changing and finding the right wing denial dogma of this decade as irritating and ripe for satire as the tepid neoliberal consensus on it's reality in the 00s. Even so, it's a notably unprecedented anomaly in their modus operandi. I still find it hard to picture Trey Parker as someone genuinely concerned about climate change, although if he really is I think that is pretty cool.

Mister Six

Over the years I've heard multiple, unconnected people say something along the lines of "People always say Parker and Stone are [X political bent], but they're not political at all! They hit out at everything and that's the genius of South Park!"

The wording is almost identical each time. Are they parroting some quote I've not heard before?

And it's wrong, too - they're clearly slightly right-leaning Gen X libertarians.

Still, though - great show, though I've not watched it for a few years.

Maybe they publicly backtracked on climate change because they have kids now and are facing up to the kind of future that awaits them with the ramifications of global warming, and feel guilty about contributing to its' denial?

bgmnts

But they are still pro-gun so its really weird.

Twed

I think the best thing to do is not to put them in the position of consistent moral arbiters.

weekender

But where else do I get my morals from?

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Twed on September 14, 2019, 09:13:21 PM
I think the best thing to do is not to put them in the position of consistent moral arbiters.

Probably a good idea for any cartoon creators, Hammerman excluded.

imitationleather

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 14, 2019, 02:42:47 PM
now tv (although I don't really want to give money to Sky)

My missus got Now TV for Game of Thrones. It is absolute wank. People must surely only have it because they've forgotten they're subscribed.

Sebastian Cobb

I thought it had a decent film library and box sets (like The Sopranoes)?

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

It does, but the video quality is cack.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on September 15, 2019, 08:57:11 PM
It does, but the video quality is cack.

Fair enough. In my last job we were trying to get our content into the sky/nowtv system and for their set top box system, they do have pretty archaic rules on the video formats (they don't accept a mezzanine asset they expect you to transcode it into one SD and one HD video file), their video profile rules (how hard you compress it) says you should use the lowest quality for film, so it plays quicker.

VelourSpirit

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on September 15, 2019, 08:57:11 PM
It does, but the video quality is cack.

STILL? I had it two years ago to watch Twin Peaks The Return and I'm fairly sure I watched half of it in 240p.

Is there any discernible difference between Netflix and Prime's video quality? One weird thing is that Prime says HD is unavailable if I connect my HDMI cable to the TV.

Sebastian Cobb

I think prime might be slightly better than netflix, it might depend on the sources.

At one point, prime was running 10mbps streams at 1080p, which is about half-to-a-third of bluray bandwidth, but with more modern and efficient codecs.

Noodle Lizard

Prime definitely seems to be better quality than Netflix - presumably they put a little more effort into it so as to avoid customers complaining about paid rentals/purchases.  Whatever codec Netflix used to use had terrible banding issues, but I haven't noticed that as much lately.  It still seem to be more "crushed" than Prime, though, making everything a bit more contrasty than it was probably intended to be.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 15, 2019, 10:49:01 PM
Fair enough. In my last job we were trying to get our content into the sky/nowtv system and for their set top box system [...] their video profile rules (how hard you compress it) says you should use the lowest quality for film, so it plays quicker.

...and doesn't threaten the fully-paid-up product TOO much.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on September 16, 2019, 01:20:29 AM
...and doesn't threaten the fully-paid-up product TOO much.

I've mentioned before their iptv guys kept getting their wings clipped. Sky Q is all iptv in Germany, and you can get it here if you can't have a dish (eg listed buildings) but politics means they don't want it competing with satellite or the cheaper now TV thing.

The Giggling Bean

I believe that the new series starts next week in the states, 25th Sep I think. Hopefully Comedy Central will show it a few days later.