“South Park”, Wednesdays at 10:00 P.M. on Comedy Central
“Wall-mart”
The gist of it- A new superstore, Wall-mart opens up in South Park and with its low low prices and causes the local businesses to close up. Everyone seems to love the place except Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, who recognize it’s evil and obsessive nature that has captivated the townspeople. They decide to shut the Wall-mart down, but realize it’s tougher than they thought, since the store has a life of it’s own. Is it possible to stop something with an entire town against you?
Favorite moments- The Matrix spoof, the running-gag about people crapping their pants when they die, Time Cop economics, Cartman’s not so subtle subtlety, Randy’s addictive personality, the choice of door-greeters.
What flat out sucked- The premise wore a bit thin after fifteen minutes. Superstores are evil and take over people. Okay, I get it. The episode felt a bit outdated and it felt like they had made it a few years ago so that they can have something to air when they were running behind.
Personal Thoughts- I liked it initially but got a bit bored. It’s an easy subject to tackle, but you can only do so much with it. This would have been a lot better if it had been a subplot and not a whole show in its own. Wal-mart is definitely evil but at the same time tempting. It represents capitalism in it’s most destructive form as it is a company that is willing to wipe out the competition at any cost, and has no scruples about it. Small towns don’t benefit as much from Wal-mart as they’d have you believe. They come in and assimilate communities like the Borg. They may offer job opportunities but it’s definitely not the same as running your own grocery store or mechanic service station. This is a valid argument, and Trey and Matt make it well, it just doesn’t make for a hilarious thirty minutes of comedy.
And while I’m at it I’ll tackle the first animated reality show, Drawn Together which premiered last week. An interesting enough concept, it revolves around eight different animated characters based on famous archetypes that live in a house together. There’s Ling Ling, the Pikachu type character, Xandi a carbon copy of Link from the Zelda games, Captain Hero the superhero, etc.,etc. Each character not only embodies the look of a well-known cartoon character, but also the mannerisms of reality show castmates. For example the Disney-esque princess on the show also serves as the obligatory racist that’s thrown into every reality show for extra tension.
Whether you like this show or not depends on how funny you think the characters are and how long they can keep you amused. The characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes. I know that’s supposed to be a part of the appeal of the show, but how many times can you see the same pig take a crap in the kitchen? Toot being called fat, followed by a closeup of her thunder thighs wasn’t funny the first time, and I doubt it will be when they do it every subsequent time. It employs an SNL-like mentality to it’s humor to many times. That rinse, lather repeat forumula to jokes that kills them long before they’re meant to die. Considering that reality shows are starting to run out of gas, this show might have seen original and biting three or four years ago.
The bottom line is that show tries too hard (even the musical number about lesbians was dreadfully tacked on and poorly done) and it’s time slot is death. Compared to the satiric brilliance of South Park it comes off as a crass, cheap internet cartoon you’d expect Spanky Hamm came from. It’s premise and humor are outdated, especially when it’s right after a show that gets made the week before it airs. however it’s not too late for the show to rise above the sophomoric level it’s at now as I’m only reviewing the pilot. If it continues on it’s current path, a decent idea will be burnt out long before it had any right to. As it stands now, this is a turd that even Mr. Hankey would shy away from. The second episode was just as bad as the first. What a shame.
