New Kids On The Blech: South Park Review, \"Preschool\"

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“South Park”, Wednesdays at 10:00 P.M. on Comedy Central

“Preschool”

The Gist of it- The boys are scared as all hell when they find out that Trent Boyett is being released from juvenile hall after being put there for five years. We see a flashback of preschool, where Trent started a fire at the boys behest. They thought they could put out the fire, but couldn’t, the fire burnt Mrs. Claridge, and the accused boys placed all the blame on Trent.
Trent goes after Butte’s first and puts him in the hospital. The boys, fearing a similar punishment, hire the sixth graders to put a stop to Trent, but their efforts are promptly squashed. With no one else to turn to, Stan goes to his sister Shelley and ask her to defend him. She agrees but only if he’ll confess everything as it happened to the wheelchair-confined Mrs. Claridge. Do the boys run into Trent and does he get his revenge?

Favorite Moments- Seeing the boys as li’l kids, the South Park boys putting out the their burning teacher, Trent’s tattoos the toughness of juvenile hall Butte’s various injuries, jumping the wall of fire, Cartman’s payment to the bullies, “I totally want to suck your mom’s tits”, Mrs. Claridge communicating, Mrs. Claridge crossing the street, Cartman teaching Stan how to beg, Cartman’s butt boobs, taking the pictures behind the bushes, “She’s just given up hope”, Cartman’s shriek of terror, another fire, the rear ending.

What flat out sucked- If you like the more relevant social-commentary episodes, than you’ll be disappointed here. I think this episode worked well and feels timeless, unlike last weeks which came off as outdated.

Personal Thoughts- There was a genuine “High Noon” type level of suspense in this episode that worked really well. Genuine tension, but still funny throughout, with all the crude humor you come to expect. It’s been over a hundred episodes, and yet Trey and Matt are still able to tell good stories with these characters, and more importantly are still able to shock the viewers with the humor. This is an episode that’s fun to watch and draws the viewer in.
It’s also neat to see the boys as little kids, although the kid voices on this show always creep me out for some reason. They weren’t merely parodies of the older versions, but logical views of what the kids really would have been like. Cartman for instance was’nt nearly at the age of four as he is at the age of nine.