The President is a Duck?

TV Review: South Park, "You're Getting Old, Part 1"

Stan turns 10.

There's a lot of talk now about what the fate of South Park will be. It's been an unorthodox show, and it's no stretch to suggest it will have an unorthodox ending. "You're Getting Old" wasn't a particularly good episode in a string of not particularly good episodes with occasional spikes of genius, and if listening to the DVD commentary on many of their episodes is any indication, it's clear that Trey Parker and Matt Stone know a bad episode when they've made one; it's unlikely the decline in quality has gone unnoticed. Some might call that perspective "cynical." But this doesn't feel like a response to critics - Stan is a poor choice for an avatar of the audience when he's so clearly the common avatar of Trey Parker - and could well be a response to their own reactions, as they, like most, have probably come down with an occasional case of being a cynical asshole themselves. And if this is a damning response to a judgmental audience, then what are we to make of the final conversation between Sharon and Randy?

It's been fifteen years and Parker and Stone have now broken forty. While I don't believe that getting old means talent is necessarily lost I do believe it's necessarily changed. No one has the same outlook they had fifteen years ago, and maybe what seemed like a stupid waste of time then appears more worthwhile now, and vice versa. Their most successful contemporaries are now habitually producing season after season of trash, and there may be concern over becoming another Simpsons or Family Guy: achieving great things, and then going into a steady decline that leaves a sour taste in the mouths of fans that lasts for years and even decades. When I watch any modern episode of either of those shows, I wish that someone had had the force of will and foresight to pull the plug long ago. Trey and Matt can't want the same thing for South Park.

Maybe it's premature to be saying things like this, but my hope is that this is the final season, and "You're Getting Old" actually makes me more excited for what could be the series' final episodes.