The Show
The Complete Fourteenth Season of Cartoon Network's uproarious animated sitcom South Park once again skewers politics, the media, pop culture and more in the no-holds-barred-fashion for which the long-running series has become notorious. From Facebook to KFC to superheroes to the stereotypical depiction of New Jerseyans (a particular favorite) there is something to amuse and offend all comers.
Twenty-two minutes could not contain the magnitude of the landmark 200th episode and so it grew to a two-parter that saw the return of ten-score celebrities who have been scorned over the years, now pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the fictitious Colorado town for all of the ridicule it has spewed. They have a hidden agenda however, one that requires an appearance by Muhammad (yes, that Muhammad) in a storyline which ultimately led to the most controversial chapter in South Park history.
The ramifications were greater even than those surrounding the "Tom Cruise in the Closet" tale that brought about the end of the egotistical movie star's long, exclusive contract with parent studio Paramount. And so "201" is included here as it aired on Comedy Central, which means that not only has the profanity has been bleeped out (it remains intact elsewhere in this set) but the mention of Muhammad's name as well, and his image has been covered in every critical shot by a large black box. Regardless, it's a terrific "event" episode, and the entire season is definitely worth checking out.
The Picture
Watching Season 14, we are quickly made aware of how far the quality of the animation has come since the early days. Scenes are quite elaborate, not only in their 16:9 composition with multiple characters and a pleasing fluidity of motion, but also in the nuances of the faux digital textures. In short, this show works surprisingly well on a good, big HDTV screen.
Text too is crisp throughout, although I noted a wildly ranging bitrate from shot to shot, often down to single-digit megabits-per-second. Hard geometric patterns sometimes appear in what should be soft transitions of color, but that was the only blatant flaw here.
The Sound
The mix of the musical score is as ambitious as the animation, with a big, enveloping spread across the 5.1 speakers, presented here in high-resolution Dolby TrueHD. The rears are also utilized for little touches such as the South Park Elementary school bell ringing, some occasional resonance to the voices (particularly the deep tones of Moses), the bellow and rampage of Mecha-Streisand, and even a nice explosion.
The Extras
Disc One proffers six minutes of deleted scenes for the season, in HD and with Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel audio, although the level of completion varies greatly. Disc Two brings back the episode "The Coon" from Season 13 (in full quality, with its original Blu-ray commentary) to tie into 2010's Coon tales. All 14 episodes are accompanied by brief audio mini-commentaries from creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, although these are listed in the Setup menu, not with the Extras.
Final Thoughts
Blu-ray offers a great opportunity for popular shows to be seen as their creators intended, apart from the meddling of networks and the FCC, and so I must express some disappointment that Paramount/Comedy Central have decided to give us only the as-aired, compromised version of "201," although I suppose I understand that some potatoes are simply too hot to handle. The Fourteenth Season was still a fun year in South Park though, with the best HD audio and video quality yet.
Product Details
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