South Park Review- "Reverse Cowgirl"

South Park is one of the most recognizable shows of our generation. Think of all the classic episodes and jokes it has brought us over the last 15 seasons. Any show that has gone on for over 200 episodes is sure to have its ups and downs, but South Park has always fallen on the "ups" side far more frequently.

In no way am I claiming that the old South Park episodes are the best, and will never be topped. I absolutely despise people who go into new tv seasons, sequels, et cetera with that sort of mind set (such as those who compare every Silent Hill title to Silent Hill 2 as though it will never be surpassed). I keep my expectations in check whenever viewing a new iteration of something I've enjoyed in the past. Try to keep this in mind during my review.

I feel that "Reverse Cowgirl" was one of the worst episodes of South Park I have ever seen. It's not that it was bad necessarily, perhaps mediocre would be a better word to use. Where this show has excelled is in its witty social commentary, usually on issues that are immediately relevant (made possible by the exceptionally short production cycle). Maybe I just missed it, but I found no real relevance to any current events in this episode. Not every South Park episode relies on current events to be funny, so this was not in and of itself and issue. My main problem comes instead from the lack of originality in this particular episode.

Yes, yes, I know, everything has been done before. Still, I never felt like South Park has been a show to steal ideas as blatantly as in "Reverse Cowgirl". The whole premise of sitting backwards on the toilet was discussed fairly recently in a Daniel Tosh standup. Stealing from Tosh, maybe thats not really a big deal. It's not like they're stealing from a famous author or something right?

So wait, you're telling me that the way they killed Clyde's mom was almost identical to a short story written by Chuck Palahniuk? Okay, that is getting pretty close to crossing the line. Still, they did change the details so it might not be similar enough to warrant serious concern. At least it was funny though right? South Park is always funny! Welll.....

Maybe not so much. I can't remember laughing this little to very many episodes of this show. I feel like this is due to the quite honestly dumb and unnecessary side plot involving psychics and lawyers. There was nothing clever about this scenario, and I feel that if their goal was to mock the litigation-happy culture we currently live in, there are plenty of better ways the writers could have handled it.

All in all I'm left sitting here underwhelmed with the premier of the sixteenth season of this exceptional show. However, I know this show well enough to know that they will bounce back, likely next week. I might be slightly overreacting as I've just finished watching the episode, but I was left with very little positive to say. I still can't wait to see what the writers come up with for the rest of the season, and in no way has this one episode soured the series in my mind. I just hope to see a little more effort and creativity injected into the remainder of the episodes.


Overall Score:   5.5 / 10

   -Chris