South Park
Season 15/Season 16
Score: 5/10

What makes South Park so unique, what they’ve been promoting the hell out of the past couple years, is its incredible timeliness. Six days from script to air. For animation, especially, this is incredible. This allows them to do the biting satire…

…that has been completely absent recently. When South Park does an episode about one of the largest corporations in the world, led by a eccentric leader who creepily never changes his clothes, a company followed with mass hysteria, you would think the show would have something to say. 

But when South Park finally did an Apple episode, at no point did they seem to criticize a thing about it. Steve Jobs made a human centipede. But everyone still loved their iPads.

Then they did an episode about the guy who started the Kony thing, who tried to influence US foreign policy in Africa with a social media campaign, then got arrested for jerking off in public.

Surely there’s something to criticize about this organization? This man? Again, South Park references it, but offers no commentary.

And when they finally do a biting episode, one that looks to draw blood, they target Cash4Gold for bilking old people. That’s neither timely nor a touché.

Book of Mormon’s incredible success might have something to do with how “nice” the show has become. But there’s something to be gained: The songs this season have been great, especially the the Kony-referencing “Jacking it in San Diego,” which is amazing and funny, if entirely benign.