With the 20th Anniversary upon us, we take a look back at the unlikely, and often unsung, brilliance of 'South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut', and why it still holds as the series' peak.
Let’s break down how the elements used in TV effectively work together to create the timeless scripted shows that we've all come to know and love.
Season 20 of South Park has really shown why Trey Parker and Matt Stone don't get enough credit for their creative genius. Beneath all the crude, vulgar humor, they've been able to deliver some of the most pointed and insightful social commentary to ever grace a television screen, time and time again. It's a voice that's needed now more than ever in a time and climate this divided and uncertain. They manage to perfectly reflect our feelings about how we, as a country, are dealing with change in one of the most clever ways possible. Star Wars.
Metaphors, allegory, and satire are very ambitious storytelling approaches that certainly wouldn’t work for all films and ideas, but when done right, the results can be truly eye-opening; they are the sort of art that can change a culture’s course, and usually for the better. And few directors can do it as masterfully as Greek director and screenwriter Yorgos Lanthimos.
It's clearly true that these men's careers have not been ended by the #MeToo movement. In fact, the movement appears to have shaken out in a way that's been rather just.
Political art might not always be the kind of art you'd hang on your wall or play back over and over, but it's the kind of art that spurs actual change.