South Park: Season 24 (Blu-ray Review)

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Fourth Season (Uncensored) [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Trey Parker, Matt Stone (VOICES)

Release Date: August 16, 2022

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis:

SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE TWENTY-FOURTH SEASON includes the Pandemic episode, which was the highest rated and most-watched cable comedy telecast of 2020, followed by the Vaccination episode, which was the highest rated original cable comedy telecast of 2021. In the latest must-own season, Randy comes to terms with his role in the COVID-19 outbreak as the on-going pandemic presents continued challenges to the citizens of South Park. The kids happily head back to school, but nothing resembles the normal that they once knew; not their teachers, not their homeroom, not even Eric Cartman.

Please Note: Paramount Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

It’s time to head on down to ‘South Park’ once again for the animated show’s twenty-fourth season which features the two extended length episodes ‘The Pandemic Special’ and ‘The Vaccination Special’. The first episode rejoins our favorite foul-mouthed youngsters and the rest of the town as things start to look like they might finally be returning to normal following the Covid-19 pandemic. Rejoin Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman as they are forced to return to a school now being taught by cops who have lost their funding, while at Tegridy Farms Randy begins to realize that he might be responsible for the whole pandemic. Then, our kids take matters into their own hands when vaccinations become available but only to certain individuals resulting in their teachers quitting the school and causing more trouble for the kids to suffer through as a result.

Season Twenty-Four of ‘South Park’ is definitely a drastic change from the formula followed in recent seasons and in fact only contains two extended length special episodes that deal with the pandemic and how it has affected our favorite animated Colorado town. In addition to cleverly poking fun at the world of late and serving up all of the laughs and over the top silliness that the series is famous for delivering without ever pulling its punches, the specials also bring back Mr. Garrison in both of his personas (so to speak) following his final time as the President as well as his return to the town and attempt to resume his teaching position after not being re-elected. As Tegridy farms continues going strong there’s naturally also plenty of humorous fun to be had with Randy who has evolved into a hilariously ridiculous character as of late and these new episodes are certainly no exception and find Randy more out of control than before.

Even while significantly shorter than previous seasons of the series, the two specials still manage to serve up enough hilarious ridiculousness and over the top fun to make them well worth checking out if you haven’t already had the pleasure and any fans who have been collecting each season on Blu-ray will probably still want to add this new season set to your collection. Unfortunately the Blu-ray release of ‘South Park: The Complete Twenty-Fourth Season’ doesn’t have anything to offer beyond the two special episodes as the release is absent of any extras or even audio commentary this time around. Some fans may also be mildly disappointed to discover that Paramount has released the latest season in a standard Blu-ray case as opposed to the usual digipak style utilized on the previous twenty-three season sets, but if you just want to add these to your collection and are content with the two specials in great quality (and of course uncensored and bleep free) then you should be mostly pleased with the release, especially if you can find it at the right price.

Overall, Season 24 of ‘South Park’ rejoins our favorite group of animated youngsters and the rest of the wacky town residents as they must deal with the ongoing results of the pandemic. It tackles everything from the source of the pandemic to the kids’ return to school yet with the now de-funded police department in charge who are quick to employ their racist and violent tactics within the school, as well as the chaos that arises when vaccinations make it into town, but only for a very specific part of the population. The twenty-fourth season only contains two specials/episodes with extended runtimes, but it still delivers more than enough ridiculous fun and hilarity to keep fans happy. Paramount Home Entertainment’s single disc Blu-ray release of ‘South Park: The Complete Twenty-Fourth Season’ brings home both specials with great quality, although is absent of any extras. Even so, if you’re a dedicated fan who wants to collect each season it should still be worth a purchase at the right price.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘South Park: The Complete Twenty-Fourth Season’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on both of the twenty-fourth season’s special episodes. The video presentations look fantastic as a whole and offer clean, sharp and vividly colored presentations from start to finish on both episodes. They hold up nicely throughout and capture everything down to nearly every animated line and detail without allowing any unexpected faults or irregularities to be uncovered along the way. Overall, these are pretty wonderful high definition video presentations that shouldn’t have any trouble pleasing the show’s fans.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features an uncensored 5.1 channel Dolby TrueHD soundtrack on each of the Season Twenty-Four specials/episodes. These multichannel soundtracks do their job quite well and provide crisp, clean and problem-free soundtracks on both episodes with everything fully uncensored and bleep free. They occasionally utilize all five available channels in order to send some music and the random effect here and there throughout the various speakers when fitting, although they remain fairly tame throughout as is usually the case. Overall, these are solid 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtracks that may not bring a whirlwind of aggressive activity but certainly deliver in every way required of them.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘South Park: The Complete Twenty-Fourth Season’ does not include any bonus content.