South Park: Season 16

Great

OVERVIEW: The premise of "South Park" was conceived by creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker in the early 1990s. Due to its viral-video success, Comedy Central picked up the rights to the franchise and aired the first episode of the adult animated series in 1997. The cartoon garnered fame as one of the first shows to hinge its comedy on the use of crude language, satirical storylines, and dark humor. Set in South Park, Colorado, the main characters of the show--Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick--often parody the childhoods of their writers.SPECIAL FEATURES of the Season 16 box-set include deleted scenes and "Commentary-Mini." If you have never watched the episodes with "Commentary Mini," I encourage you to do so; the short commentaries from Trey Parker and Matt Stone are optionally run during the first three minutes of each episode. Parker and Stone have used this method of commentary since the early seasons. Their short introductions often expose insights behind particular jokes, further multiplying the laugh count.SEASON 16 kicked off in the spring of 2012 with fourteen episodes, each written during the week before broadcast. In true "South Park" style, some of the pop-culture references of this season include: bullying, zip-lining, "scause" armbands, voting, the Lance Armstrong scandal, NFL nanny regulations, BlockBuster/Netflicks, airport security/TSA, Honey BooBoo, Amazon addiction, native Hawaiians, memes, Easter/Passover, obesity, and TV shopping networks. I have been a fan of "South Park" since its beginning and religiously purchase each season; however, I feel that the show's wit and charm has been in a slump since season 14. While I still find the show highly entertaining, much of the recent comedy has felt `forced.' I am happy to say that the writing seems to pick back up in Season 16 and is nearly fully-operational by Season 17.Episode 1: "Reverse Cowgirl"--New laws governing potty time emerge as backlash to Clyde's inconsiderate bathroom behavior. The tyranny upsets loggers, thinkers, and top-of-the-tank readers alike. Can toilet pioneer John Harrington set everyone straight?Episode 2: "Cash for Gold"--When Stan's elderly Grandpa gets swindled by a shop-from-home network, Stan sets out to make things right. Cartman, on the other hand, capitalizes on the `cash for junk' market.Episode 3: "Faith Hilling"--The boys struggle to stay ahead of the competition for the newest internet memes. The war turns to survival of the fittest; who (or what) will be `T.he Swift.est' to adapt?Episode 4: "Jewpacabra"--Cartman warns his friends to avoid the South Park Easter Egg Hunt due to video footage he captured on a strange monster. To stick by his charade, Cartman becomes obligated to face the beast alone; his only hope lies in prayer for a Passover Miracle.Episode 5: "Butterballs"--Butters becomes the victim of a ruthless bully. Stan quickly volunteers to be the creator and star of a new anti-bullying video, and he won't let anyone stand in his way.Episode 6: "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining"--To make the most of their spring break, one of the boys suggests going ziplining. The adventure is long, uneventful, and irritating.... But when an attempt to escape goes wrong, stuff gets REAL. Will all four boys make it out alive? And, more importantly, WHO had the bright idea to go ziplining in the first place?Episode 7: "Cartman Finds Love"--The new girl in town turns Cartman into a giddy, love-struck matchmaker.Episode 8: "Sarcastaball"--After the NFL implements safety-related rule changes, Randy offers his opinions through sarcasm. When Randy takes a mouthful of Butters' secret weapon, he finally learns to calls things as they are.Episode 9: "Raising The Bar"--Along with the rest of the country, Cartman begins to own his unhealthy and trashy lifestyle; the fate of all integrity is left in the hands/mechanical arms of James Cameron.Episode 10: "Insecurity"--When online shopping invites delivery men into the home, Kyle begins to worry that the `regular deliveries' are actually services to his mother's infidelity.Episode 11: "Going Native"--Butters hits a stage in adolescence marked by unruly behavior; it is a sign that reveals the truth of his origins.Episode 12: "A Nightmare On FaceTime"--The Marsh Family takes over the South Park BlockBuster, forcing Stan to miss out on trick-or-treating with his friends. As Randy tries to resurrect a dying business, Stan finds a way to join his friends, in costume, through FaceTime.Episode 13: "A Scause for Applause"--When a famous idol is accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, the world loses faith as well as their supportive wristbands.Episode 14: "Obama Wins!"--Cartman sets up an elaborate extortion scheme that holds the result of the 2012 Presidential Election hostage.

I have been watching South Park for a VERY long time (I even have a South Park Sticker book, yeah remember those - the books that are like cardboard with a smooth surface and have reusable stickers so you can make the images). About mid-way through the show I started buying the seasons so that I could keep watching the fun whenever I wanted. I just bought South Park Season 16 to add to my collection. I always buy the newest season as soon as it comes out and this was no different. I did view the episodes as they aired and I do agree this is not their best season, even season 15 was a little iffy. However, it's South Park and it has been going for 17 seasons now! That is 17+ years of hard work and dedication to this show. Give Matt and Trey a little slack they have also produced a Broadway musical on top of doing South Park. Even The Simpsons are starting to slide down hill - you can only go on for so long.And does no one remember their 6 days to air documentary? They only have 6 days to come up with an entire episode that is perfect, they have set backs and have to redo things - or Comedy Central refuses to air something in the episode so edits are needed. To be able to produce an entire episode in 6 days on top of everything else that they now have going on is probably not the easiest job in the world by far.I know some people have brought up in previous reviews the fact that the price has dropped from $40+ to around $20-30 - for one this is Amazon and the price goes up and down - Walmart has this for almost $40.00. Just because the price has come down does not mean that the show is not good. I also pre-ordered at the same time the newest volume of American Dad which the price of that has come down too and was only around $20 as well but the show is still great. It all depends on where you buy from and all the other economic factors, some places it's just going to be a better deal.I saw another review on here that picked the season apart episode by episode - yeah there are a lot of us die-hard fans that have been watching for years that were disappointed in this newest season - but it's still South Park and it's still great in its own way and always will be. And if you are a fan you will want this season and you will find a glimmer of something special in it.I am bracing myself for the end of this show though as season 17 will only be 10 episodes, 4 shorter than all the other seasons - that says to me that we are nearing the end of the crazy adventures and shenanigans of the four 4th graders in the small mountain town of South Park that we have grown to adore. I also heard that they were only contracted for a few more after season 14 and should only be going to 18 seasons. I feel that even with a little slip here at the end it has been a great ride and not many shows get to say they have gotten to air this long. I will watch to the end and buy the remaining seasons as they become available -I also hope for 1 last movie :)Please don't take all the negative reviews to heart. If you love South Park then even at its worst you will find something special and enjoy it. There is always at least 1 episode in a season that makes it worth it.

Then... Add to your collection. Trey and Matt are great!!

Bought a couple seasons at same time one of the dvds is scratched and skips

South Park fans will not be disappointed here. Another must-have season to add to your collection.

While not the best season for South Park, it does have some solid episodes (the one with James Cameron 'raising the bar' and the Honey Boo Boo fight stands out for me particularly). Unfortunately, it just seems that by this point they had settled into pushing the limit on things unnecessarily at this point. Earlier seasons are definitely edgy, but they generally have fair reason (either to mock a topical issue or for the sake of a really good joke). I feel like they are starting to do 'offensive' bits just for the sake of doing them and hoping people will find it funny. Now, I don't think they've fallen to completely standing on that sort of 'humor', (honestly, that's probably one of the reasons behind them reducing the number of episodes per season after this one) and they are definitely still putting out great stuff (the Game of Thrones arc in Season 17 was brilliant), but I just feel that they hit their peak back around seasons 6-8ish and just haven't been able to really recapture that same overall humor per season ratio.

Sharper and funnier than ever, I think the show hit peak form in these 5 seasons. There's a lot of emphasis on new tech, celeb culture and finally populist US politics, immigration, nostalgia and culture wars. The DVD is 16:9 aspect ratio. Season 20 experiments with a more serialised storyline concerning the US 2016 election, things kind of go a bit wrong at the end though, they have this fixation on Star Wars, the Ghostbusters are end the episode with an almost plea not to vote Trump which sort of blow up in their faces. The character of Stan gets relegated to a supporting character in quite a lot of Season 20, it's much more about Cartman, Kyle and Heidi.

I’m kind of disappointed, i love south park and was so excited to finally get them on dvd but when i received them i noticed the discs looked like copies and there was no list of the episodes either and while trying to watch them the odd time the discs caused rainbow colours roll down my tv screen... which is something copies usually do from time to time... i expected items sold and dispatched from Amazon would be real and if they were copies then it would be in the description to let everyone know before buying them.

Now that the emphasis has moved away from poking fun at celebs and towards poking fun at social and political realities, southpark has really grown up. Happily there are still a few prods and pokes at ridiculous celebs, so there is something for everyone. story arcs across an entire season are a new developement and introduce a sense of continuity...this is a result of the way people watch box sets now, instead of watching weekly episodes on the TV.

Great quality in a great bundle ! And as always with South Park, hilarious but sneakily intelligent content

Waste of money all the discs won't play half the episodes only the first and last episode plays or the episodes in between none of the discs play all the episodes