Liam Hoofe reviews the eighth episode of South Park Season 21…
South Park season 21, has, for the most part, been a blast. The season has managed to successfully take the show back to its roots while also remaining topical and managing to find the time to poke fun at several current events. Last week’s episode, ‘Doubling Down’, was slightly hit and miss, but this week the show once again returned to the formula that has worked so well for it for the majority of this season.
In the whole history of South Park, it is difficult to find two side characters more divisive than Nathan and Mimsy. The two special needs characters have often acted as antagonists to Jimmy and Timmy, and the episodes where they have taken focus, ‘Handicar’ and ‘Crippled Summer’ have had a distinctly different feel to the rest of the show’s episode, mostly because they have operated as parodies of other things, with varying degrees of success. This week, however, the episode managed to use them more sparingly, created arguably the best episode featuring the pair to date.
‘Moss Piglets’ saw the duo go into direct competition with Timmy and Jimmy for the top prize at the Special Ed Science Fair. Nathan and Mimsy are convinced at the start of the episode that they have created a winning project, only to find out that Jimmy and Timmy are making genuine scientific discoveries with Water Bears. This all culminated into a storyline involving the NFL, one which, as a Brit, is kind of difficult for me to comment on. I guess it was a comment on the brand struggling to find viewership? Regardless, the stuff with Jimmy, Timmy and co was generally enjoyable. That being said, though, I would have liked to have seen more of Jimmy and Timmy. The duo are two of the show’s best-supporting characters and it feels like forever since we got an episode based on their antics.
The episode’s big reveal this week, though, was Heidi’s full-blown transformation into a female version of Cartman. After the events of last week’s episode, this seemed like the logical way to go and the show pulled it off perfectly. Mr Mackey described Heidi as now being ‘Like Cartman, but with the ability to follow through’ and even as a fan, that scared me. I was massively critical of the relationship between Heidi and Cartman last season but this year the show has really managed to make it something worth watching. Cartman has created a monster, and it now looks as though he might be the only one able to stop her – will Cartman have to dig deep and become more twisted than ever to prevent Heidi from getting even worse? There’s a fair chance that this whole storyline leads to a newer, even more, twisted Eric Cartman, and who doesn’t want to see that
The show will take its third and final hiatus of the season next week and will return will episode 9 the week after. Following the events of this episode, especially Heidi swallowing the bears, it’s not a huge leap to think that the Heidi storyline is going to come to a head in the final 2 episodes of the season. Hopefully, the show can continue to deliver to this standard in the coming weeks. Overall, ‘Moss Piglets’ was a nice return to form for season 21, one that managed to provide plenty of laughs and utilise some of the shows amusing side characters.
What did you think of ‘Moss Piglets’? Let us know in the comments below, and let Liam know on Twitter @liamhoofe
