Buckle up, buckaroos. There’s a war coming.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
This week’s South Park definitely felt like the beginning of the end for Season 19, and much of the episode was left unresolved so it could set up the oncoming “war” (of which we were constantly reminded). With two more episodes left in the season, it seems like Matt and Trey are planning to end things with another epic-style trilogy. Assuming that’s the case, this episode was pretty strong, story-wise.
Not surprisingly, “Sponsored Content” was largely centered around PC Principal, much like his debut in the premiere. But where Cartman, Kyle and others had failed in undermining PC Principal’s regime, one boy succeeded: Jimmy Valmer.
Ah, yes… so obvious! Of course PC Principal’s Achilles heel would be Jimmy, whose tempered logic, moral center and unwavering confidence were a triple threat this week. Indeed, some of the best parts of this episode were Jimmy and PC Principal’s meetings, as the two quarreled over the former’s school newspaper. At last, with the freedom of speech and press, Jimmy was able to give PC Principal and his bros the comeuppance they deserved in South Park.
#NotAllP***yCrushers
But where this episode started to get off-track was when “ads in news” started to steal focus. Given this season’s overarching PC angle, I thought it was a little out-of-left-field to suddenly bring in this other dynamic that didn’t really ebb with the rest of the storyline. For example, Jimmy’s “special” ability to tell the difference between ads and news felt a bit anticlimactic compared to his earlier confrontation with PC Principal. And there’s definitely something fishy going on with PC Principal and Leslie, who are both… ads, I guess? But like I said, this is appears to be just the start of a larger, three-part story arc, so it’s likely this will somehow tie into the “PC” of it all. I’m just hoping the execution is stronger than last season’s attempt to piece everything together.
It was also fun to see characters like Barbrady, Mr. Garrison and Principal Victoria (!) figure things out behind the scenes. I also thought it was clever how Garrison’s Trump-like persona was so easily able to apply his “F*** them all to death!” slogan to the more-current Syrian refugee issue. Clearly, Garrison and the others are now poised to go back into town and set things right — or as right as they can be in South Park.
As a means to an end, South Park’s “Sponsored Content” definitely ramped up the intrigue and made the interesting decision to put Jimmy at the forefront. Parts of this episode were really strong, like Jimmy fighting PC Principal with his school newspaper and PC Principal starting to crumble under the pressure. That said, while the “ads in news” element was amusing as a one-episode issue, it didn’t really have the “epic tie-in” feel that it was going for within the larger PC storyline. But I suppose we’ll see if it all comes together in these next two episodes.
