Internet ads, PC culture, gentrification… What does it all mean!?
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Picking up where last week’s South Park left off, “Truth and Advertising” moved even more away from the central PC plot to focus on ad satire. (Neither PC Principal nor his bros showed up this week, even though they were referenced several times.) Regardless, it was nice to see the boys get more involved in the overarching storyline, while Jimmy tried to piece everything together.
In the latter’s case, Leslie’s storyline went from being a Blade Runner spoof to an Ex Machina one, as she used a pop-up ad to distract the newsmen long enough to get to Jimmy. (“His d*** has been compromised!”) As a result, Leslie’s betrayal was super obvious, but, overall, it was still a clever riff on hard sci-fi. It was also probably the most eventful subplot to come out of “Truth and Advertising,” while the rest of the episode was humorous but somewhat stagnant.
For example, Mr. Garrison and Principal Victoria’s return to South Park wasn’t quite as momentous as we’d hoped, since the two remained incognito for most of the episode. Thankfully, Randy was there to spice things up as sort of a liaison between the old South Park and the new. I also got a few good chuckles out of Mr. Garrison and Caitlyn Jenner’s mustache banter.
But I think my favorite storyline this week, at least from a comedic standpoint, was the boys’ investigation into Jimmy and Leslie’s disappearance. While some of the ad stuff has been hit-or-miss so far, the different cutaways from the boys at their computer to random ice cream parlors and footwear stores were perfectly timed. I also loved the callback later when Victoria, Garrison, Randy and Caitlyn Jenner had the exact same experience as the boys.
That said, nothing really came of the boys’ research other than them turning on each other, which honestly felt a little forced. None of them had good reasons for why one of them would be a traitor, and the handful of reasons they did come up with were weak. In the end, it just seemed like Matt and Trey wanted this episode to end with a big altercation, whether it was warranted or not.
In terms of where this is all heading, Season 19 is still up in the air. Last week we heard multiple times that “a war is coming,” but after Principal Victoria’s rundown of gentrification across the globe, it sounds like it might end in a full-on epidemic. Between that, the war, the PC angle and the ad conspiracy, it definitely seems like South Park is building towards something big; I just hope everything clicks into place by finale’s end.
As the penultimate episode of Season 19, “Truth and Advertising” was a little sluggish, especially in terms of the main plot. While Jimmy and Leslie’s storyline made some headway on that front, the boys came up empty-handed in their investigation — although their sudden transitions to consumerist hotspots were really funny. Meanwhile, Principal Victoria and Mr. Garrison relayed a few key bits of info about the PC/ad/gentrification conspiracy, but we still don’t know how they all tie together. Luckily, most of the bits here were strong, and it looks like Kyle will soon learn the truth from Leslie in the next episode. Hopefully, the finale will be able to give the season a proper sendoff.
