South Park season 21 episode 1 review: A restrained take on white supremacy

Before the latest season of South Park began, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone spoke at length about trying to avoid dealing with Trump throughout upcoming episodes. Instead, the duo promised a back to basics approach featuring more Cartman messing with Butters.

For a moment, the premiere delivered on that promise, starting with the boys messing with an Amazon Echo’s voice command system, Cartman opening with: “Alexa, add ‘big hairy balls’ to my shopping list”. Sure, it’s childish, but that’s why many people love South Park.

Unfortunately for those who prefer scrotum jokes to cultural commentary, things get more timely very quickly. Turns out those Amazon and Google devices are being blamed for “terking jerbs” from low-skill workers. As a result, a group of white nationalists gets together to protest, Confederate flags in one hand, tiki torches in the other.

South Park, it seems, doesn’t really know where to go from here. There are many obvious illusions to the Charlottesville protests, and Daryl — the supremacists leader — talks about killing all Mexicans and Muslims, but none of the commentary goes beneath a certain surface level of ‘these people are idiots and racists’.

When the show brought on board PC Principle and Mr Garrison’s Trump, they took concepts and held nothing back. Here, there’s a remarkable feeling that Parker and Stone don’t want to overstep a certain line, perhaps because they annoyed people last season with their Trump jokes. Instead, we’re left with caricatures of white supremacists who under-deliver.

One fleeting piece of commentary by Randy (who now runs ‘White People Renovating Houses’) sums everything up; addressing Daryl, Stan’s Dad says coal mining jobs not being suited to the future. It’s an allusion to how Trump spoke about bringing the coal industry back, but South Park refuses to go further.

Perhaps that’s because the episode was balancing so much. The home-renovating theme also went nowhere in particular, hinting at struggle between Randy and Sharon but deciding not to delve any further. Meanwhile, Cartman’s girlfriend subplot (a continuation from last season, despite the creators calling for an end to serialisation) also fell slightly flat, staying ever-so-slightly too restrained.

That’s perhaps the best way to sum up the episode: restrained. After getting so much flack for being too political — something I actually adored — who can blame the writers for trying to appease everyone with multiple juggling stoylines. South Park, though, has always shone brightest when staying compact and tightly written. Just look at the classic Warcraft episode, or the sponsored advertising storyline in season 19.

No doubt, Parker and Stone are still working out how to tackle current affairs without discussing Trump, something that’s going to be hugely difficult considering how omnipresent the current President seems to be. A mixed start to the season that will hopefully find its feet soon enough.