In times of crisis there are so few people that you can count on to keep us entertained and well one of those people if the team behind South Park. I full on admit when this pandemic really started I knew that at somepoint the team behind South Park would be taking a shot at it and well I was freaking right and I have to say that this is the episode that we need right now and so here is my review of "The Pandemic Special" enjoy the review everyone.
The plot behind the special is that the town of South Park is getting used to a new normal whatever form it takes but not all people espically Eric Cartman are happy about it even more so when it means going to back to school. I will admit the plot of the episode is perhaps it's weakest aspect since it's pretty thinly drawn which is a shame because South Park doing an episode about the current pandemic the story just writes itself but the story just isn't that good in my opinion.
Now here I would normally list who is in the episode however since the cast for this episode and this show is pretty well known i'm honestly just not going to. I will say tho that all of the people that you expect to be in this episode and by that I mean the series regular cast are indeed in this episode and they are all playing there regular characters which is honestly to be expected but since I can't find a complete cast list and like I said the cast for this show is pretty well known anyway I thought that it was something worth saying anyways.
For once I cannot think of single bad performer for this show because all of the actors in the episode do such a good job playing there characters. To me what helps the actors in this episode is that there taking on something that's happening right now and so they can draw from there own experiences and any issues that they might have experienced during these difficult and let's face weird and bizarre times and so that makes the acting to me feel more real if that makes any kind of sense.
Doing the animation for this special episode is I assume South Park Studios since that's the only company I can find related to the animation but I could be wrong. I have to say that the animation in this special was a lot better then what I thought it would be I honestly feel that the animation in this special is something that would be right at home in a South Park movie because it's that good and is a huge upgrade from what we get in the show in my opinion.
Part of what makes me feel like this animation would suit being in a new South Park movie is the opening shot of Cartman's house. It's huge 3D CGI shot and you see the camera slowly move towards the house and in through the window to Cartman's bedroom this is honestly something that you wouldn't see in an average episode of the show and while I can see why since the average episode is produced on a schedule of six to seven days the fact that such a shot is included here to me shows what the team can do if they really wanted to.
Now while the main focus of the episode is indeed the pandemic and how that effects different people in different ways. The episode also very briefly touches on another social issue which i'm not going to say what it is just because I don't want any arguments to break out but when the scene that starts it came on I knew that it was going to cause quite a stir and while i haven't looked to see if i'm right I feel that the way the makers of this special chose to handle it works well for this special and I ask that if you do know what scene i'm on about I ask that you do not come at or anyone else who doesn't agree with you and your opinion we're here to have fun and talk about South Park and nothing else.
This episode makes fun of alot of people from every corner that the current pandemic has been looked at. Which yeah I feel is a good thing because sometimes we do need to laugh at ourselves and the situation that we are currently in which is honestly the thing that we need the most right now because if we can't learn to laugh at our selves and those around is in this current climate then who can we have a laugh at.
Just going back to what I was talking about before with the episode taking shots at everyone one of I think key groups people that this episode takes shots at is the people who same you for not wearing a mask. This was honestly a brave move on the part of the people who make the show because they risk upsetting a possibly huge part of there audience but at the same time it wouldn't be South Park if they didn't go out and offend people and the fact that they do it in a way that not only works within the story but is also pretty funny when you think about is for me at least a plus for this special and is something that I hope people laugh at in the future or are currently laughing at right now.
On to a much more lighter note this episode is the show / franchises first hour long special with the special clocking in at around forty seven and a half minuets. While I do feel that for the time being this kind of format would work for the show I do feel that this story would have been better told in weekly episodes hell they could have made an entire season's worth of episodes just based around the pandemic alone as well as how it effects different characters in different ways but having it be this long special does also mean that we get one of the best scenes in the special in my opinion.
To me one of if not the best scene in the entire special comes right after that amazing looking 3D CGI shot. Since they give Eric Cartman a song and it's just as ridiculous and over the top as you not only think it would be but as you'd want it to be the song is called "Social Distancing" and it's just an a amazing song that honestly had me laughing and is honestly a good way to start the special proper since lie I said we all need a good laugh and it makes sense for this character to be happy about not being able to talk to people and not having to go to school.
Now then since this is a comedy that does mean that I have to talk about the jokes that are in this special. I honestly feel that this episode is one of the best episodes that South Park has produced in a long while because it is just so freaking funny I cannot count the amount of times that I laughed not only hard but out loud during this special which for me is a very rare thing to happen and so the fact that it happened here tells you how good I thought the jokes were in this special.
Overall this was a really good and a really funny episode in my opinion and it's also one that like i've said several times now that we need right now. Yes this episode isn't perfect but for a show that's been going on for this long and has been very consistent with it's episode quality I think we can forgive them for putting out an episode that's not that good as such this episode gets a near perfect score of an 8.5 out of 10 from me.
All of the images that I used in this review were gathered Google Images and the official South Park fandom wiki page. Since the overall majority of the images that I used for this review came from the official South Park fandom wiki page I have no choice but to recommend that you use the official South Park fandom wiki page for images from this episode or the show or the franchise as a whole and if you found the episode please do not attack those who didn't and the same goes for those that didn't find the episode offensive like I said we are here to just about South Park and have some fun while doing so so be nice to each other and stay stay healthy and stay safe.