South Park: The Complete Ninth Season DVD: Review By T.Clark

South Park's ninth season is a batch of hits-and-misses, but mostly hits. Stirring away from its ripping on celebrities(except for Tom Cuise), Trey and Matt go back to the show's roots more to explore the boys' adventures in South Park that don't ridicule any current event or person.

Take the first episode for instance. Instead of bashing a real person, Trey and Matt turn the focus on Mr. Garrsison, who will soon become Mrs. Garrison in a hilarious episode titled "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina." Mr. Garrison gets a sex change, but when finding out he can't get pregnant, he want to be a man again. Only problem is, Kyle now has his old balls as knees becuase he got a race change, turning black so he can play better basketball. The episode focuses more on the characters of South Park, which is good when it develops them like this one.

However, other episodes seem to serve as fill-ins becuase there wasn't anything wierd going on in the world at the moment for Matt and Trey to bash. Take "The Losing Edge" for starters. While the episode points out the ridiculousness of dads fighting at little league games in hilarious fashion due to Randy's antics, the episode itself isn't that great.

Other episodes of this season like that, that are funny but not great are "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow," "Ginger Kids," and "Free Willzyx." However, there's episodes that focus on the character that are better than the rest, such as "The Death of Eric Cartman," where the boys start ignoring Cartman after he eats the skin off thier chicken, so he thinks he's dead, and "Marjorine," in which the boys have Butters pose as a girl after faking his death(which is a hysterical scene) so he can retrieve a "fortune telling device."

The two best episodes of the season are "Trapped in the Closet" and "Best Friends Forever." Best Friends Forever won Matt ad Trey an Emmy, and handled the delecate issue of comatose patients. When Kenny is hit by a truck, instead of dying like usual, he is sent to Heaven in order to help in a showdown between Heavan and Hell...until he is kept alive by a feeding tube. The episode dares go where no other show will, yet again, and delivers a heart felt message that makes you really think.

"Trapped in the Closet" deals with another controversial issue, Scientology. How the episode plays out is hilarious, as Stan is believed to be the renicarnation of L. Ron. Hubbard. When Stan tells Tom Cruise, a scientologist, that he doesn't care for his acting, Cruise locks himself in Stan's closet, serving as a metaphor that he should "come out of closet" as gay. What really makes this episode stand out though, is that it's the episode where the voice of Chef decides to quit because he's a scientologist, and did not appreciate Matt and Trey making fun of his religion.

Overall, this is another great season from Matt and Trey. It may not be the best, but it has a couple of the best episodes, so it's defineitely worth the watch.