South Park is back with another new special following this year’s 25th season and last year’s COVID specials. This time, Matt and Trey are tackling streaming services and climate change, and although the message gets a bit convoluted towards the end, there are plenty of laughs to be had in South Park: The Streaming Wars.
The premise starts simply: South Park is facing a drought, but Randy Marsh and Steve Black have water due to their elevation. They start to make money by streaming water down for other residents, but soon enough, everybody starts buying land near them and making their own streaming services so that they can get a piece of the pie. Meanwhile, Cartman is tired of living in a giant hot dog, so he tries to coerce his mom into getting breast implants to impress the rich man who bought the land in front of them. It’s a lot to pack into a roughly 50-minute special, but The Streaming Wars mostly pulls it off.
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The obvious allegory for streaming services like Disney+ and Paramount+ (which this special is exclusive to; an irony not lost on the show) works well, though it gets a bit jumbled towards the end. The Streaming Wars juggles a few too many elements later on, as the introduction of ManBearPig in relation to streaming is seemingly random. There’s probably an argument to make about streaming services contributing to climate change, but that’s not a recent or major news story, so the connection seems odd. But even if the link is hazy at best, it’s still quite funny to drag out that long-running bit.
A fair number of the jokes at streaming services were fairly surface level, but at the same time, having the boys represent South Park itself and getting money from numerous streaming services, then being exclusive to one for huge money was pretty great because it pointed out how silly the whole real-life situation is. Plus, minor character Pi-Pi returns from the water park episode in Season 13 and plays a humorously major role this time around.
Though the special will make more sense if you’ve been following the more serialized recent seasons, there are still some excellent bits outside of the narrative beats. Randy becoming a “Karen” and berating Stan for building his boats for other streaming services is shockingly funny, and Cartman’s whole arc with the breast implants, including Kenny’s expert knowledge of how real the breasts are, was spectacular and over the top in typical South Park fashion. It will be interesting to see whether Cartman’s mom stays strong against his demands in the next special or season (whichever comes first), as the payoff for her standing up to Cartman this time around has been very worthwhile. Cartman’s song about “something cool” was strong, as most South Park songs are, and the montage of water usage to Cardi B’s “WAP” was downright hilarious.
While its themes are a bit wobbly and the observations aren’t especially ground-breaking, there are quite a few solid laughs in The Streaming Wars. If these specials between seasons continue to be consistently entertaining, then getting more like this won’t be a bad thing.
SCORE: 7/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.
