The third season of South Park was a bittersweet one. It seemed that season 2 had floundered just a little. Most of us wondered if the talents of Stone and Parker had already run out of gas. Season 3 turned out to be one of the funniest yet. This was also the year that Mary Kay Bergman committed suicide. Mary Kay had provided ALL of the female voices for the show. This left the crew in a scramble to deliver episodes before they could find a replacement. This unfortunate turn did produce some memorable episodes, howev…r.
Audio
The box informs us that the episodes feature a Digital Surround track, but don’t expect much more than a center speaker or occasional mains. Still what the heck do we need fancy surrounds for on South Park. As long as I can hear Cartman, life is good. I do wish that they would avoid the bleep noises on home releases. We’re fair warned about language, so what’s the point?
Video
Each South Park episode is presented in its original television full frame format. Colors are pretty bright or at least as bright as construction paper gets. Let’s face it. South Park is not about picture quality. There is some shimmering on a few of the episodes. Expect this to look about as good as high-end digital cable.
Special Features
Sadly all we get are about 3 minutes per episode of Stone and Parker in what they call “commentary minis”. These are nice touches, but I miss the cool intros that came when the single disc volumes were being released. They do touch on some frank subjects, most notably the suicide of Bergman.
Final Thoughts
South Park can be funny as Hell or just as boring. Fortunately Season 3 was one of the funniest. Cartman’s Confederate General was almost as memorable as his Trike Cop in Chickenlover. After three years Cartman is only trying to get a little respect for his “AUTHORI – TY”
Special Features List
- Mini-commentaries from creators Tery Parker and Matt Stone
