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It’s hard to believe that South Park has been offending religions, celebrities, other shows and just about everything out there to be honest for over ten years now. With eleven seasons under its belt the show and it’s creators seem to be showing no signs of slowing down or easing up on the insults.
The DVD’s have had an odd run to say the least. Over five years ago seasons one through four were released with no more to follow. Fans(along with myself were upset to say the least as America were getting up to season ten by the end of last year. Not until recently have Paramount answered our prayers and released the DVDs from scratch starting at seasons one, two and five with more due out soon too. Being a huge fan of the series I figured I would buy the collection starting with season number one. Having not seen the opening run of episodes for years I wasn’t sure what to expect. Shows often differ in style and quality since the first episode to the latest. Was the quality edgy material still there that early on?
I’m not going to talk too much about the visuals as I’m not an expert in that field. If it looks decent, I’m happy. One thing’s for sure though, visually the quality was definitely not there back then. While all animated shows start off looking fairly lacklustre, South Park seems even worse. Colours tones change, body parts of characters disappear or reappear in odd places and the animation itself is very basic. To say it’s a total disappointment wouldn’t really be true however as it is very humorous seeing the cardboard cut out pilot episode or Chef driving his car with a real life mountain background playing in the rear. It’s funny because it is so poorly animated. Matt and Trey knew they were creating something awful looking and they knew it would add to its charm.
Voices are totally different in this to what fans will be used to now. Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny you name it the voices sound slightly unusual. Again this can be related back to ten years of working with voicing the character and natural changes in the voice of the actor, but again it will make you laugh at how different Cartman sounds to how he is now.
Now onto the actual episodes, because of course there would be no point picking up this season if the content was poor. Well this is an okay season. It’s nowhere near the best South Park has performed but then again that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. In this box set you get all thirteen episodes of season one and I’d say around half are great. Some are good and there is the odd one that didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
The first season seemed more of an “out of this world” run with episodes relying heavily on catastrophes such as a huge robot Barbara Streisand taking over the town or mutant zombies eating everyone in sight. It makes a refreshing change to say the least since now everything seems slightly more down to earth in newer episodes with focus on messages to the viewer rather than silly events. They are just random fun intervals of twenty minutes with the odd joke here and there. What’s more the jokes don’t seem as clever or edgy as ones seen in seasons five onwards and the boundaries of taste seem fairly distanced here with the jokes feeling very tame for South Park standards.
Stand out episodes include “Pinkeye” which sees the MIR space station land on Kenny in the opening thirty seconds and later leading to zombies taking over the town, “Cartman’s Mom Is A Dirty ****” where Cartman asks that question everyone wonders, “Mom, who’s my Dad?” and Starvin Marvin where the four boys order a sports watch only to get an Ethiopian child by accident and Dr.Mephesto creates an evil race of Thanksgiving turkeys. As I mentioned before this season relies heavily on crazy events and that isn’t really a bad thing. While the pilot is still good to watch after all this time, others involving mutant clones, George Clooney as a gay dog and a talking piece of Christmas stool are equally enjoyable. However episodes like Damien where Jesus fights Satan in a boxing match and Volcano don’t fare so well as they are simply too uneventful and lack the spitfire jokes known for South Park. However what’s on offer here will still be more than enough for any South Park fan.
Extras is where this box set falls flat on its face however. There simply isn’t that much here. You have a few music videos that included Cartman singing “O Holy Night” and Ned another song. It’s that dull I forget the song name. Then for each episode there are introductions featuring Trey Parker and Matt Stone which honestly are pretty funny. What is sorely missing is some kind of commentary at least for one or two episodes or even some deleted scenes but sadly none are to be found.
Overall then the season one box set is pretty good. The usual random South Park humour is here but a lot tamer than we’re used and it’s fun to see where it all began. Fans will lap it all up but those of you who were introduced to the show later in its run may not like what they see here so if you’re looking for South Park at its best pick up seasons five or wait for three, four or six released in little over a weeks time.
7/10
The DVD’s have had an odd run to say the least. Over five years ago seasons one through four were released with no more to follow. Fans(along with myself were upset to say the least as America were getting up to season ten by the end of last year. Not until recently have Paramount answered our prayers and released the DVDs from scratch starting at seasons one, two and five with more due out soon too. Being a huge fan of the series I figured I would buy the collection starting with season number one. Having not seen the opening run of episodes for years I wasn’t sure what to expect. Shows often differ in style and quality since the first episode to the latest. Was the quality edgy material still there that early on?
I’m not going to talk too much about the visuals as I’m not an expert in that field. If it looks decent, I’m happy. One thing’s for sure though, visually the quality was definitely not there back then. While all animated shows start off looking fairly lacklustre, South Park seems even worse. Colours tones change, body parts of characters disappear or reappear in odd places and the animation itself is very basic. To say it’s a total disappointment wouldn’t really be true however as it is very humorous seeing the cardboard cut out pilot episode or Chef driving his car with a real life mountain background playing in the rear. It’s funny because it is so poorly animated. Matt and Trey knew they were creating something awful looking and they knew it would add to its charm.
Voices are totally different in this to what fans will be used to now. Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny you name it the voices sound slightly unusual. Again this can be related back to ten years of working with voicing the character and natural changes in the voice of the actor, but again it will make you laugh at how different Cartman sounds to how he is now.
Now onto the actual episodes, because of course there would be no point picking up this season if the content was poor. Well this is an okay season. It’s nowhere near the best South Park has performed but then again that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. In this box set you get all thirteen episodes of season one and I’d say around half are great. Some are good and there is the odd one that didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
The first season seemed more of an “out of this world” run with episodes relying heavily on catastrophes such as a huge robot Barbara Streisand taking over the town or mutant zombies eating everyone in sight. It makes a refreshing change to say the least since now everything seems slightly more down to earth in newer episodes with focus on messages to the viewer rather than silly events. They are just random fun intervals of twenty minutes with the odd joke here and there. What’s more the jokes don’t seem as clever or edgy as ones seen in seasons five onwards and the boundaries of taste seem fairly distanced here with the jokes feeling very tame for South Park standards.
Stand out episodes include “Pinkeye” which sees the MIR space station land on Kenny in the opening thirty seconds and later leading to zombies taking over the town, “Cartman’s Mom Is A Dirty ****” where Cartman asks that question everyone wonders, “Mom, who’s my Dad?” and Starvin Marvin where the four boys order a sports watch only to get an Ethiopian child by accident and Dr.Mephesto creates an evil race of Thanksgiving turkeys. As I mentioned before this season relies heavily on crazy events and that isn’t really a bad thing. While the pilot is still good to watch after all this time, others involving mutant clones, George Clooney as a gay dog and a talking piece of Christmas stool are equally enjoyable. However episodes like Damien where Jesus fights Satan in a boxing match and Volcano don’t fare so well as they are simply too uneventful and lack the spitfire jokes known for South Park. However what’s on offer here will still be more than enough for any South Park fan.
Extras is where this box set falls flat on its face however. There simply isn’t that much here. You have a few music videos that included Cartman singing “O Holy Night” and Ned another song. It’s that dull I forget the song name. Then for each episode there are introductions featuring Trey Parker and Matt Stone which honestly are pretty funny. What is sorely missing is some kind of commentary at least for one or two episodes or even some deleted scenes but sadly none are to be found.
Overall then the season one box set is pretty good. The usual random South Park humour is here but a lot tamer than we’re used and it’s fun to see where it all began. Fans will lap it all up but those of you who were introduced to the show later in its run may not like what they see here so if you’re looking for South Park at its best pick up seasons five or wait for three, four or six released in little over a weeks time.
7/10
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It’s hard to believe that South Park has been offending religions, celebrities, other shows and just about everything out there to be honest for over ten years now. With eleven seasons under its belt the show and it’s creators seem to be showing no signs of slowing down or easing up on the insults.
The DVD’s have had an odd run to say the least. Over five years ago seasons one through four were released with no more to follow. Fans(along with myself were upset to say the least as America were getting up to season ten by the end of last year. Not until recently have Paramount answered our prayers and released the DVDs from scratch starting at seasons one, two and five with more due out soon too. Being a huge fan of the series I figured I would buy the collection starting with season number one. Having not seen the opening run of episodes for years I wasn’t sure what to expect. Shows often differ in style and quality since the first episode to the latest. Was the quality edgy material still there that early on?
I’m not going to talk too much about the visuals as I’m not an expert in that field. If it looks decent, I’m happy. One thing’s for sure though, visually the quality was definitely not there back then. While all animated shows start off looking fairly lacklustre, South Park seems even worse. Colours tones change, body parts of characters disappear or reappear in odd places and the animation itself is very basic. To say it’s a total disappointment wouldn’t really be true however as it is very humorous seeing the cardboard cut out pilot episode or Chef driving his car with a real life mountain background playing in the rear. It’s funny because it is so poorly animated. Matt and Trey knew they were creating something awful looking and they knew it would add to its charm.
Voices are totally different in this to what fans will be used to now. Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny you name it the voices sound slightly unusual. Again this can be related back to ten years of working with voicing the character and natural changes in the voice of the actor, but again it will make you laugh at how different Cartman sounds to how he is now.
Now onto the actual episodes, because of course there would be no point picking up this season if the content was poor. Well this is an okay season. It’s nowhere near the best South Park has performed but then again that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. In this box set you get all thirteen episodes of season one and I’d say around half are great. Some are good and there is the odd one that didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
The first season seemed more of an “out of this world” run with episodes relying heavily on catastrophes such as a huge robot Barbara Streisand taking over the town or mutant zombies eating everyone in sight. It makes a refreshing change to say the least since now everything seems slightly more down to earth in newer episodes with focus on messages to the viewer rather than silly events. They are just random fun intervals of twenty minutes with the odd joke here and there. What’s more the jokes don’t seem as clever or edgy as ones seen in seasons five onwards and the boundaries of taste seem fairly distanced here with the jokes feeling very tame for South Park standards.
Stand out episodes include “Pinkeye” which sees the MIR space station land on Kenny in the opening thirty seconds and later leading to zombies taking over the town, “Cartman’s Mom Is A Dirty ****” where Cartman asks that question everyone wonders, “Mom, who’s my Dad?” and Starvin Marvin where the four boys order a sports watch only to get an Ethiopian child by accident and Dr.Mephesto creates an evil race of Thanksgiving turkeys. As I mentioned before this season relies heavily on crazy events and that isn’t really a bad thing. While the pilot is still good to watch after all this time, others involving mutant clones, George Clooney as a gay dog and a talking piece of Christmas stool are equally enjoyable. However episodes like Damien where Jesus fights Satan in a boxing match and Volcano don’t fare so well as they are simply too uneventful and lack the spitfire jokes known for South Park. However what’s on offer here will still be more than enough for any South Park fan.
Extras is where this box set falls flat on its face however. There simply isn’t that much here. You have a few music videos that included Cartman singing “O Holy Night” and Ned another song. It’s that dull I forget the song name. Then for each episode there are introductions featuring Trey Parker and Matt Stone which honestly are pretty funny. What is sorely missing is some kind of commentary at least for one or two episodes or even some deleted scenes but sadly none are to be found.
Overall then the season one box set is pretty good. The usual random South Park humour is here but a lot tamer than we’re used and it’s fun to see where it all began. Fans will lap it all up but those of you who were introduced to the show later in its run may not like what they see here so if you’re looking for South Park at its best pick up seasons five or wait for three, four or six released in little over a weeks time.
7/10
The DVD’s have had an odd run to say the least. Over five years ago seasons one through four were released with no more to follow. Fans(along with myself were upset to say the least as America were getting up to season ten by the end of last year. Not until recently have Paramount answered our prayers and released the DVDs from scratch starting at seasons one, two and five with more due out soon too. Being a huge fan of the series I figured I would buy the collection starting with season number one. Having not seen the opening run of episodes for years I wasn’t sure what to expect. Shows often differ in style and quality since the first episode to the latest. Was the quality edgy material still there that early on?
I’m not going to talk too much about the visuals as I’m not an expert in that field. If it looks decent, I’m happy. One thing’s for sure though, visually the quality was definitely not there back then. While all animated shows start off looking fairly lacklustre, South Park seems even worse. Colours tones change, body parts of characters disappear or reappear in odd places and the animation itself is very basic. To say it’s a total disappointment wouldn’t really be true however as it is very humorous seeing the cardboard cut out pilot episode or Chef driving his car with a real life mountain background playing in the rear. It’s funny because it is so poorly animated. Matt and Trey knew they were creating something awful looking and they knew it would add to its charm.
Voices are totally different in this to what fans will be used to now. Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny you name it the voices sound slightly unusual. Again this can be related back to ten years of working with voicing the character and natural changes in the voice of the actor, but again it will make you laugh at how different Cartman sounds to how he is now.
Now onto the actual episodes, because of course there would be no point picking up this season if the content was poor. Well this is an okay season. It’s nowhere near the best South Park has performed but then again that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. In this box set you get all thirteen episodes of season one and I’d say around half are great. Some are good and there is the odd one that didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
The first season seemed more of an “out of this world” run with episodes relying heavily on catastrophes such as a huge robot Barbara Streisand taking over the town or mutant zombies eating everyone in sight. It makes a refreshing change to say the least since now everything seems slightly more down to earth in newer episodes with focus on messages to the viewer rather than silly events. They are just random fun intervals of twenty minutes with the odd joke here and there. What’s more the jokes don’t seem as clever or edgy as ones seen in seasons five onwards and the boundaries of taste seem fairly distanced here with the jokes feeling very tame for South Park standards.
Stand out episodes include “Pinkeye” which sees the MIR space station land on Kenny in the opening thirty seconds and later leading to zombies taking over the town, “Cartman’s Mom Is A Dirty ****” where Cartman asks that question everyone wonders, “Mom, who’s my Dad?” and Starvin Marvin where the four boys order a sports watch only to get an Ethiopian child by accident and Dr.Mephesto creates an evil race of Thanksgiving turkeys. As I mentioned before this season relies heavily on crazy events and that isn’t really a bad thing. While the pilot is still good to watch after all this time, others involving mutant clones, George Clooney as a gay dog and a talking piece of Christmas stool are equally enjoyable. However episodes like Damien where Jesus fights Satan in a boxing match and Volcano don’t fare so well as they are simply too uneventful and lack the spitfire jokes known for South Park. However what’s on offer here will still be more than enough for any South Park fan.
Extras is where this box set falls flat on its face however. There simply isn’t that much here. You have a few music videos that included Cartman singing “O Holy Night” and Ned another song. It’s that dull I forget the song name. Then for each episode there are introductions featuring Trey Parker and Matt Stone which honestly are pretty funny. What is sorely missing is some kind of commentary at least for one or two episodes or even some deleted scenes but sadly none are to be found.
Overall then the season one box set is pretty good. The usual random South Park humour is here but a lot tamer than we’re used and it’s fun to see where it all began. Fans will lap it all up but those of you who were introduced to the show later in its run may not like what they see here so if you’re looking for South Park at its best pick up seasons five or wait for three, four or six released in little over a weeks time.
7/10