From Towelie's major role to a risky Ukraine/Russia episode, the highs and lows of South Park season 25 tell a tale about the state of the series.

There were only six episodes in South Park season 25 but the long-running animated comedy series still managed to encapsulate everything that does (and doesn’t) work about the show in those brief outings. The future is bright for South Park in 2022. In August 2021, the show’s creators signed a $900 million deal with Paramount Plus guaranteeing at least six more seasons of the series and 14 South Park movies.

Whether the upcoming South Park movies will return to what made 1999’s South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut a success remains to be seen, but South Park season 25 bodes well for the spinoff. The season received largely positive reviews despite its truncated six-episode run, as these episodes still gave the series enough time to revisit some of its most frustrating missteps—but not everything worked. Ultimately, South Park season 25 managed to touch on everything the show gets right and all the areas where South Park needs to improve going forward.

Even in its brief runtime, South Park season 25 hit a few snags as the show relied on outdated characters and tired storylines. However, episodes like South Park’s Russia/Ukraine satire proved that the series could still nail current events as they happened, while "Help, My Teenager Hates Me!" (season 25, episode 5) showed that South Park was also still capable of pulling off more timeless, character-centric stories too. Meanwhile, South Park season 25 took the right approach to serialization by revisiting gags that worked and ignoring plots that didn’t need to be brought back, but the show let itself down when it got bogged down with characters who are overdue a retirement.

South Park Got The Satire/Story Balance Right

By balancing up-to-the-minute political satire with character-based stories, South Park season 25 ensured that its satire truly sang. “Back to the Cold War” (season 4, episode 4) was perfectly handled despite taking on the very sensitive subject matter of an ongoing international conflict, with South Park wisely opting to mock saber-rattling, war hawks, and misguided Cold War nostalgia without ever making fun of the victims left injured, dead, and unhoused by the conflict. Meanwhile, “City People” (season 25, episode 3) featured an extended gag about gentrification that allowed South Park to aim at a broader issue that has been around for some time now, followed by an episode mocking teenagers that was less socially conscious and more straight-up silly. This balance of explicitly political satire, broader social satire, and just plain old character comedy proved the series could still succeed on multiple levels, while The Simpsons copying South Park’s best season 25 jokes reaffirmed the hit rate of the satirical cartoon’s new outings.

South Park’s Tegridy Farms Joke Got Old (Again)

It was not all smooth sailing for South Park season 25. Not only did some storylines fall flat, but most of the elements that didn’t work were ones that have been failing for some time now. As far back as South Park's "Tegridy Farms Halloween Special" (season 23, episode 5) the show’s reliance on stories that center around Randy and barely involve the boys has been a weak point. The character is funny as a supporting star but, as South Park’s season 25 finale "Credigree Weed St. Patrick's Day Special" proved, he can’t sustain an entire episode without the involvement of Cartman, Kyle, Kenny, and Stan—even with Butter supporting the story. As far back as South Park’s Randy-centric parody of The Shining in season 16, the series has needed to bring the boys back when stories about Stan’s dad prove too one-note to sustain an entire episode.

South Park Got Serialization Right

While South Park’s over-reliance on Randy was a case of the show making the same mistake as before, the anarchic adult animation also proved that the series has learned from its missteps in season 25. In “City People,” Cartman’s antics lead him and his mother to be stuck renting a Coney Island Hotdog as a home, and surprisingly, this isn’t magically undone in the next episode. South Park’s risky serialization experiment was one of the show’s most divisive attempts to shake up its formula, but the plot of “City People” is a case study that proves the series can use serialized storytelling to its advantage and not its detriment. The dozens of mindless, gentrifying yuppies that South Park’s local populace shoot and kill in the episode are never addressed, most likely because depicting realistic consequences for this over-the-top incident wouldn’t be particularly funny.

However, Cartman’s tenure as a real estate agent resulting in him living in a cramped hot dog with his mother is kept in future episodes because it’s a hilarious image. South Park season 25 showed that the series can balance absurd jokes while still keeping some elements of the show’s story serialized by only allowing one episode’s events to impact the next week’s plot when it is funny or fitting. Much like The Simpsons can bring back Bleeding Gums Murphy from the dead despite the character being killed off over 20 seasons ago, South Park’s approach to serialization lets the show pay off jokes across multiple episodes while still leaving room for a lot of cartoony absurdity that will be ignored by future outings. This approach recaptured the chaotic but internally consistent balance of classic South Park.

South Park Got Canon Right (But Character Choice Wrong)

Explaining that Token’s name was Tolkien all along was a great way for South Park to jokingly retcon its own embarrassing past. However, keeping the character of Towelie around decades after he became a grating, one-note addition to the cast also proves that South Park is perhaps a bit too wedded to its canon and can’t let go of elements that don’t work anymore. South Park abandoning serialization for a return to episodic storytelling proved the show was willing to admit when an experiment failed, while South Park’s ambitious feature-length specials provided further evidence that the series could evolve and change with the times and offer bigger, stranger stories in the process. However, centering some of season 25’s plots around the exploits of Randy Marsh and Towelie despite the season only having 6 episodes proved that South Park is far from infallible despite the show’s strengths.

More: South Park St Patrick’s Day Special Highlights Strange Season 25 Change