South Park - The Complete Twelfth Season (Blu-ray Disc)

There are a few television shows I enjoy watching the complete season all at once, but as individual episodes they do absolutely nothing for me. "South Park" is one of those shows. With only 14 season twelve episodes digesting the whole thing in a couple of sittings is an extremely easy task and this latest season release from Comedy Central and Paramount Home Entertainment is perhaps the most feature filled "South Park" season I have reviewed, arriving with three behind-the-scenes featurettes and the traditional Trey Parker and Matt Stone mini-commentaries. Does that make it any more valuable? Perhaps to die-hard "South Park" viewers I would say it does, but for casual watchers such as myself you have to ask yourself just how many times you plan on slipping these seasons into your player.

First off, the idea of "South Park" in high-definition seems almost contradictory to everything we have ever gotten from the construction paper animated characters, but the show does look great and as much as this cartoon is merely an animated diversion for me I have to admit I get a lot of enjoyment out of watching it. The twelfth season is probably the raunchiest I have seen yet as it begins with Cartman getting HIV and passing it on to Kyle before Magic Johnson helps find a cure and ends with spoofs of High School Musical and an indirect spoof of Twilight fans. In between you get a Grapes of Wrath parody involving a worldwide loss of the Internet (which includes one scene even the creators admit they are surprised they got away with), as well as the raping of Indiana Jones, a conspiracy surrounding the Presidential election, the "China problem," a genetically-developed penis growing on the back of a mouse and worldwide destruction caused by guinea pigs. To say this show doesn't think outside the box would be quite foolish.

The behind the scenes features are a bit redundant, but certainly all encompassing as one of them spans an hour and 20 minutes taking a look at the six-day process of creating the show with commentary from the creators themselves. Early on they have a lot to offer as they discuss the process while looking at a series of storyboards for the episode "Super Fun Time" but as the six-part doc moves on there's less and less to talk about as they even begin laughing at the fact they are trying to come up with new things to say. However, it is interesting if you skim through which is what I did. The process is then repeated with a simplified look at the making of "About Last Night" and then you get a bit of a deviation with the making of "Major Boobage".

However, for me the best part of any "South Park" DVD/Blu-ray release are the commentaries with Parker and Stone. Sometimes it seems I am only watching each episode to rush back to the beginning to learn what inspired the episode and get their thoughts on each subject. Parker and Stone aren't afraid to let it be known they don't like recording the commentaries and each one doesn't last very long as a result, but these releases would be diminished greatly if they didn't contribute a few words per episode.

Overall I think this is yet another solid "South Park" release which carries more features and some classic episodes. However, I can't say I have ever returned to any of the previous "South Park" seasons I have reviewed and I have given them all glowing reviews so I am not sure they are worth the purchase even though I enjoy them as much as I do.