South Park is finally coming back for Season 29 of the animated series, and the first episode of this new season sets up a promising shift for the new episodes that goes deeper than just its name change. South Park has already been building up buzz for its return to Comedy Central this year with the reveal that series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have “changed” the name of the long running series to “South America.” This already teases the kind of material we’d see in the new season, but there’s a more promising change taking place too.
One of the biggest criticisms of South Park Seasons 27 and 28 last year was the fact that it had largely shifted its attention away from the core four boys just going on their usual adventures to instead focus on the newly introduced take on United States President Donald Trump. But with the reveal of what to expect from the South Park Season 29 premiere, it seems like the show has renewed that focus once more with a new story seemingly putting the boys front and center.
South Park Season 29 Episode 1 is titled “South American Biker Gangs,” and the description for the episode puts the boys front and center of the story, “When e-bikes arrive in South America, the boys take over the streets and the parents of South America can hardly recognize South America.” The new name change for the town is obviously a reference to some current political events, and will likely include more references from Trump’s ongoing character, but the premiere seems to be touting a more town focused episode.
The town of South Park itself was largely ignored last year as some of the key characters didn’t even speak until late into the year. It’s something that Parker and Stone openly addressed in one of the episodes following a number of fan complaints, and it seems like that adjustment has been made for this new season. With the boys front and center of the newest promotional material for the premiere (which you can see in the video above and teaser trailer below), there’s a good chance that South Park has figured out how to focus more on the characters fans want to see rather than just the Trump storyline shenanigans.
It’s not likely that South Park Season 29 will see Trump disappear completely from the show considering that last year had some of the most watched episodes in many years. The premiere episode was all about Trump and South Park’s own political troubles, and it won South Park its very first Emmy in 13 long years. But it’s possible to have both stories going at once without the new Trump material dominating the show so completely like it did before.
With characters like Randy now in flux following the end of Tegridy Farms, it’s also likely that he’ll return to the dominating role he has in the episodes too. But if South Park finds a way to balance all of this with at least a premiere focusing on more of the boys, it’s off to a much better start than fans got to see in action last year. South Park Season 29 premieres with Comedy Central on Wednesday, September 16th at 10pm ET/PT, so we’ll see soon enough how it works out.
