South Park Season 29 has gone back on a major character change made last year, and it is a big improvement as PC Principal is now back to his more classic self with the latest episode. South Park Season 29 has been more of a return to form to the earlier seasons of the animated series. Rather than be solely focused on United States President Donald Trump as seen with Seasons 27 and 28 last year, it’s almost as if the series has been distancing itself with a course correction.
Like with the change of the series’ name and town to “South America” for Season 29, South Park has made some notable changes to many of its other characters and storylines that have essentially been shifting away from all of the changes made last year. But one of the biggest comes with the latest episode as PC Principal has been returned to his formerly “Politically Correct” self rather than the “Power Christian” version of the character he had been turned into last year.
South Park Season 29 has decisively shifted much of its focus away from Trump and the political stories that had been dominating the animated series last year, but has been indirectly addressing it through its equating the release of Grand Theft Auto VI to the midterm elections changing the country. But with the elections now passed ahead of the newest episode, series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone address this directly once more as Mr. Garrison officially reintroduces PC Principal back as his older self and not the “Power Christian” he had turned into last season.
With Garrison remarking “Of course we could just go on and on and make a bunch of jokes about him” and noting how the series was just not going to do that this episode. Instead Garrison reveals that the school will be enacting “liberal changes” with PC Principal back in the fold and celebrating the fact that he’s returned to his older self. With PC Principal even saying he’s been “messed up the past couple of years,” and is planning to get things back on track. It’s a great move forward going back on all of the changes that just had not been working with the character before.
South Park is in an interesting place as Season 29 now reaches its finale. Ever since it changed its name to “South America,” there was a worry that it would be once again dominated by all of the political stories and side characters like seen with last year. Instead each of the episodes thus far have been a pointed return to the core characters with the boys and their immediate circle getting the bulk of the stories seen with this season thus far.
It seems that while focusing so much on Trump last year ended up with some of the most watched episodes of South Park in a long time, the series has bounced from that idea and is just focusing more on the characters themselves. It’s resulted in some great work so far, but we’ll have to see what it means for the finale. How are you liking all of these changes in South Park Season 29 so far? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments.
