South Park: Season 23, Episode 7 "Board Girls" Review

"Luck is for dudes!"
-Heather Swanson



South Park ditches Tegridy Farms and becomes PC Babies!  This episode follows Strong Woman as she competes in a strongwoman competition and takes second place.  She loses handily to Heather Swanson, a transgender woman who looks remarkably like Macho Man Randy Savage.  Heather is also Strong Woman's ex-boyfriend, who is out for revenge.  Heather is obnoxious after her win and rubs it in Strong's face.  PC Principal attempts to stand up to Heather, but is called transphobic in the process.  Ashamed that the PC Babies will think their father is transphobic, PC Principal invites Heather to speak to the students of South Park Elementary.

Meanwhile, Cartman, Butters, Stan, Scott, and Clyde have started a board game club, but are forced to allow girls to join.  Tammy and Nicole are much better at the games than the boys and Cartman, Butters, and Scott go to Congress to force the girls out of their club.  Nicole and Tammy start a much more impressive club in response and the boys are not allowed in.

When Heather shows up to talk at the school and continues to brag that she can beat any woman in any competition, Nicole and Tammy challenge her to play board games against them and proceed to easily defeat Heather.  Cartman and Heather storm off to make a club of their own

PC Principal returns home to face his children and discovers they are not upset with him as they understand how nuanced the situation is.


What Works:

Having a parody of Macho Man Randy Savage as the center of this episode is utterly absurd, but hilarious.  Every scene Heather is in is fantastic and I couldn't stop laughing.  I get that this is a tricky subject, but I love that South Park turned this fictional scenario up to 11 and just ran with it.  It's great stuff.

It's also really clever to turn Macho Man Randy Savage into Strongwoman Heather Swanson.  It took me a long time to figure out why they chose Randy Savage for this and I commend South Park for using him based off the Macho Man moniker alone.  That's amazing.

PC Principal is one of my favorite characters are the show and he gets some fantastic development here.  He's becoming a more and more complex character and I think it's really interesting.  The point of this episode is to show that there is a lot of nuance to the subject of transgender athletes and I think the episode does a good job of making that point through PC Principal.

Finally, it's always very satisfying to watch Cartman's schemes blow up in his face.  I love that the gaming club the girls make is so much better that the boys.  It's fantastic karma.


What Sucks:

I wish the gaming storyline had been a bit funnier overall.  They could have made more jokes about board games.  It's a fine storyline overall, but it doesn't compare to PC Principal's.


Verdict:

"Board Girls" is a very funny and thoughtful episode of South Park.  Macho Man Randy Savage is insane and clever, PC Principal's story is well done, and the episode as a whole does a great job of showing how nuanced the subject is and never needs to make a clear point.  I wish the board game plot had been a bit funnier, but ultimately this episode has got it going on.

 9/10: Great 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Argylle (2024) Review

Image
 "The human skull is shockingly brittle." -Aidan Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a very successful spy novelist.  She draws attention from the espionage community when plot points in her books come true.  When Elly is attacked on a train by a group of spies, she is rescued by another spy, Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who needs her help with his mission and to do that, she needs to write another chapter of her latest book. Spoilers Below.  Go ahead and read on because I don't recommend this movie, but either way, you've been warned. What Works: Argylle has a really fun premise that really works in the first half of the movie.  It's a fish-out-of-water, buddy-cop, spy movie, and it's a blast.  Watching Ellie predict where to go based on what the characters in her books would do is a lot of fun.  It's what the whole movie should have been. The opening sequence follows Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) on another dangerous mission as he pursues the villainous LaGrang
Read more

Top 10 Movies of 2023

Image
2023 is finally over and it's time for me to put my Top 10 list together.  2023 was definitely a weaker year for movies.  There were definitely some great movies, but there were also plenty of disappointing and bad movies as well.  I still managed to put together a great Top 10 with a couple of worthy contenders that just missed the cut.  Let's take a look! #10. They Cloned Tyrone They Cloned Tyrone is a wild and fun sci-fi tale that takes place in the hood.  A drug dealer, a pimp, and a prostitute discover a cloning conspiracy and the results are intelligent and hilarious.  This is a really smart and funny movie with some amazing performances across the board.  This was a movie that kept me guessing the whole way through.  What an absolute blast. #9. Renfield I'm guessing Renfield will be the most controversial entry on my list as I feel like I'm the only person who liked this movie.  I love the old Universal monster movies and the fact that we get a direct sequel, whi
Read more

Madame Web (2024) Review

Image
 "When you take on the responsibility, great power will come." -Santiago Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson), a New York paramedic, hits her head in an accident, which unlocks the ability to see glimpses of the future.  When she sees Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) attempting to murder three teenage girls, Cassie intervenes to save them.  As Cassie learns to understand her power, she also discovers the connection between her, the girls, and Ezekiel. What Works: I think the core idea at the center of this movie is a good one and has the potential to be interesting.  Cassie's superpowers are kinda lame.  It's not like they're going to help in a combat situation.  Ezekiel is basically evil Spider-Man.  He has legitimate powers and is a massive threat.  That's an interesting conflict.  How does someone with lackluster superpowers take on a supervillain.  It's a fun idea that I would like to see tried again with greater success.  What Sucks: This movie was embarrassing to
Read more