South Park: Season 23, Episode 3 "Shots!!!" Review

"Is it me, or are people starting to not be that stoked on Tegridy Farms?:

-Randy Marsh

When his mom takes him to get vaccinated, Cartman goes on a squealing rampage to avoid the needle.  PC Principal tells Cartman he can't come to school until he gets vaccinated, but he finds a way around it by declaring himself a conscientious objector.  The rest of the adults in South Park are upset Cartman is putting everyone else at risk and convince Lianne Cartman to let them help vaccinate her son, which fails spectacularly.  Eric ends up kicking Lianne out of the house.  

After making a deal with Chinese, Randy celebrates making $300,000 dollars with some wild celebrations, but his family is still unimpressed and angry with him.  Lianne shows up to buy some weed and she and Randy bond over their family problems, which convinces Randy to turn his back on the Chinese government and reform his partnership with Towlie.

The rest of the town organizes a rodeo to vaccinate all unvaccinated children.  As Eric gets hogtied, Lianne arrives, fights everyone else off, and says she will handle this herself.  In the process, she is accidentally injected with the vaccine meant for Eric.  The next day, Lianne takes Eric to get vaccinated, but suffers a side-effect from her vaccine, which makes her artistic.

What Works:

This episode has a lot of Cartman running around naked and squealing like a pig and I absolutely loved it.  That joke never got old and I was cracking up every single time.  It was just so absurd, but classic South Park.  Cartman being ridiculous is always fun and this was simply gold.

Cartman's whole plot to get out of being vaccinated was a great Cartman scheme and I wish we had gotten more of it.  What we did get was great, don't get me wrong, but I would have liked more of Kyle's reaction to his B.S.

Finally, the reunion between Randy and Towlie was awesome.  It's a hilarious scene, but it actually also has some emotion behind it.  Randy saying "F**k the Chinese Government" is a glorious moment and I give South Park major props for continuing their defiance against the Chinese.

What Sucks:

Randy's quote at the top of this piece is dead on.  I'm sick of Tegridy Farms, but I don't think that story is wrapping up anytime soon.  I think we've gotten all we can from this idea and it feels like we're just dragging it out now.  It's gotten old.

I know we're supposed to empathize with Lianne over the course of this episode as we witness her struggle with parenting difficulties, but I just don't.  Lianne is a terrible mother, bottom line.  I know you're not supposed to say that kind of thing, but I don't care.  Lianne is awful and an enabler to Eric's B.S.  I can't feel bad for this character anymore, she's allowed all of this to happen and the emotional aspects of her story are wasted on me.

I also found the ending of the episode to be really lackluster.  Lianne fighting her way into the rodeo is more aggravating than anything and her decision to get Eric vaccinated herself is just stupid.  They finally had her stupid kid tied up and she has to go and ruin everything again.  And the final reveal that she is now artistic just fell completely flat for me.  I just wish the anti-vaxxers were given the same treatment the 9/11 conspiracy truthers were back in "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce."  It felt like South Park went a little soft on them.

Verdict:

While "Shots!!!" has some funny moments with Cartman and Towlie, a lot of the episode was underwhelming.  Tegridy Farms is played out, I can't connect with Lianne's story, and the episode went soft on a group of people who deserve more ridicule.  It was funny, but could have been much better, especially considering this was the 300th episode.

 6/10: Okay