TVSquad

It looks like some extra goodies are being included with the South Park Season 11 DVD set. Not only do you get great episodes such as "Cartman Sucks", "More Crap" and the immortal "Imaginationland" story arc (I pray the season DVD includes the full commentary of the "Imaginationland" one), but the DVD also includes a 3-song download for the XBox version of the video game Rock Band.

This marketing move makes sense on a couple of levels. First, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are big gamers so they probably got some cool stuff that other gamers only wish they had access to. They even confess their hobby on one of their DVD mini-commentaries. Second, the season includes the episode "Guitar Queer-o", which uses the predecessor game Guitar Hero as central to the plot.

Our resident Spaced-nut Annie mentioned the upcoming region 1 DVD set back in March. If you haven't seen the show, just the fact that it's coming out is reason enough to go pick it up. It really is as good as everyone says. But if you have seen the show, it looks like this one will be worth checking out for you as well.

As I was going about my workday, a little blurb popped up on twitter from Diablo Cody that said, "SPACED (The ORIGINAL!) is coming out on DVD soon! (And a lucky bitch named Diablo Cody got to contribute commentary.)" That's interesting enough, and you should check out her Twitter feed. It's an entertaining read. Even better though, she goes on to add that we can also expect commentary from Bill Hader, Patton Oswalt, Quentin Tarentino, Matt Stone, and Kevin Smith. Sign me up for that.

A curious search later, Google sent me to spaced-out.org.uk, which confirms the commentary and goes into further detail about the extras included on the new set. They also have some fun quotes about the show from J.J. Abrams, Kevin Smith and Matt Stone.

(S12E07) While the kids are on an educational field trip to a living museum called Pioneer Village, Cartman forces Butters to sneak away with him from the class to go to the amusement center located nearby. While they're having a good time at the amusement center, a group of thieves break into Pioneer Village and take the class hostage. Hilarity ensues.

This episode is the last of the first half of season 12. South Park will return later in the year with seven more episodes.

(S12E06) South Park, along with the rest of the country, has lost the Internet. As a result, Randy Marsh takes his family on a trek to California to find it.

As someone who is an Internet addict, I certainly can understand the dilemma of this situation. I don't think we could go back to being a society without Internet, much as we can't go back to being a society without phones, television or cars.

As someone who works with the Internet for his day job, I had some problems with the simplistic way that it was presented. The Internet is used for much more than shopping or e-mailing (or, indeed, porn). Entire industries rely on it. The only part that struck me as truthful was seeing people live in a Great Depression-type state without the Internet.

(S12E05) It must be very tough for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to keep outdoing themselves. I don't know which image from tonight's episode was funnier: the mouse with the penis on its back running all over town (and, at one point, singing at the moon) or the photo of Mickey Mouse with a huge erection. It's a tough call.

More after the jump...

(S12E04) The South Park guys are going after the Writer's Guild of America, and it's about time.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are not members of any of the unions, and they negotiated Internet profit-sharing before it became an issue for the WGA. They have also remained consistent with their dislike of the Hollywood creative elite (including actors and writers, although they are both) and their willingness to take a different viewpoint than the popular media.

(S12E03) To begin, for those unaware, South Park Studios has started to offer full episodes of the show on their official site with limited commercial interruption. I originally reported this in November.

I'll say this: when the South Park team put their minds to it, they can come up with some fantastic animation. When you watch the crudity of the animation in standard episodes, it's easy to forget that they're pretty damn talented at their craft.

(S12E02) The thing that makes South Park stand out above all other television shows is the creators' ability to take an old idea and put a new spin on it with depth and good reasoning. This episode is a perfect example of that.

Britney Spears tries to escape her fame by hiding out in Colorado. Sadly, the paparazzi follow her and through a confluence of events, she blows her own head off with a shotgun. Fortunately, this is South Park and such things aren't fatal here.

(S12E01) After a routine tonsillectomy goes horribly wrong, Cartman comes face to face with his own mortality.

Season Twelve is out of the gate pretty strong. Unfortunately, it seemed to lose momentum towards the end.

Matt and Trey tackle the issue of AIDS...again (they have done so before, such as in the episode mocking Jared from the Subway commercials). They tend to present AIDS as a shock-value joke, but this time their take is slightly different.

According to Extremetech.com, MTV Networks, part of Viacom and the parent company of Comedy Central, plans to put every clip from the show South Park online and available to any viewer at no cost. Since Trey Parker and Matt Stone have already worked out a deal with the parent company to get a piece of South Park's online presence, they should be making a hefty chunk of money out of this (assuming the online episodes will work on an advertising model).

It's time for us to give away some stuff ... again! One of today's giveaways is for five copies of Christmas Time in South Park on DVD, which is already available in stores. All you've got to do is submit a comment below before 5PM Eastern, November 30, and mention your favorite Christmas moment from the series. We'll randomly choose five winners to receive the DVDs!

Some other details:

• To enter, leave a confirmed comment below stating your favorite Christmas moment from South Park.
• The comment must be left before November 30, 2007 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
  
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  
• Five winners will receive a copy of Christmas Time in South Park on DVD (valued at $19.99).
  

Click here for complete Official Rules.

(S11E14) It's a shame that this is the last episode of the season. Since the writers of South Park aren't in the WGA, they could continue and potentially increase ratings. However, it is the final episode of the season. So here's the final TV Squad review of the season.

The boys learn of a secret list that the girls in the fourth grade rating them from cutest to ugliest. Every seven episodes, the writing team partially writes an episode in advance so they don't fall behind schedule. This strikes me as that episode.

(S11E13) After seeing the title of this episode, I'm more embarrassed than I already was to admit that I'm a fan of Guitar Hero. In fact, I own all four versions of the game. There. I said it.

Thankfully, I will say that I never have, nor will I ever, play in my underwear. As far as you know.

This was a strange episode given what we've been seeing the past few weeks. We barely got anyone other than Stan and Kyle this time, but what we got was, as always, pure gold. Oh and by the way, one of our sister sites, Joystiq, liveblogged the episode tonight.

(S11E12) In the final chapter of this exciting trilogy, Cartman goes out of his way to get Kyle to suck his balls. Oh, and the government is trying to nuke Imaginationland.

It's kind of ironic that Trey Parker and Matt Stone celebrate imagination so much yet loathe the institutions that produce it (specifically Hollywood). But that's a discussion for another time.

(S11E11) So, it is a trilogy. And the barrier has been broken and the bad part of imagination is free.

There were enough references in the episode that made me deduce that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are fans of the current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica. The first hint was the opening words "Previously, on Battlestar Galactica..." The second was having Butters wake from death (as with the Cylons from the aforementioned show). And finally, a reference to the Council of Nine at the end of the episode (or was that a Babylon 5 reference?).