South Park Season 27 Can Reverse A 5-Year Trend That's Caused A Big Problem For One Main Character

Summary South Park season 27 needs more episodes to fix recent disappointing trends in shorter seasons.

Kyle's limited role in recent seasons highlights a shift away from the original child-centered satire.

The show's focus on Randy over its original main characters leaves South Park feeling less unique and innovative.

Although South Park’s recent seasons have been significantly shorter, season 27 still has enough time to fix a disappointing trend from the show’s latest outings. South Park has changed a lot since the show began airing in 1997. The first few seasons of South Park featured as many as 18 episodes, with even the shortest of these outings including 13 episodes. However, 2013’s South Park season 17 cut that number down to only ten, the lowest number since South Park season 1. Judging by the show’s recent outings, South Park season 27 will feature even fewer new episodes.

South Park seasons 25 and 26 included only six episodes apiece, with two feature-length specials arriving after those seasons ended. South Park season 27 seems set to continue this trend, meaning it will be one of the show’s shortest outings. After seasons 18—20 experimented with serialized storylines, seasons 25 and 26 saw the show return to its usual format. However, South Park season 27 still has problems that the show must fix despite dropping this divisive serialized style. Chief among these is the bizarre decision to effectively forget one of the show’s main characters in recent seasons.

Kyle Needs A Bigger Role In South Park Season 27

Kyle’s Only Role In The Last 5 Years Was Limited

Close

Only one episode in the last four South Park seasons (and the show’s last four specials) focused on Kyle, even though the character used to be one of the show’s heroes. Kyle was the focus on season 26, episode 2, “The Worldwide Privacy Tour,” wherein he and Butters were forced to aggressively “Rebrand.” While this storyline did see South Park address the fact that Kyle has been underused in recent seasons, one episode in five years is still a pretty minimal role for one of the show’s main characters. As solid as the outing is, the episode only compounded Kyle’s problem.

Since the show’s inception, South Park’s original premise focused on satirizing the adult world through the eyes of children. Unfortunately, Kyle’s lack of screen time shows how much the series has moved away from this approach in favor of something less innovative. Four episodes of South Park seasons 25 and 26, as well as all four of the show’s streaming specials, gave Stan’s father Randy a major role in the series. Focusing on Randy over Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, and Stan leaves South Park feeling less unique and more like just another adult animated comedy series about a maladjusted middle-aged suburban father.

South Park’s Lack of Kyle Episodes Highlights A Series Problem

The Show’s Focus Has Strayed From Its Young Heroes

Close

By centering entire episodes on characters like Randy Marsh and, bizarrely, supporting stars like Clyde, South Park has proven that the show isn’t interested in its original main characters anymore. Unfortunately, South Park: Snow Day’s critical failure makes it likely that season 27 will continue this approach. Although season 25, episode 5, “Help, My Teenager Hates Me!” began by focusing on Kyle, the episode soon pivoted to center on his father instead. This echoes a pattern that recent South Park outings have indulged in, where the show’s older characters take much of the screen time and story focus from their kids.