Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

obviously, they went political. now they're doing the whole evolution/aetheist thing vs creationism being taught in schools. and of course they're doing exaggerating it to prove a point. outside of the weird new-half butt sex scene with the aetheist evolution teacher, they had a bunch of beavers from the future intending to attack the aetheists. that part was just plain whacko. i know creatively the guys from South Park are out of juice. these days shows can be a clear hit or miss. and this is painfully obvious. they turn towards newspapers (and occasionally blogs, *AHEM*) for inspiration. it's kinda like the web these days where you have all these mashups where sites utilize each others' APIs. but unlike the web where the applications are useful, these shows just toss ideas together in a crude attempt to string things together. i know it's a parody of what's going on. but it's getting old fast. supposedly, these guys have a contract for a while still, but creatively things just cover the news. you could even see the writers frustrated at their own lack of creativity in the episode where Butters attempts to create plots that were original but couldn't because the Simpsons had already done it. in these cases, the best thing to do is just pull the plug. one thing i like about Japanese dramas is that they eventually have an end point. you build towards a conclusion and provide enough episodes to create characters, an environment and plot to drive towards the conclusion. American TV for the most part just keeps moving until a flood, major earthquake, etc. hits or until the entire cast is fired. either way, they need to cut it or do something similar in a multi-episode show that works towards a conclusion.