This is sad but this season of South Park has been bringing many current events to my attention that I didn't know of before. That shows you how much I watch the news and read the papers. Anyways, after watching this week's episode I learned about the Oculus headset, which is a virtual reality headpiece that's coming out in 2015.
This episode opened quite enjoyably with Cartman once again screwing with Butters by making him believe Eric's homemade Oculus ripoff, scrapped out of garage equipment, was actually sending him into a virtual reality--- this reality. I was all smiles when Butters was walking around school with the Oculus headset on, raving about how "real" everything is.... of course it is, BUTTERS, it's the REAL world. HA.
Like with every Cartman-Butter's scheme, things goes awry. Butters completely buys into the virtual reality world so much that he actually goes on a GTA style rampage, stealing cars, assaulting hookers, but best of all blasting his father in his private area for all the times he's been grounded. There sure has been a lot of emphasis on Stephen Stotch's character this season and it's made him one of the more interesting parents to watch behind Randy Marsh.
After a visit to an updated looking Hell's Pass Hospital the episode takes a turn into this wild never-ending maze. Apparently NONE OF THIS IS REAL and each setting is just another virtual world for another one of the boy's in their Oculus headsets. The problem here is that the Oculus's have malfunctioned and the characters are stuck believing their virtual world is real and they can't get out. Sounds confusing? It is. The whole episode, although entertaining, keeps flipping the script so many times that I lost which reality they were in rather quickly. What keeps this 'Inception/Memento' mind trip going are the light gags such as the "grounded" rules of virtual reality that state if your grounded in virtual reality you are grounded in real life, and the "f--- youuu" the boys utter whenever a new reality is introduced. There is also the Indian guy customer service gag, which is an okay joke, but in the "real world" even though we do stumble upon the occasional heavy-accented representative, most of them actually speak fluent English. I shan't forget the references to The Matrix and Inception and probably other films I don't know.
In the end, the episode was able to dig itself out excusably, ( I really didn't think it had a chance), with a little live-action South Park and a rip on the series' graphics.
Uniquely this week's South Park brought to my attention a current event or new technology, but didn't quite offer an opinion about it. Instead it took the virtual reality concept of Oculus and made a wildly imaginative and ridiculous premise out of it and let the boys play around in it. After opening strong with Cartman and Butters, the rest of the jokes were able to generate smirks. The subject matter was very confusing especially the cuts between the Indian representative talking to himself, but the resolution was somehow able to clear up everything and excuse the traffic.
3 more episode remain in this season!
Holiday special I hope!
till next week.
This episode opened quite enjoyably with Cartman once again screwing with Butters by making him believe Eric's homemade Oculus ripoff, scrapped out of garage equipment, was actually sending him into a virtual reality--- this reality. I was all smiles when Butters was walking around school with the Oculus headset on, raving about how "real" everything is.... of course it is, BUTTERS, it's the REAL world. HA.
Like with every Cartman-Butter's scheme, things goes awry. Butters completely buys into the virtual reality world so much that he actually goes on a GTA style rampage, stealing cars, assaulting hookers, but best of all blasting his father in his private area for all the times he's been grounded. There sure has been a lot of emphasis on Stephen Stotch's character this season and it's made him one of the more interesting parents to watch behind Randy Marsh.
After a visit to an updated looking Hell's Pass Hospital the episode takes a turn into this wild never-ending maze. Apparently NONE OF THIS IS REAL and each setting is just another virtual world for another one of the boy's in their Oculus headsets. The problem here is that the Oculus's have malfunctioned and the characters are stuck believing their virtual world is real and they can't get out. Sounds confusing? It is. The whole episode, although entertaining, keeps flipping the script so many times that I lost which reality they were in rather quickly. What keeps this 'Inception/Memento' mind trip going are the light gags such as the "grounded" rules of virtual reality that state if your grounded in virtual reality you are grounded in real life, and the "f--- youuu" the boys utter whenever a new reality is introduced. There is also the Indian guy customer service gag, which is an okay joke, but in the "real world" even though we do stumble upon the occasional heavy-accented representative, most of them actually speak fluent English. I shan't forget the references to The Matrix and Inception and probably other films I don't know.
In the end, the episode was able to dig itself out excusably, ( I really didn't think it had a chance), with a little live-action South Park and a rip on the series' graphics.
Uniquely this week's South Park brought to my attention a current event or new technology, but didn't quite offer an opinion about it. Instead it took the virtual reality concept of Oculus and made a wildly imaginative and ridiculous premise out of it and let the boys play around in it. After opening strong with Cartman and Butters, the rest of the jokes were able to generate smirks. The subject matter was very confusing especially the cuts between the Indian representative talking to himself, but the resolution was somehow able to clear up everything and excuse the traffic.
3 more episode remain in this season!
Holiday special I hope!
till next week.
- jc