South Park: The Complete Fourth Season

This incredible series continues to roll out on DVD rather quickly, as Matt Stone and Trey Parker's unexpected animated hit falls into a rare groove of both juvenile humour and clever tongue-in-cheek comedy. The first half of the fourth season finds the beloved boys of South Park in some classic moments, such as Cartman's creation of Fingerbang — a failed attempt at assembling America's hottest new boy band. The majority of the season featured plots that were pushing boundaries, including shows about child molestation and hate crimes, though the children never see it for what society does and often use these politically incorrect incidents to their advantage. This instalment of South Park really started to pick up steam when the boys enter grade four with Miss Choksondik, who herself isn't very amusing, but rapidly spawns the disc's best episodes. Cartman's obsession with his demonic Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper and Kenny carrying out disgusting dares for money are fantastic, but can't touch the annual Christmas episode that has Mr. Hankey's four-eyed son busting out Michael Bolton;s vocal range as the duo praise the importance of pooh in the animal kingdom. There's also the clever kindergarten election that came out just a few days after the Bush/Gore fiasco in 2000, showing how quickly this show turns around current events and manages to tear them apart. Parker and Stone continue to do five-minute commentaries for each episode, which are often amusing and always too short. The pair confirms what most knew already, and that's the level of hatred towards an entire show devoted to Pip recreating Great Expectations, making it one of the series' worst episodes. Apart from the small commentaries and the actual episodes, there's nothing else the DVD offers, unless you consider sneak peeks at other Comedy Central shows an extra. (Paramount)