Capsule Review: "Insecurity"

South Park used to always make its point by addressing its topic directly, with those sappy “I learned something today” monologues at the end of each episode. But the show’s satire is many times more scathing and effective when they just let the story play out. Be it saving the rainforest or gay conversion camp, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have a way of making a point painfully, brutally self-evident without their characters jumping on a soapbox.

In last night’s case, the target was home alarm systems, as the men of South Park seek to install them to protect their wives from being seduced by the UPS delivery man (a non-problem, only brought upon the town through a misunderstanding involving the bedroom habits of Kyle's parents). Though Cartman let them have it over the phone several times, much of the episode made it clear how Stone and Parker feel simply by showing how the alarms are only effective at creating a nuisance without actually helping to make people safer. Seeing alarms go off over and over got a little grating as the episode went on, as some gags on the show do over the course of an episode, but in this case, it helped hammer the point home even more. In addition, the episode found time to skewer Cialis ads, compulsive online shopping, and all our little insecurities (they have alarm systems for those, too, called “IN-security”).

The main storyline of the misunderstandings involving Kyles’ parents’ roleplay wasn’t as funny by the end as it was at the beginning, and the reference to The Dark Knight Rises seemed more superfluous than funny. Overall, though, this episode was solid, in both the comedy and commentary departments.