According to its promotional materials, South Park: The Streaming Wars could see the series bring back its divisive serialized storytelling. South Park has been experimenting with serialized storytelling ever since season 18 aired back in 2014. The experiment has been met with mixed reviews by critics and fans alike.
On the one hand, trying to serialize stories has allowed South Park to leave its comfort zone for the first time since the series transitioned from being a raucous gross-out comedy to a more politically-charged social satire around season 4. Serialization also let South Park tell more complicated and ambitious stories than ever before. However, plots like South Park’s Tegridy Farms saga proved that serialization can make once-funny characters tiresome and one-off gags grating.
Despite this, the brief trailer for the special South Park: The Streaming Wars proves that South Park isn’t done with serialized storytelling just yet. The promo sees Cartman complain about living in a Coney Island Hot Dog, one of the few serialized story details that were carried from one episode to another in South Park season 25. Cartman’s antics in “City People" (season 25, episode 3) left him and his mother renting the Hot Dog and, despite most of the season’s episodes being self-contained adventures, in “Help My Teenager Hates Me" (season 25, episode 5), they were still stuck there. This proved South Park’s riskiest storytelling strategy was still present in season 25, something that has been re-affirmed by the trailer for South Park: The Streaming Wars.
The fact that the special relies on Cartman’s frustration with this setup proves South Park is still experimenting with serialized storytelling. However, making the least conscientious character the one whose behavior has the longest lasting effects also shows that South Park is starting to learn from the mistakes the series made earlier in its serialized storytelling journey. Season 20 of South Park infamously attempted to center its plot around the 2016 election, only for the story to fall apart when the show’s creators didn't anticipate a Trump victory. The crucial difference in South Park: The Streaming Wars is that it is Cartman’s actions, not real-life events, that drive the serialized story.
One thing that South Park season 25 got right was giving real weight to Cartman’s actions. Famously the most morally dubious character on South Park, Cartman was also the character who most often got away scot-free when he enacted his sketchy plans. As such, forcing Cartman to live in the Coney Island Hot Dog due to his own short-sighted greed in an earlier episode allowed South Park to show the consequences of Cartman’s action pushing him to ever-more ridiculous schemes without the show relying on real-life events for its story. Serializing fan-favorite characters like Cartman’s plots instead of trying to predict future news events gives South Park: The Streaming Wars a stronger story structure for the special, which arrives on June 1.