When fans open the Blu-ray release entitled South Park: The Complete Twenty-Fourth Season, a potential surprise occurs. The package includes a single disc instead of the usual two.

In addition, Season 24 consists of only two – count ‘em, two! – episodes. Sure, they’re both “extended length”, but this still means a mere 94 minutes of content for S24.

I guess ya take what ya can get. Here’s what S24 provides:

The Pandemic Special (aired September 30, 2020): “Randy comes to terms with his role in the COVID-19 outbreak as the ongoing pandemic presents continued challenges to the citizens of South Park.”

I can’t pinpoint when South Park leaned heavily toward stories about Randy, but the series definitely declined when it followed that trend. With “Pandemic”, Randy follows a pretty predictable arc in many ways, so he becomes a drag on the episode.

Still, other aspects work well. While Cartman’s desperation to continue remote learning seems easy to anticipate, “Pandemic” milks some laughs from that scenario.

As a catchall look at six months of pandemic lifestyle, the episode bites off more than it can chew. Like much South Park material, its political POV mainly just exists to slap anyone it can find, and that scattershot approach feels disjointed and like a cop out.

Nonetheless, “Pandemic” manages a reasonably entertaining view of the topic. I don’t expect a lot from South Park in this era, so this becomes a fairly positive episode despite some missteps.

South ParQ Vaccination Special (aired March 10, 2021: “The citizens of South ParQ are clamoring for the COVID-19 vaccine. A new militant group tries to stop the boys from getting their teacher vaccinated.”

Over the five-plus months between “Pandemic” and “ParQ”, a whole lot changed in the landscape. Trump – here represented by teacher Mr. Garrison – got booted from office, political extremism went even crazier, and COVID vaccines entered the situation.

“ParQ” attempts to cover a lot of that, with an emphasis on the vaccine situation. The political domain becomes important but secondary.

Like “Pandemic”, I can’t claim that “ParQ” fires on all cylinders, but it hits on some entertaining points. It also largely lacks Randy, which I view as a positive.

The end result delivers a good episode, if not a classic. Still, given the lackluster nature of so much Park, I’ll take it.

South Park appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As usual, the episodes looked great.

Sharpness worked well at all times. This meant accurate, well-defined elements throughout the episodes.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent.

The series went with the usual basic palette of primary colors, and these looked solid. The tones appeared vivid and bright.

Blacks felt deep and dense, while shadows seemed smooth and clear. The Blu-ray replicated the shows well.

As for the series’ Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio, it also appeared comparable to prior years, so no one should expect particularly expansive soundfields. Outside of a few action-oriented scenes – which occur infrequently – the audio oriented toward music and general atmosphere.

In those domains, the soundscapes seemed satisfactory. Though never memorable, the material worked fine given the parameters.

Audio quality felt good, with dialogue that remained natural and concise. Music showed good pep and clarity.

Effects came across as accurate and rich, without distortion or other issues. Nothing here impressed, but the sound suited the shows.

No extras appear on the Blu-ray, as even the usual “mini-commentaries” go MIA.

It feels like a stretch to classify two episodes as a season, but Season 24 of South Park still works fairly well. Its two programs become better than average. The Blu-ray boasts excellent visuals and good audio but it lacks bonus materials. Hopefully Season 25 continues the positive trend seen here.