[6.2/10] For the most part, this is fine. With this special, Matt and Trey find a clever way to meld social commentary on increasing drought conditions and water rights with the proliferation of streaming services. The problem is that they don’t go much beyond that. Every time Stan or Butter talks about providing boats (read: content) for “streaming” services that provide literal water, the double-meaning gets a little less clever. And while it was pleasant enough when *South Park* brought back Al Gore and Manbearpig for a mea culpa, the monster feels awkwardly shoehorned into a story centered on the actual effects of climate change. The metaphors here are sharp enough, but run out of gas quickly.

Plus, it’s a long outstanding complaint from *South Park* fans that, by god, not everything needs to turn into some crazy conspiracy theory. Again, while I get a kick out of the continuity nod of bringing back Pipi from the water park, him being in control of a vast urine-centric network of operators there to take advantage of the water crisis is a pretty tiresome conclusion from this show.

Likewise, I’m pretty tired of Randy as a character overall. Using him to comment on the rise of the term “Karen” is fine, I guess. But it doesn’t amount to much, and the show doesn’t have anything to say on the topic that hasn’t been said a dozen times elsewhere.

That said, there’s a couple of solid parts that boost this one. For one, it’s interesting to see Matt & Trey, of all folks, come out on what seems like the side of conservation. It’s never been their jam, and maybe I’m overreading. But the closing musical montage about people overusing water was, frankly, pretty chilling, so kudos on that.

What’s more, I found myself enjoying the Cartman story, against all odds. Ever since the dog-whisperer episode, it's been a little thrilling to see Lianne stand up to her son. The absurdity of him trying to get out of his hotdog hut and into something “coo” by convincing his mom to get breast implants to lure a rich stepdad is amusing enough. But the real peak here is the way he (seemingly innocently!) gets his friends to contribute monetarily so they can afford his mom’s “surgery.” Cartman going too far, yet again, but having to live with the consequences since his mom won’t placate him, and his friends are just now realizing what the funds he asked for were really intended for, is a good comic setup.

Overall, this one is perfectly watchable, and has a handful of laughs, but ends up a bit disappointing given how quickly the cleverness of the combined water rights/streaming service commentary starts to fade.