10 TV Episodes That Were Blatant Apologies
1. "You're Getting Old" - South Park
By the time South Park's fifteenth season kicked off, it's fair to say that the show had settled into a fairly complacent groove, dispensing a more comfortable and predictable brand of satire which some fans and critics felt had lost its razor-sharp edge.
In an interview published on the eve of season fourteen's premiere, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker called working on the show "a nightmare," which many fans interpreted as the duo being creatively burned out - hence the lukewarm quality of the last few seasons.
This was confronted head-on in season fifteen's unforgettable episode "You're Getting Old," where Stan (Parker) turns 10 years old and develops an overpowering sense of cynicism, viewing the world around him as though made of literal s**t.
The episode was widely interpreted as an expression of Stone and Parker's own creative dissatisfaction, effectively an animated mea culpa which also remains one of the show's best-regarded episodes to date.
Though South Park's quality has remained wildly inconsistent ever since, it nevertheless must've been cathartic for the pair to spill their guts in such a disarming and unique way.