Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-27157617-20120906095244/@comment-25344094-20151028201536

Neither. Of course the series evolved over time, some things disappeared (Kenny's repeated deaths for example), others were added (Butters) and there were bad seasons, rather good seasons and everything in between. The series got more focused over time, from "Cartman And The Anal Probe", which doesn't directly criticize anything, to "The City Part of Town" which is clearly about procrastination. There are outstanding episodes from the beginning ("Scott Tenorman Must Die") as well as from the latest season ("Safe Space") and one I'd even regard as educational valuable ("Dancing with Smurfs" on the power of media and media literacy).

Season 19 however felt more or less like a complete reboot; the episodes were embedded in a greater story (what makes randomly picking and watching old episodes a bit more difficult), the "I learned something today" is no more, Principal Victoria was replaced, Mr. Garrison went away (I assume he's back after the election), Cartman totally changed and the town partially got some huge redesigns. On the technical side I noticed that there are way more "plop" sounds when a character is speaking into a microphone (what makes it sound more realistic) and the animations are hardly stop motion style. It all felt totally strange at the first time, but now after episode four I get used to it and slowly start to like it.

TL;DR

It changed a lot, but I can't tell if to the good or to the worse.