Rick and Morty

I mean, if you're somebody who just gets off on shows making wink-wink jokes about themselves, then this one was hilarious. I think it was a bit too much. But the stupid puns about the "Tickets Please Man" made me laugh out loud.

 

That, and Morty being forced to pass the Bechdel Test had me cracking up.

 

The Bechdel test was the highlight.

 

How the screen literally and figuratively wedged Ginsburg into the mix, I slid off the fucking couch.

And I’ll bet anybody five dollars that “Cum Gutters” becomes a thing after this.

 

Well, the was certainly the grossest thing since the “Cronenberg” episode. To say the least.

 

Rick and Morty is an even stronger example of the decline of shows like Archer.

The first season of RM was brilliant. The show ranged from funny, impressive improvisation to riveting adventure to creative science fiction, and at its very best, did all three. Outstanding work, and I was looking forward to Season 2.

Season 2 was okay, but a huge step down. There was still the occasional creativity and humor, but far less of it, and the creators begin taking their absurd universe too seriously and made their characters inconsistent and annoying. Rick went from genius, hedonistic, alcoholic fuck-up to some kind of anti-hero with a strain of morality and principle. Summer went from ditzy high school girl to Generic Smart Female Badass. Jerry was probably the worst, going from sitcom dad spoof to Shitty Stupid White Man. It's not funny, and is a weird kind of self-flagellation when one remembers who the hell makes this show.

Season 3 the show waded into average/mediocre territory. Incidentally, this is the same season Dan Harmon went into full-blown woke territory, declaring that half their writers will be women, including random people from Tumblr with almost zero experience. No, I'm not kidding. The funny part is a quick perusal of Wikipedia shows that the majority of episodes that make it to air are still written by men, so this failed, anyways.

I didn't think a single episode that season was good. At best, they were passable. I had absolutely zero interest in watching Season 4 and seeing how the show will degrade further.

However, I did happen to catch the Story Train episode in Season 4. What unbelievable, unadelterated, navel-gazing, ego-stroking bullshit. This is the purest form of writers enjoying the smell of their own farts and masturbating to their own intelligence in visual form.

As always with a once good show's decline, there is a lag in the audience catching on. Rick and Morty built up a lot of goodwill in Season 1, and Season 2 was still solid enough to keep the consensus positive.

But by Season 4, much like with Season 7 of Game of Thrones, the rot is impossible to deny. Ratings hit a peak in Season 3, but in Season 4, are much lower than Season 2 and even slightly lower than Season 1, despite the pandemic creating a captive audience.

Sad, but that's the problem with going for multiple season when you have about about 1.5 seasons' worth of ideas.

 

June 20th:

 

I'm re-watching this series while under the influence or at the gym, and find it enjoyable. I feel like the fanbase is a little overly enthusiastic, and the improv-y nature of it makes some of it feel half-assed. The sub-plots (the divorce, the Citadel of Ricks, the Galactic Federation) are all kind of lame, but tolerable.

I'd say watch the Pickle Rick episode (season 3, episode 3), and I laughed my tits off at the slut dragon episode (season 4, episode 4). Those two stick out to me, but there are others.

There's been a couple of copycats: Lower Decks and Solar Opposites (hell, even Archer did a space & sci-fi themed season), so I feel like it's not a complete fluke.

Alongside a lot of the other adult swim stuff I've seen like Frisky Dingo, Venture Brothers, Robot Chicken, and Aqua Teen Hunger force, it fits right in with the randomness, and tinkers with sci-fi tropes, instead of some of the others. For example, one episode deals with the plot of Terminator, but instead of humans, snakes...so an entire planet of snakes coming back in time to kill Morty, with some absurd details.

I'm definitely excited for the next season, and kind of glad they seem to be getting their shit together around completing the seasons on time.

 

I don't think you can count Solar Opposites as a copycat since it was developed by the same people. I imagine it more akin to a Family Guy/American Dad situation. Both are thematically similar and use the same formula, but I want to see where Solar Opposites goes with this new second season before calling it an outright re-hash.

 

I thought that was an awesome season premier. The whole time dilation/society completely dedicated to fearing and destroying Morty just got funnier and funnier.

 

Y'all wanna talk about Evil Morty?

 

I'm glad they finally circled back around to him but, the episode felt a bit anticlimactic. I feel like he will come back in a season or two and be more powerful.

 

The end scene with the yellow portal is what tipped that off to me.

“….yes, now EVERYBODY can shut up about it!!!”

 

This season was kind of disappointing. It felt like a knock-off Kinder egg: not bad, but compared to the real thing, you feel gypped. I watch this show when I'm doing cardio at the gym, and the most re-watchable episodes were Season 1 and 2.

I could do without the Citadel of Ricks and Evil Morty shit. I am wondering how long they are saving Beth's mom as a sub-plot.

I tend to enjoy the episodes where they riff on sci-fi or fantasy tropes, and this season they didn't seem to do it well. I feel like they've been coasting since Pickle Rick.

That said, the Birdperson episode and the Ultron episodes were highlights.