Television Rick & Morty

Last week I commented this on the AV Club's recap of 3x8 (Morty's Mindblowers):

There’s been a serious lack of Beth, Summer and Jerry this season, and I think it’s resulted in the show not being as grounded in a sense of “reality” like before. As much as the show has all but disregarded the importance of one version of the Sanchez-Smiths over Sanchez-Smiths from other dimensions, we always had “our” Rick, Morty, Summer, Jerry and Beth.

A wedding on another planet? The entire family goes. Alien parasites invade Earth? Their house is the target. Rick gives them a Meeseeks box? Jerry’s inability to play golf brings the plot of that episode to its climax. The first two seasons were always based on how Rick’s influence affected Morty and Summer’s home and school lives, and how it put strain on Jerry and Beth’s marriage.

But now Jerry’s gone, and aside from ‘Pickle Rick,’ Summer and Beth’s appearances have been limited either to brief cameos (like in this episode) or B-plots (The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy). The best episodes of the first two seasons were driven by the family dynamic, so removing the family from the equation almost entirely means the dynamic of the show has changed.

How has it changed? Well, this season’s mainly spent its time alone with Rick and Morty, analysing their relationship. They’ve been the sole focus of four out of eight episodes this season. It means we’ve had an increasingly “sci-fi rigmarole” season while its usual tactic of grounding the show in characters like Summer, Beth and Jerry has been put to the side.

It’s still been a great season (the premiere, ‘Pickle Rick,’ ‘Rest and Ricklaxation,’ and ‘The Ricklantis Mixup’ are all show classics) and I’m frankly pleased that the writers have embraced the darker undercurrent that was growing throughout season two. But at the same time, the episodes haven’t quite had the same re-watch value for me.

Judging by the title, next week’s episode is Beth-centric, so maybe we’ll finally get to see how she’s feeling about the divorce and how she’s feeling towards Rick. That’s not a criticism of the show - I’ve still really, really enjoyed this season - but there’s a warmth to the first two seasons which hasn’t quite come through in this one yet. It doesn’t mean the show’s getting worse, the writing’s still very consistent, I just don’t feel so attached.
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And this week, after The ABCs of Beth, I posted this:

I feel like this episode proved the theory I posed last week, that having the entire Sanchez-Smith family involved in both the A and B plots allows the show to take necessary, sometimes profound, breaths. Taking Morty and Summer out of Rick’s hands and placing them in the B plot finally let us see where Beth stands with Rick after everything that’s happened to her.

After ‘Pickle Rick’ ended I thought the underlying arc of this season would be Beth’s relationship with her father, leaning on her abandonment issues or whether she blamed him for the way her marriage fell apart. I think not getting any immediate response to ‘Pickle Rick’ (which felt like a real turning point in Beth’s character to me) was what disappointed me.

But now we’ve finally reached the point the show had been delaying for a handful of episodes and it’s mostly everything I’d hoped for. We finally get a proper look into Jerry’s life post-Beth (beyond the wind whistling “Loser” at him) and it’s great to see Morty and Summer just acting like brother and sister again. Of course Jerry rebounds with a violent alien hunter who, it turns out, is rebounding right back with him.

But it’s obviously Rick and Beth’s conversation in the garage that’s the epicentre of this episode. (Beth’s finally been utilised!) She’s finally let herself recognise that Rick’s a manipulative and frankly dangerous person. Nihilism and cynicism aren’t inherently negative traits, as far as I’m concerned they’re healthy to have, but how he’s let them define and overrule him has messed them both up, irreversibly.

So she takes one last look at her family via fridge photos, and takes the clone option. And true to Rick and Morty’s core belief, this moment, which would have been absolutely huge in basically any other TV show, doesn’t even matter. A mother can learn that her father’s poisonous traits are hereditary, and she leave her children behind, possibly for the rest of her life, in the same episode. But none of it matters. Her children won’t even notice she’s gone.

There’s a comment in this discussion that says Rick and Morty’s at its best when it’s a “daring, boundlessly creative sci-fi comedy,” and to an extent I agree. But I think it’s at its best in moments like this. It uses its endless array of timelines and possibilities, and its bottomless box of scientific gadgets, to show that, despite the emotion, hardship and consequences running throughout the Sanchez-Smiths’ actions, their entire existences can be replaced or just completely forgotten about.

Truth be told, while this is something that’s convenient for the main characters in some instances (who wouldn’t want to leave a world of accidentally-created Cronenbergs behind in a second, or travel the universe knowing your children were in steady hands?), the fact that none of their actions have even left a trace is going to be crushing when it sinks in. And I think Beth’s eventually going to find that out. I’m worried for her.
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My thoughts about this season in general are kinda summarised in the two posts.
 
Soooo... how long did it all of you take to love this show (provided you do)?
I've watched 5 or 6 episodes so far and am still very much on the fence.
 
Good episode, so who else thinks Beths off on a jolly?
GhastlyHun said:
Soooo... how long did it all of you take to love this show (provided you do)?
I've watched 5 or 6 episodes so far and am still very much on the fence.
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About a second after it first aired.
 
I don't think we'll find out whether or not Beth is a clone or not, and I wouldn't be surprised if the writers aren't 100% sure either. There's no need for them to decide either way really.
 
I really liked that evil morty didnt show up. It was a nice surprise in a way.
I liked the season overall.
 
Sylar said:
I really liked that evil morty didnt show up. It was a nice surprise in a way.
I liked the season overall.
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Evil Morty and Phoenix Person feel like the end game for me, so I'm glad they didn't show up before their time.
 
So clearly clone Beth. Guess Rick does actually care about something.

Reckon next season we'll see Beth, Evil Morty and Rick/Morty face off on the citadel... In a year or 2!!! Argghh
 
Finale was the weakest episode of the season for me.
 
Twigg said:
While still pretty good, I feel like this season was weaker over call than the other two.
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Definitely. I guess it's to be expected though. Hard to maintain that sort of quality.
 
I think season 3 has my favourite every Rick and Morty episode, the episode about the Citadel of Ricks, but I definitely think it was the weakest season. Season 1 had some less than stellar episodes as well though
 
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Untied said:
Does this show have the worst fandom of any show ever
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To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Rick’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick’s existential catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.:lol:

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid:smirk:
 
Cheesy said:
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Rick’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick’s existential catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.:lol:

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid:smirk:
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berbatrick said:
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Cheesy said:
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Rick’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick’s existential catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.:lol:

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid:smirk:
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Hmmm... Where have I read this before?
 
R.N7 said:
Community used to have the worst fandom but I imagine a lot of them jumped the ship and switched to Rick and Morty instead.
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Can you explain this? What made Community fandom so bad? I'm genuinely curious and don't understand.
 
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