Rick and Morty is in crisis, and we’re not just talking about the few intense fans who make the show look bad. The show, as a whole, already seems to be running out of steam. (Spoilers ahead!)
No wonder, then, that the latest season ended with the promise of a more streamlined refresh. There just wasn’t any place for Rick and Morty to go.
In the latest episode of the Favecast, embedded above, Gita Jackson and I take a look at season three of Rick and Morty, the stigma the show has accrued on the internet, why people glorify Rick even though he’s a horrible guy, how the show falters in its central message and how other comedy shows deal with nihilism and other depressing topics in an effective way.
If you watch things like BoJack Horseman, The Good Place, or You’re The Worst, you’re going to enjoy this episode of the podcast — but you should probably be caught up on Rick and Morty before listening! Later on, we talk about in-game events and games that make us cry around the 48 minute mark.
We’re on iTunes here (leave us a review!), Google Play, Spotify, Sticher, and iHeartRadio.
Comments
28 responses to “Rick And Morty’s Most Recent Season Didn’t Have Much To Say”
The last season didn’t contravene enough social taboos to make it the guilty pleasure that set it apart when it started. Anything you can watch with your parents isn’t edgy enough.
Eh, I watched seasons 1 and 2 with my Dad and felt far less embarrassed about doing so than I did watching season 3.
For all its purile, perverted or disgusting elements, season 1 and 2 had some absolutely brilliant moments – The ending to Rick Potion no. 9 for example, or the Roy game in Blitz and Chitz, but season 3 had nothing. It didn’t have a single killer joke, a single line or moment that really impressed me and worse still they seemed to mock the idea of the rather generic structure that s1 and s2 had without replacing it with anything better. The contrast offered between the Rick and Morty/Summer A plot and the Beth and Jerry B plot worked really damn well, and breaking from that is fine, but the end result lacked the quality of even the worst s1 and s2 episodes. It was just disappointing.
I thought Simple Ricks was a great laugh.
That was the only good episode, tbh. It was the only one that pushed the story forward. Everything else resets, as Beth says, is “like it was in season 1” or something
Still made me laff though
Your sell for the podcast isn’t great either.
Rick and Morty ran out of steam this season and wasn’t very good. We’re going to talk about it. But if you haven’t seen it, watch the sub-par season, then listen to our podcast. Wait wut?
I can’t say listening to Patricia and Gita sounds interesting under any circumstance.
I thought it was better than the previous seasons. Loved the citadel episode, liked the rest
I thought the citadel EP was one of the strongest but the rest weren’t great. They had moments of brilliance, but most of it was random shit like “Rick is a pickle now lol.”
Yet if you ask, those ‘random’ bits are the ‘most hilarious’ parts. Interdimentional cable, anyone? don’t get me wrong, it was great, but even the creators agree there’s only so much.
The Pickle Rick episode, the first bit before the credits rolled with Morty looking at him with a “…and? What even is this?” expression mirrored my own. “Oh god, tell me this hasn’t set the tone for the whole episode.”
Thankfully it didn’t. I think I actually enjoyed the Smiths trip to therapy more than the Die Hard parody that Rick was on. It was great seeing how Beth ticks especially, which was even greater when she and Rick went on an adventure, something she’d hinted at knowing very little about and wanting in on all the way back at the end of season 2.
Season 3 had character development. A lot. Morty’s starting to get real fed up of Rick’s shit and has become a lot more capable (Knowing how to disarm neutrino bombs for example with no fear) We got to see more of Summer and Beth and even Jerry.
As for running out of steam, no, it’s just that with Rick having all the power, he becomes like Saints Row 4. Having everything and being able to do whatever you want with unlimited power and nothing that can challenge you to rail against…becomes boring. The writers were well aware of it, which is why the whole season was dealing with Jerry being apart, what the citadel was up to and building both to become even harder to break away from in future. We have Beth now willing to stand up to Rick and defend Jerry. We have the Citedel of Ricks; once relatively happy to let Rick do whatever before being obliterated, now being run by Evil Morty, who no doubt has a grudge against our Rick. He now has restraints and things to rail against.
The Pickle Rick episode was a fave for me, from the initial “this can’t go anywhere” moment to a whirl wind of insanely useless hilarity that ended in a blockbuster Die Hard-esque caper.
But the part I loved most is the Psychologist, who shrugged off Ricks mockery and delivered a savage but fair comment on Ricks behaviour that left him speechless.
Summer and Morty weren’t the only ones who wanted to see her again.
That’s the thing, I enjoy the character development and theme of the episodes way more than the random stuff. I don’t think Pickle Rick added that much to the episode except meme fodder.
I disagree with the claim that most random = most funny, if only because while interdimensional cable is one of the best episodes of season 1 (and perhaps the series), interdimensional cable 2 is possibly the weakest episode of season 2 (andante the series?)
It really was. You could feel that they didn’t really want to do a second one.
Does it have to say something? Can’t it just be fun?
It can. But it wasn’t as funny as Season 1 or 2, which causes worry that the show is stalling out after reaching for the sun. With a 2 year+ wait for Season 4, it will have just that last chance to save the series. Oh, AS will still air it for another few seasons, but it’ll fall out of favor with the internet without something big.
Great show. No complaints. Moving on.
I’d hardly call it a crisis. This season did seem a little flat. I think when you have such an awesome first episode but such a disappointing finale that’s gonna take the enthusiasm out of people. I personally felt the finale didn’t end right, like they rushed it and it was anti climactic.
I think people are getting bogged down on something that was never going to happen.
Most shows either set a tone from the start or have an established commentary by the third season.
From there we can decide if the “humour” aligns with the way we think.
But I’m not sure Rick & Morty has much to say about anything so much as just saying it, a mash up of statements from no particular belief structure beyond the fact that alcohol and improv are a funny idea.
Should check out the comics, it has some duds as well but also some stories that would’ve been awesome on screen.
Bring on Dofus Universe Jerry!!!
“…why people glorify Rick even though he’s a horrible guy”
That’s easy. People like Rick because he’s pure id. He does what he wants, when he wants, with zero lasting consequences. He destroys anyone who crosses him, he treats his family with contempt, he indulges in every vice under the sun, and if anyone calls him out on any of it he makes them feel like they’re the problem.
Don’t like your boss? Don’t like your family? Hate that you feel that society is dumb and should appreciate you more? Well, Rick feels all that too, and he’s a genius. It’s a power fantasy, plain and simple. I personally feel that Rick’s a horrible person who takes his emotional baggage out on everyone around him.
I think you summed it up.
Basically because they’re all horrible people too who just wish they could get away with it like Rick does?
I think the season would have ended better with evil Morty episode. Lil anticlimatic with the president.
Personally I didnt enjoy season 3 as much as the first 2. Am I going to watch every future episode however?…. damn straight.
i mean didnt any one watch the first ep, they said they was doing this.
Lots of what is taken as the “meaning” of the show is just a side effect of how it explores sci fi concepts to any ridiculous extreme. Rick is the loose cannon that allows the whole show to exist, by his own broken humanity. It is testament to the talent of the writers and voice actor that he is utterly vile and yet we sympathise with him.
Rick doesn’t lack a conscience because that is the message of the show, he lacks it because that allows everything to happen – without having to write in some conceit like a big bad who runs amok every week, or convoluted accidents with legitimate experiments. Rick is the big bad and the big good. A bored chaotic neutral demigod and we get to watch his adventures.
A lot of the nihilism and references to the internal struggles of the characters to deal with what they have seen and done to me seem to read as self-referential commentary. Like the show started with no rules but as people buy into its success and read meaning into it, the show is responding. It is saying “these characters, even in this fantasy world, can’t just act this way without repercussions”.
Stop expecting Breaking Bad from Rick and Morty. It’s been kinda frustrating watching since the first season and then to have all these peeps jump on at the Netflix point, binge watch it, and then expect thematic consistency because of their own frame of reference (absorbing it back to back).
It doesn’t need to say anything anything an anything it does say is incidental to the characters’ pre-existing traits.
Just enjoy the reasoning that reveals itself amongst the chaos. That’s what made it good to begin with.
In an interesting twist, this article starts with a spoiler warning and then proceeds to not include any spoilers.