Justin Roiland has complicated feelings about the last season of Rick And Morty
Roiland reflected on the death of Rick And Morty producer J. Michael Mendel during an interview at Comic-Con this month
Aux News Justin Roiland
Five seasons into its run—and with a sixth, of god knows how many more, set to debut this September—Rick And Morty is still going strong, powered by a continued commitment to science-fiction chaos, a loose (but cunningly deployed) approach to its own continuity, and the voice talents of co-creator Justin Roiland as both of its title characters.
IGN has a new(ish) interview with Roiland today, recorded while he was at Comic-Con earlier this month, in which he reflected on the show’s most recent season, describing it as “a weird one.” That’s largely due to a behind-the-scenes loss: The death of line producer J. Michael Mendel, an animation veteran who was a key part of the Rick And Morty creative team. “It was tough,” Roiland said during the interview. “We were thrown for a loop. That was… yeah. If I talk anymore, I’ll start crying.”
Roiland clarified that he “didn’t particularly think season 5" (which drew typically positive reviews and decent ratings for the series) “was bad,” but did note that he thinks Season 6 will be better (or, in his terms, “fucking amazing,” “a fucking quality season,” and that “I think we’re kind of finally back into the rhythm of Rick And Morty.”) He also described the new season as “more canonical,” which we presume means more serialized storytelling, an interesting choice for a show that’s always treated its own backstory as a tool to be picked up and put down at will, rather than a set of hard, fast rules.
Roiland also expressed, not for his first time, his preference for the show’s earlier outings; when asked to list his five favorite episodes of the series, every single pick (“Total Rickall,” “Rixty Minutes,” “Big Trouble In Little Sanchez,” “The Ricks Must Be Crazy,” and “M. Night Shaym-Aliens”) comes from its first or second season, when, in Roiland’s words, the episodes were “Rubiks Cubes,” elaborate little puzzles for the show’s writers to solve.
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Don’t feel like compiling a list, but Auto Erotic Assimilation is usually my go-to when I want to introduce someone to the show. It’s hilarious, heartfelt, and you don’t really need to know anything about the show for it to make sense.
The one with Snowball is generally the one I show to people, but Total Rickall is the best IMO.
Yeah the pilot is really good still (I got hooked with the bureaucrats/robot line), but when I was showing it to friends who hadn’t heard of it, the Snowball one always hooked them. The parody-in-a-parody of Inception and Nightmare on Elm Street as well as the poop rant are great.
I like the season 2 premiere where they get split into different potential outcomes. Could have been a Futurama plot.
Piiiickle Riiiick!!!!
That one I’m done with, but mainly because Adult Swim Canada decided everyone somehow wanted it to be the default rerun episode and showed it what seemed like several thousand times and was always the one on if you went “Hey, Rick and Morty, which one is – goddamnit, not again!”
Pickle Rick as a concept is sort of funny as a “look, we’re Rick and Morty doing a Rick and Morty episode in the style of Rick and Morty!” joke, except of course it spiraled way out of control because irony is dead.The Vat of Acid episode is a much better attempt to do that joke, and a much better episode over all.
I’m kind of happy to have more “canon” episodes and character development, even if it’s just in small bits.
I was kind of worried Rick & Morty would enter the Simpsons realm, where the show mostly becomes about itself as opposed to telling a story. Just full of meta-references and the plot doesn’t make any sense anymore. Just Rick and Morty talking about their relationship with Rick & Morty, if that makes sense.
Then again the Vat of Acid episode is one of my all-time favorites, so I’m not opposed to weird conceptual indulgences either.
Just full of meta-references and the plot doesn’t make any sense anymore.Wasn’t that all of Season 1? It wasn’t until later that they started doing these self-important Citadel episodes.
Kinda hard to call the Citadel episodes self-important when the creators explicitly make fun of those episodes and their fanbase’s desire fro them.
They still made them, and ever since have leaned into more canonical episodes. I don’t even dislike the first citadel episode. I guess the drop in overall quality really makes it seem more egregious.
“where the show mostly becomes about itself as opposed to telling a story”Sorry, but that line is *far* more descriptive of the R&M ethos – in a good AND bad way – than it’s *ever* been for The Simpsons.
“Five seasons into its run—and with a sixth, of god knows how many more”They signed on for 70 episodes after Season 2, so at 10 episodes per season, that’s 9 total seasons.
They’re not similar in any way, but it will be funny if Rick & Morty actually ends before Miraculous Ladybug (which just confirmed Season 8 and the creators want to go to 12 seasons total).
I believe the 70 episode order was after season 3, and with a pilot episode, will leave them at 101 episodes.
9 seasons total, unless Adult Swim decides to order more after that.
After season 3 in may 2018… So 10 seasons
I’m still waiting for the Venture Bros. film that will never happen…
I kinda hope that Evil Morty doesn’t come back, not that I think he’s not a good antagonist, I think he’s great (“Yay, he’s all caught up!”). He basically had his Thanos snap winning moment, good beat to go out on. The Rick who killed Rick Prime’s family could make for another new Big Bad.
It’s not exactly my list— “Lawnmower Dog” belongs on there as well as “Meeseeks and Destroy,” but I think I agree with Roiland in general that those earlier episodes were better in part because the plotting was so intricate and could be so surprising while still being plausible and really funny.
Which is why the decoys episode works well for me, but the rest of the season is great jokes in not as great plots.Rewatched that whole season on a plane earlier this week. Was better than I remembered
I really feel like seasons 4 and 5 in particular are much better on the back half than the front.
I think I agree with Roiland in general that those earlier episodes were better
The show immediately fell off the rails when they realized they had nothing to prove, that the show could be meta and improv-y and zany for the sake of it and fans would still eat it up. The writing got really bad, or rather, patchy, whiplashing between the big ideas they wanted to tell (but not spend too much time developing) and endless streams of lazy-on-purpose gags which they loved getting away with.
It makes sense that even they would like the early episodes. They’re the only ones that hold up to a second viewing (IMO).
Personally I feel like it kinda bottomed out in season 3 and I’ve enjoyed it more as it turns away from all the angst about Rick and back into, well, using the extremely zany premise for as much fun as they can— but at the same time, I certainly feel like very few of these later episodes stick with me the way the early ones do; it’s certainly not as essential as that first season, which I think might have been the best sitcom season of the whole decade.
the generally agreed upon idea that the first two seasons were the strongest is why I still find “Raising gazorpazorp” so disappointing. It takes the standard trope of what if women were in control of society and then… does nothing interesting with it. no subversions, no deconstructions, no insight or new territory tread, just a carbon copy of every other show that did this trope. At least the futurama snu snu episode had Bea Arthur.
Pickle Rick is at the very top.Why no mention of Solar Opposites?
the absolute high point of this show was morty explaining to his sister that he’s a version of her brother who buried his own body in the backyard.
I still think the alt life reveal of Jerry’s love for Beth in Ricty Minutesis one of the greatest sci fi love story twists of all time. It floored me when I first saw it and it still rocks me every time I watch it again or even just think about. That’s the moment I realized the show was so much more than it seemed on the surface.
Recently did a full series rewatch (not that it took that long). Seasons 1 and 2 are so far and away better than the rest of the series, it’s kind of insane. I’m not sure exactly what changed but it just seemed to lose the balance of fun sci-fi satire, family comedy, meta-comedy, and dark introspection. Later seasons tend to not be able to do them all at once. I think the meta-comedy especially has gotten incredibly tiresome. That said, the biggest difference character-wise is Rick. In seasons 1 and 2 he’s very prominently an alcoholic. He his spittle on his lip, he goes on benders, his speech patterns are different, he belches more. After season 2 he’s rarely depicted like that – he’s just either a cocky genius or a sad sack. I think the best Rick is in the simulation episode, where you see that despite him seeming overconfident to Jerry, he was actually freaked out by Morty being a simulation, takes a knife to real Morty, then passes out while Morty says “What a life.” It makes Rick a lot more palatable IMO.
That simulation episode does not get talked about enough. I’m glad Roiland considers it a favorite.
I love how the opening plays out — Rick immediately knows something is wrong in the first scene and Morty just thinks he’s tweaking… then less than a minute later we’re watching them naked in the showers. I remember laughing so hard bc none of this was making sense, but I was also invested bc I knew Rick was going to have some unhinged rant that would explain everything… while standing naked with his grandson in the showers.
It’s such a small scene, but really exemplifies how Rick just does not have that same level of passion for anything at this point in the show. If he (and the rest of the family) doesn’t give a shit about what’s happening around him, why should we?
Which is weird because Rick went through some emotional stuff with Morty in the last two episodes and we hardly see any emotion out of him. Not like in the Space Beth or Unity episode or whatever. It’s like Rick is getting more and more boring while Morty is just getting more and more worse.
I’m on the opposite side. Seasons 1 and 2 had good episodes, but Seasons 3 and 4 stand above those first two. Granted you had to lay the backstory, but 3 and 4 delivered in all the right ways.
Agreed. I recall hearing that Harmon and Roiland took a more hands-off approach to writing after season 2 and focused on other projects while the hired writing team mostly took over. I watched a couple episodes of season 5 and it was like a parody of itself. It’s the way most shows end up going at some point, but it happened really fast with R&M. The whole “Mr Nimbus, he controls the weather” joke is a perfect example, it’s so cringeworthy and unfunny.
There are NUMEROUS times he’s FUBARed after the first two seasons. Difference is he usually has some kind of trigger that makes him abuse drugs/alcohol.
Prime example.
Yeah Rick feels different and not completely in a good way. It feels like he lacks the personality of the older seasons. In the first two seasons, he was more quirky and vibrant and now he’s just boring and sort of robotic. He also had more affectionate moments in the early seasons than he does now.
Well said. Maybe I need to go back and rewatch past the point I stopped in season 4. Seasons one and two were pure genius. The rest had a lot of hit or miss, I dunno. Not a big fan of incest humor, myself.
Personally, I think almost the entire first half of Season 3 is the longest run of quality episodes in a row. Episodes 1, 2, 4 and 5 especially in that season were great (and of course 3 spawned a million memes and at least ended on a quality note).
Season 3 cranked out some great episodes but was ultimately super detrimental to the show as a whole. It brought an extremely jaded tone to all the characters — Rick is constantly seeing himself above everything and everyone (even he could acknowledge when there were stakes in season 1 & 2 eps) and all the supporting family are no longer surprised by any of the crazy stuff that crops up during the adventures. I know it was all done for the sake of some character development, but it happened far too early and fast in this show’s timeline.
The season 5 finale felt like it could be the true end to a “phase” of the show — it really wrapped up most lingering plot threads from the early seasons. I hope they lean into some of the repercussions from this episode, especially if it means we get more opportunities to see Rick out of his element in different universes
FWIW, that is what makes Pickle Rick work for me. Dr. Wong’s takedown of him at the end laid bare all of his BS. The fact that he is in a ridiculous situation just to avoid a therapy session says everything about him. I loved the character development in Season 3, especially all of the small asides which reveal a lot about the characters. After that season, the characters grew a bit. Maybe not a popular opinion – just my observation fwiw.
I love this line so much:because the thing about repairing, maintaining, and cleaning is; it’s not an adventure. There’s no way to do it so wrong you might die.
Exactly. I am tempted to post the “this guy gets it: meme, but it would detract from your comment. For me, at least, that was the first time someone in the series called out Rick for exactly who he was, and in such a calm manner. The line after the one you quoted is also a gem – something like “Some will put in the work, and others would rather die.”
What I find interesting is that there was an arc to the first few seasons. Rick doesn’t exactly GROW, but he is revealed. For the others, there’s the shock of Rick revealing his world, the nihilism inherent in the whole multiverse shenanigans and all the existential crisis that result, but they eventually get past that and realize that it doesn’t matter if nothing matters because it matters to them. Sure, there are endless versions of them in other realities and the universe/multiverse is a cold, unforgiving, stupid place and there’s no greater meaning to anything. Who gives a shit, they’re going to care because it’s GOOD to care, even when the only meaning to be had is the meaning you create for yourself and the people around you.Rick, for all his brilliance, can’t get there, so he’s stuck in the cool-but-kinda-childish nihilism that none of this matters so just fuck around and distract yourself from the constant creeping depression.
Pickle Rick is one of the best episodes of the series, but I think it was a breaking point that leaned so far into Rick’s worst tendencies that it became the template of the show moving forward.
It proved that he’s practically a deus ex machina God, he can treat the family like shit and get away with it, and the show can quite literally throw all of his toxic traits directly at his face and he’ll shrug it off.
It’s a much different Rick than we saw in the past who showed signs of genuine introspection and remorse in the fallout of some of his actions. There have been a few scenes in the past two seasons that try to recall this, but it’s a big can of worms that they opened with him in season 3.
I’ve only watched Season one and the back half of the most recent season, and while I was impressed by the animation and the storytelling and most of the humor, the overall tone of the series – at least, as I gathered from the half-season I recently watched – is just a bit too relentlessly . . . mean-spirited for me to really latch onto. It also doesn’t have the IASIP narrative model where the cruel, ignorant characters face consequences for their actions, but instead the opposite. Clearly the creative team has their favorite character and can make him do no wrong, or at least no wrong that he doesn’t magically undo, and it detaches me from wanting to continue watching the show.
I would advise you to avoid the show. After season 1, it just gets worse and worse and worse. The edginess has always been my huge problem with the show but it’s gotten so in your face that it’s hard for me to continue. I kept watching to see if the characters would get some character development but it doesn’t look like they’re getting any.What I liked about Rick and Morty was the creative plots and jokes but now it seems to solely rely on edgy humor and plots and melodrama for entertainment.
Season 6? When, in 2030?
Nope. September.Scathing burn, though.
The Vat of Acid episode doesn’t get enough recognition.
It gets too much recognition imo.
Didn’t this guy turn out to be a serial ass-grabber?
I think my ideal season would be the heady sci-fi concepts humorously executed from seasons 1 and 2 with the interesting character pairings from seasons 4 and 5. I do miss the improv-heavy episodes like “Interdimentional Television”, but as I understand it Harmon and Royland just don’t like doing them, so I can understand why they dropped the bit.
So you want Morty to continue kissing the butt of adult women like Planetina and to continue throwing humongous tantrums when Rick tells him something reasonable and when he can’t go on dangerous adventures anymore.
Why did you like the character pairings from seasons 4 and 5? The characters are just getting worse and worse. Morty is becoming much more of a crybaby and Rick just feels more cold and robotic even when interacting with his family.
One of my problems with the later seasons is the fact that they characters are getting worse and worse. Everyone is just so mean to each other and now Morty is way too clingy of Rick and Rick just feels more and more aloof from the rest of his family. I don’t know how crows of all things were the cause of him leaving them and worse yet, it didn’t feel as emotional as the first time Rick leaves due to how inexpressive he felt in the crow episode. I also hate how much of a crybaby Morty is and there was way too much forced relationship drama in this season. Like with Planetina, Rick and Morty’s fake breakup, Summer and Rick’s drama in the Gotron episode, Morty’s constant crying over nearly everything even his mom wanting to spend time with robots. It just sounds like the writers are just pouring their grief over into this season. The only time I felt like the relationship drama felt natural was with the Rick and Birdperson stuff. The series has always had drama but it seems the most intense this time around particularly with family and has been getting increasingly more intense as the series goes on.I miss the older seasons where Rick was more affectionate and Morty was more anxious and innocent. I know it’s going to be weird to turn back to that but I do hope they get the help they need to eventually become more stable.I hope the next season will be more happier and hopefully with less melodrama.
The real question is… did he get his pen back?