Morty dates a Captain Planet knock-off on an iffy Rick And Morty
Summer and Rick find solace in the end of the world(s)
TV Reviews Rick and Morty
I’ve complained about it before, let’s be honest: reviewing Rick And Morty is a pretty sweet gig, even when it means staying up until late and having to get up early for your real job the next morning. (Thankfully, not this week. Huzzah for federal holidays!) There are times when I worry I’m swinging out of my weight class, or that I’ll miss references or misinterpret plot points, but for the most part, I feel like I’ve got a decent vibe on what the show is trying to accomplish on an episode-by-episode basis, and even when I’m critical of it, I rarely feel completely adrift. Tonight, though? I’ve got no fucking clue. I feel like I have to be missing something. Because on the surface, this felt like an empty exercise that leaned way too hard on playing sad songs (a Rick And Morty trick that generally works for me) and being simultaneously heartfelt and cynical without ever coming to anything like a point. And I worry because I keep telling myself, there has to be a theme. Right? There has to be some joke I’m missing, some fundamental point that’s escaped me. Which is a fun way to start a review.
I’ll give it this much: when it became clear that “A Rickconvenient Mort” was going to be about the environment (in case the episode title wasn’t a clue or anything), I was terrified we are about to get some deeply cynical spin about how stupid it was to care about the planet. Given the summer we’ve had so far, the way everything seems to be headed, my ever-present anxiety about climate change and humanity’s apparent inability to alter its behavior in the face of a civilization destroying catastrophe—well, let’s just say I wasn’t in the mood for a cartoon getting all smug about me trying to recycle my plastics. But “Rickconvenient” isn’t really about that. It’s maybe as close to a theme as the story gets, but even on that level, it’s never particularly dark or obnoxious or satirical. The most you could say is, we’d probably have to kill a lot of people if we wanted to save the planet, and we aren’t going to do that, so people are going to die anyway. But even that feels like it’s saying more than the episode ever gets around to establishing.
Worse, the jokes aren’t all that funny? There are a few good bits, and the guest cast (Alison Brie as Planetina, Jennifer Coolidge as Daphne, Steve Buscemi as Eddie, the first of the knock-off grown-up Planeteers that Morty kills) is fantastic, but the laughs are few and far between, and there’s no real build here, no sense of escalating chaos or growing energy. Rick and Summer’s storyline has a couple of decent turns but there’s no payoff, and the same could more or less be said for Morty’s relationship with Planetina. It certainly has all the hallmarks of a Rick And Morty episode—the incredible violence, the cosmic scale, the juxtaposition of petty human concerns against a large context, goofy looking aliens—but it never has the coherence that makes the show really sing. The strongest impression I get is that the pieces here never add up to anything larger than the whole, and that’s unusual for the show; even the episodes I don’t like at least seem to have a point to them.
There are two storylines here. In the first, Morty makes a connection with a Captain Planet knock off named Planetina. She falls surprisingly hard for him, despite their age difference, and Morty is eventually forced to take steps to free her from the horrible grown-up Planeteers, a quartet of shitty selfish adults who exploit Planetina for merchandising and who also plan to sell her to a rich Arab. (Which, I gotta say, weird joke for a modern cartoon to make.) Beth objects to the relationship, Morty storms out to spend all his time with his older love interest, but eventually, it doesn’t work out. Freed from the Planeteers’ control, Planetina goes apeshit on the humans polluting the earth, slashing tires and murdering miners when they refuse to listen to her version of reason. Realizing he can’t keep dating a killer (which, come to think, is a bit odd given how many people and aliens he and Rick have killed over the years, but sure), Morty ends the relationship, and sad music plays.
While all this is going on, Rick, pissed off that Morty has dropped him for his new girlfriend, takes Summer to party on a trio of planets entering into the end times. The rule is, they have a crazy good time (Summer plans to eat a lot of [bleep] and or [bleep], Rick is down to consume a heroic quantity of [bleep) and form no attachments whatsoever, since Summer is trying to get over a broken heart; but Rick fucks things up when he gets super attached to Daphne, a Morglutzian with amazing elbow titties, and he brings her along to the next two planets. Summer freaks, and saves the last planet from disaster in order to stop Rick’s good time. Rick is pissed but impressed, and I guess we all learn a valuable lesson about how our solipsism and personal concerns make us indifferent to the suffering of others.
Is that it? I don’t think the episode is being a scold or anything, and it’s not like the denizens of the any of the planets that get destroyed make much of an impression outside of the “expendable dipshit” range, but it’s the main point that both Morty, and Rick and Summer’s, stories share: the idea that they’re focused on the personal, but the global is where the real consequences are at. Planetina’s methods seem horrible, but it’s not like the destruction of the planet isn’t going to involve catastrophic loss of life—300 human deaths to save the world is bordering on insignificant in the grand scheme of things, even if it does give Morty qualms. Maybe the idea is, people are going to be people (or freaky aliens) no matter what’s going on around them. Which, absolutely, this is definitely true, but I’m not sure the episode really makes enough out of it to be interesting or particularly entertaining.
Really, whether or not I missed the point, that’s my main takeaway: in spite of the stacked voice cast, this felt like a nothing of a half hour, and it’s not funny or clever enough to make me want to dig any deeper than a mildly amused shrug. Rick And Morty has had its share of clunkers before, and there’s only so much benefit of the doubt I’m willing to give it before chalking an episode up as a loss. I’m glad this didn’t go hard into “you’re an idiot for caring about the environment” territory, I really am, but that in and of itself isn’t enough. If I did miss something obvious here, my apologies. But all I’m seeing was thirty minutes of filler with a cute board game and some famous names and not much else.
Stray observations
- It may be unfair to hold this week’s credit stinger to last week’s standard, but going from “puppet Jerry viewing the endless digressions of evolution and civilization” to “ha wouldn’t it be funny if an alien had sex with his dad and then they didn’t die and had to go on like everything was normal after” is a drop.
- The Planetina joke doesn’t really go anywhere either. So many choices in the episode are the most obvious choices for this show to make, from the Planeteer knock-offs being a bunch of selfish shitty grown-ups, to Morty killing them, to the songs they keep playing like they’re supposed to mean something. Why didn’t the episode do anything with Morty having all those magic rings? What the hell did he do with them?
- “What a romantic story about our son killing a room full of people.” -Jerry
- Beth being upset about Morty dating an older woman is both reasonable (he’s still 14) and fucking insane (but it’s fine that he runs around the universe with his murdering psychopath grandpa). That in and of itself could be a joke, but the episode plays the whole thing so straight it never really lands either way.
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Morty killing other humans by his own initiative feels like Morty’s just a few episodes away from just becoming Rick. Which would be interesting if this were the last season of the show, but we have at least five more years so they’re either gonna undo all the character development (weak) or we’re stuck with all our main characters being insufferable assholes (annoying).
I’m right there with you man…I remember 80 percent of the way through I was like, “what in the world is this episode?” The only one I have zero desire to ever rewatch….there was absolutely no point, no jokes…I expected planetina could turn evil but it was so rushed and unimportant it had no punch…I think Rick should have saved or destroyed the environment out of spite and either one of those would have been a more entertaining episode.
Something I felt was a bit obvious but notable is that Rick and Morty’s version of the Planeteers doesn’t have an equivalent of Ma-Ti…and as such, has no Heart. This would explain not only why the adult “Tina-teers” are cynical assholes, but also explains Planetina’s lack of empathy towards the end, since she doesn’t have that as a part of her. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but it reminds me how the Ducktales writers apparently described Jim Starling as a version of Darkwing Duck without Gosalyn or Launchpad, thus missing what makes them whole as well.That said, while I wouldn’t say this was a bad episode, you are correct in that the Planetina stuff didn’t feel like it went anywhere significant, or anywhere really new, even. I mean, it’s telling that OK K.O. had the better satire of Captain Planet and the Planeteers…and with the actual Captain Planet and the Planeteers (well, Kwame, at the very least).
Just to drive your point home – I have no idea why I remember this – but there’s an episode of Captain Planet where Gaia’s ex-husband (?) voiced by Sting returns to Earth from space exile and gives the Planeteers magic gauntlets in exchange for their rings – I’m assuming it’s a play on “rule with an iron fist” – but Ma-Ti turns him down.
Basically – without Ma-Ti – the Planeteers go full eco-terrorists.
His name was zarm And he was more of a coworker. And the gloves he gave them were called iron fist
He was the spirt of Mars as opposed to earth, which was a play on words because Mars is the war god and if i recall Mars had avanced technology but they rendered their planet lifeless with war and this was his ultimate goal for earth.
He was a reapparing “big bad” although the show which was never great seriously went downhill in later seasons
Gaia had an ex-husband……nothing about that show made any sense.
Their equivalent of Ma-Ti was Mor-Ty.
That is a wonderful explanation about Darkwing.
It’s like if that pilot episode where he met the both of them never existed…that’s deep, since most episodes were usually about Drake Mallard learning a new life lesson and getting over himself.
I did notice the lack of heart, which was weird, because it seemed like Planetina herself had heart, even at the end.
definitely intentional
So last week’s adventure completely bereft of any narrative cohesion had a point but this week’s didn’t? Not gonna say this was the show’s finest — because it’s far from it — but I at least enjoyed seeing some sort of arc with the characters. I think the biggest misstep this episode made was the inclusion of Planetina’s children. They ended up being pretty inessential to the plot when that time could’ve been spent giving more time to Beth and Jerry’s (especially Beth) reactions to the relationship. It actually seemed like the episode was building something regarding this at the beginning when they both fail to stop the kids going off on their stories, but it was brushed to the side in favor of seeing Morty kill more people.Definitely not the show’s best effort. But it’s easier for me to swallow a misfire from this show when it at least seems genuine, as opposed to an episode like last week when I don’t even know what I watched in the end and the show is content with it. I know I’m definitely in the minority on that opinion though
Great points all around! I think people need to stop reading so much into the show and just enjoy it on an episode to episode basis. Not every episode has to have some great theme. WTF is the theme for something like Get Schwifty? They are better when they do have a cohesive theme, since that’s literally the nature of TV, but this show has proven long ago it’s funny enough to not need them. And this season is smart enough to pepper in subtle but deep character growth. Between this and the spot on parody of Captain Planet and The Planeteers, this episode was a win in my book. The missed potential with Beth and Jerry, and the predictable plots definitely knock it down a little though. Also, was I the only one who laughed so hard they cried at that end stinger? Happy birthday, Dad. LMFAO.
I think the biggest misstep this episode made was the inclusion of Planetina’s children. They ended up being pretty inessential to the plot when that time could’ve been spent giving more time to Beth and Jerry’s (especially Beth) reactions to the relationship.While I didn’t think that inclusion really worked, I thought it was important for showing Morty really going for something and fighting to get Planetina. He’s so passive with Jessica most of the time, and in general, that here he fought and killed for her and the relationship, and then…lets it go. Thematically I like it. In execution, I think you’re right in that it took time away from Beth and Jerry actually trying to be decent parents, so the reaction to Beth comforting her son lacked as much impact as it could have had.
it was Beth who wanted to be a decent parent.. Jerry was interested on the game and bringing the wine…
I slightly disagree with the passive about Jessica assessment:Morty went Akira last season to be with Jessica, and Morty went kill crazy trying to impress the lying cat girl during a purge.Morty’s adolescent chasing of girls is right up there with Rick’s oops-I-forgot-about-that body count.
Morty went Akira last season to be with Jessica, and Morty went kill crazy trying to impress the lying cat girl during a purge.Yes, the “Akira” scene is actually what I was thinking of in particular. He basically used the death crystal to guide his life, becoming totally passive and relinquishing all agency to end up with her. Granted, he did so in a way where he was causing a ton of rampant destruction, and he went purge-crazy as noted. I would argue there have been subtle shifts though, and this time he instigated a relationship in a way that felt more self-assured. I think we’ve seen Morty evolve a bit in that regard over the series, and even him calling Jessica up and havnig a date that, yes, ended awry but still ended up happening and with him sort of accepting their fate shows some growth. This was the first time I can recall we saw him (as himself, not split from his toxins) go for the girl, get the girl, then break up with her because he realized it was going in a negative direction. In the past, it would have likely ended up with Morty being more passively following along and being heartbroken after getting dumped.
So call that a light-disagreement with your slight disagreement.
To backup your point, Jessica invited him to go skinny dipping in Akira and he just… went with the crystal instead.
And then at the end he overhears Jessica talking about being a caregiver who comforts the dying with sexy talk. The future he saw in the crystal wasn’t him being in a relationship with Jessica, it was actually her just being nice to him at his deathbed. Which proved Rick right, because he told Morty it was stupid to live your life based on the crystal. He threw away his chance at skinny dipping with Jessica because he was chasing that future he misinterpreted. There’s a recurring theme of Morty not being be able to get out of his own way.
Touche on the Morty Akira thing. As far as the OP’s inferences on narrative drives and probably character devlopment, I happily admit Morty seemed to simply follow the crystal’s direction.I easily got blinded by the active and engaged killing off police squads, SWAT teams , and whole military units because Morty was obsessive over a high school girl following his perception of a possible future rather than developing an actual relationship with a girl.That subtle difference is why I come to learn story and character development stuff on the AV Club. On Reddit’s /R&M subreddit, the memes and vote fishing would have probably drowned out that distinction for me.
the inclusion of Planetina’s childrenIn both stories, there were elements introduced in a way that made it seem like they would matter, but were ultimately throwaways. This was one of those. Planetina calls them “my kids”, but then they act like her parents. And they don’t do anything with this dissonance.It’s also sort of plot hole-y how they use the rings to manifest her, but then she exists independently and at the convention they use the rings again (so they expected her not to be manifested at that point) and it results into both her and Morty (?) being teleported there, which was just lazy and convenient.
The rings can both manifest/un-manifest her, as well as simply teleport her to them. They’d already manifested her to fight some other environmental disasters, let her do her thing while they traveled to the convention, then used the rings to teleport her there at the appointed time. Morty just got pulled along because he was wrapped around her.
“I think the biggest misstep this episode made was the inclusion of Planetina’s children. They ended up being pretty inessential to the plot”
It wasn’t? The whole point is that they were keeping her in check. Keeping her from being a full blown killing machine. The fact the were greedy and was going to sell her was what instigated Morty killing them.
Last week centered around an extremely thorough (whatever you think of the quality/humor) gag where this week lacked that or much of a takeaway/theme imo.
Yeah I’m with you, man, this was something of a dud. Chuckled at some bits, but nothing made me cackle like a dipshit like last week or the Mr. Nimbus stuff a week prior. The Cap. Planet stuff felt like it was missing an edge or even a different angle on the material—like, no duh her “kids” just pimp her out to anyone for a quick buck. Still, the elbow titties gag was maybe the funniest thing, if only because what other cartoon will have a grown woman alien describe her tits on her elbows as something that started wars?
what confused me was how she just said some variant of “hello” for most of the episode. I expected that to lead to something like the alien who snickered at rick’s quips in the Rick-counters episode, who wasn’t actually snickering, but just making a sound. Then nope, no payoff, or even acknowledgement of why she only said hello for the first 2/3s of the episode.
She did say goodbye when she left him, which was probably the payoff. I think the idea was that she was hot but seemed brainless, until she turned out to be at least cunning enough to leverage her way to safety. I didn’t think it was the funniest gag, but it wasn’t annoying like I thought it was going to become after the third Hello.
Am i the only one who noticed that the A and B stories were about the odd interpretation of love with children raised under Rick?
I mean Morty bailed on Rick all together on love, who also bailed on Summer because of love, who in turn brought it back around by using Rick’s callous methods of making a point.
Rick’s making enemies/friends/sex partners with intergalactic beings and forces all the time, it was kind of nice to see how the kids are now becoming more like Rick every season.
At least, that’s why i enjoyed the episode.
Morty had a son with a sex robot and raised him to adulthood. So he’s definitely experienced in the relationship area (for a 14-year-old).
also arguably between morty playing roy and his video game saving device from the vat of acid episode he’s arguably much older than his physical body suggests. it was still creepy tho.
We gotta allow some Simpsons-like flexible/frozen continuity here, though. Morty has been 14 for years, then.
yeah, that is one funny continuity element for a show where he characters past and backstory obviosuly matter it is beyond absurd that this show has all taken place in the same year (allowing for them going back a little in one dimension skip)
Yup, he said he was 14 in the Anatomy Park episode from the first season.
Floating timeline
One of their worst ones in a while. I imagine this could be regarded by younger fans as a profound epsiode, I can picture many depressive l0-fi youtube playlists entitled “//f u c k l o v e ++//” set to looping gifs of Morty and Planetina crying. Maybe could’ve been redeemed with the B story, but how many times can a show explore the consequences of hedonistic escapism as a theme? I could feel that arc coming from a mile away.Odd how the “inside the episode” thing features Dan Harmon saying this episode was an important one to him, but for the previous episode he seems somewhat ambivalent or less involved. I would’ve guessed it was the other way around
Oh no, Harmon was awkwardly rejected by a girl he met at a party? Again?
Nah, I liked this one. B+ from me. It was fresh. I didn’t know where it was going. Not every episode has to hit X amount of laffs. Idk if it was super meaningful other than the flip-parallel stories of Rick and Morty both finding what they thought was love. Both get pulled back to their senses (sort-of) by the women Smith family-members. (Again, a flip, since Summer usually chastises Morty and Beth normally chastises her father. “Chastise” is probably the wrong word here. Each dispense a dollop of tough-love.) So, puzzle over love this week instead of puzzling over another way-out sci-fi concept. Sorry, I sound like a hippie. Apparently my people didn’t win the election. Just go with it, man.
More to the point: R & M’s t-shirts read “Rick & Morty – P***y Pounders”They get schooled.
I thought a couple of the gags were funny, even if overall it might be the least funny episode I’ve seen. But I just didn’t get the attempt to inject real sentiment into the final scene with Beth and Morty, let alone the commentary at the end indicating that they thought this was a real tearjerker. The show has shown its own sense of drama and tragedy, but it’s not really ever been in the character work. It’s not Futurama, where the jokes are all in service of building a character, so you can get misty eyed when a dog who is almost dead continues to be almost dead because you know Fry is vulnerable enough to love him even over the course of just one episode. In Rick and Morty, the characters are in service of the jokes, which works great for the jokes, but doesn’t allow anyone watching to think that Morty is actually in love with possibly the fifth or sixth girl he’s fallen for over the course of the series. I sort of thought the writers knew what toys they were playing with. More than the quality of this episode (which even based on your text, Zack, should have been a C at best), it’s this sudden attempt to rebrand the show à la South Park that makes me think it might already be on its last legs.In other news, it looks like we’re still slowly working through the Community cameos. I wonder if it’ll all be for naught or if Dan has some secret way of eventually getting Donald Glover to guest star.
But I just didn’t get the attempt to inject real sentiment into the final scene with Beth and Morty, let alone the commentary at the end indicating that they thought this was a real tearjerker. [snip] It’s not Futurama, where the jokes are all in service of building a character, so you can get misty eyed when a dog who is almost dead continues to be almost dead because you know Fry is vulnerable enough to love him even over the course of just one episode.Part of me wants to argue that a bit. They’ve had pieces of character building in some ways every season, I believe, so having Morty find love then realize it’s not really what he wants, and Beth trying to protect her 14-year old son from heartbreak and trying to be a better parent (after all, she’s the version that opted to stick around) kind of tracks with me. They just didn’t give it enough time for that to stick the landing.
On the other hand, your comparison to Futurama kind of nails it. That character work more deeply coded into the DNA of Futurama. Hence, those misty eyed moments (and there were a few of them) felt more earned and genuine. Seeing Morty cry after heartbreak to Beth felt more reactive and instinctive. Fry and Seymour, his petrified dog, just took a very bittersweet concept of losing a pet/friend and then the twist about how Seymour’s life went, plus with all that went into Fry as a character and how it leaned more into friendship and family…that’s why that episode was so enduring. I liked what they were going for with Beth and Morty in this one, and I can point to maybe one or two episodes a season that support Beth and Jerry trying to evolve, but this was no Jurassic Bark.
Yeah, I get what you’re saying. The characters do grow and change throughout the series, and the show has once or twice effectively played it to a dramatic kick. But the characters all still change based on what’s funny. Beth and Jerry’s relationship has gone from rocky to separated to back in love, and it’s not unbelievable, it’s just unconvincing. The writers mine as many jokes as the can from the relationship, and then they change the circumstances so they can write more jokes. Morty could be compared to the hapless romantic Fry in a way, but while he doesn’t feel like a direct parody, Morty’s character is actually inconsequential in regards to Jessica. In one episode they get to know each other, and in the next she doesn’t recognize him at all, followed by her being just friends with him and so forth. Some of these are because of Universe jumps, but the end result is the same. The same way it doesn’t matter whether or not Rick and Morty have ever canonically touched an Earth ocean, because it’s all just a joke.
The characters do grow and change throughout the series, and the show has once or twice effectively played it to a dramatic kick. But the characters all still change based on what’s funny. [snip] it’s not unbelievable, it’s just unconvincing. [snip] Some of these are because of Universe jumps, but the end result is the same. I would mostly agree with you there. I think there have been some subtle shifts in character growth, but what’s funny still seems to drive the direction of the show. That or they have an idea for the arc of the season with very little change happening, or at least sticking.
My issue is probably that I’m drawn to and thus looking for those signs, sutble or otherwise, that the characters are evolving in some small ways. Maybe I’m making too much of them, or maybe I hope they imply more growth than the writers are actually going for. But I do see the people slowly evolving while ultimately staying true to their flawed selves in their own arrested development. I think Fry is still a great example of a character, and in his relationship with Leela, of real, slow-yet-earned character growth.
I’d love to see more real genuine and lasting character growth in Rick & Morty, though. I don’t want the show to change in a way that’s untrue to itself, but I also think it’s o.k. to let them change on a fundamental level that shows the impact of their experiences. I think we have seen some of that, but on any given episode, I think you’re right in that it ultimately doesn’t change in really substantial ways that change the nature of the characters or their interactions.
I think that the Futurama comparison works as due to the natures of the show, Futurama wasn’t nearly as afraid to be earnest and vulnerable compared to R&M’s dependence on cynicism, sarcasm and a faux-nihilistic philosophy.
Bojack Horseman manages to walk this line blindfolded; It knows celebrity life and the Hollywood system are shit, but it fully goes into how these things affect the characters and how it makes or breaks them.
It’s funny then that the first season walks the line with even more confidence, nonchalance and vulnerability/earnestness than even BoJack but as soon as they tried to address the critics wanting more humanity in Rick and the show itself the series went from brilliant and perfect to simply a very clever and funny show.
“Futurama wasn’t nearly as afraid to be earnest and vulnerable compared to R&M’s dependence on cynicism, sarcasm and a faux-nihilistic philosophy.”I think this kinda nails it. The problem I had with Futurama as it went on was that it started getting too sentimental at times, and when a show lays on the sap so thick I could use it for pancakes, I start checking out. That said, the episode with Fry’s dog Seymour is still a gut-punch that gets me to this day. And you’re definitely right about Bojack Horseman. And thanks for the reminder that I still haven’t finished it.
Rick and Morty will never be able to replicate Futurama’s emotional touches (let alone BoJack Horseman’s), because so much of its humour is about calculated crudeness. After all, it’s a show that stems from a short where Marty McFly gives a blowjob to Doc Brown.I’ve got the impression Harmon was totally on board with Roiland’s outrageouness at first, but now he’s regretting it a little bit (even just subconsciously), because he can’t suddenly give the characters the believable emotional beats that were a part of Fry since day one.
I don’t know who exactly is behind how embarrassed they are of writing more complex characters- Solar Opposites has more complex and likeable characters and Community had emotional honesty (somewhat- it did have a tendency for yoyo characterization when convenient which is more obvious on R&M).
your comparison to Futurama kind of nails it. That character work more deeply coded into the DNA of Futurama. Hence, those misty eyed moments (and there were a few of them) felt more earned and genuine.We don’t even need to go to the extreme cases like the over-mentioned dog episode. Even Zoidberg has pathos in Futurama. He’s a character that mostly exists to be a joke factory, but his loneliness is palpable all the way through.It’s just a different approach. I’ve got the feeling Harmon wishes to be able to inject more of that into Rick and Morty, but it’s too late now, it’s been a very different kind of show from the beginning, for better or for worse. It certainly had a fair bit of Futurama in it, but Harmon’s attempts to make it more so can lead to awkwardness.
I think there was an attempt by Harmon in season 3 to open the door for the kinds of vulnerable (if not sentimental) character beats that had largely eluded the series up until that point, but it just didn’t work. The foundation was not laid properly by the writers, while the catalyst for those character beats was the Jerry/Beth relationship and the kids’ reaction to it, which was not something the fanbase asked for. The result was a hard backtrack heading into season 4 that seems to have closed the door to that degree of vulnerability. I don’t mind so much, the show is what it is, but it’s conspicuous when R&M tries to be Futurama or Bojack Horseman because its ethos has been well-established by this point.
We don’t even need to go to the extreme cases like the over-mentioned dog episode. Even Zoidberg has pathos in Futurama.Yeah, every character on Futurama, to some extent, had something relatable and human (relatable alien?) as a part of their character. That was a staple with Bender, for instance, in sometimes subtle and sometimes overt ways that didn’t get in the way of the character being true to himself.
I’ve got the feeling Harmon wishes to be able to inject more of that into Rick and Morty, but it’s too late now, it’s been a very different kind of show from the beginning, for better or for worse. Maaaaybe… I’m not so sure, I think he can do some of that, and I’d argue we’ve seen enough to where all of the characters have shown they have more range than they initially did when we met them. But it would be a fine balance. Too much and the show kind of feels like it’s losing its identity. Not enough and we never get anywhere, really, we just have moments of greater pathos and humanity that ultimately never goes anywhere. Maybe at some point Harmon will discuss his vision for the show and characters, and whether he wished he’d done more with the concepts and characters’ growth (or lack thereof in any meaningful way) over time.
The issue might be that this is not entirely his show, not the way Community was (well, until they took it away from him then gave it back). And I might be wrong, but I think Roiland is not really interested in that kind of emotional/psychological side. He just wants to do hard sci-fi with an outrageous norm-defying angle.
And I might be wrong, but I think Roiland is not really interested in that kind of emotional/psychological side. He just wants to do hard sci-fi with an outrageous norm-defying angle.Could be. Solar Opposites likely supports that perspective. There’s some sweetness, but it certainly feels more like they’re going for hard sci-fi, and exploration of a consistently flawed family structure. The show doesn’t seem as interested in changing/evolving the characters so much as using them as a set piece. And I suppose that’s fine. It avoids the softening of everything that CAN occur when there’s a predictable arc, but it also avoids the rewards of something like, say, The Americans, or yes, Futurama, where the characters stay true to themselves, but grow in rewarding and believable ways. I still find both approaches interesting while still wishing (and to an extent seeing, whether it’s really there or not) for some meaningful growth from the characters.
Anyway, that was more-or-less me just agreeing with you, but there you have it.
Yes. Futurama was much more sentimental and character based. This was still good though in my opinion
Yes. Futurama was much more sentimental and character based. This was still good though in my opinionI love both shows. Futurama just had arguably a deeper payoff with character growth. That said, Rick & Morty is still one of my favorite shows running right now and it’s great (although I didn’t love this week’s episode with the sperm, despite some cheap laughs). I just wish there was a bit more growth or more apparent consequences to things that happened in previous episodes than an occasional easter egg or bit of fan service.
But again, I’m still a big fan of both shows.
it was just a episode about two opposing viewpoints on what is right. its like when it came to specific issues even if the love is real, they can’t see the same vision detail wise, even if they want the same outcome. contextual justice rarely plays out the same as some sort of universal justice. its where the two of them saw the issues. “the moral man roles up his sleeve and uses force” when the avatar of mother nature. Can’t save the world without killing “Man” even the most innocent of men or the ones who retain it, would have to stand against her in a effort to “find a better way” even if it still leads to self destruction, I also think planetary destruction and inevitabilitywas a theme and how we all tend to succumb to hedonism and pointlessness as a way to cope with our normal avoidance behaviors switching them around, how ultimately. we can’t control things as much as we like. and we only live when we get close to dying, the truth of what we are comes out under pressure, and most care only when its convienant. and it had the vibe of unsuccessful love almost a desperation. Summer, Rick, Morty all were using it to escape. I think the end result of Beth was the shining moment. Bad parenting attempted to be reconciled.
Enjoyed it, but yeah something was missing with the Planetina arc. I was expecting it to build to a bigger finale, like maybe Morty had to fight her with the rings or something. Or Rick and Summer’s b-plot would intersect. But nope, they breakup and she leaves. Even the use of Jerry and Beth was surprisingly…normal for this episode, with Beth playing the role of a standard sitcom mom. The whole thing felt like a season 1 episode when the series was still fine-tuning its parodies. On the plus side, Planetina didn’t die, get her memory reset or suffer some horrible fate, so I’d be interested to see her pop up again in a stronger episode.
B-Nah man, more like A-. This clicked with me so much. There’s so much fun stuff happening.
I thought last week’s episode was empty, just had nothing going for it. This week’s tho, I enjoyed a lot. I wish the show was dedicated to a little more serialization because Morty is reaching a clear breaking point with Jessica gone, Planetina going anime villain and Morty just being over Rick’s bullshit.
“300 human deaths to save the world is bordering on insignificant in the grand scheme of things, even if it does give Morty qualms.” Now that’s a weird take; Morty doesn’t want to date a psychotic terrorist murderer even though the ice caps are melting pffft
All I know was as the credits rolled, I was laughing. The sheer fucking absurdity of whatever the hell this was made me laugh, and since that’s where I was for the stinger, laughed at that too. I think I’d find it a lot less funny if I didn’t think the sappy song was a gag itself, and maybe it isn’t, but since I for whatever reason think it is, the whole thing kind of worked even if I still can’t explain exactly why. I have been making terrible youtube videos where out of place songs play over credits so I think that I’m just broken in the brain.
Yeah, that episode sucked. They were going for that emotional beat at the end with Morty, but the execution through out the rest of the episode was so poor that I just didn’t really care by the end. The B plot with Summer and Rick felt like boring filler too. It is kind of fascinating how flat and shallow the Planeteers spoof was. “Oh yeah, they’re old and cynical profiteers off of Planetina!” Ok – you got anymore than that, show?
I didn’t think it was the best episode.. but I liked it. I do think the message of the episode was “Anyone who think all you need is love…. Is a fucking idiot”. Planetina got caught between her love of Morty and the Earth. Rick thought his love with Daphne could work but it was all built around survival. In the end Morty made possibly the most mature decision I’ve seen in the show ever and broke it off with someone he loved because he knew it could not work. If anything I kind of hope what comes across an episode of the week could have potential huge ramifications in the future of Morty not being the most well adjusted person in the show.
– Awesome guest cast, but I would have absolutely lost my shit if they got Kath Soucie and LeVar Burton to do a half-reprise of their old Planeteer roles.- I don’t get the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim standards. They let the word “shit” go by when Rick tosses it off as an expletive, but when he calls Morty a “piece of shit,” it gets bleeped? Also, I understand bleeping the spoken words of “eating ass,” but the physical act of just wagging your tongue and shaking your head? It’s not like we can’t tell what Rick and Summer are doing.- Those elbow titties looked like balls. I’m guessing that was the point, but it felt weird.- Was Morty’s tantrum whiny and stereotypical? Yes. Hell, I tried the same guilt trip on MY mom when I was dating an older woman nearly 20 years ago (though I was a legal adult living at home, not a teenager). But despite that, it was oddly affecting for Morty to finally vent so eloquently about how basically everyone in his life treats him like shit. Great speech, but sadly a misplaced context.- I know the show doesn’t go for repeats all that much, but I would LOVE for Planetina to come back. Part of it is because Alison Brie is all of the awesome, but part of me actually thinks she could be a good foil for Rick, as they’re both psychotic killers, with Rick being completely self-serving and Planetina ostensibly driven by a sense of dedication to the greater good (the greater good).- Jerry calling after Summer that he has not yet granted approval for her gallivanting off with Rick may go down as a classic Jerry feebleness moment.- That said, Summer may not respect her dad, but how the hell does Beth not step in and back him up, even if it’s just on the generic grounds of parental authority?- I get Beth’s indignation at Morty and Planetina’s relationship in a vacuum, but in practical story terms she’s a bit late to the game with it. The episode hints heavily that they had sex at least once before having the talk, and Season 3 implied that Morty had sex with a mermaid (facilitated by Rick, who still seemingly gets a permanent pass from Beth despite occasional protests), so despite his overall awkward teenage loser status, Morty fucks, so the “he’s only 14″ card can go right back in the deck at this point.- Rick’s spaceship rocking is too absurdly perfect for words.- Every scene with Rick getting twitterpated about Daphne makes me miss Unity.
Morty fucks, so the “he’s only 14″ card can go right back in the deck at this point.This is a weird sentiment. Fucking doesn’t make you good at relationships, and fucking at 14 certainly doesn’t improve the chances that a relationship will not end in disaster. You could try to make an argument that Morty is mature beyond his years based on the other aspects of his life with Rick, but even if that were true (and it isn’t), his ability to process his own emotions in regards to relationships is consistently awful. His rant about how nobody else gets him and everyone else treats him like shit is just more evidence of his emotional immaturity. Of course he’s going to fall in love with the first person to treat him well. A million relationships start and end that same way.Beth’s problem is not that he’s having sex, anyway, it’s that he’s hanging out with someone who presents as a full grown adult, and given the characterization in this episode, clearly is much more emotionally mature than Morty is. The consent issue is dialed back quite a bit, but objectively a 14 year old who fucks being in a relationship with a 35 year old who happens to be fucking them does not waive a parent’s right to object to an unhealthy relationship.
Problem is that bet is the last member of the cast who should be dealing with that issue she has been shown to be a narcissist who really doesn’t give a shit about her kids unless it suits her narcissism. Jerry would have been a better person to talk to Morty about the issue he at least in the past has been shown to have some parental concern even if sometimes he does get lost up his own ass. With beth it’s like Quagmire counseling Chris on consent
I was more going for what seemed like Beth trying to prevent something that had already happened. I don’t buy that she’s trying to help him process emotions or avoid unhealthy relationships. Hell, she was actively okay with him fucking the Gazorpian sex robot, and she never once gave him any kind of advice about Jessica other than chastising him for looking at her Instagram (Which, how does that translate into “creepy stalker?” If they follow each other, that’s literally the entire point of the app.), so to have this sudden, authoritative concern is completely out of character, and to justify it by mentioning age seems like clutching at straws, especially after it’s already too late for that particular variable of the equation. She’s right about the general point in a vacuum, and no competent parent would approve of this situation, but given everything that’s gone on to this point, THIS is where Beth draws the line? And after they’ve already gotten down? It rings hollow.That said, it would have been believable if it was framed like trying to help him avoid a life-changing mistake. Morty even brought up her and Jerry becoming parents as teenagers, which seems to inform the rare instances where Beth comes down on Summer, a la Lovefinderrz. Applying that same sentiment here would have made sense, but instead they went with, “You’re a kid, you don’t know any better, you can’t possibly understand,” when it’s pretty clear just from this episode that Morty understands more about the situation than Beth gives him credit. As a parent, Beth has every right to object, and she should, but I would have just preferred it in a way that was consistent with her character.
agreed. although those other sitiuations weren’t “serious” i.e. jessica was just an object of mort’s fantasies and the sexbot was just a sextoy
I think this is the first relationship morty has had
and the whole “i got pregnant as a teenager and messed up my life” is probably weighing heavily
well Planetina is apparentl an ageless elemental so…. from her perspective, everyone is younger then her.
Although maybe she has actually spent less then 14 total years existing (manifesting)
i mean… i dont know.
Bleeping the “eating ass” made the joke funnier exactly because what they were doing was so graphic. I really liked this episode. I dont think an episode needs oto have an overall theme to be funny. Although I’m sure youtube commenters will uncover all these thematic connections I missed
but I guess the point is I actually found it funy
I assumed the blurring of the cunnilingus faces was a joke.
My take with the eating ass pixelation was that it was a joke, not actual censorship
It was definitely censorship and not a joke. Here’s how it looked on Netflix:
Weird!
I see that nobody wants to mention that Morty is not a virgin anymore
I think this episode was a take on the creator’s feeling on climate change and on how they are dealing with it. On one hand there is real emergency that should be addressed with every mean necessary (including the necessary realisation that some people ought to be sacrificed if saving our children’s future is to be our priority) and on the other the idea that whole stars systems are beeing destroyed without having any impact whatsoever on the universe, which is in a sense very recomforting and that helps the creators to cope with this sens of emergency blended with political inaction.
(Summer plans to eat a lot of [bleep] and or [bleep], Rick is down to consume a heroic quantity of [bleep)Is this a review joke? Because “ass” was not bleeped?
It was on Adult Swim. It wasn’t on Amazon Prime (which airs the episodes without any bleeps).
Wait. Is it not called “Adult” Swim? Why the pearl clutching? I will never understand the US.
Because 75% of the time Adult Swim is Cartoon Network and targeted at children. And you’d be surprised by the amount of people who don’t seem to grasp that Adult Swim is specifically a programming block for adults only.
There’s a video out there of some redneck, Qanon grandparent losing his shit because his grandkids woke up at like 6 AM and he walked in on them watching Mr. Pickles on the Adult Swim west coast network. The guy is genuinely convinced that Cartoon Network is airing a violent, sexually explicit cartoon that promotes Satanism for children.
Well, they kinda are. Lol
Adult with Children Nearby Swim.Also, since when is Amazon the bolder, edgier outlet?
In addition to what Kuma mentioned, on the broadcast version both Summer and Rick’s mouths were blurred when they were demonstrating their ****** eating technique.I’m thinking it was all intended for comedic effect, but the various streaming entities didn’t get the joke so they only blurred the elbow titties.
I’m calling it. This was the worst episode. Worse than The Heist. Worse than whatever that dragon thing was.
At least Heist had you son of a bitch I’m in! Does that make up for Elon Musk as himself? Maybe not but its something.
No he was playing Elon Tusk, it’s a totally different character
You all got Schrabbed.
Agree this is worse than The Heist; the real worst is this is the worst three episodes in a row by a wide margin.
I thought this was a much stronger start after the rather abysmal season 4 as a whole, so this coming at episode 3 was a downer.
The Heist was good. This was good. Dragon was bad. Settle down
I’m sure that this Project For Electrical will help a lot of people all over the Worldhttps://takeoffprojects.com/Project-for-Electrical
I feel on some level this episode was inspired by the Weird Al song “Happy Birthday”There’s garbage in the water / There’s poison in the sky / I guess it won’t be long before we’re all gonna dieThere’s an Arab on the corner buying everything in sightI guess you know the earth is gonna crash into the sun / But that’s no reason why we shouldn’t have a little fun
It does seem extraordinarily on point. Nevertheless, that song is from 1982. Let’s say the line about the Arab doesn’t translate well to 2021.
I think that’s the point – it’s spoofing a show that premiered in 1990. That scene with the Arab also prominently featured baby seals, which were the cute cause of the time.
I can see it now, but it seems like something that only works if you’re exactly Harmon’s age. Actually, scratch that, I’m almost exactly Harmon’s age (though non-American), and the whole joke only reached me now that I’ve been reminded of the pop culture of those times.I think it mostly is because the episode didn’t strike me as particularly wanting to be a spoof of the Nineties, as there weren’t other elements of it. Planetina didn’t feel like a girl from the Nineties misplaced in time (and they could have mined the fact that she existed in reality only as far as her “kids” allowed her to exist, a beat that other R&M episodes would have taken all the way through its extreme conclusions). And the other characters had no reason to have remained attached to the Nineties.
I’m 34 and Australian and was a massive fan of Captain Planet growing up and the joke about the Arab and Baby seals came across to me as ab“this would definitely have fit in on Captain Planet in the 90s”.
I’d be interested to see how this episode would fit in a story circle… It felt off.
Eh, I think there was more under the hood than surface jokes. For one thing, since Planetina was referring to her ring-people as “teens”, I didn’t expect them to be adults, much less complete sell-outs who were treating her like a teen rock star to exploit. And maybe I should have foreseen it, but I hadn’t anticipated that a Planetina without being under someone else’s control would do monstrous things in pursuit of protecting the environment … and yet, it makes perfect sense, certainly from her perspective, and maybe from an “objective” perspective too.It doesn’t get remarked upon enough, how Morty is an unwilling badass. Is that what it really means to be a Morty? Does that make him the Mortiest of Morties?
Imagine the alternate reality version of this episode where Rick takes Morty on the apocalypse bender. Which he was clearly planning to do. This episode probably entirely exists because they started wondering about what Captain Planet would be like had the kids grown up in realtime or could have a fight with their rings.
As an actual fan of Captain Planet, the parody versions here seem half-hearted. Where is the Ma-Ti parody? Considering his power WAS Heart, it would actually make narrative sense if the knockoff Ma-Ti died (either by a villain or by the other Not!Planeteers) and that’s why the current group is so jaded and corrupt. Also, why in the world were Not!Kwame and Not!Gi’s powers switched? It’s not like the show had to worry about a lawsuit or anything. And where’s knockoff Gaia? Given Rick is Rick, you would think Not!Gaia would be yet another one night stand from Rick’s past, which would have actually given him something to do this episode. Maybe because Not!Gaia would technically be the Earth, it would seem too similar to that episode last season where Rick literally fucked a planet?
And yea, the Rick/Summer stuff reeked of padding and giving Rick something to do. The only real joke is that weird aliens have weird alien sex. There was nothing in that subplot whatsoever.
i genuienly found that subplot amusing, Summer’s general vulgarity and the way it went down with that women, it was a funny light b plot to me.
I think the thing with the commands being changed out was due to how the rings worked in this ep. IIRC Morty was saying the specific forms of the element he wanted.
Beth being concerned about the age difference was the most bizarre considering Morty has dated at least two adult women so far (tho that was “Healthy Morty.” Also the girl from Anatomy Park seemed like she was at least in her 20s given she had extensive knowledge necessary to build a theme park. In a living person.Honestly, this is an issue effecting most adult cartoons. How many times have Steve from american dad and chris from family guy dated a literal adult and no one acknowledged it as weird?
hey now the arab character specifically mentioned he represented no group and was his own character and if we can’t take an evil racist caricature at his word what has happened to the world?
This episode didn’t really have an ending. It just sorta… stopped. It’s like there’s a reel missing or something.
I had the feeling they plan to go back to this? I doubt it, but that was the feeling at the end. For one thing, Planetina is still running rampant murdering people as she sees fit.
i would guess they dont have specific plans but wanted to keep their options open with bringing her back in the future
The whole planeteers thing certainly seemed like it was leaning into the commodification of environmentalism (selling the funko pops seemed especially on the nose) but it didn’t go anywhere.I’ll also say that I’m surprised they never mentioned the “100 companies cause climate change” canard.
If you really think the planet is about to die and object to any attempt to even hint otherwise, then Morty was right. 🙄
I’m with you. This one was…meh. Some funny moments but overall not particularly funny; I kept waiting for it to click, but it never did. Oh well, on to the next one.
I actually liked this one a fair bit – it was kind of creative connecting emotional commitment to the environment to how Rick and Morty and Summer’s relationships, and the bit about Planetina being the only person Morty’s met who takes him seriously felt real enough to be poignant. It does feel a little bit like a faded photocopy of the beats of the episode where Rick reunites with his ex who is a hivemind, but had a lot of real laughs to moments in tonight’s episode.That said, I’m really here to hijack this thread into Tuca and Bertie discussion. I’m not going to ask why the AV Club isn’t offering weekly coverage of a show they complained in newswires wasn’t getting enough attention. But Tuca and Bertie season 2 has been amazing, with tonight’s episode being probably my favorite so far of the show. The quick summary for anyone who isn’t watching is that it’s simply about Tuca’s insomnia, following her over three nights where she can’t seem to settle down and instead wanders around. There’s a lot of great little gags that build in this episode in a way that also just creates this nice sort of it’s late night and everything’s a little loopy, horny, and melancholy. For example, on the first night, an old bird feels up their partner who jokingly calls them a pervert. On the second night, we see the bird is alone. And then on the third night, a bunch of teen plants summon the “horniest ghost” who then goes over an feels up their partner from the first night.It’s just such a pleasant fit on Adult Swim, and it’s really sad it took this long – I’ve recently been discovering old shows I missed out on through HBO Max like China, Illinois and Metalacolypse and while I like the shows enough to keep watching, they just don’t really feel all that fun and chill. Like I get the episode of Metalacolypse where they stop masturbating is meant to make fun the band’s sexual and gender based insecurities. Anyways, this digression is to say that it’s so refreshing to experience a show that fits perfectly within Adult Swim’s drugged out house style that’s totally free of that crap and just doing its own thing.To finish up, I’m also saying please watch Tuca and Morty alongside Rick and Bertie each week. I’m gonna be so sad if this show gets cancelled again because of general apathy while nerd blogs feverishly speculate a year from now about what will happen when Space Beth meets Evil Morty.
Yes!!!
I support this! I was pretty tickled by vintage sexy campy movie in this week’s episode and the focus on Tuca has been nice.
“Tuca & Bertie” is sooooo good right now. Last night’s episode really nailed what it feels like to be a night owl: the loneliness, the horniness, all the secret relationships and people who are out that you never see in the day time. I loved how the cityscape at night was almost like a chalkboard- all the detail during the daytime transitions into outlines and the occasional luminous shape. There’s a real playfulness to the animation style on “T&B” that’s so refreshing.
I hope it gets a third season and I’m cautiously optimistic it will based on it’s plum slot on the schedule right after R&M. Plus: Adult Swim is going to need more programming to fill time once Family Guy goes off syndication, so it makes sense to bankroll a few seasons of Tuca and then you have something to run every night in place of Bob’s Burgers or whatever.
“Adult Swim is going to need more programming to fill time once Family Guy goes off syndication.”Yeah, they can’t replay Family Guy forever. And I heard they lost the key to the safe where they keep 900,000 hours of old Robot Chicken episodes.
Agreed about the Family Guy thing. Adult Swim can show more original programming (or reruns of their old shows besides ATHF or Robot Chicken). FXX shows episodes from their last two or three seasons (I swear they show the same one when I watch). Meanwhile, TBS and two local channels show reruns, and it’son Hulu. I love Bob’s Burgers and enjoy American Dad, but I have the same options as FG if I want to see those shows (AD isn’t on FXX).
I’m yet to get into Tuca and Bertie, but good on you for discovering China, Illinois and Metalocalypse. Unfortunately, I tried rewatching both over the last year and they just don’t work for me anymore. Same with Super Jail, and even ATHF to a certain extent. I know my sense of humor has evolved a -lot- over the last 30 years, but I still do marathons of MST3K probably every other month. It makes no sense to me.That said, I’m gonna have to check out Tuca and Bertie.FYI, the Adult Swim site is worth checking out. If I just need some background noise I’ll throw on the marathon of either R&M or Venture Bros.
A big thing that hasn’t aged well for me is the amount of male insecurity that’s all over those shows – while an MST3K episode can have a joke about trans women or gay panic that haven’t aged very well in the course of an hour and a half, you don’t have anything like Alice in Superjail or the hand banana episode of ATHF. That’s one nice thing about the Venture Brothers, since the emphasis on serialization builds up characters who seem like stupid jokes into multidimensional characters (though I wish they would have confronted rather than just kind of written off the worst parts of Sgt Hatred’s early characterization).
MST3K was like, “worried about being PC” before it was really a thing in comedy (ditto The Simpsons, as a side-note) – and it’s some of the best aged comedy out there. The lack of centering of male insecurities probably was helped by the fact that Frank Conniff is a genuine sweetheart, and it had two (2!!!) women writers, when most writers rooms (let alone COMEDY writer rooms) have none.
“you don’t have anything like Alice in Superjail or the hand banana episode of ATHF”I think this has a lot to do with why I haven’t revisited those shows at all. I tried watching both for the first time in a decade this year, and just plain NO. And I appreciate what you say about MST3K, as in they knew they were treading thin ice sometimes but -usually- held it back. As for VB, I tend to skip most of season 5 (?) because that’s when the Sgt. Hatred really got obnoxious. There’s a random one-off episode or two in there, but it doesn’t affect the overall congruity of the show. I’m really hoping this VB “movie” comes out before I die. Knowing how Doc and Jackson move, it’ll be 2031 before we see it.
Take your damn star
I am DYING to watch the new season of Tuca and Bertie but I don’t have cable and Adult Swim bizarrely hasn’t made episodes available for purchase on Amazon, nor have they done next day streaming like most other current shows. I have no idea how to access it!
Is B&T s2 better than s1? Because I wanted to like s1, but just didn’t find it funny at all, so I’d love to jump back in if the writing has improved.
I had a hard time getting into Tuca and Bertie when it was on Netflix. Then I watched an episode after the R&M premiere and enjoyed it. It seems like a great fit for Adult Swim.Also, I miss and love China, IL. Gonna have some Canada Cakes.
yessss. Tuca and Bertie is miles above Rick and Morty. The nighttime episode was so soft and powerful, I had my criticisms of T&B in its first season for its “this is too much” energy but this season is on point and when it slows down, oh boy
If there’s a “missing link” I’d suggest it might be the one between three planets where they decided you may as well just keep the party going until civilisation is destroyed and a planet Earth facing and aware of an upcoming environmental catastrophe that is, as represented by Morty, unwilling to face the sort of tough decisions we need to make to avoid it.
So many typos and weird grammar errors in this article. I’d give it another pass unless AV Club’s policy is to just leave sloppy articles for posterity. The Planeteers represent Eco groups and companies who seemingly led the vanguard in saving the earth, but now that it’s a cash cow for them, are more concerned about the profits, including selling out to Arab companies who may not have the environment’s best interests at heart
I understood the episode perfectly fine. It’s pretty clearly a Harmon/writer’s room dealing with a shitty breakup by turning it into an episode.Planetina is a person you love but has way too intense views on issues, issues that eventually get between you. Whether it’s environmentalism, feminism, economics, etc…it’s something you think you share until you find out they’re really too far deep into the rabbit hole. What’s awesome was that Planetina isn’t just a broken trope of environmentalism. She has a legitimate point against the miners who willfully voted for the destruction of the earth. Nobody is required to mine coal today, we could stop and wind it down. Their deaths while not necessarily deserved aren’t without a disturbed but justified view.The alien woman is somebody you love and have great chemistry with but is only in it for the financial and/or emotional stability. They bail on you once they get a new job or find a better person to leech off of. The episode really didn’t strive to be funny, this happens every so often where the jokes are just jokes but the episode is pretty serious. Planetina is supposed to be timeless but Captain Planet is portrayed as in his 20s and if Morty aged in accordance with real time he would be 19, so younger but not inappropriate. At this point, Morty is just an audience surrogate, his age is meaningless in these situations because he expresses views far older than his age.
I hate that now Rick & Morty is under microscope. Every episode is picked apart with every little detail and is deemed worthy or not. Does it live up to other episodes? On a scale of 1 to 10 where does it land? Blah! Blah! I liked when it was that lil underground show I discovered and not the phenomenon it is now. I’m sure the creators are feeling the pressure.
It doesn’t help that everyone somehow feels entitled to the show “saying something” every episode instead of, y’know, just trying to make you laugh. It seems like people grade out harshly after the fact if there ends up being no “lesson” or “message.”
I didn’t laugh much so, like Zack, I tried to analyze the message and found it wanting.BTW nice username…
I understand where you’re coming from but: A) This episode wasn’t funny. I understand that it’s subjective but I laughed more with the slut dragons, at least that one understood it was dumb and didn’t take itself too seriously.
B) This episode *is* trying to be deeper than others! There’s a whole undercurrent of drama which is really weird for a show like this, the ending is probably the saddest of the entire show, they’re genuinely and unironically trying to tell us Morty wouldn’t go out with a girl because she killed some people even though he killed A LOT of people.
Lol did you really just do a “I liked Rick and Morty before it was cool” hipster take? Lots of people watched season 1, you aren’t special. Also, it doesn’t take a microscope to realize this episode was bad compared to how good the show usually is.
the show has literally always been under a microscope it’s the most internet show ever.
I mean, that is… how reviews work?
Noooo!!!
Closest RaM has come to a venture bros episode imo, but not being grounded in reality or pop culture enough to pull it off
I agree with the review: this episode was meh and lacked payoff.
I also was not a fan of the “Arab men buy women” joke, it feels like a way to squeeze in some as much concentrated racism as possible under the pretext of irony, and nothing else. I think the theme wasn’t the environnement, not at all, though, but relationships. They
They really have nothing of value to say about pollution/global warming, and it shows: Planetina’s heel turn from corny hero to murderous maniac is way too fast and doesn’t have any meat to it. There’s a lot of ways you can talk about the things that should be changed to ensure we don’t sacrifice millions of poor peoples, entire species and the futur of our children, and how the average citizen will, no doubt about it, resist that change ….Dropping minors down an elevator is not a very efficient way to summarize this thorny issue. That plotline is very weak. It deserved to be treated with more care IMO.
It’s just clear that team of writer has nothing to say about that or feels like learning anything. I get the feeling they all like their big houses, their cars, their meat, their AC and their pool… and i guess it’s a bit above their skill level to work into R&M’s nihilism some actual critic of the US’s lifestyle.
But both stories are about Rick and Morty meeting someone, having an incredible connection and then falling out after discovering something dark about that person. That’s the common thread. Planetina was just there to look cool at first, be someone both the young, hopefull Morty and the jaded, edgy viewer can like …even if the viewer is fully expecting everything to turn sour.
The young Morty falls for a cute, super-powered environmentalist….the old Rick just falls for elbow-boobs (or elbow-balls) on a litteral monster.
I did like that Summer got to destroy an Asteroïd and eat the jiggly parts of aliens. The first-person perspective was stylish. And above all, my girl deserves some fun.
Eveything with the arab character was… weird. Down to saying this doesn’t culturally reflect the people… okay. That could have used another rewrite or two.
For real. You can certainly do nasty, politically uncorrect jokes, if by going that route you’re exploring some rich satirical vein or even just a very funny bit. But this felt like just for the sake of a joke that would feel old and lazy in 1990. (Maybe the origin was to show the Tina-teers were out of touch with current times, but it didn’t translate, and I don’t even see why they would be only because they were kids in the 90s).
Yeah that was a c-grade Family Guy joke. Oof.
Almost forgot, they also did a “one of each ethnicity” joke. So edgy.
And the main joke in “one of each major ethnicity” is that the ethnicities were African, Asian, Caucasian and “ginger”. Family Guy level all right.
The joke was that Captain Planet’s version of representation of all ethnicities included two white kids.
i thought the joke was how over the top stereotypically evil and then the arab character apologizing for his own charectrization
They really have nothing of value to say about pollution/global warming, and it shows: Planetina’s heel turn from corny hero to murderous maniac is way too fast and doesn’t have any meat to it. There’s a lot of ways you can talk about the things that should be changed to ensure we don’t sacrifice millions of poor peoples, entire species and the futur of our children, and how the average citizen will, no doubt about it, resist that change ….Dropping minors down an elevator is not a very efficient way to summarize this thorny issue. That plotline is very weak. It deserved to be treated with more care IMO.Yes to all of the above. There’s a ton of rich satire about the commercialization and “greenwashing” of the environmental movement that they could have explored, but instead we get Sympathy for the Coal Industry and “you can’t just stop this stuff, because Democracy.” Rick and Morty have passed that milestone long ago, when they battled the president and his black ops minions and won. For that matter, Beth should have remembered that her 14-year-old son has already had a son of his own. As Zack notes above, they could have played that for laughs, but skated right past it.
I also just don’t buy climate change being an issue given what we see Rick is capable of accomplishing. Seems like it would be fairly trivial to solve and even if he didn’t want to even Morty and Summer can save or destroy worlds just by accessing Rick’s tech.
I didn’t read it as an “Arab men buy women” joke. I read it as the Planeteers not actually giving a shit about the environment, it was just a front for making money off of Planetina, and they were going to sell the rings (and thus control over her) once that became the more profitable option. It seemed to me that the Arab dude was an oil prince, and he was buying the rings so he could just not summon her ever again. He’s in the business of destroying the environment, and Planetina stands in the way of that. With control of the rings that summon her, he’ll be free to extract oil and pollute the environment and indulge in hobbies like clubbing baby seals. She’ll never again get in his way.The message seemed to be that the rich and/or powerful won’t save the environment. The Planeteers wouldn’t because they were using Planetina sparingly as a publicity stunt to make money. Planetina herself, once free to exist independently, wouldn’t either. Murdering a bunch of miners or slashing car tires won’t fix the entirety of humanity living in unsustainable ways. Only a collective shift in lifestyle will do that. And if they don’t make that choice, then they can’t really be saved. I think that’s what Morty was trying to say as he broke up with her at the end. There’s only so much you can do to help people who are unwilling to help themselves.There’s probably a parallel there with Rick & Summer’s apocalypse crawl. All three world’s populations had just given up and accepted their fate, and just partied. Then when Summer saved the third world, they all got mad at her because now they have to go to work tomorrow. You could take that gag at face value, but combined with Morty’s adventure, that looks like a critique of Earth’s future. Many people today would rather keep their current lifestyle and charge straight into apocalyptic global warming, rather than put in the work to avert catastrophe. If some powerful being came along and singlehandedly solved climate change for us, I can easily imagine tons of people being pissed off that they’re being forced to adapt, even though the world just got saved. For some, death is preferable to change.
Indeed – less about lazy characterization of Arabs in their treatment of women and more an indictment of how many don’t follow the OPEC connection after years and years of worse people doing worse shit.
Late reply I know, just want to tell you that this is a great comment.
If you don’t think that killing certain lawmakers and physically stopping fossil fuel extraction would help fight climate change you’re not paying attention
I liked Rick’s little romance and that B plot but my problem is they write the teen romances as basically that of a 40 or 50 year old. It’s really hard to get invested since it seems so unrealistic
Swapping the “Earth” Planeteer’s power to “Dirt” cracked me up. This episode was perfectly fine.
Poor Steve Buscemi. His characters cannot catch a break. There’s a youtube video of all of his characters (real and animated) meeting their grizzly deaths. Perhaps they can add Eddie to that montage.
“older woman inexplicably falls for unremarkable teen boy” is a stupid trope that will never not be creepy to me, both for its premise and for the questions that arise about the people who write it. I thought this show was supposed to be groundbreaking and fresh, or something.
I really don’t get how Planetina was supposed to not be essentially a teen. Yes, her character supposedly existed in the 1990s, and yes, she’s voiced by Allison Brie, but she’s an ageless magical being and doesn’t seem to be drawn any more maturely than is Jessica. And her idea that the Earth could be saved by killing individual miners (rather than by creating a society where the products of mining are no longer needed) is very much a teenage simplistic sensibility.
That all sounds like a stretch, dude. Someone who’s been around for 25 years has been around for 25 years. It’s not any less creepy when 100 year old vampires pose as “high schoolers” in shitty romance novels, and people use the exact same excuses (“timeless being; not actually that mature actually”)
Being perfectly honest my issue with this episode was beth her attempt to be something resembling a parent, hit wrong throughout the series we have seen that she is a narcissist as Summer once said she had her too early and has made it everybody else’s problem. She is verbally and most likely emotionally abusive to her husband And the only time she seems to really give a damn about her kids is when it seems like they might have actually found actual happiness. Honestly I’m reminded of that episode of American Dad where Francine starts feeling empty nest syndrome and gets jealous of Steve’s girlfriend Debbie.. now that’s not to say that she was wrong about the whole age thing. But she is the last person who should really be giving that sort of talk to anybody. Hell Jerry would have been more appropriate with Beth given her past characterizations it just comes off as jealousy instead of actual parental concern
So that’s the second guest female character from Community after Gillian Jacobs/Supernova. It’s Yvette Nicole Brown left. Wonder what super character she’ll appear as that Morty will gush after.
If she was self aware she’d do some kind of character who satirizes the K-Hive but she’s not
I see that pop culture is still okay with an underaged teen boy having sex with a grown ass woman.
I think she’s supposed to be like the senior who’s dating a sophomore in high school. She seemed pretty young in her looks and attitude to me, not at all an adult woman. Sure, she has existed since the 90s, but intermittently (like a genie who goes to sleep when not needed), and she was manifested always the same, her “kids” didn’t make her grow older, so she’s basically never been anything else than 16-year-old-ish (I think this might have been mild satire on the passion Zoomers like Greta Thunberg show for the environment).Besides, Morty has actually lived for longer than 14 years due to various shenanigans.
It didn’t turn out okay. Beth was right. That was the point
Whenever I see that “Rick and Morty” is going to do a very specific pop culture riff, I always come in with my eyebrow pre-cocked, so to speak.
I did like the idea of the Planeteers having grown up into greedy and cynical opportunists, but the storyline really peaked with that moment when Morty took their rings. The rest of their romance played out in a pretty rote manner.
To give the show some modicum of credit, I think that they were trying to point out the absurdity of the idea that individual responsibility can solve our pollution problem. (Remember Captain Planet’s catchphrase was “The Power is Yours!”). That fits in well with “Rick and Morty” ’s worldview that almost everyone is primarily motivated by self-interest.
As for the b-story, it was a little disappointing to see it play out as a straightforward “I’m right, you’re wrong, watch me prove it” story.
It was also a very random pop culture riff, if there was no payoff as to why they were doing it (the Namor riff in the premiere was also random, but that was more the whole point of it, and its randomness made it funny). Like the reviewer said, I was expecting some kind of point regarding the concerns about the environment. But it kind of was something Rick should have delivered on, and Rick wasn’t even in that part of the story. In fact, he didn’t even meet Planetina.
Right. it wasn’t about the environment. It was about Morty’s relationship with his mom. Which made it surprising and interesting
I am fascinated by this review because, while well-argued, it is exactly counter to my experience of this episode. I found it to be one of the most poignant I’ve watched in w while. I think you left the breadcrumb trail of your disappointment in this episode for us to follow, and I will do my best to do that, if that’s ok. In brief: I believe you were predisposed to be looking for a macro-moral (relating to either the environment or a fresh turn on traditional Rick-and-Morty nihilism, with the Planetina and apocalypse plotlines respectively. What I believe you missed, because it took up so little time but was nevertheless central to the emotional arc of the story, were the ways in which Summer saves Rick and the way in which Beth is there to catch Morty. Those moments take up very little time in the episode — people distracting themselves from grief, or trying hard at doomed relationships, will often spend most of their time on the less meaningful activities. We got an entertaining episode that spent as much time on the distractions as a person evading reality. Then, we got quick, deep moments of emotional plot: mean-but-sweet in the case of Rick and Summer, and gut-wrenchingly accurate in the case of Beth and Morty. They take up so little of the narrative because we are meant to be pulled along with the party and the romance, respectively, until both come crashing to an end.One major plus for this episode was it’s organic reestablishment of the status quo — but not with a typical “kitchen scene”. Instead, we end on Morty crying into Beth’s breast, because even though he made the last several (weeks, months?) of his life about Planetina, and despite everything he said to his parents when he stormed out “for real” (not looking back to slam the door for a reaction), Beth is his mom. No tight moral – just an episode on the departure from and near-inexorable return to family. It’s kind of a “power of family” episode — which, in itself, is strengthened and made edgy and subtle enough to belong in Rick and Morty, because it is juxtaposed against the cheesiness and hyperbole of, especially, the Planetina plot.Summed up: I think we were supposed to think it was about Planetina and the environment, only to be brought up short by the realization that the A-plot really was about Morty and Beth.That’s all first impressions, and sparked by a well-written article that very much compelled me to write in. If that was your engagement hook, nicely done: I bit. Thanks for writing!
Christ, you are full of shit. That ep was an F. Morty is a psychotic killer just so he can get the babe, but has qualms when Girl Captain Planet does likewise—Jesus. Absolutely nothing from an ethical/moral standpoint was right in that effed-up mess that someone phoned in the shit script. A true turd.
This didn’t hit for me either. It felt sloppy in a way that R&M usually isn’t. Planetina’s heel turn came with almost no build-up and the resolution felt just as rushed (what happened to her magic rings? Is Morty just gonna stick ‘em in a safe or what?). It also seemed weird that Daphne had that “Hello” speech tic that got arbitrarily dropped. I kinda wished they followed up with the conflict they teased at the beginning with Beth & Jerry both realizing they have no control over their kids. It’s something the show’s never really addressed- we know about their conflicted (and occasionally clashing) feelings over Rick’s influence on the family, but the show’s never really explored what it’s like to parent two universe-trotting kids who are enabled by their psychotic grandfather.
I also wonder if the overarching theme for this season is that Rick is slippin’. Every episode so far has our boy Rick fucking up: he gets his ass handed to him by Nimbus, his lazy decoy plan backfires spectacularly, and then he fails to see that Daphne is using him to get off-world. Maybe over the course of this season we’ll see Morty and Summer become more competent and jaded while their grandpa gets sloppier and loses his edge.
Maybe over the course of this season we’ll see Morty and Summer become more competent and jadedIf I think back, I believe Summer has always proved to be almost infallible at that she does, when she decides to do something. It might be the original joke, i.e. the fact that one would expect her to be this vain, self-absorbed, completely clueless teenage girl, but in reality she gets shit done (possibly because she’s still the granddaughter of the smartest man in the universe).One aspect that rung false to me in the episode, although it’s on par with the show’s humour, is how Summer’s idea of having fun involves hardcore orgies.Also, I recognize the whole “finding any lifeform sexually attractive” as coming from Futurama, but it was treated more discretionarily there (it was true of, say, Amy or the Professor, but some aliens themselves wouldn’t find humans attractive), whereas in Rick and Morty is applied as a default to any character, no matter their previous experiences.
Summer has always been super competent. My favorite example is the climax of Morty’s Mind-Blowers when she coolly handles a Scenario 4 while eating a popsicle and after cleaning up their mess Rick and Morty just yell at her for being a stupid bitch because they think she let them fall asleep during Interdimensional Cable.
I’m curious if the show will ever explore why Ricks never seem to adopt Summers as their side-kicks (I don’t recall ever seeing a Summer at either iteration of the Citadel). Maybe it’s because she’s so much more self-assured and independent than Morty (which is also interesting that she seems to idolize/respect Rick more than Morty does, but needs Rick less than Morty).
wouldn’t it be the whole “complimentary brainwave” thing?
wouldn’t it be the whole “complimentary brainwave” thing?
In a sense they did in season 1; Rick states/implies that Ricks use Mortys because their natural dumbness cancels out the Ricks’ intelligence when aliens scan for them or something. I think it’s in the first citadel episode?
Didn’t they explain in the first season that Mortys are stupid enough to shield Ricks from predators that are attracted to intelligence or something like that?Although even if they did who the hell knows if that’s considered canon anymore
I believe they have, isnt there a reference in an early episode that discusses the idea that Morty’s brainwaves cancel out Rick’s and make him indetectable across the multiverse?
While it’s never explicitly stated, it’s probably safe to infer that, since Rick uses Morty’s stupidity as a sort of shield to hide his genius from the universe, Ricks don’t pair with Summers because they are shockingly competent.
Summer took up with that wasteland barbarian, and just as casually gave it up. I can see her getting freaky with some aliens just because.
“is how Summer’s idea of having fun involves hardcore orgies.” It’s quite clear with the custom Ts and the stories like the missed Atlantis episode that Rick and Morty obviously hook up with the local women. I am guessing that’s why Summer doesn’t go on more trips considering how competent she is. However, if you are depressed about your love life. Sometimes it’s good to have a hedonistic weekend.
It has seemed to me that Summer is more Rick’s true “heir” and this episode only solidified that belief.
I’m pretty sure Summer’s been presented as super “sex positive” for awhile. What’s really weird, and wasn’t explored at all, is that she’s willing to have crazy orgies in close proximity to her Grandpa doing the same
I don’t know. If she’s really used to have THIS degree of casual sex (the Eyes Wide Shut type, not the American Pie type), then it should be more of an issue. She’s, what, 16?
Yeah her type is more “cute teen boy who looks like they are from a boyband” than anything weird so it was a bit odd. It seemed realistic she’d like the drugs at the parties but her characterization is just so all over the place
With this show it doesn’t matter, all it ever wants to do is quickly get into gory deaths, as many as possible, and nilism. Everything sucks and isn’t it funny to see cartoon characters get their brains blown out, especially if they’re kids?
While it certainly wasn’t the best R&M, I did like the idea that Summer is more down with Rick’s hedonism than Morty is, and in this episode she Rick-ed the hell out of Rick, who was very Morty in his whole, “Oh, no we’re totally in love” bit. (And I love that Summer saved an entire planet out of spite just to prove a point.)
And Morty’s gotten to be a bit of a badass in his own right. A few seasons ago he’d have just cried while getting murdered by the fire guy. Now, he doesn’t need Rick or even a Rick gadget to save him, he just kills the shit out of a bunch of assholes with elemental powers. And instead of caving to Planetina and going along with whatever she said because he’s horny and/or in love, he makes a mature decision and just ends the relationship.
“It also seemed weird that Daphne had that “Hello” speech tic that got arbitrarily dropped.” That came off to me more as how you doing? Like when Joey on Friends flirted he sometimes said it multiple times.
I also wonder if the overarching theme for this season is that Rick is slippin’.Probably an unintended metaphor for his creator.
In my opinion Planetina didn’t really have a “heel turn”. She merely was finally able to see what it would really take to save the planet after being freed from her manipulators and Morty just wasn’t “about that life” so to speak.And I think Rick slipping has been an ongoing theme for years, sometimes overtly as in the vat of acid episode. Most of his schemes make things worse and he only gets out of a jam due to dumb luck. Heck you can trace that all the way back to Season One when he Cronenberged the whole planet
Zack with all due respect man Shut.. The.. ****… Up. If you dislike a Show don’t watch it review something else or maybe it’s your Shitty job writing about stuff you don’t like or critique about.Your bullet points at the end were unnecessary felt more like a consumer report, i will agree on one thing the episode had little jokes here an their but it was a dark episode and at times i found it cringing to watch morty fall in love, felt awkward but still a damn good episode.I can relate to morty cause I’ve been heartbroken we all have at one point but that what makes this show so great cause we can relate to the characters.Might i add instead of reviewing a show you have little hope for cause it isn’t making sense to you go review something you enjoy whatever that may be. Cause you are a debby downer just like all the critics who think they have to weigh in their two cents.Sincerely Me ^^
simply felt like they worked backwards from a ‘we want to do a scene where captain planet’s powers are used to actually murder people’ concept and nothing more.definitely one of the most inessential episodes of this show i’ve ever seen. it wasn’t even so much bad, just ‘whatever’.
This episode was about toxic relationships and ““You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Also it shows mortys growth as a character because Rick needed summer to show him the way out, And morty figured it out by himself
This episode had a lot of sincere emotional energy for Rick & Morty with the Planetina storyline and Summer’s feelings. I’m not sure it was meant to be funny so much as in its feelings.
This episode reminded me of how much I loved Captain Planet growing up. Caring for the environment is important and all, but Dr. Blight and MAL and Captain Pollution were my faves.
Episode was forgettable and sort of unfinished, if okay enough.But can we talk of how terribad the episode titles have become? Does taking the title of something famous and randomly replacing syllables with “Rick” and/or “Morty” qualify as a pun now?
But that’s how they’ve always been. Season 1 had such title “gems” as “Rick Potion #9″ (a play on the old song “Love Potion #9″) and “Rixty Minutes”. This isn’t a new development.
I don’t know, I feel like it’s getting worse. Like, once they tried and missed, now they aren’t even trying anymore and just use a software that creates automatic Rick and Morty title “puns”.
The puns are supposed to be as bad as possible I think. That’s the joke
that complaint is rickdiculous
Yeah you missed something. This episode was about Morty and his mom. You finally mentioned Beth in your last stray observation but she’s the other main character in the a story. This was pretty straightforward story about a boy rushing into a relationship he’s not ready for, while his mom tries to warn him but ultimately just has to watch her son get hurt. The magic of this show has always been the way it treats the human/character stuff straight in the face of the sci-fi rigmarole. LOVED this episode. It’ll stick with me a lot longer than the decoy thought experiment.
Bingo. So weird how people are missing this and focusing on whether the “message is good”.
That is what I took away as well. If I had to find a theme between the two stories, it’s that both Rick and Morty are forced to face their limitations and pop their inflated bubbles of self-delusion. Morty believes he is mature and independent, but really is a 14yo who needs and appreciates his mom. Rick thinks of himself as a detached fuck machine, but actually wants to connect and relate to someone.
Absolutely. It was about emotional growth. The Captain Planet riff was barely the point.
Exactly. It was about Beth having to stand by and watch as Morty had his first real romantic relationship and not interfere but then be for him when he gets his heart broken. The Rick and Summer story was almost completely disconnected except for the fact that Rick (bizarrely) also fell in love.
Guest stars Alison Brie, Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Coolidge should do a live-action project together.
“[…]it’s not funny or clever enough to make me want to dig any deeper than a mildly amused shrug[…]” is what I say about anything I don’t like, shrug
R&M is a primo example of why we can’t anoint a show after 1 or 2 seasons. It has demonstrated insane inconsistency, real problems with tone and character, and most egregious, lost a lot of its funny: most of the lines I quote are still from seasons 1 and 2. It’s not their fault – comedy, especially this kind of high-concept comedy, is really hard, and the fact that the show is still diverting with some breakthrough moments is impressive. But considering how few episodes they have to do per season compared to network comedies, and how they already have run out of lots of steam, shows how tough to it is to make one that clicks for the long-term. B- is the exact right grade for this.
This review is way too kind. Like the author knows how bad that was but is tentative to give it the poor grade it deserves. Terrible, unfunny, boring, unemotional episode. Morty’s storyline felt undercooked and good god was the subplot with Rick and Summer a complete waste of time. Possibly the unfunniest, worst episode of the series thus far. Show has been trending downwards since season four and while the decoy episode was a step in the right direction, it looks like it’s going to continue to do so.
This was the worst kind of regressive cishet incel fantasy bullshit I’ve seen in a long time. The compulsively heterosexual writers obviously see themselves as Morty: an unattractive, underdeveloped, squeaky-voiced dork who somehow attracts a literal goddess and he rejects HER for not being perfect enough. Set aside the fact that they’re trying to legitimize a 14 year old boy having sex with an adult woman (excusing it as her being “ageless” or whatever) it’s such dork-ass wish fulfillment it’s practically oozing with embittered, tear-jerking jism.
But they kill multiple people in most episodes – does that not matter? Is the underage relationship (which was clearly ridiculous) worse than mass murder? Was it wish fulfilment when Bugs Bunny dressed up as a woman and received kisses from Elmer Fudd or was it just (weird) comedy? Whatever the case, I enjoy Bugs Bunny cartoons and I enjoy Rick and Morty.
“He rejects HER for not being perfect enough” is a weird way to spell “He rejects her for being emotionally abusive and also murdering 300 people”.
A lot of people missing the ball on this one, especially the author of the original article. Stop looking for a “point.” It’s a story that’s earnest without being sentimental; are you aware of how difficult that is to pull off in the narrative arts? Wonderful choices all around. Avoids the simplistic and didactic move of merely criticizing both hedonism and romantic love, and instead shows the appeals and perils of each. Legitimately moving episode. Clearly the best episode of this season so far and possessing some of the best “straight” moments in the show’s history. Up there with the end of the Unity episode/S02E03 and the Morty’s Girlfriend segment of The Vat of Acid episode/S04E08.
This might be the first time I’ve ever entirely agreed with one of Zack’s reviews. Except for the anxiety about recycling stuff.
just re-watched it and without the dread of an edgelord take on environmentalism being cringe it’s a bit better, but still not great. the thing with the woman alien still bugs me since she only said 2 different words before she spoke with summer and started her arm titty speech. it really seems like it was going for SOME thematic similarity given each story involved doomsdays and society’s collective shrug toward them, but it never really connected.
“…rich Arab. (Which, I gotta say, weird joke for a modern cartoon to make.)“Didn’t the IRL crown prince of Saudi Arabia have a journalist chopped in pieces??? And that’s the one we know about! Seems timely. (If you’re rich enough, you can afford perversions that don’t occur to ordinary people. Did you miss the tank full of man-eating seal pups?)
Didn’t seem like RM episode, more like fan fiction.
this whole episode felt like planting a seed for some future development. i feel like they’re trying to push morty to some breaking point w/r/t his otherwise innocent romantic entanglements with this insane world
I agree that it was overal a pretty meh episode in which the writers made obvious choices.Beth disapproving of the relationship might be a one-off thing or it might be a pattern of her taking back some parental power after Rick walzing over her whenever he wanted to take Morty.The entire joke with the arab seems to have been his ‘i stand only for myself’ (hanging a lampshade on the idea of an arab villain)I like that the show is using Summer more. And that she is written as way more capable than Morty and also as a slut (writing The Girl as ‘very capable, but prudish and funhating’ would have been a huge cliché)
“I was terrified we are about to get some deeply cynical spin about how
stupid it was to care about the planet. Given the summer we’ve had so
far,…”Not true, Rick is always keeping Summer safe.
Yeah this was a rough episode. Neither funny nor poignant.
This episode had no heart! No, really, where was my favorite planeteer, the kid who’s ring controls “heart”? He had a monkey!
If they do more with Beth and her relationship to Morty thisneason then I could see upgrading thus episode in retrospect. Beth has arguably been the most dynamic character over the course of the show but they haven’t explored her relationship with Morty that much, so this potentially could be the start of something promising.
I agree with the criticism, we should expect better from this show at this point. They could have explicitly connected Morty’s rebound to being disappointed over how Jessica worked out (as in, he wasn’t actually emotionally available enough for Planetina), Summer did not have a heartbreak recently so that didn’t carry any weight, they could have said that Planetina has only actually been manifested for 14 years so she’s the same age as Morty, they could have told us where she goes after they break up or had him give her the rings, her heel turn was super quick and also had no emotional weight, the “hello” verbal tic went nowhere, the “bad Arab” was weird.I really feel like a prude for pointing this out but they are really outdoing themselves to gross me out. A 14 year old and his grandfather wearing “Pu**y Pounders” shirts and then talking about eating ass with his granddaughter is what we have come to expect from this show, I guess, but it is really feeling kind of like it feels it has to top itself now, which is tryhard and not funny. I know this show’s first episode began with the grandfather putting a large object up the grandson’s rump, but we’re settling into some seedy repetitive pervyness at this point. You don’t really want the tenor of your sex stories to be “intergalactic penthouse letters written by a guy at the OTB” (or maybe you do?)The other two episodes this year have been great, but this one seriously needed a final pass or three.
I liked this episode more than Zack and the commenters did but I agree that the idea of a grandfather and teenage granddaughter going to have orgies together is sick and I’m surprised more people haven’t talked about it
wait until you read about this week’s episode. Remember the ASCII vomit emoji?:-O$%$%@%@#$#$@#
Having finally watched this episode, I have to say that I liked it a lot. Sometimes, even comedies just want to put jokes on the back burner and be in their feelings. In that sense, I found “A Rickconvenient Mort” to be pretty powerful. I don’t think the ecological message is that important as what it represents, which is that sometimes you love a person and it makes sense to be with them, but something about them just doesn’t click. In the heightened and morbid reality of Rick and Morty, sometimes that means you can’t quite abide by your girlfriend murdering hundreds of people for an otherwise reasonable cause. And sometimes you need to rebound by planet hopping with a lady with a killer set of elbow tits, but the party has to end sometime.
Maybe I’m just partial to the Summer/Rick pairing since the entire B-plot banged, but this episode was gold. I also loved the development of the relationship between Morty and his mom. And I thought Planetina’s heel turn, though expected, made sense. Here’s a superhero that can only be unleashed by five “handlers.” I’d almost expect her to go berserk once untethered.
This was definitely the weakest episode of the season and one of the weakest overall in my opinion.
“Planetina’s methods seem horrible, but it’s not like the destruction of the planet isn’t going to involve catastrophic loss of life—300 human deaths to save the world is bordering on insignificant in the grand scheme of things, even if it does give Morty qualms.”Are you fucking kidding me?
..