It’s been a while since we’ve had any new episodes of Rick and Morty. Just a bit over two years in fact, so apologies if I’m out of practice on this. Last season ended with a soft reset, as Jerry and Beth got back together and Rick, at least on some level, acknowledged the universe was better off with the family unit still intact. There was a lot going on two years ago, and at times, the show seemed to struggle to find the line between what it could do and what it should do, pushing hard against the nihilistic optimism that drives most of the best episodes until the philosophy warped into something dangerously out of shape. It was a largely great season, but it was also the sort of season that could be hard to come back from. At least, that was my concern at the time.
Thankfully we don’t really need to get into that right now, because “Edge Of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat” is about as close to a straight putt as the series is capable of. Rick and Morty go on an adventure, a concept is introduced, and there are then horrible consequences which keep escalating until the status quo is restored. Jerry, Beth, and Summer all get to make some jokes without contributing much to the plot, and a couple of secondary characters (Jessica and Mr. Goldenfold) make an appearance, but this is entirely the R & M show. Do you like crazy terrifying high concept technology? Clones? Alternate realities? At times it feels like a checklist of all the things people have come to expect, something that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the very first season.
And it works very well. This is great. I laughed a lot; the bit where Hologram Rick (an emergency measure generated by a chip installed into Morty’s spine in case the real Rick—well, the solid Rick, let’s be careful about terms here—dies) shows up as a group of protesters when Morty refuses to listen to his instructions had me on the floor. The two year gap between episodes hasn’t diminished the writers’ knack for taking a premise in unexpected but entirely logical directions, and the show still looks great: this isn’t the most ambitious episode we’ve seen, but the quick glimpses of parallel universes (so many fascist nightmares) are all well-realized, and Morty’s escalating attempts to ensure his future death at Jessica’s side allows for a lot of creative weapon designs. As was the case before, so much of the joy of watching the show is the sheer density of inventiveness, the way it tosses out idea after idea without ever really pausing to catch its breath. The dark cynicism of Rick’s multiverse is always balanced by the constant influx of new things to see. Everything may be miserable and doomed, but it’s also surprising, and that counts for a lot.
The title is a pun on Edge of Tomorrow, retitled Live Die Repeat for home release, a nifty Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt sci-fi action movie where Cruise played someone who kept dying and coming back thanks to alien technology. The episode splits the idea into two, giving Rick the endless lives (he has a device that keeps waking up a clone in another reality; every time that clone dies, a new one wakes up someplace else) and Morty the ability to predict the future and avoid death without exactly knowing what any of it means. On a macro level, it’s an expression of one of the core concepts of the series: Morty gets his hands on some batshit powerful alien thingie (in this case, a “death crystal” that lets you see how you’ll die; except since the future is always in flux, the death keeps changing, making it only really useful for escaping immediate consequences), Rick gets sidelined, and things get out of hand.
And like I said, it’s great. “Tomorty” isn’t without its nods to the larger course of the series. Rick is as self-aware as ever (yelling at Summer that she missed up the “season 4 premiere” at one point), and he’s not hugely happy at having to put up with Jerry’s bullshit again. There’s also a running bit about Nazi Morty insisting that Clone Rick take him on fun adventures that have no deeper meaning at all which feels like a pretty solid swipe at a lot of Gamer Gate bullshit. Morty’s fixation on trying to engineer the perfect death (the crystal shows him dying an old man as an older Jessica tells him she loves him) suggests a lesson about getting too worked up about where things are headed to just enjoy where they are right now, although even Rick acknowledges that there’s no clean and simple moral to any of this.
Which is another strength the show: its ability to endlessly question its own goals and intentions while simultaneously mocking that level of introspection while also wondering if any of this means anything while pointing out that it probably doesn’t, makes it feel vital and alive even as constantly threatens to tip over into solipsistic nonsense. It’s hilarious and weird and as always, it makes me feel like I’m being punked for trying to unpack it at all, while at the same time knowing that everyone involved in the show is probably doing the same damn thing. I’m very glad its back, and I’m glad to see it coming out of the gate with something at once complex and extremely straightforward. And while I’ll refrain from working too hard to extrapolate what happens next, the fact that it ends with Rick and Morty doing a riff on the “let’s talk about the future of the show!” conversation where they’re both happy for once has me hopeful. Let’s see how long that lasts.
Stray observations
- Shout out to Kari Whalgren who voices Jessica; it’s one of the more thankless recurring roles in the show, but she manages to make bits like Jessica inviting Morty to go skinny dipping almost sound like something a human being would say. (Jessica is less a character than an on-going joke about “the unattainable crush,” but Whalgren does a good job of finding some kind of throughline.)
- The post credits reveal that Morty’s vision of the perfect death was actually just Jessica working at a hospice and helping lonely old people move to the other side was inevitable but very funny.
- Every alternate reality Clone Rick pops up in turns out to be fascist (“Goddammit when did this shit become the default.”), except for the Wasp reality, because wasps are born assholes already.
- Decent Meseeks content, if you’re into that.
- “Stop asking questions, stop doing metacommentary.” -Fascist Morty
- “There’s a lesson here, and I’m not going to be the one who figures it out.” -Rick
282 Comments
“Stop asking questions, stop doing metacommentary.” -Fascist MortyI think this is probably the first time the show has even slightly addressed some the more toxic side of the fanbase. To which I can say kudos. I love the show and the more it steps away from the “Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings” stuff and becomes more self-reflective the better.
This episode stepped away from a lot of the edgy stuff Season 3 was doing in favor of Rick and Morty classic, and I hope the toxic fandom recedes into the waves this year. Maybe that’ll help.
Sadly, I would imagine the only way that toxic fandom recedes is when the show stops being popular.
I was super puzzled by the toxic fuckers latching onto season 3 in particular because that edge was entirely devoted to showing what a piece of shit Rick can be if he’s allowed to. The season 3 premiere litteraly ends with Rick yelling at Morty that his seeming shot at redeeming himself was just an incredibly destructive, elaborate ploy to get Jerry off his back and enable Beth’s own abusive, self-destructive tendencies. Pickle Rick is all about a dude trying to distract his family from reflecting on the fucked up home situation and ends with Rick gleefully encouraging Beth to ignore Summer and Morty’s epiphanies. Hell, everything about what he does to his own daughter in the final two episodes might as well be subtitled with “ABUSE” in big red letters. Like, how the fuck can you miss the point when it’s hammered so hard?Then again, I’ve read people complaining that HBO’s Watchmen and Kojima’s Death Stranding – a sequel to a famously political comic book and a game by an author who made 6 games about how war is terrible and governments abuse its own people in the name of nothing – are “injecting politics” into entertainment, so maybe I just have a tad too much faith in humanity.
I just miss when the show was that fun, underrated sci-fi series for people who liked Community and Futurama, albeit with more raunchiness. Now it seems like every conversation about the show is about how awful some of its fans are (and oh boy, some of them are, but still).
i’ve seen far more discussion about how horrible its fans are then actual incidents of fans being horrible
The fans discourse triple sucks for me because ultimately I don’t give a fuck about the audience. Most fandoms fucking suck.The Wire is a phenomenal show and for a long while talking about it required enduring motherfuckers who couldn’t blink if they didn’t praise it with some stock bullshit about how it’s the Dickens of our time and how smart you have to be to get it.Undertale is a beautiful little game about the importance of friendship and dangers of no empathy. Its fandom is filled with toxicity and gatekeeping if you dare to play in a specific way and folks who don’t give a fuck about tagging their stuff so for a while porn flooded even the children-friendly channels.Metal Gear Solid’s fans were so horrible that the creator of the thing went on a passive-aggressive war with them for a full decade, almost killing off the main character in 4 in a really stupid way just to spite them because they sent him death threats if he didn’t return to direct.Steven Universe’s Rebecca Sugar got attacked by her own audience for daring to defend a fan artist who draw her own interpretation of Sugar’s own fucking creation.Fandoms suck. I get why they can be off-putting, but I do not get judging a work by its audience and dragging it into every conversation.
“but I do not get judging a work by its audience and dragging it into every conversation”There’s a lot of superiority complexes creating inferiority complexes on here, that’s all there is to get tbf.
The show still is that.
Remember that Simspons episode Homerpalooza?
“Oh, here comes that cannonball guy. He’s cool.”
“Are you being sarcastic, dude?”
“I don’t even know anymore. “
Pretty much every comment here.
Really? If that’s adressing the toxic fanbase, it’s pretty weaksauce.This was just another in a long line of episodes that refuses to decide what it’s wants to be about, pulling the rug on a plot point that maybe was headed somewhere interesting to declare that nothing matters anyway. This show is just South Park now.People seem to miss that the toxic element of the show is a feature, not a bug, and if it wants to address it, the show has to actually change.
You are a very dumb person.
Half of the comments on this review are into poe territory for me. I legit cannot tell if this comment is real or a satire.
People still say weaksauce?
Pretty weird to put that in the mouth of the supposed gg’er version of the fans who love the meta-commentary.
Tbh I think 3.06 “Rest and Ricklaxation” does this to a larger degree— with metacommentary
Great. You’re a very very stupid person who thinks and writes stupid things more or less constantly.
Rick and Morty basically pulled a “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” and I’m here for it.
I think this is probably the first time the show has even slightly addressed some the more toxic side of the fanbase. To which I can say kudos.So brave. I do believe you’re going to fix all the social ills of western society with your comments about the Importance a science fiction comedy.
“I think this is probably the first time the show has even slightly addressed some the more toxic side of the fanbase.”Did you miss the entire“Toxic Rick and Morty” episode?Or, y’know, Pickle Rick?
I was skeptical when the show was renewed for 70 more episodes, as I wasn’t the biggest fan of the third season, but this was a fantastic premiere. Best jokes for me were the alternating universes Rick kept getting sent to. The back-to-basics approach really worked well.
“Gaslighting doesn’t exist. You made it up, because you’re fucking crazy.”
I admit, that was a quick joke that I enjoyed since I see it far too much in reality.
You see people gaslighting others by insisting that gaslighting doesn’t exist far too much in reality?
Damn, that was a fun premiere. I think what I enjoyed most is that Morty has more agency now. It’s more fun, I feel, when the playing field is just slightly more level between the two. Morty murdering twelve people and getting away scot free just because he wanted to maybe one day get with Jessica? Good.
Yeah, idk where the whole idea that this is a big reset button for the show came from. Superficially they returned to season 1’s setup, but the past season really changed the character dynamic.
You have no problem with Morty slaughtering innocent people just so he could one day die old with his high school crush and nothing becomes of his actions afterwards? It’s one thing to make Rick just another Dr. Manhattan as long as Morty is there to be his Silk Spectre to remind him of his humanity but I can’t see the show growing if both lead characters are nothing more than 2 indestructible Gods that can’t die and never have to face the consequences of their actions to those around them. If this is the direction this show is now going then it will be nothing more than 2 characters falling into zanier & zanier adventures that really don’t amount to much.
I think you may have an unrealistic set of expectations for the show, because I feel like “zanier & zanier adventures that really don’t amount to much” is what they’re going for. With humor and biting commentary along the way.Can I recommend Person of Interest to you as a show that continually progresses the narrative throughout its run and has satisfying character arcs?
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out. If this is the direction the show is taking then so be it. I’ll watch either way but if it is a nothing really matters show along with some biting commentary on what’s currently going on in life then R&M really is just another South Park clone.
I mean, I figure they’ll address this at some point? The show hasn’t really let the characters off the hook. At least not emotionally. Like, this isn’t even Morty’s first killing spree. But I do think I phrased my initial “good” comment incorrectly: Morty doing all of this of his own volition was “good” in that I found it conceptually interesting. The kid’s got issues, and at least they’re showing that he’s got as many if not more issues than Rick.
The Wasps eating Mr. Goldenford as part of their family dinner was one of the sweeter moments of the series. I wasn’t a fan of the epilogue, tho.“Bee careful not to waste all your venom.”“I’m not a bee, Dad.”
Dan Harmons Bee Movie?
Alternate dimension Jerry wrote and directed “Weekend at Dead Cat Lady’s House II” so it stands to reason there’s a dimension where he also shat out “Bee Movie.”
This was the first episode directed by Erica Hayes. (Also the first episode directed by a woman.) She storyboarded many of the best episodes of the prior three seasons.
If you like her work, you should check out her interview on the Adult Swim podcast. She talks about all the stuff in the episode that people might have missed, including all of the “crystal deaths”.
Yeah, I was going to find someone with more free time and ask them to parse those out. Seems like it’s rich ground for conspiracy-growing.
Clearly at least one is something that’s been shown in previews.
The creators mentioned these five episodes would be standalone but would be linked by a mini-narrative, so it’s possible this was the beginning of that.
Damn, yeah. While watching it’s hard to parse all of those crystal deaths, but holy crap there was a lot. I can only imagine the work going into this episode on her part, that’s a ton of stuff to organize.
Which episodes? I’m gonna assume one was Meeseeks and Destroy.
According to IMDB she contributed to “Anatomy Park”, “M. Night Shaym-Aliens!”, “Meeseeks and Destroy”, “Rick Potion #9″, “Raising Gazorpazorp”, “Rixty Minutes”, “Something Ricked This Way Comes”, “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”, “Ricksy Business”, “A Rickle in Time”, “Mortynight Run”, “Auto Erotic Assimilation”, “Get Schwifty”, “The Ricks Must Be Crazy”, “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez”, “Interdimensional Cable 2Tempting Fate”, “Look Who’s Purging Now”, “The Wedding Squanchers”, “The Rickshank Rickdemption”, “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy”, and “The ABC’s of Beth” from the first three seasons.
Rixty Minutes and Rick Potion 9 are more or less my favorites of the series. Damn what a resume.
I feel like that was a solidly middling episode. Had some solid laughs (pretty much all to do with hologram Rick) but also used its own meta-ness as a crutch a bit much (the reporter saying that Morty was now fine from a continuity standpoint is the sort of on-the-nose laziness the show should, in this one random internet commenter’s opinion, steer away from).The overt ‘return to basics’ thing was interesting but a little bittersweet. I didn’t like the last season all that much, but I think the show has been at its most interesting when it implies even these broken caricatures have a chance to grow and change (a la the Venture Brothers).
The meta “back to basics” thing was very confusing to me. Didn’t they already make a big deal about doing that in a previous season?For a show with a lot of dense lore and complex history, it’s seemingly very forgettable.
They haven’t though. And even if they did, it wouldn’t mean it’s forgettable.
The “reset” was clearly a meta joke. Just look how much the character dynamic has changed – Beth and Jerry both stood up to Rick, and Morty straight-up left him for dead.
Every alternate reality Clone Rick pops up in turns out to be fascist (“Goddammit when did this shit become the default.”)
Funniest line in the whole episode. Then I started crying.
I agree. That fascist regimes line was the funniest by far.
Except the reality run by wasps. The moral is, we need to elect a wasp president.
Not to be confused with a WASP president. Tried that a bunch of times. Mixed results.
We’ve tried non-WASP presidents like twice, right?
Also, maybe this is obvious, but the part where they yell at Summer at the end for “ruining” the premiere seems like commentary on the people that claimed that the new woman writers and /or Summer’s occasionally bigger role “ruined” season 3 or whatever.
This isn’t the first time Rick and Morty yelled at Summer to end an episode (my mind goes back to “Morty’s Mind Blowers”) and, frankly, it’s a bit of a worrying trend. Well my hope is that it’s meta-commentary on the writers’ part, frankly, the running joke of the main characters insulting the “boring” female lead of a comedy show is starting to grow REALLY stale. Between It’s Always Sunny’s Dee and Dan Harmon’s own treatment of his Britta character on Community (not to mention Family Guy and Meg), I have to question why it is that, ultimately, these characters end up just becoming sole punching bags for our male leads the longer these shows go on?Don’t get me wrong: I love both It’s Always Sunny and Community, and find the treatment of Dee and Britta to be VERY funny when done right. But, like, do we need another comedy in which a female character wanting to get in on the joke is met with streams of insults just simply for existing? Especially when all those female characters are funny in their own right, and can be utilized in different ways that aren’t just being called a bitch for the umpteenth time?
Between It’s Always Sunny’s Dee and Dan Harmon’s own treatment of his Britta character on Community (not to mention Family Guy and Meg)Or say, Scully and Hitchcock on Brooklyn Nine Nine. And Larry/Terry/Jerry Gergich on Parks and Rec. And Toby on the Office. And Klaus on American Dad.
Of course male characters are not immune from being the butt of the joke, despised character — in fact, Rick and Morty already has one in Jerry, and a very funny one at that. But to me, there’s a difference between the Toby’s of the world and the Britta’s, in that one seemed to be created from the start to serve that purpose, and the others eventually grow into that role for what the writer’s themselves have often admitted is a simple reason: simply not knowing what better to do with them (Klaus would certainly fit into that mold as well, for what it’s worth) I just don’t want to see the same treatment given to Summer, who has time and again showed herself to be a more than capable character in the show, and deserves more than just popping up to be insulted every episode for how lame she is. And, ultimately, those other characters were all treated WAY differently than the Dee’s and Megs of the world. I don’t recall the episode of Parks where Leslie walked up to Jerry and just called him a piece of shit for a minute straight, or even Michael Scott going to Toby and just yelling at him about what a little bitch he is. If you’re going to have a character around just to be beaten up verbally by everyone else, at least make the insults fun, as the show ALWAYS does with Jerry (and has in the past done with Summer too, for what it’s worth.)
You’re getting offended at the creators, for things said by the characters. That hurts me as a human. Reading this made my eyes and soul hurt. Please stop being like this
Criticism ≠ offense. And if reading complaints about a show makes your “eyes and soul hurt,” umm…maybe you don’t want to be on the AV Club. It won’t get better for you here.
You’re clearly VERY offended. People like you have full on ruined the avclub. So congrats on that.
Just chiming in again, because you clearly missed my point and I just checked the notifications panel several months later and decided to explain to you why you’re wrong. What I’m saying is, it’s like watching Bombshell and being angry at Charlize for featuring a disgusting misogynist who preys on vulnerable women. The creators are making a comment about something and they aren’t going to spell it out for you, but it’s a 50/50 male-female writers room and the female character does not have to represent all women or even paint women in a positive light. Donald Draper doesn’t represent all men either. You’d have to be absolutely stupid to fall into that trap. And you’re right, criticism doesn’t equal offence, so don’t quit your day job.
Summer has often been portrayed as highly competent and adaptable. She’s easily one of my favorite characters on the show, and I don’t agree that she’s the butt of its jokes any more regularly than, say, Morty himself. She’s certainly no Jerry.“I don’t recall the episode of Parks where Leslie walked up to Jerry and just called him a piece of shit for a minute straight, or even Michael Scott going to Toby and just yelling at him about what a little bitch he is.”That’s because Leslie isn’t a total asshole like Rick is. And I think you need to rewatch The Office because Michael’s treatment of Toby is incredibly (and unnecessarily) mean.
When Rick and Morty do wind up both yelling at Summer it’s usually a joke at their expense about their dysfunctionally exclusive unit or about how they readily band together at someone else’s expense (both in this episode) or about their ironic shortsightedness (as in Mind-Blowers, one of the best Summer episodes). I don’t think the show has a Summer problem, unless it’s planning to go back to leaving her on the bench too often.
I agree that Michael Scott was a complete asshole to Toby, no question. But the writers handled that in a way that was unique and unexpected, and had Michael insult and belittle the man in ways that were more than just yammering out a string of insults. Of course this goes to the tone of the show, and the character of Rick as you said, so I can concede that point a bit. And I do agree with you that the *intent* of the scenes seem to be Rick/Morty getting mad about Summer trying to invade their co-dependent relationship. And yes, if Summer gets more to do this season than she did in the back half of Season 3, it will be a lot more tolerable. But I really hope the show doesn’t lean on “Summer sucks” as a quick source of humor, especially in a way that just reads as Justin Roiland ad-libbing a bunch of insults and frustrated noises in a way that, IMO, aren’t particularly clever or funny.
“I really hope the show doesn’t lean on ‘Summer sucks’ as a quick source of humor”I don’t think it can—because she demonstrably doesn’t. But I suppose we’ll see; can’t criticize a season that hasn’t aired yet. I hope your fears aren’t vindicated.
Yes, Summer is way less pathetic than Morty and Jerry, the two *actual* butt-monkeys of the show. I thought it was weird that OP’s criticism of their treatment of her in Morty’s Mind-Blowers was mean when she’s portrayed as the only character in that episode with their shit together and Rick and Morty being too dense and lacking in self-awareness to realize that (hence the yelling) *is the joke*. The “abuse” of Summer, both in that episode and in this one, is shown to be unjustified and the result of Rick & Morty’s toxicity and myopia.
“I don’t recall the episode of Parks where Leslie walked up to Jerry and just called him a piece of shit for a minute straight, or even Michael Scott going to Toby and just yelling at him about what a little bitch he is. “Do you even watch these shows? This shit happens like every other episode in both of these cases.
Need an overly abused character? Why not Zoidberg?
y’all watch a lot of tv
Or Meredith on The Office or Miss Piggy on The Muppets (Portal ad: “And of course moi is on TV.” “NOBODY CARES!”).
Well done
The problem is that Rick and Morty really doesn’t know the difference between commenting on problematic behavior and engaging in it.Not just the end scene yelling at Summer, but the whole run with holographic Rick’s sentitivity about using the correct terms, etc. It felt like a cringe-y “Dennis Miller on Fox News” bit about political correctness.
The show doesn’t and in fact can’t engage in “problematic” (whatever that absurdly broad label means to you) behaviour because it’s a TV show not a person.
To me what saved it from that is that is that if the hologram is sentient, which it was, then it actually kind of had a point. It’s ridiculous because in the real world an hologram isn’t *alive*, but in a world where it is, of course it has things to protest.
Yeah, I thought it was just following the internal logic of the setting. It makes sense for an effectively-sentient hologram to be very sensitive to solid people treating him like he’s not a real person because an effectively-sentient hologram *would* feel that way.
Yes, exactly. Which is why the show potraying holo-Rick’s position as oversensitive and judgemental was very irritating. It really seemed like it was making fun of people who are sensitive about similar, real-world issues.
This is a thing with comedy, of course. If you want to be funny, you can’t take everything seriously all the time, but Rick and Morty seems to want credit for addressing important issues yet is perfectly happy making the same kinds of jokes that would play to the Fox News crowd.
Yeah that’s not true at all. You’re a very stupid person.
except it was funny
Britta is never shown as being “boring” that’s Shirley. Britta is a fantastic character for being such confused, well meaning but fucked up slacktivist, left behind by what not having moved on from what was cool when she was a teenager in the 90’s.
those bits were already funny and now they’re funnier knowing you are convulsing through them
a worrying trend? Holy fuck give me a break man.
I find Dee to be sympathetic. The scenes of the rest of the gang dismissing her always seem designed to make them look like assholes, and make it funnier when she gets frustrated at them. The Meg stuff on Family Guy, though—what little of it I’ve seen seemed very mean-spirited (like most of that show), and “punching bag” is about the right word.
I don’t really remember this with respect to Britta, but I stopped watching that show after Harmon left.
I mean, “sympathetic” in terms of that current moment, sure…Dee would almost certainly do something terrible in the next scene to take that away, though 🙂 Ultimately though, I agree that the dudes come off the worst in It’s Always Sunny during all their tirades…but my main point in bringing it up is that the shtick is just kind of getting old for me on that show, and even though it’s only been used a few times on Rick and Morty, it’s already starting to wear thin as a device. I just think Summer as a character has a lot more to offer than just popping at the end of the episode to be yelled at by Rick and Morty.
The gag at the end of “Morty’s Mind Blowers” could have been commentary, of course. A couple of oblivious dudes yelling at the woman who just saved their lives and had apparently done so several times before. It’s not as if Summer hasn’t been shown to be a badass on several occasions.
Of course, that immediately sends us down the “what does it all mean” rabbit hole, which is largely futile when dealing with R&M.
It’s 100% commentary, and in no way do I think the writers have any malice towards women or anything like that (nor do the writers on Sunny, for that matter.) I just frankly don’t get a lot out of that commentary myself anymore, as it’s something I’ve seen time and time again in TV comedies. I’d much rather Summer have actual stories and things to do on the show, and it’s something I feel the writers have found increasingly hard to do as they handle the demand for “classic Rick and Morty adventure episodes,” which are of course going to sideline all the members of the family. The best episodes of the show in my mind, though, often give plenty for the other characters to do (“Total Rickall,” “Rick Potion #9,” and “The Wedding Squanchers” come immediately to mind.)
I think the fact that they’re doing this alongside continuously giving Summer a greater role in the series and onboarding female writers and directors would demonstrate that it’s metacommentary and not actual malice towards women
Stopppppp. Jesus.
Except didn’t Summer actually fix the situation in “Morty’s Mind Blowers?” We know that, even if Rick and Morty don’t.
Ugh. Britta is the worst.
uh…… no, Meg.* flushes toilet; laughter; applause *
As someone else noted in a different thread, but this episode was directed by Erica Hayes so pretty sure that end scene is them dunking on their haters. And Summer played the starring role in several eps last season, I’m sure we’ll see more of her.
Get. Your. Shit. Together.Get your shit together.
This was a recurring line with my FOH manager last year. I still laugh at this scene, despite having watched it a hundred times.
It’s a pretty effective scene
Like get a backpack or whatever and put all your shit in it!
Or it’s because Summer is the only person on the show who can and will always get under Rick’s skin, and they love her and it was the right joke to be made on that moment in the show.
Or both. There’s a lot of meta-commentary in the episode – they literally use the term “meta-commentary” in their meta-commentary – and this is an issue which Dan Harmon addressed specifically in real life before. In that context, it certainly works as commentary while also being a joke.
The funny thing is the last 2 premiers were excellent with more family appearances!!
Rewatching the episode, yes, that was clearly what it was. The running theme of this episode was meta-commentary on criticism of the show. It was kind of easy to miss the first time around because it was a pretty fast paced episode, but re-watching it with that context in mind, the episode becomes more cohesive and the jokes make more senses.
While people on this message board got some of that, it seems like most people missed the full picture, and nearly every other review entirely missed it.
It’s funny, but a little weird that you need to be aware of things about the show that don’t come from watching the show itself.
Secret that’s not a secret if you’ve ever actually read my commentary over the years: I low-key like this show. It’s one of the few ways for me to bond with my Dad and little bro…. both of them *love* this show and talk about it to no end. It makes the both of them so happy and it’s one of the few avenues I get to traverse that get me a little closer to the two of them. Do I love the show? No. I find it by and large to be eye-roll worthy.Other Real Talk: shit talking this show in commentary sparks MUCH joy for me. I never thought I’d become an internet troll, but fans of this show are utterly incapable of receiving criticism of it. R&M fans think this show is the be all, end all to comedy…. and it just isn’t. It CAN be amusing, and it CAN be insightful but, mostly, it isn’t. It’s mostly a stupid *cartoon* meant for stoners who think Pineapple Express was brilliant. Criticize this show in the slightest, and its fans will search through YEARS worth of your comments and try to use them against you. I *love* pissing these immature children off. LOVE IT. They prove themselves to be The Worst every time, all while maintaining radioactive levels if self-righteousness.Because they take this stupid, empty headed nothing of a *cartoon* so, SO seriously… they dig and dig for deeper meaning into a show about nothing. They credit Dan Harmon with waaaay more insight than he appears to be capable of. Insult this show, imply that you don’t find it funny, and its schwifty proponents of McDonald’s (groooooosssss) sweet and sour sauce will burn you at the stake, all while insisting the show is the most brilliant thing they’ve ever seen.Which is all to say: if there are any replies to this comment, read them; it’s an almost 💯 guarantee it’ll be filled with people calling me a piece of shit for not worshiping their piece of shit late night stoner cartoon. Because their brains just can’t seem to handle criticism from anyone…. which is why their demographic is the one shooting up schools and malls and getting Moscow Mitch and Trumpty Dumpty elected.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
I wish I could give this more than one star. 🙁
I think you meant Popeye’s, but I see your point.
Shoneys*
I don’t even like you and yet I had to up-vote that comment. SO well done. Golf claps all around!
It’s a tired meme, but it checks out.
Dan Harmon is a genius. He has to be. If he isn’t, I’ve given almost a decade of my TV-Viewing to an idiot. That is unacceptable. Therefore Dan Harmon is a genius. And I will die protecting his vision. (I say, with multiple pencils sticking out from my hair)
Love this.
Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?
Sorry, but… isn’t going out of your way to trigger immature brats who, I concur, make way too much about this show (which I really like) a little bit immature itself? ;)Usually I prefer to let them stew in their own juices in the hope they’ll shrivel into nothingness… triggering them let them feel even more important and justified in their sense of superiority.Cheers
You’re the same as them just with a different target to rile.
I didn’t even know Martin Scorsese watched Rick And Morty…
Rick and Morty is actually creative, so I’m sure he’d like it.
So, um, I’m not a super-fan or anything, but goodness, your comment is really small minded.
It’s Mulan Szechuan Sauce not sweet and sour sauce – idiot.
it’s ok man. not everyone gets the jokes.
Eextremely cool story,bro
I think the thing you need to understand is that you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Rick’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick’s existential catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.
Wow, this is a long comment for something a poster claims not to care about.It’s always funny (&sad) to read declarations on comedy, just like judgemental preaching on spirituality. Good luck
“These morons think too much about a dumb ass show and spend too much time writing about it”*proceeds to write a full page about said show.*
That says a lot more about you than it says about anyone else.
You have a very low opinion of your dad and brother. I hope they never read your post.
You’re not wrong.
“We eat our prey alive, and when we don’t, we lay our eggs in their eyeball so that our young can feast on their brains when they hatch. When you’re born that big an asshole, the least you can do is have a little empathy.”Well said, Wasp Rick. And fuck, did that dinner scene with Caterpillar Goldenfold have me choking on my own laughter. This was just the premiere I needed to snap me out of this Venture Bros.-level hiatus we’ve been stuck in for over two goddamn years. Good to have you back, Rick and Morty.And now to wait for the inevitable line of Kirkland-brand Meeseeks products.
But did you watch Season 7 of The Venture Bros. last year?
Any answer but “No less than 5 times” is incorrect
Something dawned on me with this episode. What if a hidden, not-yet-reveled, aspect of the show is that every episode has been in a different reality within the infinite realities Rick explores. Some are more alike than others, so we as the viewer have mistaken this for following the same Rick and Morty every episode. This would explain the mostly no throughline plot for the series, with episodes mostly standalone. The fantastical world-changing events in one episode, seems to have no effect on the next episode. Some narrative threads are shared with similar universes, while others are not, which is represented in this episode with the many universes Rick visited. Just a fun fan theory thought exercise. Would people even care if we were watching different Rick and Mortys from different universes every episode?
This is the case, and it’s also true of The Simpsons as well which is why no-one seems to age.
At the very least,“Mortynight Run” is about a parallel Rick and Morty. It’s subtle, but it’s canon.
How do you figure (if you have time to elaborate)?
Aren’t there frequent references to Rick and Morty being from the C-137 universe though? Maybe the theory works for the standalone episodes, but even this episode had references to the family’s decision to reset the status quo at the end of last season and Rick destroying his cloning program after the Tiny Rick fiasco.
Hmm, but wouldn’t an infinite multiverse contain an infinite number of universes designated C-137?
That’s interesting, but it’s pretty flatly contradicted by the show. When Rick got captured by the Federation, that was a 3-episode arc and the consequences from what happened (Beth & Jerry’s divorce) played out throughout the season. The events of “The ABCs of Beth” supplied the B-plot for the season finale. Plus Rick is continuously identified as “C-137″ by the other Ricks. I guess we could be watching different dimensions that all happen to have the same events and continuity between episodes but if that’s the case then the conceit is basically pointless.
“but if that’s the case then the conceit is basically pointless”
That’d make it even funnier though 😛
Not a single mention about the very obvious Akira references/scenes?
The line about Morty going all Akita was my favorite of the night.
Jerry even specifically mentioned that Rick turned his son into Akira, hilarious stuff!
“Turning our son into an Akita!”
I like how Jerry tries to pronounce it “Japanese” while Rick just says “Akira”. Love the attention to detail.
Solid episode. Would like to have seen a little more Summer but oh well.Next week looks like a Jerry episode, which is always fun imo.
The part that had me dying was when Hologram Rick was like “oh shit wasps!” and started running away, but since he was a hologram he just ran in place. Those kind of gags make this show.
Ah yes. Back to the internet think-pieces.
“There’s also a running bit about Nazi Morty insisting that Clone Rick
take him on fun adventures that have no deeper meaning at all which
feels like a pretty solid swipe at a lot of Gamer Gate bullshit”
No, it’s not that, at all. That’s a normal swipe at the nature of Dan Harmon shows, and Dan Harmon has been sneaking that shit in since S2 of Community. Or, more recently, when Inter-galactic Cable Sequel got in the way of a new, standalone adventure in Atlantis.
Also, fuckin’ Gamer Gate? What the show goes away for 2 years, and so did your references?
Yeah, name dropping GG seemed out of place. Especially given the fanbase of recent years. I felt like a lot of this episode was addressing the rabid fanbase and not GG.
The shitty parts of R&M’s fanbase are GG. That Venn diagram is a circle.
So, essentially, if you squint hard enough you can blame ANYTHING on GG.
And those are different how?
The rabid fanbase is the evolution of Gamergate….
I have to say that that line I thought was a reference to elements of the R&M fanbase as opposed to any external group.
yeah, you’re right, this is definitely not a world in which Gamer Gate is relevant at all anymore, gooooooood catch.
“Stop asking questions, stop doing metacommentary.”“Summer, you messed up the Season 4 premiere!”“Gaslighting doesn’t exist. You made it up, because you’re fucking crazy.”GamerGaters: THERE’S NO WAY THIS IS ABOUT ME, IT’S JUST MY FUNNY NIHILISM GRAMPA SHOW!
“Gaslighting doesn’t exist. You made it up, because you’re fucking crazy.” Sequence was actually making fun of people like you, which means it’s even funnier after your clueless citation.
You… you legitimately think it was saying gaslighting isn’t real? Are you the dumbest boy alive?
Nice Strawman attempt (not really), but I was referring to the sequence. Female anchor says “but first…” and the other anchor points out that he already was first. Her response was to immediately insult him while accusing him of changing the facts (i.e. “gaslighting”) when she was the one that had literally just done that. Argument turns into a total shitshow, just like an internet-argument. It’s almost as if… that was… the entire point. Hmmm.Cut to your your all-caps, ad-hominem-laced, dismissal of someone’s perspective on the show because you disagree with it.So, yes, they were making fun of you and everyone like you that made and keeps internet discussions a total shitshow.Toodles!
Ah yes, the old strawman accusation — the hallmark of angry internet bros who are high on their own sense of smug superiority
Damn, you severely misunderstood that sequence.
…I think you might have misunderstood that joke, friend.
No, it wasn’t you dumb jackass…that’s the whole fucking joke on you. You dunked on yourself outloud on the internet. This is why nazis will always lose, too self-deluded in their own BS.
Maybe to the avclub.
Look at that dude’s comments, every single one is bitching about something.
It really isn’t. You’re wildly out of your element apparently.
It’s not and if you think it is it’s because you’ve bought into a very stupid interpretation of reality.
Because hostile sexism in traditionally male-dominated industries is no longer a problem? Phew, that’s good to know. We surely rallied together and fixed the toxic culture that spawns things like GamerGate.
Yeah, no one said that. Gamergate, as a thing that people were concerned about is 6 years old. It’s not a thing that people give a shit about anymore. It’s so funny how people like you always take the worst interpretation of what people say and run with it.
If you’re concerned about the “worst interpretation,” maybe that’s more about your comment than my inferences. Yes, actual GamerGate was years ago, but what it represented has swelled into a massive backlash that goes far beyond gaming. Should we ignore it as a root cause, or at the very least a harbinger, of things to come?
You could refer to it as what it actually is, which is: rabid internet fandom culture in general. Gamergate isn’t anymore notable than the 100’s of other incidents of people being harassed, etc, since then by every “fandom” under the sun.
I’m not really disagreeing with you. Rabid fandom is a root cause but how it was expressed comes with a lot more than that.
I disagree in this instance.
Sending more than one post and recommending your own posts doesn’t do much. “Out of your element” indeed.
I mean, its evolved. Its no longer “GamerGate” bullshit but full on fascist bullshit in the vein of the “alt right”Like, your comment reads right to me if I replace GG with Alt Right
I believe they were speaking in terms of reality, not in terms of pop culture writers who keep their careers perceived as relevant based upon overblown outrage.
Yeah it’s not like GG became the template for an entire political movement that is actively fucking our country right now or anything, God, why can’t we just let the misogynistic proto-fascists go?
lol it’s not. Even in 2017 it wasn’t relevant.
I do have to say that I thought that was a slam at some of the fans as opposed to any outside target.
It seems pretty obvious that much of the episode was commentary on the toxic element of R&M fandom.
Yeah, except there was a reason it was Fascist Morty shouting those things.
rick and morty fans, everyone
Ok. You’re an idiot.
If you follow Dan Harmons weekly podcast (ending soon sadly!) you know he DOES care about that shit and mentions being sick of fascists and gamergate pretty often, so it’s a pretty good observation.
I listen to it every week and I don’t remember him ever mentioning gamergate. He hates fascists. Trying to link these two things is next level stupid.
Don’t know what to tell you man, he does regularily and rightfully so, don’t know why you would deny this? And he’d be pissed off if you said they weren’t linked, you’d know that too if you listened to Harmontown, he’s done more than enough rants about that sort of denialism bullshit.
I mean…you’re wrong. You just are. I’ve listened to every episode for years. A search of the word gamergate on the harmontown subreddit came up empty. I don’t know what you could be referencing at all. And please don’t tell me what you think dan harmon would think of things i’ve written. You have little to no insight into that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Harmontown/comments/3upv2w/spencer_has_been_dealing_with_gg_people_for_like/ Dude.
Ok so that’s a spencer thing from 3 years ago……
“The problem is that Rick and Morty’s bad fans – like the Walter White worshippers before them – are tuning in for the gnarly stuff, and missing the fact that the show is actually an implicit commentary on them. After all, it’s not exactly a stretch to notice the similarities between Rick – cynical, cruel, endlessly expecting the world to accommodate his every whim – and the many stripes of entitled white males seeking to dominate the internet, from the gamergate mob to the alt right.Harmon knows whose side he’s on. “These knobs, that want to protect the content they think they own – and somehow combine that with their need to be proud of something they have, which is often only their race or gender. It’s offensive to me as someone who was born male and white … that there’s some white male [fan out there] trying to further some creepy agenda by ‘protecting’ my work.””
From https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/04/i-loathe-these-people-rick-and-morty-and-the-brilliant-backlash-against-tvs-bad-fans DUDE.
Ok so not actually about gamergate, but more so online culture in general?Much of which is editorializing by the person who wrote the article? So actually that points towards the idea that this bit in the episode was aimed towards idiot rick and morty fans and not in any way shape or form related to gamergate, which is a 6 year old thing.
Whatever you gotta tell yourself man. https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Pripudlians You’re wrong, you just are.
Wow so a throwaway joke from the pilot that namechecks something that was at the time a salient issue. So you’ve presented absolutely no evidence that’s relevant in any way shape or form, but have decided that you’re right. Huh…..
Spencer and Harmon are two different people. Spencer isn’t a huge creative contributor on Rick & Morty, if at all.I guess that’s all the explaining I really needed to do there.It’s really bizarre that someone had to have explained to them that two different people are two different people, but I guess that’s the level of Idiocracy we’re living in, now. Damn, there’s gotta be lead contamination in everything or something, I can’t fathom how we came to this point otherwise…
I follow Harmontown and I can’t remember Dan mentioning GG in at least 3 years. What I do hear him complain about recently, and often, is how his fans complain to him about how long new seasons take and to make the shows more straightforward and less political.So to put it in your own condescending terms, if you listen to podcasts newer than 2014, you’ll know you made a shit observation.
Thank you. This guy is full of shit right?
I assumed it was an acknowledgement at the rise of nazis in America today. Who hasn’t wondered as Rick did, what’s up with all these nazis?
Seemed like a pretty obvious swipe at right wing white guys who get mad at media that doesn’t share their politics and critique it by saying it’s “too political”
Shut your incel ass up. Fucking dweeb.
Hell, it even mentioned Morty being on weird fascist message boards
All correct. I’m sorry that stupid people are disagreeing with you from ignorance, but this is AVC after all, and it’s another place where most of the commentators are almost as clueless as the writers.
Shut the fuck up incel.
Beautiful illustration of my point, you sociopath.
Congrats on being the first to get dunked on in the comments for season four.
The creator of your favorite show hates you. There’s much bigger fish to fry.
Shut da fuck up.
The creators of the show have openly talked about doing things in the show to make fun of the internet-nazi’s who complained of the show being “too political”. Harmon has expressly said “fuck them” about it and talked about writing to make fun of them.
What the show goes away for 2 years, and so did your references?
Given that each episode like a year and a half to produce (the two year gap happened for a reason) that means this episode was likely written fairly soon after Charlottesville. So the writers were probably thinking “alt-right manchild” when they came up with Fascist Morty, complete with Nazi cosplay and high-pitched whining about “keeping politics out of things.” Rick even tries to win Fascist Morty over by pretending to hate socialism and immigrants, in case the gag wasn’t already obvious. And the alt-right partially rose out of Gamergate, so the observation still works.
You sure fackin’ told HIM, guy!
Also Gamergate literally started as a critique against “Depression Quest”, a game that was unique for adding deeper meaning to video games besides adventure and skill. It then became a discussion about who has the right to participate in video game culture. A right to participate based on one’s biological makeup is a classic technique used by fascist regimes to rally the stupid masses. Hence, the reference is not only on point but also still relevant, thereby meaning you fail twice lol, because you’re still missing the points raised by Gamergate
I was hoping they would ditch the unhelpfully vague episode descriptions for xfinity or whatever. That stopped being funny around Season 2.I thought the parts with Rick resurrecting in a different universe every time were funnier than Morty “going Akira”, which went from “Ha!” to “huh?” the longer it went on. I couldn’t pick up anything “meta” in this episode, which either means they gave up on doing that or they’re not as good as conveying it as before.
Nazi Morty was the main meta gag, but there were some jokes about continuity/“reset buttons” too.If there were subtler meta gags, I missed them.
The way Jerry pronounced “Akira” and “anime” was perfect.
Ah-Ke-La= Akira Best way to say it.
Strangely, Akela was something I was told to profess my loyalty to in the Cub scouts. Just what was I involved in?
The ‘Akira’ ref the episode pulled was…odd. Almost out of nowhere. Jerry making fun of it through being Jerry, imo, saved it.
I didn’t realize the pronunciation of “Akira” was going for “proper Japanese”. I thought he was supposed to be mispronouncing it as the name of the dog breed.
Actually, I thought it was just a Jerry mistake too! But then he said anime like “ah-knee-may” and assumed he was saying every japanese word with an obnoxious pronunciation.
Good start. Lots of fun stuff. The usual insane nonsense mixed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-them gags. Loved that the Wasps know they’re assholes, so they’re happy to help one another.
“There’s also a running bit about Nazi Morty insisting that Clone Rick take him on fun adventures that have no deeper meaning at all which feels like a pretty solid swipe at a lot of Gamer Gate bullshit.”
Been saving that for two years I guess? Or even longer. Jesus… how could anything in there have anything to do with #GamerGate?
i guess it stands to the strength of the joke that different people see different phenomenon represented in it.
I think it has more to do with the weird biases and hang-ups of the writer.
The problem is that Zack implies that it was the intention of the R&M to directly reference that instead of stating it more as “this is how I relate to it.” It’s a clear distinction that a quality professional writer would understand, which is why Zack didn’t.
I wish I lived in your dimension, where all the GamerGaters died on the way back to their home planet 2 years ago. In my reality those assholes are still around being toxic little man-babies about all kinds of subjects beyond just video games.
A close second to a good episode of Rick and Morty is the over-analysis of a good episode by the commentariat in places like this, like Art History students trying to come up with a deeper meaning in a piece of art.
God. I know. It’s so fucking embarrassing.
So… what would you like to talk about?I only ask because every comment you (and others) have carefully typed out in response to this review, has been attacking others for being wrong, or for discussing the wrong things, or for “overthinking” in general. What’s the right thing to think and talk about?
Comes back a day later to read the comments.Nods knowingly.An observation is an observation. It is not an attack.
Like a normal human being, and not obsessed with the toxic fandom, concern over the message ricks character is sending to people and is “basically the template for the alt-right”, connecting this somehow to gamergate. These or any number of attempts to make a cartoon a political statement are all stupid and annoying. Your hot political takes on this, or anything, are not interesting.
Speaking as a former art student, I refused to play that game. Especially with post-modernist art that was mostly about eliciting a reaction. Professors hated me in art history class.
THEM: What’s your opinion on the controversy of Piss Christ?
ME: I have no opinion, because the work itself is inherently meaningless. It’s a crucifix preserved in a jar of urine. It’s two things put together to elicit a reaction, like calling something “motherfucker.”
I too love to go to school to study things I find stupid and pointless to talk about
Good job wasting your parents’ money.
I graduated and am a working professional now.
What if Piss Christ calls my Mama a whore?
Is she?
This was fun. Let’s do it again soon.
“so apologies if I’m out of practice on this”Yep, I expect no less from the guy who refused to rewatch old episodes or even do any basic Googling about characters when he reviewed season 7 of the Venture Bros.
Fascist Morty had nothing to do with Gamergate. Also, by the way, 2015 called and they’d like their socially relevant boogeyman back.Fascist Morty was a direct commentary on the kind of toxic, obsessed fans who want shows they like to be about the specific, shallow, obvious bits that they found interesting and get upset when the narrative veers into areas that make them uncomfortable. Fascist Morty liking Mr Meeseeks is pretty much a dead giveaway here.This should be obvious to anyone who has any familiarity with TV show fandoms in the age of the internet.
see, now that you guys say this, I realize it’s probably true, but at the time I just thought it was random absurdity.
Gamergate fans ARE exactly those kinds of fans. There’s a huge amount of continuity between the rhetoric, social media strategies and personalities that participated in Gamergate and right wing cultural politics in general. It’s all tied together by a common sentiment that media used to be apolitical at some more innocent time. But you are right that Gamergate is a movement nobody identifies as for or against anymore, so to one level it would be like equating Bernie Sanders supporters and Occupy Wall Street. So while you’re technically correct the writer’s also technically correct in their own way too. I guess I’m just feeling like a gracious pedant today.
Toxic fans come from all walks of life and from every frequency of the political spectrum. Toxic R&M fans probably are more on the gamer gatey end of things. Other shows, like Steven Universe/Voltron/etc. find their toxic fans more on the Tumblr/Jezebel axis.
The difference being that only one of those sets of people are known for active harassment of people so maybe we shouldn’t be throwing around ‘both sides’ style arguments…
Google for steven universe fans harass fanfic artist
You guys talking about fans is boring as fuck. Skip on down….
I think it’s even simpler than that. They are saying that fascistic policies and support for those policies are showing up everywhere.
Yes there’s absolutely no relationship between Gamergate and other types of toxic fandom. Zero. Zilch. Nada. This is just top notch thinking
I see you gamergaters are the new “Um excuse me! She’s a teenager so it’s tehcnically ebophilia not pedophilia!!1!1!!” Thanks for your extremely pedantic rebuttal that doesn’t at all address the actual criticism!
The Venn diagram’s a perfect circle.
“How about telling me something you want instead of just telling me what you don’t want.”That right there is a direct shot at the toxic fanboys.
The toxic R&M fans and the GGers are the same people and can safely be lumped in together with other groups of assholes and d-bags for mockery and scorn, just as this episode did.
“That joke wasn’t about me! It was about some OTHER group of whiny manchildren who make unreasonable demands about the content of popular media! There couldn’t possibly be any overlap at all! Gaslighting isn’t real, you just made it up because you’re crazy! Hashtag Zoe Quinn is the antichrist!”
All these “this has nothing to do with Gamergate!!” comments just make me think y’all doth protest a bit too much.
Any idea why this episode isn’t up on Hulu yet?
I was checking Hulu too, but then a vague memory surfaced: I think adult swim stuff only gets added as a whole season well after it’s done airing.
I’m basically over this show. The fandom became so toxic that I kinda gave up on it after last season.
Ok great. It’s good that you still want to leave nothing comments about it online since you’re so over it. Maybe don’t let idiots on social media decide what you do or don’t like.
Exhibit 1 in terms of toxic fans : You.
Your opinion means very little to anyone.
As does yours to me.
So just don’t interact with the fandom and enjoy the show. I think the Star Wars fandom is breathtakingly awful but I still like Star Wars
See, I feel like Star Wars actually does have a pretty large contingent of obnoxious fans. These supposed hoards of toxic Rick and Morty fans, this sort of feels like one of those things that’s a perception created by repetition of a meme more then an actual thing.
Like, yes, i’m aware there was a group of obnoxious fans, but this seems to be something you actually have to seek out to find. The vast majority of R&M fans i’ve actually encountered do not fit this profile.
Whenever anything is really popular, there are going to be some obnoxious people who like it. I feel like this meme developed because Harmon originally signal boosted this group by directly replying to them, and then the media kind of created a story around the mcdonalds this that was an extremely dramatized version of what actually happened, and the meme kind of took hold. This board seems to have a lot of people who either care quite a bit about signalling or are parodying such people, in such a way it’s hard to distinguish between the two.
By “this show”are you referring to the Onion AV Club?
The show is still really great. I just ignore or laugh at all the dry dick fashy fans.
Pretty badass of you to come to a review about a show you’re done with to declare that you’re done with it. Don’t think for a second that we all didn’t notice and are now feeling deep admiration for how cool you are.
You could derive some satisfaction from the show’s frequent jabs at its toxic fanbase?
Wow I can already tell how annoying the reviews of this show are going to be.
Tell me about it. You’ve already ruined the comment section.
Dumb, unfunny and uninteresting comment.
Is what the people are saying about your initial comment
Seems like the proliferation of fascists realities prb has something to do with Evil Morty and the Ricklantis Mixup.
I busted up laughing at the recurring fascist jokes.Really enjoyed this one.
I don’t know if you understand the post credits fully with your review. Jessica’s story just explained the beginning scene. She wants good presents old people give her to show their gratitude for her. So she recommends hospices to comfort people who have no relatives.
Shitty Kirkland Meeseeks box was secretly the best joke. Good god was that great.
I felt like Kirkland Meseeks was very similar to Bad Janet from The Good Place
Oh my god your right.
I’m assuming Kirkland is a brand that does inferior change-just-enough-not-to-get-sued versions of big brand products? Forgive my ignorance, I’m in the UK and somehow saw this show that doesn’t air here until next year…
Kirkland is Costcos off brand generic label.
It’s not underscored, but I think it’s intentional. One of the takeaways of this episode is that the only way to ensure Morty dies a peaceful death of old age is if Rick dies and stays dead.
Decent Meseeks content Kirkland-Brand Meseeks is hilarious.
My one question for this season – can Rick and Morty ever make me cry again? For me Classic Rick and Morty really captured that madcap melancholy tone that Dan Harmon captured for a while on Community. Episodes like Rixty Minutes and Total Rickall took ridiculous gags like interdimensional cable TV and the sudden appearance of Mr. Poopybutthole and somehow made them bare the weight of intense emotional development. Season 3 tried, but they kind of all played out like Pickle Rick for me – Rick is crazy and with no regard for his family or himself, and then someone tells Rick that and he doesn’t really listen. I’m not sure if I want the show to ever spells out all of the mysteries of its lore. For example, whoever Rick’s wife was matters less than the way her absence plays into the ways that everyone relates to each other. Actually learning about her at this point risks changing things too much. At the same time, if they don’t ever risk anything again it’s never really going to be the same show for me.
There should just be a moratorium on talking about this show.
*Mortytorium.
I’ll allow that.
best social commentary in the episode “When did this shit become the default?!”
I’m kinda wondering if the number of fascist alternate realities is a result of Evil Morty gaining power in the last season? The way this show works I feel like it could either be a throwaway joke OR it could turn out to be part of a larger arc and I’d be fine either way haha
Am I the only who choked on their own laughter at “Jessica’s grandmother’s necklace”, an heirloom which Jessica apparently wore until her own elderliness…
Nope. Dan was definitely having fun with extremely contrived plot points, there.
Laughed my ass off. Glad to have the series back
Kari Wahlgren also does the voice of Rick’s ship. “Keep Summer safe…”
Maybe I missed this, but was there any explanation as to how Wasp Clone Rick transformed back into regular Rick? I think both Wasp Ricks were in the garage, then they went after Akira Morty in the desert and suddenly the clone was back to normal.
“When did this become the default?!” got the biggest laugh from me. Our stupid timeline is fucking up everyone else’s now.
I think the problem with Rick & Morty is that it’s a good show. That is to say, it’s a fun watch. At its best, it feels like someone upturning a box of toys, and you’re watching them spill out. But man, I can see the Dan Harmon in this show, and I *really* don’t like it.
It’s the new South Park, if you think about it. Before more folks turned against South Park for lazy politics, everyone seemed to think the show agreed with them, when really it was just…being lazy. It’s tempting to think that somebody sneering at everything is only sneering at the *right* people, if you happen to like that somebody for other reasons.
Rick & Morty has a similar situation. I definitely get a vibe of self-importance coming from the show’s reputation, and it’s painful to watch it try to be wise. I can’t really bother picking apart the Fascist Morty quote from a show that gave us:
“Am I evil?”
‘Worse. You’re smart.’
I mean, shit, let’s talk about smart.
This show is smart about structuring stories, it’s smart about being a visual spectacle, despite having not-super-fluid animation.
Being smart, however, does not mean “infallible,” and nobody’s smart about everything.
This show is incompetent at introspection and social commentary, yet it has a sense of “I’m smart so I’m right.” Case in point: remember that episode playing around with the Avengers/superheroes? It was a fun ride. But they couldn’t resist peppering in some insufferably smug lines about something so subjective. It’s always wielding an attitude of “I’m smart, therefore I’m correct.”
Hey, maybe you just don’t like superhero movies. Christ.
The subplot of Ricks’ hologram reminds me a lot of an Ugly Americans episode, Kill Mark Kill. Leonard has a hologram that he mistreats horribly. When he dies the hologram helps resurrect him but loves the freedom so much he starts acting independently, dressing his own way, and talking out of turn. Funny thing is that Leonard is a wizard who is also an alcoholic cynic.Wouldn’t care if they flat out ripped off the idea. Curious if it was an influence.