Why You Should Watch “Rick and Morty” Tonight (And Every Sunday Night)

rick-and-morty-season-1-review_0This week, Adult Swim announced they have picked up Rick and Morty for a third season (shortly after this season’s third episode aired) and a renewed promise of longevity for this fearless, sci-fi animated extravaganza means there has never been a better time to leap in.

Series co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland have stated that they work hard to make the show easy for first-time watchers to enjoy, no matter when they start. And it’s true: the only thing you need to know is that Rick is the sci-fi-level genius grandfather of Morty, an awkward early-teenager whose struggles in school are only exacerbated by spending all hours gallivanting across the multiverse with Rick. What quickly becomes apparent, however, is the show’s subverting of the adventuring trope through its sheer commitment to what kind of a genius would actually be capable (both technically and ethically) of subjecting his family to the savage weirdness of impossible realms.

Harmon and Roiland’s answer to that question is a shocking anti-hero whose inter-dimensional insights fuel megalomania, crippling loneliness, contempt for pedestrian morality and a raging need to self-medicate with every manner of mood-altering substance in the cosmos. Yes, modern TV has relied too much on anti-heroes in recent years but Rick is…more than that. The audience is never pandered to, in terms of his acting out or occasional penance, the way it might be in other shows. Secretly, in spite of all the caveats of alienation, it’s easy to want to be Dr. Gregory House or Sherlock Holmes (film or TV version — take your pick). But not only do I not want to be Rick, my mind stalls into a free-fall at even trying to imagine what it’s like to be Rick.

But here’s why it’s in your interest to watch Rick and Morty: it will make your brain light up brighter than an attack ship on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Its constantly shifting panoply of vulgar alien character designs, mind-bending plot concepts, wicked wordplay and galactic heartache will delight, alarm and sadden you like arguably no other show on TV — and never in the same way, twice.

The jokes, sight-gags, slapstick and fourth wall-breaking might telegraph a kind of cynicism, but more than enough heart comes through to show unassailable compassion for its characters and the experiences common to every sapient from here to Gazorpazorp.

Possibly more impressive, is how Rick and Morty’s writing team has kept things interesting for Season One viewers while maintaining accessibility. A reoccurring device in the show is for characters to undergo profound (or, more frequently, traumatic) experiences that are never shared with the rest of the cast. The audience gets clued into a deeper (and, frequently, traumatic) insight into that character’s history or evolution along with a hint that this development will have repercussions in the future.

But because these developments for the most part only impact a character’s internal conflict or growth, there’s never a pressure to resolve arcs in a way that might require a “Previously, On…” trailer. At the same time, viewers who stick with the show don’t feel cheated by writers hitting the “reset button”.

Dan Harmon, for all of his formal experimentation with genre, is actually pretty conservative about certain core elements of televised fiction. One being that the characters should never be burdened by in-world backstories that require a trip to Wikia to puzzle out. The solution he found in Community on NBC, and continues to refine with “Rick and Morty” is that, even though the characters may not change much, the audience’s understanding of those characters can.

It’s a wonderful thing to come to a TV show with an electric anticipation for what it will do next. The more you watch Rick and Morty, the more you understand that the only predictable thing about this show is its ability to defy expectations — and make you alternate between joyous laughter and a moderate desire for grief counselling.

Author: Michael O'Neil