For many, 2013 was a bad year to be a fan of Dan Harmon. Well, maybe just his TV shows. With Community getting maligned under new management, it seemed like the glory days of one of the modern pop culture savants was over. Sure, he toured the country with his podcast Harmontown (which produced a subsequent documentary), but what would be his next move? After some speculation, the answers were solved in December 2013 when this strange, Dr. Katz-looking program appeared called Rick and Morty featuring a drunken scientist and his loser grandson. If it sounded like a gimmicky Back to the Future, it was in its origin. However, along with the bizarre forces at Adult Swim, the show became so much more and in many ways surpassed Community, even as Harmon returned. It became a cult hit. It became something wonderful.
If there is one genre that hasn't had much notice, it is the animated sci-fi parody. Ever since Futurama left the air, there has been an absence of quality programs that mixed contemporary beliefs with the sci-fi tropes. Given the juggernaut's ability to mix ribald humor with heart, it became an institution even in the waning final years on Comedy Central. Who would take the mantel? Why not the man behind the cult web series House of Cosbys named Justin Roiland? Voicing the title characters, what followed was a perverse, manic homage to sci-fi's more absurd moments that may be at times too crass and drawn a little crude, but there was something that drove the series.
When approaching an Adult Swim series, it is important not to get caught up in the idea of quality. While there have been good shows like Children's Hospital, Delocated, or Eagleheart, the idea of sentiments rarely are applicable. They are aggressively silly and demand to not be taken seriously. It is one of the few channels that attempts to make satirized TV into an art form. While there's plenty that succeeds, it is tough to not mix it up with more stoner-centric programming. That is why Rick and Morty is even more of a success story. Not just because of its network and somehow exceeding every other current show's expectations, but that it proved the free form thinking of Dan Harmon worked even in an unfiltered environment.
The show's personality doesn't become immediately clear until "Lawnmower Dog." While "Pilot" did a standard job of setting up a universe, it was still sloppy and featured Roiland doing his patented Rick cadence involving mid-sentence burps. It was strange and maybe off-putting to those who aren't easily amused by Adult Swim. However, when the second episode came around, it evolved rather quickly into something fantastical. Along with a Nightmare on Elm Street parody, the episode featured the family dog Snuffles (Rob Paulsen) doing role reversal as his owners' new master with assistance from machinery. Yes, there was still animation that looked phallic and testicular, but to get caught up in those aspects is to ignore the ingenuity at play. Snuffles calmly commanding the family is an early staple to the show's success. It subverted expectations and made the unbelievable logical. Compared with what was to come, it was nothing but the calm before the storm.
In what is considered to be the best episode so far, "Rick Potion #9," the story reaches its peak of absurdity when the episode ends with a very strange, bleak gimmick. For the sake of shock value, I will not mention it here. However, the moment pushed limits in an episode already satirizing epidemics and added a false sense of emotional weight with a Mazzy Star song playing over it. It also introduced the idea of multiple time lines that featured multiple Rick and Morty types. What seemed like a throwaway gag quickly became a central piece for the series going forward. By "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick-Kind," the time travel was so in place that the show had the ability for the multiple Ricks to interact and it produced even stranger results.
The show's biggest strength was that it remained inventive. Even if was parodying sci-fi with phallic animation and featured a continual increase in profanity, it also had moments like "Rixty Minutes," where time travel was done through channel surfing. It was a surreal moment that makes most of Community's third season obsession with timelines seem lazy (though that season was inherently better). Character creations like Meseeks or Abradolf Lincler were excessively strange, but when given personality and human motivations, they were able to comment on their importance. The show was strangely existential in ways that South Park used to be. It was dark and never lost sight of having destructive fun simultaneously. It was kind of beautiful in that way.
Most of all, the series cared about its characters. Yes, they tended to hate each other, but like The Simpsons, there was depth and context to it. Rick wanted Morty to have a decent life and while he remained a loser for most of the episodes, they bonded over their strange journeys. It was like the adult Adventure Time, but with more hostility. Even then, when the season ends with "Ricksy Business," we understand Rick's problematic past and why he has spouted a gibberish catchphrase for most of the latter episodes. There was character building that eventually paid off. At first, it was slight, but quickly came to the foreground in exciting and clever ways. Along with compelling bonding between Rick and his granddaughter Summer (Spencer Grammer), the series gave value to its characters. So what if it was hostile? In the end, everyone loved each other.
It is a dysfunctional family sitcom set to the backdrop of Back to the Future with obvious influence from Futurama. This isn't a bad thing. For an Adult Swim show, it even excels the network's low expectations. It meets the crass, unfiltered nature in spades. However, it also has a lot of creative heart. It knows its pop culture references and how to break the fourth wall. Even if Rick is an alcoholic character, he still manages to be the hero with his countless hilarious quips. The show ends up becoming a heartfelt comedy that doesn't want to admit it. It is one of Harmon's penchant qualities. While he only wrote one episode here, his influence can be felt all over it and thankfully gives him another outlet for wonderfully bizarre pop culture comedy to come seeping into the ether. It's also thankful that the strange invention has been embraced and for an almost perfect season produced some of the best crass TV humor of the year.
Even if Community eventually left me cold, feeling like it had worn out its welcome, I do feel like Rick and Morty has a lot of potential to grow into a solid follow-up to Futurama. It doesn't seem likely to ever top its influence, but the crass-meets-sweet aspects that began building towards the end mixed with Adult Swim's manic juvenile culture almost creates a gloriously strange beast unto itself. The series may not be that accessible if phallic animation and profanity bothers you. Even then, few animated sci-fi comedies are doing stuff nearly as fun or inventive as this show. For that alone, it deserves a lot of praise.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5
It is a dysfunctional family sitcom set to the backdrop of Back to the Future with obvious influence from Futurama. This isn't a bad thing. For an Adult Swim show, it even excels the network's low expectations. It meets the crass, unfiltered nature in spades. However, it also has a lot of creative heart. It knows its pop culture references and how to break the fourth wall. Even if Rick is an alcoholic character, he still manages to be the hero with his countless hilarious quips. The show ends up becoming a heartfelt comedy that doesn't want to admit it. It is one of Harmon's penchant qualities. While he only wrote one episode here, his influence can be felt all over it and thankfully gives him another outlet for wonderfully bizarre pop culture comedy to come seeping into the ether. It's also thankful that the strange invention has been embraced and for an almost perfect season produced some of the best crass TV humor of the year.
Even if Community eventually left me cold, feeling like it had worn out its welcome, I do feel like Rick and Morty has a lot of potential to grow into a solid follow-up to Futurama. It doesn't seem likely to ever top its influence, but the crass-meets-sweet aspects that began building towards the end mixed with Adult Swim's manic juvenile culture almost creates a gloriously strange beast unto itself. The series may not be that accessible if phallic animation and profanity bothers you. Even then, few animated sci-fi comedies are doing stuff nearly as fun or inventive as this show. For that alone, it deserves a lot of praise.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5
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