Last year, Rick and Morty became an unexpected phenomenon. Like most Adult Swim shows, it was crass and vulgar, choosing illogical scenarios over conventions. Even the nature of the series' protagonist Rick (Justin Roiland) was unable to complete a sentence without showing any signs of alcoholism. The show excelled beyond its dumb premise of being a Back to the Future knock-off and became something wholly exciting and unique to the comedy work. Fitting in the hole left by Futurama, it turned madcap animated comedy and movie-satirizing plots into gold while also never forgetting that it was about the characters. With season two, they return with more of the same. It isn't a bad thing either. In fact, it's probably great.
There's not a lot to dissect about the plot behind Rick and Morty other than that it gets dark. Where the first season set up a world of characters who learned to work with each other, this was more of a direct study of their various flaws. Rick's son Jerry (Chris Parnell) was becoming an insecure, unemployed mess while Rick's grandson Morty (Roiland) would become the arrogant kid with a deep, dark, and repressed wheel of emotions. For a show that airs on a channel of absurdist standards, it's surprisingly sweet and dark for a sci-fi show that once featured Werner Herzog giving an entire monologue about penises. If anything, the show has become more focused around its characters.
That isn't to say that it didn't wuss out on its edgy material. In an episode where Rick becomes a younger version of himself, or "Tiny Rick," it is met with the immediate joy of youth, but a deeper longing for Rick to come back alive. For all of the violence and timeline studies that ensued, it became a study of Rick's deeper maturity and how being young wasn't always going to be worth it. Likewise, this was sandwiched between episodes that involved little aliens living in Rick's car's motor and Rick saving the world with a mundane pop song called "Get Shwifty." Like The Simpsons at its best, it knows how to shock you while also making you deeply care.
Rick remains the central appeal of the show. Where last season saw him reveal that his catchphrases were rooted in more personal problems, this one saw the attention turn to Morty and his repressed rage. In an episode parodying The Purge, Morty is seen for one of the few times becoming unstable, giving into murderous glee as he attacks a planet without concern. Considering that he has slowly been unraveling this season, it is interesting to see his various breaking points, becoming more secure with his personality in the process. Rick remains the draw largely because he is abrasive and confrontational. He turns hardcore sci-fi into punchlines, creatively making us reconsider what it is about the genre that we hold so dear.
The show remains exciting to watch and has some of the best writing out there. It's not only funny, but it also manages to continually surprise. It's a balance between vulgarity and sentiments that is unlike any other show out there. While this is the case, it doesn't revel too deeply in distracting territory. It's, after all, a genre show that is meant to have a good time. The only difference is that Rick and Morty reveals itself to be more of a road trip show. While it starts off normal, it is inevitably the kicking at the back seat that throws off the normality. But when will they pull over? Who knows. Who cares. The show remains as fun as ever and I don't know how to properly critique it other than that it is probably the funnest animated series currently on TV, surpassing Bob's Burgers and BoJack Horseman just for sheer energy. I have no doubt that the show will hold up in subsequent years. If anything, it already knows how to be the most memorable with countless catchphrases and memorable scenes that other TV shows are sorely missing.
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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