My
introduction to Rick and Morty was
the long, not particularly funny couch gag on The Simpsons. Nonetheless, the show has been a huge hit and is
constantly being referenced online and seems to be on track to become this
generation’s South Park – so I
decided to give it a go.
Honestly,
the friend I was watching it with and I almost gave up after three episodes. It
didn’t click. The show introduces its main characters, obviously riffing on Doc
and Marty from Back to the Future, which
was indeed the show’s starting point. However, going in its own direction, the
show has Rick and Morty as grandfather and grandson, with Rick an alcoholic sociopath
and Morty an overly naïve adolescent. Both are voiced by co-creator Justin
Roiland, who I know from voicing the annoying but amusing Earl of Lemongrab in Adventure Time, and his performances
take some getting used to. Morty stutters and whines, while Rick’s speech is
punctuated by annoying burps.
The
first episode seems to try way too hard. The humour is very adolescent, and the
audience is expected to laugh at things like Morty having to shove things up
his rectum and blowing up aliens in explosions of gore that probably seem edgy
to kids who have never seen the likes of Superjail
– with Rick having much in common with The Warden.
The
Lawnmower Man with dogs subplot in
the second episode amused me and made me think the show had potential – though I’d
already seen the most amusing part as a clip online without knowing what show
it was from – but the lazy gross-out humour of the third episode set inside a
body made it seem like the show had very little to offer. But after a few
friends strongly urged me to keep going, I persevered.
Now,
after all the available episodes, I can say I’m a bit of an unusual case. Rick
and Morty is one of those Marmite shows – either adored or reviled. People seem
to think it’s either the best show ever created or utterly worthless stoner-bait
liked only by the very sheeple the show likes to admonish to make itself look
cleverer. But for me, I think it’s pretty good. It has some great moments and
some utter dud episodes. Some of the ideas are thought-provoking, some unoriginal,
and some half-baked. Sometimes we’re just supposed to laugh at butts farting
green clouds. Again.
The
show really gets interesting when Rick’s solution to a problem gone completely
out of hand is simply to slip into another dimension and take the places of a
Rick and Morty who happened to die just them. There are after all infinite
universes, so if you can cross between them, why not? But this doesn’t just get
left there, it becomes continuity and takes a psychological toll on Morty – and
raises the question of whether Rick has done it multiple times before.
This
is where the show gets interesting. Of course, like most multiple-universe
sci-fi it really doesn’t begin to broach the real conception of infinity. The
show indicates there are a bunch of remarkable versions of the characters from
other universes, like a doofus Rick or a lizard Morty or even two Mortys who
dress like the characters from Gravity
Falls (in one of many references to that show, because the creator is
buddies with Roiland). But of course, in infinite realities there are infinite
versions of each of these, plus infinite that are not like them, with infinite
universes being created in infinite fractions of time from each and every
moment, so having just ‘a whole bunch including some quirky unique ones’ doesn’t
really cut it – even if most of the show’s best episodes are based on taking
this idea further to have, for example, an evil Rick and an Evil Morty, a ‘Citadel
of Ricks’ who decided to get together and in some cases exploit the rest, and
even jaded corrupt police officer Mortys showing around good-hearted rookie
Ricks.
Perhaps
the heart and soul of the show is trying to discover whether or not Rick has a
heart and soul. He’s decidedly an antihero, perhaps one of the most
reprehensible characters ever created, willing to create whole universes to
power his car battery and destroy them too, drunkenly devising Saw-like games
to slaughter people he doesn’t like, watching Morty writhe in pain with two
broken legs with little to no interest, and subjecting his family to endless
mind games and manipulations. Yet it’s very compelling for the viewer to
speculate that it’s all a façade for a deeper pain and yearning, a wish to be
accepted and for others to help him with his inner pain – which was at the
centre of the season 2 cliffhanger and remains interesting even after he illustrates
how getting caught was part of his plan. Witness one version sacrificing
himself to save Morty, or a flashback about his love for his wife and daughter
that it turns out he fabricates, or the close friend who reveals that his
exuberant random catchphrase is actually a cry for help. He even tries to zap
out his brains!
For
some reason, it tends to be the show’s most uninteresting and unfunny moments
that take off as the most popular, simply because they’re big, obvious moments.
Rick sending Morty on a dangerous mission to get him a drug that makes him do a
silly dance, or spontaneously coming up with a song called ‘Get Schwifty’, or
turning himself into a pickle. These seem aimed at just making stoners laugh at
how random and zany the show is, but I can’t say I find them funny at all.
I’ve
seen a lot of this humour before, too. Marvin from The Hitchhiker’s Guide has a lot in common with a machine shocked
that its purpose is to pass butter, perhaps with a dash of the toaster from Red Dwarf – which also has the ideas of
hallucinating a whole life only to see a ‘Game Over’ screen and an alternate
universe version of a cool character with a bowl cut and buck teeth. In fact,
most of Rick and Morty’s humour aims to be edgy and boundary-pushing, but it’s
actually all mostly very safe, on ground previously trodden by the South Parks and Family Guys of the world. Attempts to be edgy by joking about sex
robots and cuckoldry and of course that ultimate edgelord button, people having
traumatic memories of childhood sexual abuse, are sub-4chan attempts to shock,
and the one and only time I was surprised the show ‘went there’ was when it showed
drunk Rick rants about Israel – which was genuinely surprising and funny, with
the point being that the most feared and respected man in the universe feels
awkward and babbles excuses when it comes to the tension there. Though the most
recent episode glibly suggests peace was attained there by getting high.
Typical.
There’s
also some episodes that are total duds. Using interdimensional cable as an
excuse to just have the actors ad-lib only results in ‘You had to be there’
style moments, and those episodes were probably the show’s worst. At least the
montage of memories in season 3 brings with it the interesting moral question
of how many of Morty’s memories have been altered by Rick – including,
endearingly, any time that Rick messes up and gets embarrassed in front of
Morty.
For
all the faults I found with the show, though, what I really liked was how it
put its characters through cheesy sci-fi situations but actually allowed that
to have a deeper impact. Morty is changed by the knowledge that there are
myriad other universes and he’s expendable. Summer has the harrowing experience
of a machine taking ‘keep Summer safe’ to horrifying extremes. Beth has to
wonder if she’s only a clone who believes herself to be the real Beth. Jerry is
the show’s punching bag but has the curious experience of being put in a
position to help assassinate Rick. These people are altered by what they go
through, even if it turns them into much worse people ready to commit murder almost
as easily as Rick is. When Rick and Morty
shines is when it raises interesting questions about existence and purpose in a
multiverse where you are one of countless identical versions of yourself, if
you even exist at all and can trust your beliefs.
I’ll
watch all there is of Rick and Morty,
but honestly I would call it hit-and-miss at best, occasionally deep and
inspired, but far too often formulaic and unoriginal. I’d call it above
average, but not by much.
