A few posts ago I mentioned that Rick and Morty is one of my favorite shows on TV right now, but that it's a show that I don't know I would like writing about very much. This isn't because Rick and Morty is one of those shows that suffer the more you think about it (also known as "bad shows") - quite the opposite, actually. It's because Rick and Morty, much like Doctor Who (one of its spiritual ancestors), is a show where I just love getting swept up in the fascinating world it presents to me, rather than analyzing every little aspect of it like it's an episode of Mad Men. But before I get on to that, I figured I should give a shout out to what might be the very boldest comedy on TV right now, if not one of the boldest shows.
The truth is, I don't know if I've ever seen a show that is as comfortable with redefining its very existence as much as Rick and Morty is. It's a show that rewrote its entire setting by killing its main characters in their own dimension and transporting them to a new one in the sixth goddamn episode and then actually addressed it a few episodes later! It's a show that introduced an alternate version of Saturday Night Live where Bobby Moynihan gets into a feud with a piece of toast! It's a show that revealed its characters are simply one of millions of identical beings spread across multiple dimensions! This is insane stuff, and the fact that the show even attempts it makes it one of the best shows on television. TV - and TV comedy in general - is a medium that thrives on the familiar. It's why the most popular shows on television are typically shows where every episode looks sort of the same. We sit down to watch an episode of TV, and we expect to know exactly how everything is gong to go, to the point where we could just kind of sit back and enjoy the ride. Granted, many television shows have challenged this ideal (particularly in the past 20 years or so), but even those shows tend to rely on some sort of formula to lean back on. And hey, so does Rick and Morty, probably, but right now, there's no other half-hour comedy where I can sit down and genuinely not know what world I'm going to end up in. The shows' best counterpart is likely Futurama, but that shows' playing with alternate dimensions is baby steps combined to the levels of mindfuck in Rick and Morty.
The thing is, though, Rick and Morty isn't just a bunch of cool concepts. It hangs those concepts around a genuinely hilarious show, one with great jokes and fully-realized characters and even the occasional grounded plotline. In fact, I'd argue that one of Rick and Morty's strengths is that it can make a plotline as done-to-death as a married couple on the brink of divorce or a teenage daughter feeling unwanted and give them giant, world-shattering stakes, making them feel as huge and life-altering as they do when they happen to you. Rick and Morty uses its sense of experimentation not just to be cool (though it is REALLY fucking cool) but to bring a level of pathos to its characters that not many shows can compete with. The fact that the show can be an actually boundary-pushing sci-fi program and a truly compelling family comedy go a long way as to showing just how much the show successfully juggled this season. There have been few first seasons I can think of that were as fresh-feeling and excitingly unique as Rick and Morty's first season, and I'm sincerely looking forward to just what the hell they're going to come up with in Season 2.
Final Grade: A
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