TV: Rick and Morty

I love ‘Rick and Morty’. I'm not sure what I love best. It's funny of course. It lays sci-fi concept after concept on each episode so much so it doesn't feel like a 22 minute show. It follows its freewheeling internal logic much like Terry Gilliam’s animations for Monty Python, which is the exact same analogy I used for Cbeebies programmes last week.

‘Rick and Morty’, for the uninitiated, started as a one off spoof of Doc and Marty from Back To The Future. Rick is a scientific genius in the Doctor Who mould (ie, a main character who demonstrates very little actual science but is the figure we depend on for all the interesting and/or weird ideas) ; unlike The Doctor, he’s a hard drinking, foul-mouthed and (most of the time) callous old man.  

Morty, his grandson, is the straight man/fall guy/butt monkey, a stereotype teenager as per any other sitcom but a perfect foil and moral compass to Rick. They go on adventures together, and as time goes on the rest of the family get more involved especially Morty’s sister Summer.  The nature of these adventures are… diverse.  Trying to summarise any of the plots is hard, but they tend to involve one or two sci-fi ideas exaggerated to comic effect - one episode has a ‘Meeseeks’ box that creates aliens that solve a user’s problem and disappear - they start multiplying rapidly and then rebelling when they can’t help Morty’s Dad Jerry lose two strokes off his golf game. Meanwhile Morty tries to prove to Rick he can lead an adventure, murders a giant and nearly gets sexually assaulted by a jellybean (it is at this point, I admit, where Cbeebies comparisons no longer hold up).  There’s usually a hell of a lot packed into a 22 minute episode and whether you enjoy the programme or not you’re unlikely to be bored.

So the long anticipated third series has launched (although the first episode has actually been on YouTube since April). ‘The Rickshank Redemption’ is a classic example of this sort of dense plotting. The second series ended with Rick incarcerated so

this is about resolving that and pressing a reset button. It features Rick being tortured for information in a virtual reality system (that he outplays complete with a fake origin story); Morty showing Summer the consequences of Rick's ‘Doctor Who’ like hit and run approach to adventures by showing her his home dimension ruined in a callback to an episode from the first series; Rick transferring his mind into various other characters, including evil Ricks from the Council of Ricks; seemingly destroying all the plot continuity from previous episodes (whether the show really has done a Year Zero on its own past is yet to be seen but if it has it's a massively bold move)... And it still finds time to deal with Beth and Jerry's divorce.

A common plot of many ‘Rick and Morty’ episodes is this sort of Russian Doll - a simulation within a simulation within a simulation, a dream within a dream within a dream, a living battery within a living battery within a living battery, and so on. This episode takes that to its logical conclusion, with a Rick within a Rick within a Rick. It pulls it off again, although now I've recognized this formula I hope the show doesn't overuse it. ‘Family Guy’ was ruined for me quite early on when I became too aware of ‘remember that time when… ‘ cutaway gags being how the show worked.  That aside it makes for an extremely promising start.

The second episode, which is for many the first brand new episode, feels slightly underwhelming just because the first is just so batshit crazy - it's a Rick and Morty does Mad Max thing, which is still pretty good but I don't really like it when animated series (and it is largely animated series, especially the Simpsons) spend a whole episode on a parody of a specific thing. That said, this being ‘Rick and Morty’, there’s plenty going, including a revenge-bent arm and Rick bringing down the dystopian society by introducing free cable TV. I guess it's necessary to have a less complex plot for this episode as it's largely concerned with character development.

Terry Jones wrote of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy books - an acknowledged inspiration for the show - that people don't really read them for the plots or the characters but for the sheer number of ideas that flow out. This is true of most of Rick and Morty - it spends more on character but I’d be very surprised if there are people who watch it to find out what happens with Beth and Jerry's marriage.  It’s probably obvious that I’m in it mainly for the sci fi surrealism, so this episode didn’t do it as much for me for that reason.

It’s still in my view the most creative show in any format right now though, and I’m incredibly happy to have it back.