Rick and Morty S8 Ep 1 Review

Rick Sanchez can be one of the pettiest people in all of fiction. If you think an idea of his is dumb, he will put you in a position where you admit it isn’t. If you try to prove that you’re morally better than him, he will force you to stoop to his level. And apparently, if you take his stuff without permission, he will put you in a Matrix until you learn your lesson! And apparently, that was the lesson that he was trying to teach Morty and Summer in the season eight premiere of Rick and Morty! In a twist, though, the episode doesn’t focus on the Matrix itself, though. It focuses on the after-effects on Morty and Summer.

Rick is Petty as they Come

The episode drops us off right at the tail end of Morty and Summer’s time in a version of The Matrix. They took Rick’s phone charger without his permission, and in retaliation, he trapped them in a simulation until they learned not to steal his phone charger. In typical Rick fashion, though, he fell asleep and left them in there for the equivalent of 17 years. Morty went to prison and became a shell-shocked war veteran, while Summer became an unscrupulous businesswoman in an effort to break The Matrix. By the time they get out, they’re mentally adults, and neither of them has dealt with the trauma that well.

Looking at this episode, it’s rather obvious to longtime fans that nothing about “Summer of all Fears” is original. The show has demonstrated Rick will punish his family for the pettiest reasons. It’s dropped us into the middle of an adventure without explanation, only to reveal what happened over time. An entire episode of the show was dedicated to revealing how many times Rick has had to wipe his family’s memories. Even The Matrix itself isn’t that original. It gets to the point where you question if the show isn’t running out of steam.

Killdozer’s Second Coming

Then again, seeing the Smith kids deal with the trauma they experienced in The Matrix remains an interesting sight. If only because of the way the principal adult figures in their lives react to it. Beth likes the more mature Summer at first, but her condescending attitude quickly wears on her nerves. Meanwhile, Morty turns the tables on Rick by trapping him in his own Matrix before trying to drive a death race vehicle into a power plant. That part felt a lot like the story of the Killdozer!

In the end, though, status quo remains the law of the land. Summer is able to talk Morty down, both agree to have their minds wiped, and everything returns to normal as both lost their character development. Not the most inspiring of ways to end the episode, if you ask me. But then again, it’s Rick and Morty. At this point, the show is going to do whatever it wants. Here’s hoping that the rest of the season comes up with some cool stories, though.

I Give “Summer of all Fears” a 2.5/5

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Rick and Morty Season 4, Episode 9 Review

When I saw the preview for this episode of Rick and Morty, two things ran through my head. Firstly, why would Jerry take Morty and Summer on a camping trip for all of spring break. They have more important stuff to do, like video games and parties! Secondly, I clearly don’t like camping trips. Thankfully, Rick hijacks the camping trip and gets the family into a fight with Zeus-type God. And it all comes back to this one single, hilarious sentence:

“I f**ked a planet.” As soon as I heard that, I couldn’t stop laughing.

As I spent the rest of the episode pondering how Rick could sleep with a giant, sentient planet, we saw what exactly was going on. As I just stated, Rick got a planet called Gaia pregnant, causing her to give birth to millions of clay versions of Rick. And since Beth still has issues over the fact that Rick was absent for most of her life, she insists that he stay and helps her clay half-siblings. The two end up building an advanced society for the clay people to help them get out into the stars. Then their real dad, a guy who looks like Zeus from Greek Mythology shows up saying he’s the dad and wants them to do what he says. It only gets crazier from there.

Okay, I know that sometimes I can’t fully understand the ideas behind a Rick and Morty episode. Even if I do, I know I can have a hard time putting them into coherent words. The big takeaway I got from this episode (thanks to the ‘inside the episode’ video) is that this was about parenting styles.

Beth may have issues with Rick, but she still craves her the approval she never got from her dad as a kid. And to the episode’s credit, the two do bond as we see them use their genius to build a society for the claymen. However, as much as Beth wants her dad to be a responsible parent, the irony is that she’s not being one for Summer and Morty.

Jerry Smith: Camping Expert

So, Jerry still wants to teach the kids how to camp, but they tell him to buzz off. Unlike most things, though, Jerry’s actually pretty good at camping. He even imparts survival skills to some of the claymen that Rick leaves for dead. Of course, this doesn’t really make up for the fact that Jerry’s doing it to make himself feel more important. He ends up leading the rejects in a revolt against Rick and Beth’s society and goes Moses on their butts.

I don’t really know who’s right or wrong in this situation. However, I don’t think Jerry’s been that likable this season. Especially after what he did last week. And here the likability reaches a low point. Or maybe it’s because I don’t like the idea of camping away from technology or not sleeping on a mattress.

Rick vs. Zeus

So, Rick’s always bragged about he’s a god because of his genius, and so far, there’s little to dispute it. When we see stack up against an actual god, though, he ends up lacking a little. Yeah, that Zeus-type guy kicks his ass and almost kills him. If it weren’t for Morty and Summer crashing a ship into his head, he’d be dead.

The episode did prove one thing, though. If Rick is a god, then he’s a better parent than Zeus could ever be. He’s trying to be there for Beth and make it up to her, in his own way. If you read any stories about Zeus, though, then you’ll know he’s the definition of a deadbeat dad. And a total jerk at times.

So, by the end of this episode, Jerry gets a little respect (but loses some of ours) and proves himself not-so-useless. But he also admits that he just wanted to feel important. Okay, to be honest, I don’t really know what the point behind this episode was. They took the “family camping trip” and made it funny. I liked, and I don’t care what anyone says.

I Give “Childrick of Mort” a 4/5

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Rick and Morty Season 4, Episode 8 Review- The Vat of Acid Episode

Rick Sanchez, I knew you were a sociopathic monster that cares little besides himself, but dang, man. The “Vat of Acid Episode” hammered home how petty Rick can be. That’s what everyone who’s watched it says, and I see no reason to argue with that. Comedic sociopathy aside, the “Vat of Acid Episode” hammered home an important point for me. That point being how far Rick will go to keep Morty under his toxic influence.

The Vat of Acid

So, as the title implies, the episode starts with Rick and Morty trying to escape a shady deal gone wrong by jumping into a vat of fake acid with breathing tubes and wait for the bad guys to leave. They don’t leave, they stick around and talk, and it looks like the “Vat of Acid Episode” is going to be a one-note joke with Rick and Morty having to wait it out. Then Morty loses patience, they shoot the guys, and Morty tears into Rick over the fact that he. was. WRONG.

If you remember “Morty’s Mind Blowers”, Rick erases any memories that make him look stupid in front of Morty. It’s how he maintains the image that he’s a freaking god in Morty’s eyes and keeps him under his toxic influence. Rather than admit he made a mistake and shatter the image he’s cultivated in Morty’s mind, Rick decides to reinforce it in the cruelest (and funniest) way possible.

One Big Setup

Spoiler alert, but Rick indulges Morty and gives him a remote that acts like the “save and load” function in a video game. As a gamer, I find this as a nice jab at gamers who save scum so they can indulge in crazy actions without consequence. Once he gets bored, Rick cruelly reveals the truth behind the remote: it doesn’t rewind time. It shunts him to a branching reality, kills the Morty there, and puts him in. Then when Rick resets everything, Morty has to deal with all the consequences of all his horrible actions. In hindsight, we should have seen this twist coming given how much Justin and Dan hate time travel. It doesn’t stop the reveal from being hilarious, though.

That’s not the funniest part, though. The funniest part is that this whole “Vat of Acid Episode” was Rick putting his grandson through this ordeal to set him up with only one way out: a vat of fake acid. He did all this out of a petty need to prove that he’s right!

There’s only one other time I’ve seen a cartoon character resort to such twisted lengths over something so petty: Eric Cartman in “Scott Tenorman must Die.” I thought that was one of the darkest things I’ve ever seen in a cartoon. I mean, Cartman tricked a kid who crossed him into eating chili made out of his parents. Yet Rick made Morty responsible for offending everyone possible and committing all sorts of horrible actions, INCLUDING CANNIBALISM WHEN HE GOT STRANDED IN A PLANE CRASH!

Morty Got (and lost) A Girlfriend

Yeah, in one iteration, Morty got a cute girlfriend with glasses and they were very happy together. Then went on a plane trip that crashed in the mountains and they had to eat the dead to survive. It was just like the book Alive, which tells the real life story of a plane crash in the Andes with the exact same scenario. One of the writers admitted the story traumatized him as a kid!

Morty and his girlfriend survive, only for Jerry’s stupidity to send him back to before they met. If it weren’t so funny, this would be so hilarious.

Never Make Fun of Rick. EVER.

People are saying that this is one of the best episodes Rick and Morty has ever done, and I have to agree. It’s my second favorite of the season and at least in the top five of the show. The way the writers mislead everyone until the end to reveal it to be the set-up to a punchline is crazy and hilarious. And the moral of the whole “Vat of Acid Episode” is that Rick hates being told he’s wrong and will do anything to prove otherwise. Considering how this is the guy who took down an intergalactic government because they crossed them, we shouldn’t be surprised. Still funny, though!

I Give “The Vat of Acid Episode” a Perfect 5/5

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P.S.- I hate Jerry as much as Rick does now.

Rick and Morty Season 4, Episode 7 Review- Promortyus

So, I’ve never actually seen any films from the Alien franchise, but I know the premise. Monstrous aliens that reproduce by injecting hosts with parasitic embryos that hatch by exploding out of their victim’s chests. Something like Alien is easy pickings for the likes of Rick and Morty, and that’s just what happens in their newest episode, “Promortyus.”

How was it? Meh.

Rather than show how Rick and Morty got into their latest adventure, “Promortyus” starts right in the middle. With the duo getting rid of face-huggers and escaping the Glorzo’s (the Alien people). It’s a novel approach that still gives viewers the chance to figure out what’s happening. The problem is that it’s not that impressive. I remember an episode of Phineas and Ferb doing a whole story in reverse. Plus Family Guy did something similar with their 200th episode. 

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about what I did like about the episode. Spoiler alert, but I did like the plot twist of Summer being the leader of the Glorzos. It’s unexpected but also funny. Plus, when Rick and Morty are destroying the Glorzo civilization, I like how they deliberately avoid making a 9/11 reference. Nineteen years later, and it is still too soon. They then backtrack by making a Pearl Harbor visual gag. Which begs the question: at what point does a collectively traumatic event become safe to joke about? Don’t care, not getting involved. 

This wasn’t the best episode of the season. I still say that goes to “Rattlestar Ricklatica” and how absurd it was. It was a good episode though. However, if you’re looking for something else fun to watch, then I urge you to check Justin Roiland’s new show, Solar Opposites, on Hulu. Check out my review of the first season here!

I Give “Promortyus” a 3.5/5

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Rick and Morty Season 4, Episode 5 Review- Rattlestar Ricklatica

I can sum up the mid-season finale of Rick and Morty with three words: time-traveling snakes. If that sounds dumb, it’s supposed to. The people behind Rick and Morty took the dumbest idea possible and ran it so far into the ground that it comes out on the other side as this hilarious, timey-wimey story. I loved every minute of it.

Space Snakes

So, Rick gets a flat tire in space and has to pull over to fix it, and tells Morty to stay in the ship. Being Morty and a teenager, he gets out anyway. Next thing he knows, this snake in a space suit comes up and bites his ankle. While Rick makes a cure, he finds out the dead space snake came from a planet of billions of snakes ready to tear into each other. Given the fact that their snake astronaut’s first instinct upon meeting an alien race was to bite their ankles, it’s clear they suck. They make good jazz music though.

Morty thinks he should do the right thing and fix his screw-up, though Rick says they’re too dumb to be worth saving. Again, Morty does it anyway and replaces it with an Earth snake. Big mistake, as the space snakes figure out its not from their world. So they invent time-travel to kill Morty or something. I don’t know, it’s Terminator with snakes.

Terminator with Snakes

Like I said, it’s a dumb concept, but Justin, Dan and their team knows its a dumb concept and go with it. In my opinion, it’s the kind of plot where trying to look for meaning makes it less enjoyable. My advice is don’t think too hard on it and enjoy the ride, courtesy of Morty.

Eventually, the only way to get out of this nonsense is to create a big timey-wimey ball. So Rick gives the snakes time-travel in the fated year of 1985 and waits for them to screw up and get the Time Cops on their case. Thus the problem solves itself.

Jerry Goes Up

While this whole thing’s going on, Jerry tries to set up the Christmas lights. Since he’s Jerry, Rick makes his body lighter than air and his shoes heavy enough to keep him on the ground. However, because he’s Jerry, he manages to screw even that up, and ends up floating in the sky.

I normally don’t like most Jerry subplots, but this may be an exception. Seeing Jerry try not and fail not to look stupid, yet refuse Rick’s help to one up him, is funny. Somehow, the man manages to survive all of that, and finish setting up the lights. However, given the fact that he caused an airplane to crash, I can see why Rick hates him.

Great Wrap Up to the Year

There’s no telling how long we’ll be waiting to see the second half of the season. However, given how awesome this episode was, I can wait and listen to snake jazz. Rick and Morty closes the decade as one of the best cartoons on TV, and this episode proves that. Like the ouroboros, this episode’s so dumb it comes back around to be funny. As for Morty, he learned a valuable lesson: stay in the freaking car.

I give “Rattlestar Ricklatica: a 4.8/5. Don’t Mess With Time!

Stray Observations/Favorite Quotes

• “I am the Jesus Christ of Christmas”
• “Resistance is mouselike”
• “Unless it’s possible for Jerry to f*** up wearing shoes. …oh crap, he’s gonna die.”
• Did anyone else notice the “Back to the Future” poster with Snakes?

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Rick and Morty Season 4, Episode 3 Review- One Crew Over The Crewcoo’s Morty

Have you ever seen something where you haven’t the foggiest idea what’s going on, yet you love it? After watching last night’s episode of Rick and Morty, it feels like I went through that. The episode, “One Crew Over The Crewcoo’s Morty” was one big rip on heist movies that included every possible cliche. I loved it!

Rick’s Big Rip

The episode starts off with a classic Rick and Morty adventure a-la Indiana Jones. However, it goes off the rails when Rick discovers that some thief stole whatever they were after. As a result, Rick drags Morty to Heist Con, an actual convention for thieves, so he tear the guy down. Truthfully, though, it feels like he only wanted to do one big rip on everyone there by saying he hates heist movies.

In this era where the term “nerd” can be a badge of pride, we essentially rule pop culture now. Thus, conventions are like geekdom pilgrimages where we congregate; perfect fodder for a cynical guy like Rick. Seeing him rip on fan culture, as mean as it can be, almost feels like an honor for me. We’ve gotten so big that Rick sees fit to tear into us. Also, I don’t really watch heist movies myself.

One Convoluted Cliche After Another

When you try to get down to the bare bones of the plot, you run into the inherent problem of the episode: it has no real plot. The whole thing’s a series of attempts by people trying to one up each other in terms of being clever. In Rick’s case, he creates a robot called the Heist-o-tron to one up that thief from before. Only the robot double-crosses him and starts heisting on a planetary scale. The Heist-o-Tron literally steals planets! Yet despite the deliberate cliches, I found the episode hilarious.

The reason the whole thing works is because, again, this is one big rip on heist movies; whether its genuine or playful, I don’t know. Yet Rick and Morty is the kind of show that thrives on convoluted, audacious moments such as this. Heck, the ending to “Rickshank Redemption” revealed that everything was part of Rick’s plan to get rid of the Galactic Government and Jerry.

Through the same kind of complex, over the top planning and outsmarting others, Rick manages to thoroughly confuse the Heist-o-Tron enough that it self-destructs. However, it could have also done so after failing to understand what was going on. Either way, Rick wins.

A Hilarious Spoof of Heist Films

After Rick’s big rip, my opinion on heist movie’s changed a bit. Yes, they can be cliche, and the way they try to focus on being clever can get stale. Yet that’s also the reason why they can be so much fun to watch when done right. Whether intentionally or not, Rick fulfills many of the tropes and cliches found in heist movies. I think the irony’s hilarious.

As a side-bonus, we got the return of fan-favorite character Mr. Poopy Butthole to the canon. After getting shot back in Season Two, we only saw him at the end of each season where he commented on the show. getting to see him reunite with Rick and Morty was a delight. On top of that, Elon Musk guest starring as “Elon Tusk” joke got a few chuckles out of me. The man’s actually played himself in several shows by now.

Big rip or not, I thought that “One Crew Over The Crewcoo’s Morty” was one of the series stronger episodes. It makes no sense whatsoever, but it doesn’t need to in order to be funny. Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!

I Give ” One Crew Over The Crewcoo’s Morty” a 4.5/5.

Stray observations

• Blink and you’ll miss the Arby’s product placement at the start of the episode
• “Big Pluto”. LOL, nice callback to Season One.

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Rick and Morty Season 4, Episode 2 Review- The Old Man and the Seat

I always knew that I would find an episode of Rick and Morty I wouldn’t like. After watching last night’s episode, “The Old Man and the Seat” I think I found it. It’s not that it wasn’t funny, because it was. To put it simply, I don’t think I’m a big fan of jokes involving poop. That’s basically what this episode revolved around, and Rick’s Secret Seat.

Rick’s Secret Seat

Remember that image we got of Season Four, of Rick walking through an alien meadow of grass? It turns out that was a planet that Rick reserves exclusively to use the bathroom on, private fancy toilet and all. However, when he finds out someone else used his secret seat, Rick goes on a quest for revenge.

On some level, I think many of us can understand where Rick’s coming from. I enjoy the privacy of my bathroom and how it offers a respite from the day’s events. Although, we see Rick hold the 470,000 kids of a fly mobster hostage and alter a war between robots and lizard aliens to find the culprit. It’s funny to see Rick go to such lengths over something so mundane, but it’s also sad. Did I mention I don’t like poop jokes?

Great Moments in Stupidity: Jerry Version

While Rick’s off having his own solo adventure over his secret seat, Morty gets caught in one courtesy of his dad. It’s been established that Jerry’s an idiot that people think little of. Morty’s respect for him has plummeted over the show’s run, but Seat has him verbalize it.

Long story short, Jerry teams up with Rick’s intern Glurty to develop an app. That’s despite the fact that Glurty has a tattoo on his forehead that says “do not develop my app”. The resulting Tinder-esque app ends up distracting everyone on the planet. As a result, Glurty’s alien masters can invade the Earth as part of their convoluted plan to steal the planet’s water.

I’m not sure what the message behind this story was. It seemed like a commentary on how obsessed people are with apps. While it may seem dumb for an app to be used for world domination, I think there’s a grain of truth. Keep people distracted long enough, and this can happen.

While it may not seem as strong to some as the quest for the Secret Seat, I liked the app story for reversing the Rick and Morty roles. In this case, though, it’s Morty and Jerry, with Morty being the Rick to Jerry’s Morty. It helped drive home the fact that Morty’s smarter than his dad, and that leads him to act like a Rick. That’s irony!

The Right Combination of Stupid

Ultimately, while I’m not a fan of poop jokes or the story of Rick’s Secret Seat, I can appreciate what they were trying to do; I think. The whole episode seemed to emphasize what we already knew: that Jerry’s an idiot, and that Rick’s lonely and miserable because he lets his genius alienate him from others. One thing’s for sure, though: I’m not developing an app.

I Give “The Old Man and the Seat” a 3.5/5

Hilarious Observations

• There’s such a thing as Mount Space Everest. That’s shoehorning at his simplest.
• Scan the QR Code on Rick’s hat here. It takes you somewhere cool!

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