Summary
- The Season 8 teaser fell flat with lackluster jokes and recycled humor seen in previous seasons.
- Despite some recent misses, high-concept episodes like ‘Unmortricken’ prove Rick and Morty still has potential.
- Fans can anticipate a revitalized effort in Season 8, building on recent advancements in scale and thematic material.
Adult Swim released a Rick and Morty Season 8 Teaser on April 1st. It seems the joke may be on them, though, as their attempts at humor aren’t hitting like they used to, which may be indicative of a crisis in the writers’ room. Some fans credit a departure from co-creator Justin Roiland, which meant the show had to employ impersonators to voice both Rick and Morty. While the jury is still out on whether they’ve succeeded thus far, the difference has surely been nominal at worst.
The truth is, Rick and Morty‘s always been a bit hit-and-miss, especially after its exemplary first two seasons, but the show has still seen a perceived decline in thematic and comedic gusto as a whole. Rotten Tomatoes registers Season 7 with a series low 77% critic score to go along with an unprecedented 50% audience score. Has the best of Rick and Morty come and gone with its changing of the guard? Or, is it possible the show is actually as strong as it’s ever been?
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Rick And Morty: Every Season, Ranked
Rick and Morty premiered in 2013 and became a pop-culture phenomenon, but some seasons are arguably better than others. Here’s how they compare.
Rick and Morty’s Season 8 Teaser
The Teaser for Season 8 revolves around Easter in space and is short on laughs, as its attempt at irreverent snappy dialogue rings derivatively. The Space Christians gag has essentially been done before as recently as Season 7 with Laser Pope, and the best bit of the teaser is the ‘giant Easter egg’ which is good old wordplay fun.
While the jokes may have led eyes to roll mostly, it does seem the effort is still to open them a bit through reckless dismantling of social constructs. Considering the best episodes recently have been the more high-concept ones, that’s at least promising for what’s to come next. For a series built on multidimensional space travel and infinite universes, it’s nice to know the dialogue is still grounded.
Rick and Morty’s ‘Portal People’ April Fool’s Joke
Rick and Morty’s obsession with meta humor might have accidentally worked against the show with its most recent April Fools promo. Adult Swim’s cruddy prep theater recreation of classic Rick and Morty moments was a bit on-the-nose considering the show’s recent creative trajectory.
Like with Season 7, a couple of moments were really fun in ‘Portal People’, but the rest was just weird and unsatisfying. There’s a musical interpretation of Season 3, Episode 2 ‘Rickmancing The Stone’ and a revolting ‘Plubis’ bit that’s somehow more gross in real life than the animated version – without the punchlines to make it palatable. Admittedly, there is a scene where a severed costumed woman performs as both Rick and Morty, delivering a Shakespearean twist on Rick’s “100 Years Rick And Morty” monologue. That was art.
Also, Mr. Poopy Butthole’s actor does equally crush an unironic spiel lamenting regret over a jazzy mix of the Rick and Morty theme. One of the standout lines is “you ever wonder how horrified the people we love would be if they found out who we truly are?” – a sentiment that hits close to home for the recently departed Roiland following his upsetting scandal.
The End Of Prime Rick?
Only two, maybe three, episodes from Season 7 hit series highs. Granted, they were vaunted achievements. Season 7, Episode 5 ‘Unmortricken’ and Season 7, Episode 10 ‘Fear No Mort’ are tent pole episodes for the back half of the series and prove Rick and Morty‘s portal gun still has the juice.
The season’s worst-rated episode, ‘Rise of the Numbericons’ is actually more of a guest episode, written by long-time Dan Harmon collaborator Rob Schrab, who was a fan-favorite guest on Harmon’s Harmontown podcast. Schrab is also responsible for one of the best failed pilots to ever receive a table read in Jetpacula, as heard on the Dead Pilots Society podcast. More importantly, Schrab was a key cog in the workings of Season 7’s third-best episode per IMDB, ‘That’s Amorte’.
‘That’s Amorte’ is a stomach-turning critique of capitalist consumerism, particularly involving the meat industry. Schrab himself is a vegan, so his influence loomed large on the upper-tier installment, which, while not the funniest of episodes, works as a bizarre twilight zone iteration. It encourages the viewer to question the ethics of killing for consumption after knowing how the sausage is made.
So, to the question: “Is Rick and Morty still great?” Well, ‘Unmortricken’ proved it indeed is, by funneling everything the show’s canon had previously established and beating it into oblivion. With ‘Unmortricken’, Dan Harmon and company reassured fans that despite the radical changes happening behind the scenes of the show, the braintrust at the helm are still capable of pioneering the smartest man in the universe.
Is This Gonna Be A Hole Thing?
The idea that Rick and Morty killed Rick Prime along with most of the show’s canon was a fruitful one, exemplified by the season finale ‘Fear No Mort’. In it, an evil carnival’s devilish barker pit Rick and Morty against their greatest fears, with Morty blurting active audience predictions for how the journey will end all the while. The masterfully crafted episode, which is top-rated on IMDB, includes a monologue by the insidious ‘fear hole’ proprietor in the most intrepid of all meeting points: a Denny’s with Morty.
Waxing about fear of happiness, Carnival Guy, voiced by Liev Schreiber, describes the corrosive nature of romantic relationships and how two personalities can “reshape each other until they’re incompatible.” This specific “happiness is a trap” line of thought is fully, unabashedly Season 1 and 2 material, calling back to the days of old in which Rick and Morty at times sounded more like an animated soapbox for tumultuously monogamous Dan Harmon than its own objective school of thought.
What To Expect From Rick and Morty Season 8
Viewers can hopefully expect a refreshed and re-galvanized team effort for Season 8. Fans may remember the regular 2-year gaps between earlier seasons, which generally paid off very well critically. Given the sporadic hit rate of recent Rick and Morty efforts, it’s worthwhile to note recent advancements in scale and progression of thematic material as indications of bigger and better things to come from the show.
After losing Rick Prime, audiences can be chiefly assured that it will all be delivered with the glorious apathy they crave from the Rick and Morty that remain.
