Three Reasons You Should Definitely Watch Rick and Morty (Plus One Reason You Probably Shouldn’t)
If you’re an avid Adult Swim viewer like me, you’ve probably heard of the wildly popular series Rick and Morty. It’s been a staple of their time slot for quite a while and it doesn’t show any signs of being removed from their schedule anytime soon. Even if you just casually flipped through Adult Swim while channel surfing, Rick and Morty is a pretty hard one to miss.
So what is it about Rick and Morty that makes it so popular? More to the point, why should you watch it? In this blog entry, I’m going to elucidate further on why you should consider watching at least one episode from beginning to end, but I’m also going to give you one reason why Rick and Morty might not be for you.
1.) It’s a show for smart people - If you seriously consider the fact that much of the plot centers around reality bending concepts such as time travel, the multiverse, and so on, then you begin to realize that this show is only for those who are well-endowed in the cranial department.
This is not to say that the average person won’t get at least some enjoyment out of it, and as I’ll elaborate in the other two points, there’s way more to enjoy than just the cerebral stuff. But what I am saying is, in this time of rampant commercialization and mass appeal, it’s so hard to find anything that stimulates the intellect in quite the same way that Rick and Morty does. And I think it took a lot of guts to even pitch an idea as extraordinary as this! Props to Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon!
2.) The humor is hilariously left-field - One of my favorite episodes of Rick and Morty is Pickle Rick. Basically, Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid going to family therapy, but after being literally swept into a high stakes adventure, he (purely by accident) winds up in therapy anyway. Everything about that episode is hilarious, even the obnoxiously gloating manner in which he declares he’s Pickle Rick.
But there’s so much of this type of humor in other episodes as well, with Rick carrying a lot of it throughout each episode with his peculiar brand of spontaneity and whimsy. And many of the other characters seem to have also been created to make us laugh. Three examples of such characters are Mr. Meseeks, Squanch, and Mr. Poopybutthole.
And speaking of characters…
3.) What a cast of characters! - The above GIF is from another favorite episode of mine, Total Rickall. It’s about parasites that invade the memories of Rick’s family and make everyone remember people who never existed.
These people who never existed are indeed some of the wackiest critters you’ll ever see in any animated TV show, and there are so many other episodes that deal with equally bizarre characters. For instance, in Look Who’s Purging Now, the duo land on a planet inhabited by crazy cat people who purge one night out of the year. (And that’s purge as in The Purge. They basically get license to do whatever the heck they want with no legal ramifications. So naturally many of them try to kill each other.) And in the episode Meseeks and Destroy, Rick and Morty go on a good old fashioned Medieval quest in a land populated by just as weird and wonderful a set of characters.
I could rattle on, and hopefully I’ve persuaded you to give it a try. But, there is that one little reason you might not want to watch it…
Negativity - By negativity, I mean a broad spectrum of different things. The gore and the over-the-top death scenes are certainly not for the faint of heart, but even something as seemingly innocuous as the way that whole family insults each other can be very sad to watch. It doesn’t bother me as much, but it is something you should be aware of.
One good way to look at it, at least if you really want to power through it, is that without the bad, you can’t appreciate the good. Sun Tzu said it best: “Without darkness, there can be no light.”
So what do you think? Are you going to give Rick and Morty a chance? Have you seen Rick and Morty? What was your favorite episode? Sound off in the comments! And please be sure to sign up for my newsletter so that you never miss an update.