Rick and Morty

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tenia
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Re: Rick and Morty

#51 Post by tenia » Thu Mar 08, 2018 6:25 am

It's something I'd like to start but never took the time so far. I’ve always heard good things about it, but I can't say for myself.

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Big Ben
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Re: Rick and Morty

#52 Post by Big Ben » Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:42 am

Bojack deals with introspection a lot more than Rick and Morty does. It's also decidedly less vulgar. It's a lot less fun as a result though. The reason I like Rick and Morty is because it's very aware of how stupid it is.

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domino harvey
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Re: Rick and Morty

#53 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:47 am

While it's true this show's fans have successfully kept me away from Rick and Morty, literally nothing I've seen or heard about from the show has convinced me I'm making a mistake

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swo17
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Re: Rick and Morty

#54 Post by swo17 » Thu Mar 08, 2018 11:33 am

I mean, numerous episodes here are on par with "Modern Warfare" or "Remedial Chaos Theory" from Community...

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Big Ben
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Re: Rick and Morty

#55 Post by Big Ben » Thu Mar 08, 2018 11:35 am

I won't defend the fanbase but I do think you should at least give it a shot domino. It certainly doesn't appeal to everyone but I agree with swo that when it's at it's peak it's really good.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#56 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Mar 08, 2018 11:52 am

swo17 wrote:I mean, numerous episodes here are on par with "Modern Warfare" or "Remedial Chaos Theory" from Community...
I enjoyed these in the moment but Community has not aged very well for me

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Big Ben
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Re: Rick and Morty

#57 Post by Big Ben » Fri May 11, 2018 2:23 am


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Lost Highway
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Re: Rick and Morty

#58 Post by Lost Highway » Fri May 11, 2018 5:12 am

I enjoyed this for two seasons. A few episodes into season 3 I was done with it. It's not like there was a drop in quality, I just felt I was now thoroughly familiar with what the show does and how it does it that I didn't need to watch any more.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#59 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri May 11, 2018 7:15 pm

I wonder how this translates into how many seasons are left.

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thirtyframesasecond
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Re: Rick and Morty

#60 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sat May 12, 2018 3:10 pm

Excellent, Rick and Morty is a jam.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#61 Post by What A Disgrace » Wed May 16, 2018 11:39 pm

Bushland Adventures is the funniest thing I've seen from the series. And I love the rest of it.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#62 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:56 am

In the wake of Rick and Morty appearing on mainstream UK television for the first time I have finally got around to watching my discs of the series. I do have one question though, which is probably going to be the most Simpsons nerd question ever and perhaps is only occurring to me because I have watched the episode a couple of times, but in Close Rick-Encounters of the Rick Kind we follow the Rick and Morty that we know into the multiplicity of other parallel universe Ricks and Mortys and they are brought before the "Council of Ricks" where we learn then name of his universe (C-137) and that this Rick has always been "the malcontent, the rogue".

Yet a few episodes earlier our Rick & Morty destroyed their universe by transforming everyone into Cronenbergian abominations and then bailed on their universe and took the place of a Rick & Morty who had actually solved the problem but then died immediately afterwards! So does that mean the Rick that is being told that he is the 'rogue' is actually not? Do the other Ricks know that this Rick is an 'impersonator' from another universe? And how many times can I say Rick in a sentence? Rick, Rick, Rick...

I am probably overthinking things wildly but it is the kind of series where it both makes sense to overthink and feels a bit silly to do so at one and the same time! I am really curious if this will come up again in the series, as an aside or even a major plot point.

I have currently just started season 2 and love the first episode which deals with the potentially universe shattering consequences of stopping time for six months between the two seasons! Poor Albert Einstein though, getting brutally beaten in an unfortunate case of mistaken identity!

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tenia
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Re: Rick and Morty

#63 Post by tenia » Thu Feb 28, 2019 5:17 am

I rather suppose it's the right Rick from C-137 but that the universe we were introduced with the show wasn't C-137, ie right character, but who has already wandered a lot. This would thus mean that Morty might not be C-137. This article compiles indications about this possibility.
But I don't think Rick is anybody else than who the Council claims he is.
Enjoy season 2 ! To me, it's (currently) the best season, and by far.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#64 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Feb 28, 2019 5:36 am

That's a great thought, that Rick & Morty were potentially universe-mismatched from the very beginning! And none of the Council of Ricks seem to particularly care about any Morty (except for the "poor Rick-less bastards" of those who had their Ricks murdered!), to such an extent that they have vouchers for a 'free replacement Morty' available as gift tokens!

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tenia
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Re: Rick and Morty

#65 Post by tenia » Thu Feb 28, 2019 5:52 am

The Pocket Mortys game plays quite a lot (IIRC) on this. Basically, it's all a Rick-centered world (or, rather, universe of universes), and Mortys are indeed pretty much a commodity. That's why I never really gave much thought to what you described, because the answer I spontaneously thought was "well, Rick probably travelled many universes already and the family we're shown isn't even his original one" !
From what the article gathers, it seems to be indeed the case.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#66 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Mar 01, 2019 2:13 am

My initial question now immediately feels a moot one (or at least not at hugely important as it once seemed) when episode 2 of the second season does the same thing to Jerry when he is dropped off at "Jerryboree", or the intergalactic daycare centre for Jerrys, with the inevitable last minute swap around so even he is potentially not the original one now! And just like Morty there are many abandoned, almost feral Jerrys whose Ricks and Mortys never came back for them! I guess it is just Summer and Beth left 'untampered with' now!

(I'm thinking of that as the Exterminating Angel episode, with Jerry always being able to leave the daycare centre but never actually feeling able to do so!)

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Re: Rick and Morty

#67 Post by Big Ben » Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:17 am

I've always felt that the reasons you're discussing now is why Rick is the way he is. It's blase to say "He's seen some stuff." but I really don't think it's much more complex than that. The other possible "Meta" joke is that Rick is aware that he's in an animated program and well, that's that as they say. Roiland and Harmon have stated that there is one internal consistency that the show has, a running gag of sorts that they have pledged to never publicly reveal. What that is is anyone's guess.

I hope when you get to Season 3 colin you enjoy what I felt was an attempt to tackle Rick's mentality a bit more. I agree with tenia that Season 2 is the best so far but I feel that 3 has unfortunately been lambasted due to the now infamous 'Pickle Rick" episode.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#68 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Mar 01, 2019 4:22 am

Morty wrote:Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV.
Oh yes, he's definitely aware of being in a show, signing off the first season by waving goodbye to the audience! After Rixty Minutes, I wonder if Rick ever wonders how his show is faring against everything else in the ratings! Is it doing better or worse than "Ball Fondlers"?

Maybe once the space-time continuum has been explored to such an extent that almost every variation of family member meet every kind of imaginable fate has been seen, there is nothing else to do but get jaded, paranoid, drunk and lash out!

It is strange as dropping an unnecessary character off at a day care centre actually seems a good idea. It at least initially seems better than what Doc Brown does with Jennifer in Back To The Future Part II! (It has always seemed telling to me that the only way they seemed to think of to get rid of her character for their own adventure was to dump her unconscious body among the trash in an alley!) But of course having every other Jerry there was inevitably only going to lead to trouble!

Episode 3, "Auto Erotic Assimilation" is quite fun too with a mix of Star Trek's Borg and the 70s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (at least in the 'point and scream' moments!), as Rick meets up with old flame Unity (voiced by Christina Hendricks!), who is a collective entity that takes over entire planets, which of course inevitably leads to orgies inside giant stadiums via handgliders! That also lets the episode make some interesting points about the right to free will set against a rather brutally cynical take on individuality only leading to fighting and eventually banding together into violent tribalist behaviours over the most minor differences (in this case who has the more acceptable shape of nipple!). I also like the way that it mixes up who is responsible for causing Unity to lose control of people she has assimilated, with Summer's idealistic call to arms ending up having less effect on the uprising than Rick having gotten Unity completely wasted!

It is also interesting that his bitterness over his relationship with Unity (and fighting with the potentially more suitable (?) Borg-equivalent suitor over her) complicates further the reasons for why he might be antagonistic towards the idea of various versions of himself banding together collectively in the Council of Ricks episode from the first season. The whole show so far seems about the fight to be an individual, no matter how (self) destructive that may be, in a multiverse trending towards convergence.

And this also nicely complements the B story of Beth and Jerry finding the captive alien in Rick's underground lab and in their argument over who is right about Rick (does he deserve to stay or not) and what the nature of the alien is (is it locked up for our protection, or a weapon to be unleashed), just ends up with the alien itself getting fed up with the whole situation ("the two of you are the fucking worst!"), freeing itself and storming off!
SpoilerShow
And is that the first time Rick attempts, and fails, to commit suicide?
Last edited by colinr0380 on Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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tenia
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Re: Rick and Morty

#69 Post by tenia » Fri Mar 01, 2019 5:17 am

Auto Erotic Assimilation was to me amongst the best episode within the first 2 seasons. And that last shot was just crushing.
The next one, Total Rickall, is quite fantastic too, though.

Regarding the meta characteristic of the show, the end of season 2 is quite telling too. In a way, it reminded me of what Robot Chicken used to do with many season finales (and season premieres).

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Re: Rick and Morty

#70 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:06 am

There is also that sense that the destructive individuality versus blissful but non-dramatic convergence aspect is tied in with relationships a lot, whether familial, romantic or friendship. It keeps coming up over and over, most particularly in the horrific consequences of Rick Potion #9 in the first season! Which takes the classic idea of Morty wanting to use Rick's love potion on the girl he is infatuated with at the school prom (who actually seems to like him anyway) to horrific extremes of infecting everyone in the entire world, as well as transforming them into monsters a couple of times over!

Or more sitcom classically in the relationship between Jerry and Beth, constantly arguing over career and relationship issues and disappointments over family, always on the verge of divorcing but never actually doing so. Presumably because if they did, that would be the end of the show! (Its the standard trope: see all those tests of the marriage between Marge and Homer in the Simpsons, where we all know they'll never divorce but see things pushed to that edge anyway). One of the more moving moments of that is the post-credits sequence of Rick Potion #9 where the Jerry and Beth that have been left stranded in the Cronenbergian abomination world admit to each other that they actually prefer their lives now that Rick and Morty have disappeared from them (Perhaps that was all it took to 'self-actualise' them! The family that slays together, stays together!) Which is quite upsetting to think about in its own way, of a daughter being glad that both her father and son, who caused all this mess and then scarpered, have hopefully gone for good!

Separation is often suggested to be tormenting, but forcing people to come together is traumatic in itself. The end of the second episode of season 2 with the sentient cloud of gas that Morty goes to great lengths to save (killing many others in the process) revealing its purpose to return to its own dimension and then gather its kind to return and wipe out all traces of carbon based life in order to create a blissful, conflict-less universe is quite similar to Unity taking over entire populations of planets in the third episode. They might both have a point in that left to their own devices people cause untold misery and inflict cruelty on each other, but they have bluntly imposed themselves onto the situation instead. In that episode Morty ends up, after all the 'accidental' deaths he has caused, committing his first pre-meditated murder, ironically in order to stop a universe wide genocide to create harmony!

That seems to be Morty's dilemma, as at the end of the first season when he has to decide whether to leave Rick or ask for his help - Morty knows how bad Rick is, for him and others, but wants the life and adventures that Rick provides. Similarly here Morty wants to stop people from killing other sentient beings but given the (rather blunt, it has to be admitted!) option to let himself and everyone else carbon-based die, he cannot let that happen and continues to exist in an imperfect morally grey universe, only now with blood on his hands. (It is also another example of Morty getting into intense relationships with beings that eventually want to kill and maim the populace at large, as in the sentient dog and Raising Gazorpazorp episodes!)

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Re: Rick and Morty

#71 Post by tenia » Fri Mar 01, 2019 11:03 am

Regarding Beth and Jerry (and the overall family dinamic), both S1's Rixty Minutes and (to a lesser extent) S2's Total Rickall are quite brutal.

As a whole, and I think it's mostly summarizing what you explained, Rick and Morty is particularly cynical, misanthropic and pessimistic about mankind as a whole. Rick seems at first to personify this, but actually, the show often paints in more subtler ways how unwilling people can also create their own problems, inflict pain and torment to themselves as well as to others, and how we're basically mostly self-centered a-holes. The show mostly questions our societal norms, mostly through Beth and Jerry. We expect them to be some kind of anchor for the viewers, but it turns out they too can be egoistic persons who regret having had kids. And they don't regret thinking that so much (IIRC), actually, making them some kind of untrustworthy proxies for the audience.

That's what I like most about the show, and which I felt season 3 was lacking. It pushed it too much, and out of the element of surprise having vastly faded, it seemed to have lost this balance.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#72 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:34 pm

I suppose to go back to what Big Ben was saying about Rick having a meta sense about being in an animated show, which the others seem not to (though they are pretty unphased by the strangest events! Also "Scroopy Noopers" is the cutest scientist name ever! :D ), maybe a lot of the events of the show are meant to be filtered through his cynical, individualist-privileging perspective. As soon as someone seemingly inevitably betrays him, either literally or just in not putting him first, they have committed the worst acts. Whilst he is often not caring that he does exactly the same to everyone else, particularly Morty (which makes the moments when he does care hit harder).

A film like The Lobster evenly balances its critique between the individual and the group, each with their pluses and minuses and the worst aspect being that you often do not get to choose which you belong to and neither is fully satisfying, whereas Rick & Morty feels individualist, but often seems pushed to such an extreme so as to suggest the isolation of that.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#73 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sat Mar 02, 2019 6:42 am

Big fan of Rich Fulcher as King Flippy Nips - Snuffbox, his sketch show with Matt Berry, was brilliant.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#74 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Mar 02, 2019 11:58 am

tenia wrote:
Fri Mar 01, 2019 11:03 am
Regarding Beth and Jerry (and the overall family dinamic), both S1's Rixty Minutes and (to a lesser extent) S2's Total Rickall are quite brutal.
Episode 4 of Season 2, "Total Rickall" is really great. I liked the idea of the alien parasite hiding itself in plain sight and constantly sending family members on reminiscences to multiply itself even further (I particularly liked Summer's one!), until the whole house is overrun by wacky characters! And you are right about how brutal it is tenia, with the solution to who is real and not coming down to whether you have any bad memories of them, thereby proving that they are flawed actual beings! It fits in with the previous episodes in the way that the brain parasite is creating happy, fake, too good to be true memories of relationships, which have to be systematically destroyed to get back to the imperfect real world where they are just left with actual real people that they kind of hate (or at least find annoying) to varying degrees, mostly because they each actually have an existence independent from each other that puts them in conflict. Lots of the alien beings in the series seem to be trying to impose some sort of unity on individuals, which removes conflict, grants desires and leads to a kind of bland form of peace and harmony, but which also removes the opportunity for individuals to have their own thoughts and feelings about a situation from them, even if it leads to them living unfulfilled or in pain. Maybe it is rather Schopenhauerian, though perhaps not to the extent of Neon Genesis Evangelion!

It is also another example (to match being successful at pitching an ad campaign in M. Night Shaym-Aliens, becoming the champion of Pluto in Something Ricked This Way Comes, and finding an affinity with Doofus Rick in Close-Rick Encounters of the Rick KInd) of Jerry tragically getting his dreams entirely fulfilled and everything he desires (which is often a depressingly minor sense of validation, love and respect), only to have it all ripped away from him again, leaving him back where he began! In this case with Beth's new, perfect husband Sleepy Gary! It is kind of also amusingly pathetic that Jerry is quicker in this situation to start questioning his own existence than that of Sleepy Gary! (But I think the alien might actually have feelings for Jerry given that this is the only flashback that does not have the alterior purpose of exponentially introducing more characters!)

Rixty Minutes does that too, but with the twist that shows that not having kids and getting do blow with Johnny Depp and fool around with Kristin Stewart on her yacht as a movie star is not as fulfilling as the current reality with Beth and the rest of the family! (As perhaps to a lesser extent does Ricksy Business with its Titanic-parody with an imperfect substitute for Beth!)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Rick and Morty

#75 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sat Mar 02, 2019 6:09 pm

Total Rickall is my favourite episode - not just for Pencilvester, Mr Poopybutthole and the other random wacky characters - but for Morty, for once, realising how to get out of the problem. Whoever's real is whoever you have some bad memories of - then you have flashbacks of Rick pulling Morty's trousers down and then laughing when he falls down stairs, a pissed up Beth whacking Summer in the face with a wine bottle, and Summer walking in on Morty jerking off in the kitchen. Plus the 'wrong' shooting. Great fun.

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