Rick and Morty

[colinr0380]

6:1 Solaricks
"We have grandkids, that’s who Summer is. She is going to get me out of here. She reminds me of you”
“Oh really, is she dead too?”

Post-Citadel destruction Rick re-charges his portal gun juice but it has the effect of resetting all portal travellers into their original universes, which means that Rick, Morty and Jerry (due to being "Jerryboree" Jerry: "Deep Cut") all go back to their respective universes. So Rick is back in the one with the dead wife and the disturbing implication that he has caused a time loop that has imprisoned the rest of the inhabitants in the forever repeating same day whilst their bodies age on them. Morty is in the post-apocalyptic Cronenbergian one from the early episodes of the show with only a bitter Cormac McCarthy's Road-style Jerry remaining and Jerry? Well, Jerry shows that he was probably dropped off at that daycare centre back in the day because his family never liked him all that much ("Real Season 2 vibes in there")

We get more of Summer being the most capable character in the show, as similar to the mind wipe episode she has been entrusted by Rick with all the failsafe protocols to put things back to normal. Though she does have to contend with two moms with the normal Beth and badass space mercenary Beth fighting amongst themselves over control of their daughter. (Normal Beth is not good at a clean kill)

This episode kind of definitively gets rid of the baggage as once the disparate members of the family dimensionaly reunite they end up destroying their current universe in another accident and everyone (including Beth, mercenary Beth and Summer) has to dimension-hop into a new universe, dispose of the bodies of the previous family members in backyard graves and proceed on from there yet again. Plus Morty's original Jerry from the Cronenberg-world gets a visit from his original Rick (who is the one who killed Rick's wife) and whilst it momentarily looks as if they might team up to become the big 'Evil Universe' antagonist dopplegangers, Evil Rick just kills off original Jerry there and then. So all Morty has left from his original universe is Evil Rick now.

[Mr Sausage]

"I'm embracing the win-win of risking my life."--that's a hell of a line.

[Kracker]

I like how the ticket theory wound up being correct and it resulted in the Earth Rick C-137 and Morty Prime had been occupying since mid-S1 (along with original S2 Jerry) being wiped out in the most comically horrific way in a matter of seconds.

Another strong season opener that might quiet any notion that this series is running out of steam, the revelation that Rick's crash landing into Morty's universe was not purely out of convenience, since it turns out it's Rick Prime's origin universe and it was really the best spot to lie in wait, shows there's a lot more layers to this story, including Rick Prime's own backstory and motivations, and they are being careful to peel a little bit a time. They are reportedly already writing season 8 so wouldn't be surprised if they have plans to keep momentum going.

[colinr0380]

6:2 Rick: A Mort Well Lived
"What the hell was that? You can't just keep yelling "Die Hard" into a walkie talkie...what was that? She threw her walkie talkie away!?!"

This feels a companion piece to that previous episode where Rick and Morty lock Summer in the car to go into the microscopic world inside their car's engine, only here Rick & Morty abandon Summer inside a video game arcade that has been taken over by terrorists whilst Rick rescues the consciousness of Morty that has been proportionally splintered between 500 billion non-player characters inside a video game. And it is kind of another spin on the Citadel with the exponential Mortys, each with their own wish for agency and individuality in their world, only if instead of being more or less exactly the same that Morty grew up like many different looking human beings, despite all having the same voice. Which allows the episode to be about sociopolitical issues, activism and figureheads, why people join fringe religious cults and a kind of trans allegory (and about women shoehorned in to be main characters in fantasy worlds only to still remain under the thumb of the patriarchy in the form of Presidents and fathers. Because in the end the world it is taking place in is all in the mind of and constrained by catering to the thoughts of, a 14 year old boy whose limited mindset they cannot escape from no matter how much they try to be independent beings) all at the same time as 'just' being a riff on the Matrix and Free Guy.

When a 30 year old 'vaguely racist but with a friendship with a translator he meant during a generic overseas war' Marine can have something in common with a young activist minority girl with a fractious family life and the cynical US President and all recognise that a core part of themselves is more similar to each other than the differences that threaten to divide them into warring factions, that has to be a good message. Albeit it takes multiple generations of video game characters and a lot of unnecessary pain and conflict to recognise that, which perhaps also makes it a much larger version of that moment where Morty lived an entire life within a game too!

Meanwhile whilst the guys lay around playing video games Summer has to do the practical real world stuff of fighting the terrorists who have taken over the video game arcade by 'doing a Die Hard'. Only Summer has the advantage of having never seen the film so she is not constrained by the scripted events that the villains are following to the letter (Even when they try to do something slightly different they still end up doing what the script demands without meaning to, since Die Hard is apparently an ur-style religious text that it appears that every culture in the universe (or at least this universe) has its own version of that arises somewhat spontaneously! The villains tragically cannot see the world outside of those boundaries). I ended up feeling quite sorry for the brother of the main villain vainly trying to do a "Die Hard With A Vengeance" to provoke nobody at all (since Summer is not coming any time soon!) in the middle of a snowstorm in the post-credits gag!

[colinr0380]

6:3 Bethick Twinstinct

"So why are you suddenly into realistic video games?"
"I already was"
"Yeah, but now you're into them the way I am"
"You mean like staring at them in a numb trance?"
"Uh huh. Not judging, just.. noticing"
"Yeah, you-you tend to notice stuff a little before I do"
"But eventually you do notice"
"And now we can both not notice together, yes"

During a Thanksgiving dinner Beth and her space warrior clone drink too much alien wine and become attracted to each other through teaching each other Venusian (it's just French, the language of love!) and start an affair together, traumatising each of her kids in turn who accidentally witness her in flagrante delicto in the ultimate form of self-love. Jerry remains oblivious of course, being so caught up in sorting the sky pieces of the jigsaw he is doing until the truth is impossible to ignore. Rick already grasps everything about the situation, having already been in similar situations with himself in the past, and is more concerned with giving a warning about how the situation leads to escalating snowballs of lies to the rest of the family members until universes have to be escaped for a fresh reset of the situation.

This is kind of an episode balancing being two themes: how someone explores themselves and their interests outside of their stifling family environment (not just affairs, but with Beth being in love with her unburdened by family and somewhat liberated self, she gets infatuated with what that life has to offer. Which is probably coming the other way from space warrior Beth being able to holiday with the family without the ties, like a cool visiting Aunt) and how children in a family escape into media in order to block out the issues in their real life going on that they have no control over.

Which leads to a fantastic climax where Jerry turns the tables, making his objections just about him being left out of the relationship and 'permits' the relationship as long as he can be humiliated whilst watching (which space Beth is into), traumatising the kids (and Rick) further!

I also like that the video game device allows for lots of different 'realistic' (i.e. boring, procedural and inscrutable) parody versions of games, from Street Fighter (in "Gettin' To A Street Fight") to a Final Fantasy game where the absurdly oversized swords have a realistic weight to them, to a text adventure:

You are in the clearing.

You are no longer in the forest, and therefore the vampires won.

The end.

[DarkImbecile]

Co-creator and lead voice actor Justin Roiland has been cut from the show after domestic abuse charges; the lead roles will be recast for remaining seasons

[swo17]

He's literally both Rick and Morty

[DarkImbecile]

*He was

[swo17]

This reminds me that last month Rex Orange County was found not guilty of all six charges of sexual assault levied against him in October

[Murdoch]

I'm not very invested in this show but as a public defender who handles quite a bit of similar cases my interest was piqued.According to HR,"The complaint alleges that Roiland 'did wilfully and unlawfully inflict corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition' upon a Jane Doe 'who was in a dating relationship with the defendant.' The complaint further alleges that Roiland 'did unlawfully violate the personal liberty of Jane Doe by violence, menace, fraud and deceit.'" I suspect that there's further depositions for these allegations outside of the generalized assertions quoted. Strange that the case has dragged on for three years, even with the delay from COVID. I imagine with the sudden media coverage they'll try to avoid a trial as much as possible.

[Kracker]

Yeah i was going to bring up the news of charges breaking but thought it was weird that this had been a thing for a few years and this was the first anybody was hearing of it so was it really a thing. Guess now its REALLY a thing lol. Also this might have meant that AS had been investigating this for that long and preparing for a possible firing by casting his replacement in the event that the charges didn't get dismissed before it hit the papers since it wasn't interfering with the show. Now obviously this is going to interfere with their biggest show so they went ahead and cut him loose. With the show being dependent on a huge team of writers, Justin is really just a cog in a big machine. Still, this is like replacing Homer Simpson; his voice is the most iconic part of the show. Intrigued in how this shakeup will play out on the show when Season 7 airs later this year.

[swo17]

So apart from the charges there are apparently a bunch of text exchanges with minors circulating online that would be enough for Adult Swim and Hulu to dissociate from Roiland on their own...

[Kracker]

Interesting expose from the Hollywood Reporter that claims Justin Roiland hasn't contributed creatively to Rick and Morty or Solar Opposites in years, during which he hadn't even spoken to colleagues, even Dan Harmon himself nor have many staffers on his own projects even met him.

So apparently, for quite a few years, Justin's work has just been consisting of taking care of e-mailed scripts in his home recording booth whenever he gets them.
Earlier I had called that Rick and Morty was a huge staff of writers and Justin Roiland was just a cog in the machine, lest anyone thinks the writing and direction of the show will be affected, and with this, its even less so, more of a role of a spokesperson. Ive seen a few opinion pieces calling for the end of Rick and Morty just to "send a message" but that would be like forcing all Subway shops to close because of Jared's heinous sex crimes, only at least Jared actually walked the Subway halls up until his arrest.

[knives]

That’s incredibly depressing to read about. At the very least it sounds like he’s suffering from some severe alcoholism. Hopefully as part of the charges he can get some rehab.

[Kracker]

Charges dropped due to lack of evidence.

[SeizureMilk]

Charges dropped due to lack of evidence.

I'm neutral staying on this topic until further detail beyond the allegations are brought up so as to not witch mob Roiland or the accuser, however if he is truly innocent like he claims or even if this situation becomes vice versaed then it's gonna be truly discomforting that no one has learned not to judge based off headlines and the most standard, "I will not be silent anymore..." schtick. Growing up in the early years of YouTube to today also presented me with people having their entire lives or channels destroyed by a rumor/claim only for them to upload a response that eventually leads everyone to know they were being stupid. ProJared, Pyrocynical, and the most recent, Kwite have all have this happen to them which sucks because there's a chance next time someone calls out wolf and there is, people might be skeptical. Though that's what I say because if a false allegation can ruin a man, then real proof would eliminate them and that's what sucks here. There's a lack of evidence present that has ruined this man and what does he get, fired off the show in favor of a man obsessed with incest vibes and having his entire reputation ruined. Worse part is though, if the genders were swapped, most won't even bat an eye, it's man on man ("Haha let's laugh" is the main go-to) or man on woman ("Disgusting boy, we're deeply sorry for what happened" is the main response). The Internet is stupid and the Entertainment is by extension to. But for now I'll wait for more. Thank you for reading.

[Lemmy Caution]

After enjoying Seasons 1-4 last year, I was pretty disappointed with S6. Just didn't engage with it much. In theory, the dualing Beths are a good idea to continue with (and the clone issue origin of that was good in S4). But in S6, it added not much, with the exception of the the one episode based around them, which I didn't like. In earlier seasons, even where I thought the premise of an episode was dumb or too frivolous, I often liked some of the elements and creative ideas within. For instance, the Get Shwifty universal music contest seem awfully dopey, but I like how the people construct a religion and, as always, it's fun when Obama shows up. Or Rick's private 🚽 episode was an unappealing focus on crapping, but the office worker character was interesting, and Rick keeping people who annoy him in suspended animation living out their fantasies mentally was a weird twist, displaying Rick as his usual solipsistic self, but squeamish about actually offing others. In S6, many episodes had unpromising premises without redeeming developments. The Dinosaur episode, for example.


Maybe I'll try rewatching some S6 and see if I respond differently. I haven't been able to access S5 yet, for reasons to do with commie info control and VPN limitations. But will try to rectify that. But I don't think S5 is a prerequisite for following or enjoying S6. Much of S1-4 I saw out of order, like a time traveler. The first 4 seasons can be rather uneven, but it seemed that roughly a third were terrific, a third good, and one third weak. A solid ratio, which had me expecting more from S6.

[oh yeah]

I mostly really liked the first three seasons back when they aired (S3 not quite as much), but I finally caught up with S4 a few months ago and man, what a drop-off in quality. I've hardly seen another show that went from creative and amusing to near-unwatchable so quickly. The first few seasons for all their flaws at least were competently written. But with S4 it just felt like they had no idea what to do with the show. Or like Harmon/Roiland handed off the show to a bunch of poor writers. But I barely chuckled once in ten episodes. The humor seemed to become just completely toiler-humor and immature gags, with none of the self-awareness or wit that made the first couple seasons good. And the fact that they actually did an episode about how hard it is to write an episode is just the worst kind of meta nonsense. I have to assume that signing on for like 80 more episodes meant the show couldn't do anything really interesting with the characters because everything always has to revert back to the status quo so they can fill out 100 episodes and get to syndication.

[Lemmy Caution]

I thought S1-3 had inconsistent quality between episodes. See, Pickle Rick and The Ricklantis Mixup where a Morty becomes the Citadel President. While S4 was inconsistent within episodes. S4 seemed like a more amped up version of R&M -- a bit frantic, overstuffed with narrative action and unexpected twists, replacing character development and arcs. More shaky premises, but still elements and lines I liked, and in line with earlier R&M. (eg at the end of the facehugger episode, Summer's teenage remedy, "next time just let me listen to the podcast")

The first S4 episode transitions into this new mode, with Beth & Jerry initially trying to rein in Rick, Morty (as usual disastrously) defying Rick by wanting to control his own destiny, ultimately ending with Morty willing to unquestionably go on whatever wacky adventure Rick proposes. And while the episode gets a bit frantic and narratively busy, the idea of Nazism being the default alternative reality was weirdly amusing and disturbing. I also liked the poetic justice of Rick wanting to get death crystals and dying as a result. "I just thought you were maturbating" is a classic R&M line. And for me there are enough good ideas and enough classic dialogue to keep me on board.

Mainly I felt that S4 had a lot of shaky or dumb premises (Rick's edenic private toilet, Rick fathering a civilization after sex with a planet, Heistotron). But I thought that segments and ideas within the episodes were still engaging and interesting/amusing. (Tony is a good character and Rick's suspended animation for minor enemies a good twist. Or Jerry leading an uprising of the unproductives. The Heist episode happens without me).

I thought the Vat of Acid episode was classic. With Morty asserting himself and Rick seemingly capitulating, Morty reaching euphoria, only to ultimately be humiliated. The silent romance between Morty and his soul mate is stirring, only to be squashed by a clueless Jerry.

The last episode with Beth and her clone teaming up to try to kill Rick is strong and interesting. The Neverending Story is creative, managing to keep you off balance, with a clever ending twist. So along with the first episode, that's 4 of the 10 S4 episodes I thought were quite good. While the others had enough good moments, ideas, quips, and echoes of early R&M. Season 4 has a different vibe and direction but enough creativity and relationship to the early seasons to keep me on board. I had the ratio for S1-3: 1/3 terrific, 1/3 good, 1/3 weak.

Might have helped that I mostly saw 2 or 3 episodes of a given season, and then next time a couple from whatever season was streaming. Time traveling, though Rick wouldn't approve. So S4 probably blended in better with the rest that way.

[oh yeah]

Yeah, the Vat of Acid episode was the one highlight for me, although even then I just felt like the show was miles away from the early seasons in terms of inspiration. I guess it's totally subjective but I just really sensed a shift in the tone and approach of the show with S4, which I've often felt before with shows that jump the shark or undergo a huge shake-up in the showrunners/writing staff. Like, I don't think the first 3 seasons devoted an episode to anything quite so unfunny as the "heist movie" trope gag, or Rick's special toilet, or the dragon-sex. Granted, Season 3 also felt like a definite slight shift in approach - mainly that it became a bit more meta and a bit more smug and in-your-face about the toxicity of some of its fans (e.g. Pickle Rick). But S3 still had some really good stuff, like Ricklantis which I think might even be the best episode, just a really clever little mini-movie. S4 just seemed to me very low on the inspiration that previously gave us even something as stupid as Pickle Rick, which was still chuckle-worthy if only for the sheer absurdity of Rick's action-movie plot mixed with the dry meta-humor of the therapist. I didn't recall too much in S1-3 that was as crass-without-being-clever as the dragon-sex, the toilet, or pretty much most of Summer or Beth's material in S4. Anyways, just my two cents - I was pretty zoned-out from the sheer boredom so my memory of S4 isn't the best, and I can't quite recall the plot of it as well as you can. But my impression was it just didn't have either the laughs or the more dramatic character moments - the latter was something the ending of S2 and parts of S3 did pretty well at, e.g. with Jerry being divorced and pathetic then sort-of bonding with Rick etc. But by 4 it seemed like any change the characters went through was totally pointless as it would always be negated in some way so things could go back to "normal". Ideas were tossed around but few interesting ones, and the ones that were intriguing to me went nowhere (Jerry and the talking? cat, for example). I did like the idea of Morty's romantic soul-mate vision that's so quickly taken away, but wished there was more like that and less toilet humor and endless pop-culture references devoid of jokes.

[Kracker]

Justin Roiland is replaced by Bridgerton actor Dan Stevens for sister show Solar Opposites and is jokingly explained in the new intro for season 4

Reactions online are hilarious but probably doing nothing to ease anxieties over how they are approaching replacing Justin for Rick and Morty. Justin on SO was always annoying because he pretty much sounds just like Rick on the show and in fact just about all his roles, he sounds like either Rick or Morty. Don't know how this guy thought he was so irreplaceable when he could only do two voices.

[Lemmy Caution]

I still haven't been able to access S5, if anyone has any ideas. Don't know why I can watch S6, even select which episode I want. But cannot view Season 5 at all. Frustrating.

[ando]

I still haven't been able to access S5, if anyone has any ideas. Don't know why I can watch S6, even select which episode I want. But cannot view Season 5 at all. Frustrating.

If all else fails go here (go w/an ad blocker). Pick yer season.

I've got Season 1 on DVD. Haven't bothered to venture beyond that.

[Lemmy Caution]

No there there.

You must be in on the conspiracy ...

[ando]

No there there.

You must be in on the conspiracy ...

not intentionally. I forgot that no links to sharing sites are allowed here. m4uhd.tv has it. Just do a series search on the site.

Watching some of Season 5 it seems the level of humor on the show hassn't progressed, evolved, changed, grown.. however you hope a series will develop. Feels like an extended Season 1.