Rick Sanchez forces his grandson Morty to travel with him.
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Even if you’re only immersed in a few episodes of Rick and MortyNow is the perfect time to get back on the train.
The show, return for that second half of season 4 doesn’t give you a helping hand tonight to understand what the hell is going on sometimes. Rick Sanchez and his grandson Morty, inspired by Doc and Marty from Back to the Future, take boundless, violent, crude and grotesque adventures through space and occasionally time.
But as the disrespectful jokes keep on coming and the characters grow on you, you notice something: the cartoon is embedded with surprising nuances. From existentialism and depression to the printing of top-class work, Rick and Morty explore far deeper topics than the toilet humor suggests.
If you’re considering adding it to your long list of shows to watch Binge-Watch, below are six reasons to look at it in a new light. And when you’re done with the previous episodes, you’re ready for the next series, which premieres on Adult Swim on May 3rd.
Note: Smaller spoilers are marked in advance.
Rick and Morty often don’t get along.
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Surprising character developments
The dynamic between Rick and Morty appears to be straightforward: Rick, a control freak and god-like genius who regularly kills people, forces his gentle, stuttering, morally good grandson to experience dangerous adventures with him – not out of commitment, but out of Morty’s Der Ghost can act as a “jammer”, his mind as a shield that protects Rick’s mind from dangerous enemies (Season 1, Episode 10).
However, if Morty is pushed too far, like Rick destroys humanity, he gains the strength to stand up to Rick and continues to call him for his pettiness and selfishness. Late in season 2, Morty, more and more dull and callused, has a full-blown breakdown that leads to a killing spree that no one could have predicted from the first episode.
Existentialism … and kidding
It takes a while, but at some point you notice something about Rick and Morty: the constant fart and shit jokes have a purpose. Aside from the fact that the universe enters into the show’s existentialist theme, that the universe is a random and cruel place and nothing matters – sometimes the toilet humor is used by Rick as a trick to distract in situations where he is someone other than take care of yourself.
In episode 2 of season 4 (small spoiler), when Rick spots someone using his personal toilet, he uncommonly decides not to kill the offender and sympathizes with him because his wife recently died. Instead, Rick detonates a farting machine and runs so that no one, not even Rick, can think that he hasn’t completely lost his humanity.
Researches film genres, tropes and clichés
Most episodes of Rick and Morty parody famous films. Here are some episode titles: Total Rickall, One Crew over the Crewcoos Morty and Rattlestar Ricklactica. But Rick and Morty go one step further and spin out the central concepts of these films until they reach the breaking point.
In episode 5 of season 4 (small spoiler) “space snakes” develop the ability to travel through time. Parodying Terminator and its endless sequels and prequels, a franchise that Rick essentially calls “sloppy,” send snake assassins to kill Morty, but are thwarted by rival snake terminators in a never-ending loop. This leads to an absolute snake murder until the only solution is for fixers to kill the very first snake cave man, preventing the species from developing tools and technologies at all.
The episode was first broadcast afterwards Terminator: Dark Destiny, the sixth in the franchise, bombed – a timely comment on milking an idea to stupidity.
Rick Sanchez and Mental Health
Caught in an existential crisis forever, Rick is self-defeating, self-contemptible and drunk. Almighty yet miserable, his catchphrase “Wubba lubba dub dub” is revealed in Season 1, Episode 11 to translate from a foreign language: “I’m in a lot of pain, please help.”
Despite his robotic ability to kill someone in his own way, Rick’s sadness is understandable and gives us something to connect with. Creator Dan Harmon said the show: “It is not realistic to see [a show] for so much time without seeing evidence of something that you have in you, something that connects us all. “
Rick’s wife and daughter in a fictional memory.
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A riddle has not yet been answered
One character we haven’t seen much of is Rick’s ex-wife, Morty’s grandmother. Her family speaks about her occasionally, but the reason for her absence is an ongoing mystery. In the premiere of the third season (small spoiler) we see what we think of Rick’s criminal origin story: A normal, alcohol-free Rick sees his wife Diane and her daughter Beth being blown up by a bomb.
But all of this is a trick that Rick uses to escape his kidnappers. Instead, a few clues throughout the series suggest a more profane explanation of why we don’t see her: Rick, as the adult Beth reveals, has left Diane – and that may be because she couldn’t stand the fact that his top-class work made her put family in danger. “I can’t make marriage work, but I can turn a black hole into a sun,” Rick said in the season two finale.
Easter eggs
Rick meets swimming cats.
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Rick and Morty are packed with Easter eggs. Most of them are Film references, but there is also occasional scientific evidence: in the premiere of the second season (small spoiler), in which Rick and Morty’s reality is divided into two possibilities, they are in a timeless oblivion, surrounded by floating Schrödinger’s cats (a Thought experiment include a paradox).
If you’re watching Harmon’s Community On Netflix, you will appreciate one of the best Easter eggs in the series: Rick looks at it in episode three of season two Alien version the live action sitcom on TV, even referring to its real cancellation.