Is anybody else watching this? I did a search before posting because with all the love Harmon receives for Community, I thought for sure that somebody would’ve posted about the cartoon he’s producing for Adult Swim. But the search turned up nothing, so I guess either nobody is watching it or they’re being very surreptitious about it.
In either case, I’m going to take the time to cheerlead for it. It’s a half hour animated comedy created and produced by Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland (voice of Lemongrab from Adventure Time and creator of a fair amount of animated shorts that are watchable on his website), and it’s the best new show I’ve seen in a very long time. It was developed from a satirical short produced by Roiland awhile back, about the relationship between Doc and Marty in Back to the Future. It moved away from that a little bit once it was picked up by Adult Swim, but it still follows an eccentric scientist and his young friend as they go on adventures and do crazy things with science. Adult Swim has made all the episodes viewable on YouTube, so there’s really no excuse not to watch them, unless…
… you have issues with controversial subject matter. The show isn’t purposefully controversial or edgy like a lot of Adult Swim shows, but it does veer into darker territory now and then. The latest episode for example, has a giant pedophile talking jelly bean. It’s not there just for laughs, though,and outs actually crucial to the episode and an important statement on Rick and Morty’s relationship. Believe it or not, the resolution of the pedophile jelly bean plot makes the show less nihilistic and anarchic than it might otherwise be.
In any case, Dan Harmon. Community. You should watch it.
I really enjoy this show! The way Rick frequently belches - and talks through it - in the middle of a sentence gets me every time . It does for Back to the Future what The Venture Bros did to Jonny Quest.
Also, I liked how the ‘pedophile jelly bean’ episode shows Rick DOES care for Morty, and isn’t just using him as an extra pair of hands on his crazy heists/adventures.
Hey, do you know if that ‘Back to the Future’ satirical short can be seen online?
This video is the short that jump-started the series (I think. I’m on my phone so I can’t be sure). You can probably tell why they had to make some changes when it got picked up by Adult Swim.
I thought about starting a thread about Rick and Morty last week, but decided I didn’t have much to talk about other than I was hooked and was looking forward to seeing the next episode. Now that I know they’re all on-line, I don’t know that I can wait until they air.
(And the short, while funny, doesn’t really do the show justice. It’s a lot more inventive than that short.)
Wow, that original Flash short is, ah, ok, but I’d have never greenlit a show based on it! I’m glad they did though. I liked the show’s pilot episode but thought it lacked focus, I’m glad I stuck with it because it’s gotten a lot better. I’m also glad to see I wasn’t imagining the link to Back to the Future.
Yeah, I loved how subtle it was when Morty came out of the bathroom all upset and Rick glanced over and saw the perv jellybean coming out of there too. You weren’t sure if he got it until the end. I had to back up my TiVo to see who’s arm it was that shot him thru the vortex at the very end, and was pleased it was Rick’s!Funniest line for me was at the beginning when the family are all pestering Rick and the daughter says she needs help with her science homework and Rick just says, “Yeah, just don’t do it”! I also was surprised how the whole “Meesicks” B-plot wasn’t just a gimmick, but turned into a genuine existential dilemma!
Great news! Rick and Morty is doing pretty awesome in the ratings, drawing more viewers in the prized “dudes under 35” demographic than many of its competitors, including Community and the The Michael J. Fox Show. It even bested *Archer *with the last episode, which was enough for Adult Swim to give the greenlight for a second season!
So far, Morty’s killed his ‘family’ and had to bury ‘himself’, and we’re only six episodes in! I loved how they showed Morty’s shock at burying his double. Between that and the jellybean pedophile last week, they’re breaking my expectations and going a little deeper. I like it.
Rick and Morty may replace The Venture Bros as my favorite animated show.
To contextualize this, the latest episode was actually intended to be the episode that followed the premiere. I don’t know why it was pushed back, but you can tell it was meant to be received earlier, because (minor spoiler?)
[spoiler]Morty is complaining that Rick never does anything for him, directly after an episode where Rick allows Morty to lead an adventure, and Jerry and Beth’s marriage is still pretty rocky, directly after an episode where it seemed like they re-affirmed their love for one another.
Which means Rick and Morty have actually been in their alternate world for the last four episodes, at least according to when the episode was supposed to have aired. [/spoiler]
I love how the show seems to write itself into a corner, only to come up with a last-second solution that’s really not a solution at all. I wonder if they’re going to revisit the consequences of any of the previous episodes or if they’re going to play fast and lose with the continuity.
Thanks for posting about this show - I love it! The only thing is that the voices remind me of Roiland’s other show - 2 Girls, 1 Cup (the sitcom about the cup that shares a house with two girls, not that other thing!)
I liked the episode last week with David Cross in it. I wasn’t too excited about this weeks, but the episode was pretty good and the ending was incredible (seeing Morty’s reaction to everything).
I’m not sure if they went with one Deus Ex Machina or two to solve the Cronenberg horror. They never said how the genetic crises was averted in the new reality they visited, just that they averted it, but I guess you could wrap that up in the whole “jumping realities” D Ex M. I loved the way Rick lampshaded this: “It’s not like we can do this every week anyway, we get three or (burrrp) four more of these tops.” I took this as a nod to the D Ex M, and that the audience wouldn’t put up with this every week.
Pity they’re showing it out of order, but at least the audience is loving it and they’ve committed to a second season.
Yes, that was actually pretty emotional for a zany cartoon. It kind of took me off guard in the same way Moral Orel used to do. This show went up even further in my opinion after that episode.
Thanks to this thread, I’ve now seen three episodes. I love it! I can definitely hear Dan Harmon’s “voice” in a lot of Rick’s cynical comments (especially noticeable if you’ve ever listened to Harmon’s podcasts), and it’s interesting to see the places he can go with a story when not limited by real life physics and the corresponding budget restrictions of live-action.
Okay, I just watched the episode with Mr. Jellybean and… whoa. That was intense. I couldn’t believe they were going there. It was disturbing, but the way Rick handled everything after that was great.
And I was dying laughing at the whole Meeseeks story. Hilarious and very creative!
Ahead of Monday night, Adult Swim has posted the upcoming episode Rixty Minutes on Instagram in 110 fifteen second clips. So if you really enjoy the show, now’s your time to prove it.
. It does for Back to the Future what The Venture Bros did to Jonny Quest.