I’m embarrassed to admit… I love Rick and Morty.
As kids, my brothers and I would sneak into the living room late at night and try to catch our favorites from Adult Swim. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Inuyasha, and Family Guy were personal hits for us. When we were caught, it was ugly. not only was Cartoon Network banned well into our teenage years, but we had limited TV time from then on out.
As a mature and educated adult, I like to say that I enjoy the thinker thrillers like Inception and heartfelt shows like This Is Us. I pride myself in binging on progressive and experimental television like Orange is the New Black or Girlboss, but of course I love the silly satire in Parks & Recreation and The Office.
This is not about any of those shows or films. I’m talking about a throwback to my ridiculous Adult Swim days.
Rick and Morty is an animated series about an alcoholic scientist grandpa that lives with his married daughter’s barely functional family. Rick, this crazy grandpa, often kidnaps Morty, his gullible grandson, taking him on adventures into space and other dimensions. So, yeah already pretty stupid.
I thought I’d hate the show through and through, but I ran out of things to watch one night when I got to the end of my queue of Hulu shows to catch up on. So, I gave it a chance.
Needless to say, I’m sitting here on my lunch break writing about the show, so yeah. I love it. Rick is an extremely troubled character, and Morty serves as a buffer of sorts for Rick’s ridiculousness at first. Morty was the control, and Rick was the entire hazardous experiment.
The pilot showed me just how crazy the adventures would be, and I was hooked on that alone. I was also curious about some of the unexpected flaws in these characters. They seemed to hint at their complicated backgrounds and some of the changes that might happen as the show moved forward. Soon, Ridiculous Rick and mellow Morty became more than just that.
As I watched more and more, the rest of the characters grew and developed until there were such complicated stories and backgrounds that I no longer saw the figures as animated at all. These were real stories about family, financial hardship, growing old, being young, making difficult and definitive decisions, learning to live with regret, and so much more of what ails the real people in this world.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but since this show uses multiple dimensions and realities, it’s able to cross over genres at times, choosing to be a mystery, a romance, a high school drama, or a slapstick comedy. This show actually does make you think, and it is more enjoyable than expected from a mature adult’s perspective. Check it out!