Animated TV has been for a long time. With both Disney and Warner Brothers shoeing in Saturday morning cartoons and shorts, animated television has always appealed to children. But with the addition of the Simpsons in the early ’90s (technically very late 1989), Futurama and Family Guy in the late ’90s, and even South Park, cartoons turned towards a more adult audience. Even in more recent years, shows such as Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Gravity Falls have embraced the weird, odd ideas and concepts that attract both young and old to watch. Yet, the weirdness seems to have gotten somewhat stale. Expecting crazy situations with only semi-likable characters, and little depth to anything, gets boring. Fleeting. But there is one that embraces the weird with flair and ingenuity. It stands above the rest with ease.

Rick and Morty’s strongest facet is that it is grounded in reality. Okay, well, not really, but its characters are grounded. Each character has a unique personality that coincides with choices they make, like most TV shows. Yet, where most sitcoms and cartoons fail with this is that every character has that unique trait, but never changes. They are generic tropes, easily identifiable as the smart one, or the funny one, or the stupid one. AND DESPITE ALL THE EVENTS THAT TAKE PLACE IN THE SHOW AND THE MAJOR LIFE ALTERING EVENTS THEY EXPERIENCE, THE CHARACTERS DO NOT GROW. That is why Rick and Morty stands higher than the rest; each character is given the opportunity to be a real person. They have major flaws and we see sides of them that no one else sees on the show. Rick is smart and extremely arrogant, cold-hearted, a general bastard, but we see the multiple sides he has, especially at the end of a few episodes, and we see his relationship with all the members of his family grow in ways that other animated shows do not. Especially ones that are serialized.

For instance, let’s look at Spongebob. What makes the earlier (1999-2004) episodes of Spongebob great is that the characters deserve the consequences of their actions. Squidward remarks on karma, then proceeds to fall down a hill and explode. Spongebob allows Mystery to stay, then Mystery eats the Krusty Krab and Old Man Jenkins. Patrick does stupid things, stupid things happen to him. But as the series progresses, the show descends into having things happen to characters just because the character has been portrayed as stupid or mean, not because of something they did. It’s lazy writing.

Okay, back to Rick and Morty. It is serialized but also has an overarching (sub)plot, which carries over the one and a half season(s) that have been aired. And with those plots comes themes and dynamic character growth. HEAVY SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 and the episode “Rick Potion #9” AHEAD. In Season 2, we meet one of Rick’s flames from earlier in his life, Unity. And his love for Unity was so deep that when she left him in Episode 3 (“Auto-Erotic Assimilation”), Rick tries to kill himself. Yes. He tries to commit suicide with one of his machines. In a very emotional and deep last minute and a half or so of this episode, we are exposed to Rick’s underlying psychological problems with relationships and also failure. Clearly, his relationship with Unity is a picture of his overall emotional state. This translates later in the series as Rick and Morty’s relationship changes more and more, with Morty becoming more and more like Rick.

Anyway, as pointed out by some viewers of the show, the creature that Rick kills first in the machine is indeed a Cronenberg. This brings us back to “Rick Potion #9” when Rick screws up that version of Earth so badly that he and Morty travel to a universe where both he and Morty had died in a freak accident just seconds before. And then Morty has an existential crisis and another emotional ending occurs. But with Rick, he moves on at the end of the episode. Or, so we think. Rick is shown at the end of the Unity episode thawing out a Cronenberg and killing it. A carryover of ‘plot’, but especially a carryover of themes. Rick is not as heartless as we truly see, because he still feels guilty for having screwed up that Earth so badly and fleeing to a parallel universe that he actually tries to find a cure for it. INCREDIBLY SUBTLE WRITING. This show transcends so many genre tropes that animated TV has become known to have.

The depth of the show’s intelligence and sheer brilliance lies in the little moments that happen in each episode, like Rick’s attempted suicide. There are so many different ways that this show challenges the genre, and exceeds in differentiating itself from every other TV show, ever, like the dynamic characters. Other things that challenge the genre’s tropes are elements of social commentary (see: “Something Ricked This Way Comes”, every comment about marriage and divorce, “Rixty Minutes” –>Abortion), extensive fourth wall breaks, no-holds jokes (literally about anything; includes rape, divorce, death, existence, religion, etc.), and more emotion and seriousness than any animated comedy. Rick and Morty is destined for greatness. With no loss of purpose and a clear sense of where the writers want the characters and story to go, the series is picking up steam and rolling into the public eye more and more.

In essence, this show is brilliantly smart, depressing, hilarious, and real.

Wubba Lubba Dub Dub.

EDIT: Thank you to Someguy Ontheinternet for correcting me on the whole Cronenberg creature. One of the creators, Justin Roiland, has stated that it was not a Cronenberg. I appreciate the feedback from you, and I thank you for the noting the error I made!

– Matt