It’s season seven, and the possibilities are endless: what’s up with Jerry? EVIL Summer?! And will they ever go back to the high school?! Maybe not! But let’s find out! There’s probably less piss than last season. “Rick and Morty,” 100 years! Or at least until season 10!
Some argue that the eponymous Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith are Justin Roiland and that Justin Roiland is them. This season of the show is here to argue: they’re not. Season Seven recasts the two leads with different voice actors, and while the voices feel similar, the show’s spirit never wavers. In fact, this season of “Rick and Morty” brings back more of the one-off episodes and sci-fi satire that made the show work in the first place. Season Seven of “Rick and Morty” eschews most of its linear plotting in favor of perfect one-offs that deliver plenty of comedy and action fans have come to expect from the show itself.
This show sits in one of the weirdest places in our cultural map. An Adult Swim favorite with just enough zany hijinks to feel odd and experimental, it slowly grows into a tee-shirt-selling phenomenon around the globe. After Season Three aired, creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland succeeded in a seventy-episode order, all but guaranteeing seasons well into the teens for this one-off show. While Roiland’s voice acting anchored the show, his off-color schemes and low-hanging fruit sci-fi jokes slowly weeded out of the show over time. While silly character names like Shrimply Pibbles fell increasingly by the wayside, the show picked up a more serious bent on satirizing sci-fi and then satirizing itself. With fans lionizing the antihero protagonist, the show ballooned into a microcosm stand-in for dispossessed Incels. After actively combating the fandom on their worship of Rick, the show delved into its own mythos and explored much more of its lore. Finally, after delivering plenty of linear hijinks, the show seems to divest itself (not entirely) of its own lore and provide the kind of one-off hilarity this show is known for. Thus, Season Seven.
We open on a middle note with Rick summoning his friends to help poor Mr. Poopy Butthole get over his divorce. What follows after that includes Jerry and Rick mind-melding, Summer & Morty fusing into a wild “Total Recall” reference, the President dating Rick’s therapist, a horror-stricken brand of spaghetti, another clip show mockery of “Marvel’s What If…?,” a “Transformers” gag, and Rick delves into the after-life. It’s a hodge-podge of sci-fi satire, family sitcom jokes, and plain ‘ol goofiness. The whole thing feels so authentic that you don’t even notice the voiceover changes.
Left to its own devices, “Rick and Morty” is more a show about poking holes in things: heist movies, Star Wars, fandom, TV sitcoms, and the average American family. It’s also the only show to ruminate on existential musings, inherent loneliness, or what happiness means. It pokes questions about the nature of the human soul, calls out religion in one breath, and then says something utterly nonsensical in the same breath. It’s a show that’s consistently had its cake and eaten, too, and this season is a little less reflective and a little more fun. I tend to enjoy it when the creators let the show run wild. Sure, there’s a sweet spot where a good episode makes you laugh AND cry, but this is season seven. We can stomach a little less crying.
I highly recommend this season. It likes to get in over its head and give us things to enjoy. I enjoyed the celebrity cameos (which are always best reserved for your discovery.) Something about this whole thing feels… right. It’s like they’re finally operating on the right level, and they know it. They’re only halfway through their seventy-episode order, so we’ve got maybe three or four more seasons ahead of us, but if they keep switching things out and letting writers pitch some wild fantasy mock-up, then I’m down. These hijinks rarely get stale.
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