![]() ![]() They undeniably / are/ exactly what the show has always been, mixing weird characters, layered storytelling, and outlandish sci-fi drama with fart jokes, but it doesn't feel like an attempt. ![]() Mort Dinner Rick Andre and Mortyplicity are both very different episodes, but they shake off season four's biggest problem - they don't feel like they're trying to be Rick & Morty. In season five, the anthology episode has been both reinvented and returned to the familiar as we watch various decoy versions of the Smith family fighting each other in an attempt to discover which versions are the true originals - upon each family's death, a new story begins. It was both self-indulgent and self-loathing in a soupy mixture that never quite thickened enough - then it just gave up at the end, despite some decent one-off moments. Season four went way too meta with things, setting its anthology tale inside the narrative train going around in a circle - another meta reference, this time to Dan Harmon - while exploring the way the show tells its own stories. After the first two seasons used Interdimensional Cable for the anthology episodes, season three switched to Morty's Mind Blowers, using a similar idea but riffing off Rick and Morty themselves. The second episode, Mortyplicity, was far more high concept. Season four's opener was also narrative-driven, but season five's was stacked to the rafters with storytelling and made sure to include everyone, without a begrudging reliance on the overall Tammy/Council/Birdperson mythos. The first one, Mort Dinner Rick Andre, felt like a whole season in a single episode, eschewing the Monster of the Week storytelling of season four for an exploration of the cast’s lives, nudging the story forward while yet still going on wacky adventures. ![]() We’ve had two episodes so far, and both seem like a concerted attempt to counter the criticisms of season four. Related: Rick Sanchez and Superman Aren't Enough To Carry Fortnite's New Season I know it’s cool to hate her but we all agree Shake If Off is a bop. Rick & Morty season five is not like karaoke though, it’s full-on Taylor Swift. It’s all the right words being sung in the right tune, but it’s just… not right, somehow. It sounds like vintage Rick & Morty, but it’s more like karaoke. There’s a whole episode about Rick trying to figure out who took a shit in his private toilet, and it ends with an existential crisis about his need to control his environment, his unwillingness to be vulnerable, and his permanent state of melancholic loneliness. Most of the rest of season four’s offerings were pretty forgettable - remember the heist episode? Well, now you do - or failed to justify their own ideas. ![]()
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