Wubba lubba dub dub. Adult Swim's "Rick and Morty," the animated masterpiece of Justin Roilland and Dan Harmon, might be the best thing ever to be on TV. It's ridiculously postmodern, mostly absurd, sometimes non sequitur, rarely happy, and always existential, but three seasons in, and "Rick and Morty" has risen to the top of the list of my all-time favorite TV shows.
Dr. Rick Sanchez is a drunk, and also, the most intelligent being in the entire universe. He lives with his daughter, Beth, who's terrified Rick will disappear from her life again, Beth's loser-of-a-husband, the failed marketer, Jerry, his granddaughter, the brutally stereotypical teenage-girl, Summer, and his foil, his grandson, the eponymous, Morty. Each episode features Rick and Morty on another adventure through space and time. Of course, the set up is reminiscent of "Back to the Future" series, but that's what "Rick and Morty" is, homage, pastiche, kitsch, and everything else it could be.
Of course, no adventure ever goes as planned. There are infinite universes and in turn, infinite Ricks and Mortys; Roilland and Harmon create the most unusual, yet vast world of any adult animated series I've watched. The cast of characters are hysterical. We have Bird Person, a knock-off of Hawk Man, and Squanch, an alien, human-cat hybrid who speak Squanchy, a language that according to Rick, is more "contextual." Ruling over this universe is the Federation, mantis-like bureaucrats who have decreed Rick and his friends terrorists.
Every episode is a masterpiece, cleverly scripted, and throughout all the mayhem, there is always something genuine. The show's message tends to be dark, but we're in a postmodern world, where everything seems to be going wrong all the time. That's the world of "Rick and Morty," and it's worth investing a half hour every Sunday evening to be a part of the ruckus, and in the words of Rick Sanchez, "Get Shwifty."
