This is a spoiler-free review of Rick and Morty season 8, which premieres on Sunday, May 25. New episodes air weekly through July 27.
Eight seasons into its run, Rick and Morty has become two shows. Sometimes it clings to its roots as a science-fiction adventure that brews up a fresh parody of a genre staple every week. But it’s best when it spends time expanding its characters and world, exploring Rick’s dark backstory, his impact on the multiverse, and his relationship with his family. Unfortunately, the four episodes of season 8 that I’ve seen lean on the classic Rick and Morty formula, which is getting a bit tired.
In recent years, the show has challenged Rick’s dominance by having characters push back against his abusive and self-destructive behavior while simultaneously proving that the guy who fancies himself the smartest being in any reality isn’t right about everything. That progress seems to have evaporated in season 8. While Rick does get duped after making a big mistake in the season premiere, “Summer of All Fears,” he mostly gets what he wants and persuades others to fall in line with his amorality.
When Morty argues for trying to actually help people on their adventures, he winds up regretting the decision. Rick, meanwhile, finds that being kind rather than cruel can work to his advantage, but it’s not a lesson bound to stick. Judging by these episodes, season 8 takes a sadistic glee in undermining potential character growth, even as it provides a glimpse at what the Smith family is willing to do to each other to achieve their goals.
Rick and Morty still shines when it pairs its absurdism with sharp writing, pulling no punches when mocking Christianity and the War in Afghanistan with some very weird sci-fi twists. Its over-the-top use of gore, violence, and apocalyptic threats means the stakes are always high and prone to get improbably higher. And it’s never forgotten the value of a good callback – just wait to see how Morty’s decision to add a snorkel to a death-race car in “Summer of All Fears” pays off.
Yet its newest episodes also offer less rewarding reminders of things Rick and Morty has done before. Several of them feel like structural or thematic retreads: “The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly,” for example, is a solid little Western that follows the model of “The Ricklantis Mixup,” focusing on the fallout from the destruction of the Citadel of Ricks while the primary versions of Rick and Morty remain blissfully ignorant of the larger plots unfolding around them. The body horror-heavy “The Last Temptation of Jerry” is a mashup of The Santa Clause and Prometheus, but beneath the surface, it’s just another opportunity to use Morty’s poor dad Jerry (Chris Parnell) as a punching bag – which would be less bothersome if it were as funny as (or offered the richer character arcs of) previous Jerry episodes like “The Jerrick Trap” or “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez.” Even with that killer snorkel punchline, “Summer of All Fears” has a bit too much in common with the season 6’s “Rick: A Mort Well Lived,” which also combined zany action with an emotional arc about digital selves.
It feels as though Rick and Morty is at a crossroads: At similar points in their long runs, fellow animated comedies Archer and The Venture Bros. had evolved beyond their spoofs of espionage thrillers and Hanna-Barbera boy adventurers, staying fresh by allowing their characters to grow and change. Season 7 saw Rick kill his nemesis and Morty confront his fear of being abandoned by Rick, and yet neither major development seems to have an effect on the early parts of season 8. (Maybe we see that reflected in episode 2, “Valkyrick,” which wasn’t screened for critics.) The end of last season also saw the title characters admit that all the cosmic horrors and untold pleasures they’ve experienced have left them feeling a little jaded. If Rick and Morty isn’t careful, its audience might start to feel that way, too.
