Your Next TV Binge is TheJournal.ie’s new Friday feature, recommending a box set for you to get stuck into over the weekend. This week: Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.
THINK OF THE weirdest show on TV. Multiply it by… infinity. Now you’re getting close to the weirdness levels on show within Rick and Morty, the cult-iest of cult shows imaginable.
Based on a very twisted take of Back To The Future – Doc and Marty have become Rick and Morty, kind of – it tells the story of an alcoholic genius and his easily-led grandson (both voiced by show creator Justin Roiland), and their adventures in this and every other dimension of the multiverse.
On top of that, the pair have to cope with everything going on in the home they share with Morty’s parents Jerry and Beth , and his older sister Summer (30 Rock’s Chris Parnell, Scrubs’ Sarah Chalke, and Spencer – daughter of Kelsey – Grammer).
While that might sound like a middle ground between The Simpsons and Futurama, this show is sooooo much more than that. And most of that comes down to Rick. He is the most singular, original, offensive, intelligent and layered animated character to come along in, well, forever. His apathy for the lives of others – he often forgets the word for “human” – means that he drinks and swears and kills indiscriminately. But he also has a major soft spot for his grandson. And that’s usually how the duo end up in doo-doo.
Over the course of the two seasons so far, they’ve tackled The Devil himself in a haunted charity shop, witnessed an interdimensional version of The X Factor in which the losers have their home planets destroyed (Google “Get Schwifty” to hear Earth’s entry), found a love potion that accidentally turns everyone around the globe into “a bunch of Cronenbergs”, and while trying to train their dog, they make it too smart and their little Snowball ends up enslaving the entire planet.
The show was co-created by Dan Harmon (the genius behind the equally smart and funny Community). He and Justin Roiland have made an animated comedy that tackles some major issues in a way no other show can. When the duo accidentally crash-land on a Purge planet, the story pretty much becomes about how rich people are backing the space equivalent of the NRA. When Rick and Summer are imprisoned on a female-ruled planet after Rick lets out a fart in public, the entire episode descends into an argument about men vs women as leaders.
Coupled to the intense funny-bone hits are a bevy of high-concept science fiction ideas. Would you want to use special goggles that allow you to see through the eyes of parallel universe versions of yourself? What if they’re rich and famous and doing a much better job of being you than you are? Every episode sets up a concept like that one to fill your brain with What Ifs?
Barely thirty seconds will go by without an indelible catchphrase or eye-popping sight gag (once the Meeseeks are introduced, it becomes a game of Willy Wonka trying to find them again in the following episodes).
And then there’s the fourth-wall breaking Interdimensional Cable Box episodes, in which the family sit down to watch TV shows from all around the universe. So there’s a violent Antique’s Roadshow, or the cop show where all the characters are made out of sweetcorn, or Ball Fondlers, perhaps the greatest TV show never made.
After only two seasons, it’s already being hailed as one of the funniest animated shows of all time. Stephen Colbert, Christina Hendricks, Alfred Molina, Key & Peele, Patton Oswalt, Werner Herzog, Alan Tudyk, Jemaine Clement and loads more have lent their voices to supporting characters.
And with a third season due for release later in 2017, now is the perfect time to catch up on the space-based madness. If only so that you can keep up with the quotes all your coolest friends have been repeating for the past few months.
So where can I watch it? Both seasons of Rick and Morty are currently available on Netflix.
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