Rick and Morty Season 4 Review
Seven hundred seventy-seven days after the final episode of season 3, Adult Swim released season 4 of Rick and Morty on November 10th in part of the 70 episodes renewal with Cartoon Network and co-creator Justin Roiland. The first five episodes of the season will be released before the end of the year while the other five will be released in 2020.
Rick and Morty is an animated series on Adult Swim created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon that follows the sci-fi adventures of Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith. After many years of not being involved in the Morty’s life, Grandpa Rick returns to the Smith household only to become best friends with the youngest kid, Morty, where they take on interdimensional quests to follow Rick’s genius plan to be the Rickest Rick of them all.
Just as a quick recap to the end of season 3, the season ended with Rick and Morty fighting against the President of the United States because he wouldn’t take a selfie with Morty. After Rick battles hard against the President, Morty leaves Rick to join his family in hiding because Beth thinks she’s a clone and consults Jerry for reassurance. Jerry and Beth reunite and become a family again, meaning Rick is no longer the alpha male in the family.
Edge of ToMorty: Rick Die Rickpeat
Mr. Meeseeks helping Rick attack fascists Morty.
Once again, we are following Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith on their multidimensional adventures through reality and space. Season 4 begins where last season ended with Rick trying to accept the fact that he is no longer the top dog. This first episode follows a vibe similar to season 1 in a classic Rick and Morty journey where things don’t end up going the way they should. Morty once again becomes obsessed with the girl of his dreams, Jessica, ultimately leading to the death of Rick only for him to be cloned in multiple universes. Following the typical fashion of the show, dark humor of fascists realities and gruesome scenes play out throughout the episode leading to the end where Morty snaps back to reality and the two go off on their famous tangents rambling about how they are going to go on to do different things for hundreds of years.
Critics Review:
IGN has ranked this episode a solid 9.1 out of 10. IGN critic Jesse Schedeen says, “‘Edge of ToMorty: Rick Die Rickpeat’ is the show’s strongest season premiere to date” Critics loved how the episode was able to deliver a classic Rick and Morty adventure for the season opener. Many also enjoyed the major emphasis on Morty. Critics believed this episode to be well worth the wait.
Jimmy’s Review:
With my eyes glued to the TV the entire length of the premiere, this was no doubt the best way to begin the season. The way the episode starts following right after the events in season 3 and virtually killing Rick almost immediately grabbed my attention. It is rare to get an episode completely surrounding Morty. So to lead off a season that way felt weird, but by including Mr. Meeseeks, it made the episode that much better. Even the Kirkland brand Meeseeks entertained me and foreshadowed a lot of references and spoofs to be made through out the season.
The Old Man and The Seat
Glootie and Jerry celebrating the app Jerry shouldn’t have developed.
In this episode we find Rick going on a solo mission to find out who used his secret toilet because he is a shy pooper. He runs many tests to track down Tony, who is responsible for using his toilet, then begins to torture and attempts to kill him. During Rick’s adventure to solve a small annoyance, Morty and Jerry have a bigger problem on their hands when Jerry disregards Rick and a giant stamp on Rick’s alien intern Glootie’s head. The stamp tells them not to develop an app. However, Jerry being Jerry develops a dating app with Glootie, Ricks intern, but only to have Morty assist him in trying to take down the app so they can save love on earth.
Critics Review:
Widely regarded as one of the weaker episodes from the season, IGN says, “‘The Old Man and The Seat’ is far from the most remarkable Rick and Morty episode.” However, they still give episode 2 a solid 8 for Great. IGN sees it as a recycled episode because we have seen fights within the family before, and “Rick going to ridiculous lengths to deal with a minor annoyance in his life.” is nothing new.
Jimmy’s Review:
I’ve got to agree with the critics on this one. I do not find this episode to be anything special. I enjoy the poop jokes and references made in the episode, but in the end, I found it to be underwhelming compared to the first episode. I did not think it was one of the worst episodes ever, but it just mixes into the middle of the pack.
Rick and Morty discussing important business with Elon Tusk.
One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty
Episode three of the season starts off with Rick and Morty mid-adventure. They are trying to retrieve an ancient artifact only to find it was already taken by world-renowned heist man, Miles Nightly. Attempting to get into HeistCon, Rick assembles a team with past friends in a cliché heist montage only to disband the team once they enter the event. After interrupting Mile’s presentation and being challenged to a heist off, Rick emerges victorious with his only wish being that HeistCon is completely taken down. In typical fashion, Rick’s invention double-crosses the crew and becomes a new problem. A new team complied of old characters like Mr…. I mean Professor P.B.H. and special guest Elon Tusk are assembled to help fight against Heist-O-Tron and Rando-Tron. In the end, the team emerges victorious and Morty loses his appetite for heist orientated movies.
Critics Review:
8.9 is the score IGN gave this episode for the continual hype season 4 is bringing to viewers. The episode adds to the success based off of the abnormal character line up from Glar, Elon Tusk and, “If all that weren’t enough, Mr. P.B.H is given the grand return he deserves.”
Jimmy’s Review:
I believe this to be by far the best episode of season 4, as well as one of the greatest episodes of all time. The constant bashes on cliché heist movies and the allusions to other movies, such as Dr. Strange, help to add onto the classic comedy from Rick and Morty. Also, by bringing back one of my favorite characters, Mr. P.B.H., and spoofing Elon Musk into Elon Tusk, this episode had me laughing throughout the duration. Finally, by bringing a funny and very meme-able catch phrase into this episode it has everything one could ever want in a Rick and Morty episode.
OOOWEEE
Season 4 Overall
Critics Review:
Since 2013 when the show first aired, Rick and Morty has consistently been ranked among one of the top shows to ever be created. With season 4 starting off on a strong note, critics are constantly giving each episode high reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave a critics rating of 100% saying, “Rick and Morty’s fourth season is both an exciting progression and a delightful return to form that proves more than worth the two-year wait.”
Jimmy’s Review:
After watching the first 3 seasons multiple times through, it is refreshing to have a fresh set of episodes to enjoy. Just by watching three episodes I can tell this season is going to rank highly among the previous ones. By bringing in fan-favorite characters like Mr. P.B.H. and Mr. Meeseeks, and by using the crude, dark humor known from the series, season 4 has brought back the classic Rick and Morty feeling as well as a fantastic storyline.