UK TV review: Rick & Morty: Season 5
Review Overview
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5Mark Harrison | On 03, Apr 2022
This is a spoiler-free review of Season 5 – scroll down for our spoiler-filled episode-by-episode observations.
Early on in Rick & Morty’s fifth season, there’s a plot where copies of Rick and his family become aware of one another and violently lash out at the idea that they’re not the original. It’s a really strong episode by the standard of more recent offerings, but also a fitting metaphor for how the more recent seasons have had difficulty separating self-awareness from self-interest in its weaker outings.
One of the strengths of Rick & Morty as a premise is the idea of plugging the multiversal sci-fi shenanigans of the smartest man in the universe and his hormonal grandson into a tried-(and-tired-)and-tested sitcom formula. What it’s not as good at is sci-fi myth-making, and Season 4 came unstuck between its anti-continuity soapboxing and its increasingly loud references to memes and fan beefs, both of which are impenetrable to people who aren’t talking about the show on Twitter and Reddit every day.
This new season starts on a surer footing with Mort Dinner Rick Andre, which riffs on the format of what Rick calls “whisper kitchen Frasier bullshit” when an old rival comes over to the Smiths’ home for dinner. It doesn’t go all-out in aping Frasier’s format, but there’s more room for crazy characters and surreal jokes when the structure is relatively familiar.
The next two episodes are more in the show’s singular style, but they’re highlights too – the clone-war episode, Mortyplicity, gets big laughs out of a dizzyingly bleak standalone premise and A Rickconvenient Mort channels the obligatory pop-culture spoof into a Morty-centric coming-of-age story that’s surprisingly tender and sincere.
On the latter point, this season is always better when finding new dimensions to its characters and the show’s nihilistic viewpoint. The eighth episode, Rickternal Friendshine Of The Spotless Mort, looks set to be a step backwards but shows a better knack for character development than the two-part finale that follows.
The middle episodes are a mixed bag again – there’s not one but two blockbuster spoofs featuring the welcome return of Keith David’s US President and, typically, it’s the weaker of the two that winds up getting a full-fledged sequel a couple of episodes later. The obligatory shedload of Season 5 Funko Pop figures will probably be inspired by these episodes.
Elsewhere, hammering on the “nothing matters, life is disposable” button as hard as they do in most episodes means that the show’s attempts at back-story and continuity always feel empty. So it goes with that finale, the programme’s first two-parter but also the second season finale in a row to feel more like the writers are clearing house on dangling threads than telling a story they really want to tell.
If it leads to more standalone sitcom shenanigans in Season 6 and beyond, we’re all for it. But Rick & Morty has yet to fully divest itself of the currency of upvotes and downvotes that its hardcore fans value each episode on. It’s still not the show it was, but Season 5 is always best when it’s doing funny and unpredictable bits rather than answering fan theories – so, on balance, it’s a partial return to form.
Season 5: Episode by Episode (contains spoilers)
Mort Dinner Rick Andre
The king of Atlantis is coming to dinner to negotiate a treaty with Rick, but also Morty’s crush Jessica wants to watch a movie and, dear God, there’s a portal to a world where time runs differently. Even Frasier never got this wacky, but it makes for a cracking season opener.
Mortyplicity
Existential madness ensues when one of Rick’s decoy clone families is attacked, not only alerting all of the Ricks on Earth to a new enemy but also revealing that they might be clones too. It’s a classic cyclical premise, but there are big laughs in its spiralling logic.
A Rickconvenient Mort
Writer Rob Schrab’s first credited script for the show is a funny, daft, and finally, gentle outing, in which Morty gets serious about both the planet and his new girlfriend (Alison Brie’s Planetina) while Rick and Summer go on an apocalyptic tour of the galaxy.
Rickdependence Spray
In this exceedingly crude blockbuster spoof, giant rampaging sperm monsters are unleashed on America and only the President’s top men (not all men, but only men), a race of subterranean horse people, and a gaggle of Vegas performers can save the world. We still can’t believe they didn’t call this one “La Petite Morty”.
Amortycan Grickfitti
Whether it’s Rick and Beth milking Jerry for the amusement of hell demons or Morty and Summer social-climbing, this episode grapples with its own cringe factor from one extreme to the next – it’s slide-off-the-brain stuff, but still preferable to Season 4’s self-reflexive indulgence.
Rick & Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular
Keith David’s US President is on fine form in a story that’s more of a send-up of the Pickle Rick format than a repeat of it – the fact that Rick’s secured a presidential pardon via turkey transmogrification before (and it’s not washing this time) is more creatively self-aware than many of the gags elsewhere in the season.
Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion
A grab-bag of different parodies puts anime robots together with a Goodfellas-style framing narration and a final, literally giant callback to Rickdependence Spray’s incest baby. Look for GoTron robots cluttering up a Forbidden Planet near you…
Rickternal Friendshine Of The Spotless Mort
Season 2’s finale, The Wedding Squanchers, is both a highlight of the show and, story-wise, the biggest stumbling block for the subsequent seasons. This Eternal Sunshine riff deftly surmounts it and also gives co-creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon something new to play, as a younger, more idealistic Rick and a depressed Bird Person, respectively.
Forgetting Sarick Mortshall and Rickmurai Jack
The two-part finale holds its nose and jumps back into continuity, with a status-quo-rattling arc involving two crows and the eyepatch-wearing President Morty seen in previous seasons. Happily, this trends more towards character development than callbacks and promises a more standalone style for the next season.