S1E2 — “The Dog Empire Episode” is when I knew I was watching something special. But this scene, “Rick’s Sacrifice” from S2E1, is legendary.
On my own, I don’t watch much TV these days. If anything, I’ll watch clips of things from YouTube and I do try to set aside time with Bagel every day to watch 22 minutes of a sitcom. But left to my own devices, sitting down and watching anything from start-to-finish nowadays is genuinely a pretty heavy lift for me.
But a few months ago, I discovered Ricky and Morty— and this one, this, I made time to sit and watch. I binged all four seasons, an episode a day. Within a month, I’d watched every episode.
I find Ricky and Morty compelling for mainly two reasons: First, it’s novel (to me, at least) in the sense that it’s a cartoon that’s chiefly nihilistic. I give Justin Roiland a ton of credit (along with Dan Harmon). I don’t know exactly who is contributing what, but when I watch R&M, I get the impression that it’s created by people who have suffered severe depression, have given deep and enduring thought to The Big Questions about life, purpose, and the meaning of everything– and basically have come out on the other side of that chasm as a survivor. “Nothing intrinsically means anything. But whatever. Let’s go watch TV.” is one of R&M’s life lessons. From my perch in this, oh-so-long life I’ve so fruitfully led, I think that sentiment is pretty much spot-on.
Second– any show, book, comic, or cartoon that deals with time, parallel universes, and the Multiverse (eg. Jet Li’s The One or Steins;Gate), I’m instantaneously hooked. Seriously, I live for that stuff.