Rick and Morty arguably has a more enthusiastic group of fans than any other program currently on television. The show’s unique brand of humor, which combines juvenile jokes with clever sci-fi plotlines, has created an incredibly diverse audience, who have all been able to find a different reason to fall in love with it. Passions around the series are so high that a throwaway joke inspired a real-life run on McDonald’s restaurants around the country.
However, some evidence suggests that the love fans have for Rick and Morty may have slightly waned in recent years. Reviews of season five were not as glowing as those for previous installments. Though the show is still as wild as ever, some feel it has fallen off in quality. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of love for this dynamic duo of grandfather and grandson.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
As such, there will be no shortage of folks waiting with bated breath as each new episode of season six is released. Hopefully, the show’s creators will not be dissuaded by the slightly less enthusiastic fan response, and the latest batch of episodes will maintain the same quality found in previous installments.
Season Six Features a Somewhat More Canonical Episodic Arc
Generally speaking, Rick and Morty stories have little to do with one another. Though the same rotation of characters generally appear, each episode follows another of the duo’s adventures, along with those of their increasingly sci-fi savvy family members. While some of the best episodes are standalone tales, there has been a lot of praise for episodes that seek to extrapolate upon the complicated lore of the Rick and Morty universe. At the end of season five, for example, fans got a glimpse at Rick’s tragic backstory, which involved slaughtering scores of his alternate reality variants.
RELATED: Rick and Morty Co-Creator Justin Roiland Reveals the Direction Season 6 Will Take
If the recently released premiere, as well as what has been said in interviews by some of the creative minds behind the series, is to be believed, the new season will feature a lot of canonical content. If even a few of the series’ biggest questions get clarification in upcoming episodes, season six will have more than lived up to the hype in the eyes of many fans.
The Premiere Explored Familiar Themes
Despite being, at times, a downright silly comedy series, Rick and Morty is not shy about delving into serious themes. The season six premiere sees several of the characters returned to their original universes, which allows audiences to grapple once again with the notion that one’s individual life is inherently meaningless in an infinite universe.
Rick and Morty has always been about making audiences think without sacrificing humor. While episodes that are purely comedic can be wildly entertaining, the show is at its best when it has something to say. In order to meet audience expectations, season six will have to make audiences think.
More Hilarious Homages are Yet to Come
Though season six has already been attempting to answer a lot of questions that remained from the previous seasons, and some of the themes explored in the premiere are familiar, fans can rest assured that the upcoming Rick and Morty season six will still contain its fair share of silliness. A trailer for the season teased a Die Hard parody, which will definitely make for a high-stakes and hilarious episode.
RELATED: Rick and Morty Season 6: What the Premiere Revealed
The earlier seasons of Rick and Morty relied more on direct parodies. One episode sees the characters going through many layers of a dreamscape, in a clear reference to the film Inception, another features Rick in a battle of wits against the Devil himself, in a direct homage to Something Wicked This Way Comes, and a pair of episodes from the first two episodes, “Rixty Minutes” and “Interdimensional Cable II: Tempting Fate,” countless television programs are parodied.
Ideally, Rick and Morty season six will be able to strike a balance between canonical episodes and referential humor-based ones and, in the process, be able to reignite the spirit of whimsy that was present in earlier seasons of the show (or even give us another “Interdimensional Cable” style clip show).
As only one episode has been released thus far, it’s impossible to say whether or not Rick and Morty season six will live up to the hype. However, the series has already been renewed for quite a while, and it has even been suggested that there will soon be a new season every year, which would be a far cry from the slow production schedule the show had previously maintained.
Hopefully, the fast schedule doesn’t compromise the series’ quality, and season six manages to live up to the hype.
