Monday nights used to blow. There was How I Met Your Mother and…little else. It was a night for catching up on HBO and Showtime dramas you didn’t have time to watch on Sunday; otherwise, your options were 2 Broke Girls and too many garbage shows. That’s all changed this year: How I Met remains a must-watch, if only out of obligation and pure curiosity how it’ll end, but there’s also Sleepy Hollow and Archer and the brand-new Rick and Morty.
I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but in case you were distracted by Best Funeral Ever: created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty is what would happen if Abed rewrote Back to the Future while on acid. It’s about an alcoholic scientist, Rick, and his grandson, Morty, both voiced by Roiland, and the dangerous adventures they go on. (Chris Parnell and Sarah Chalke also do voicework.) Simple premise, complex plots. A Jurassic Park parody set inside a hobo’s body? Sure. Dogs take over the world? Obviously. A mystery involving a simulation of a simulation of a simulation, with special guest star David Cross? Yes.
The possibilities are literally endless, and Rick and Morty is willing to “go there,” both literally (animation allows the freedom to travel anywhere) and figuratively (its dark comedy is remarkably free of sentiment, which separates it from the likes of Futurama). It’s also available on YouTube. Here’s last night’s episode. Please enjoy.
