Next year, Rick and Morty will turn a decade old, and it’s still going strong. Maybe it’s because creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon have occasionally taken their sweet time in between seasons, favoring quality over quantity. Still, the last season, only its fifth, had its critics, and it appears Roiland himself is one of them.
In a new interview with IGN (as caught by The AV Club), Roiland is frank about a season he doesn’t hate but which might not be up to his high standards. He was speaking about the upcoming sixth season, due in September, which he praises while not quite trashing its predecessor, but admitting he didn’t think it was up to snuff.
“I will say that it’s a bit more canonical,” Roiland said of Season 6. “It really rewards fans of the show that have been watching up to this point.” He says they’re “finally back into the rhythm of Rick and Morty,” while admitting that he “didn’t particularly think Season 5 was bad, but Season 6 is f*cking amazing. It really is a f*cking quality season.”
Roiland didn’t go into specifics about what he didn’t like (or at least didn’t think was as good as it could have been), but he did say personal matters may have contributed to his take on it.
“Season 5 was a weird one,” he says, pointing out that they lost line producer J. Michael Mendel, who died suddenly in 2019. “It was tough. We were thrown for a loop. That was… yeah. If I talk anymore, I’ll start crying.”
Also of note: When asked to list his five favorite-ever Rick and Morty episodes, Roiland didn’t include any from Season 5. They were, for the record, “Total Rickall,” “Rixty Minutes,” “Big Trouble In Little Sanchez,” “The Ricks Must Be Crazy,” and “M. Night Shaym-Aliens”. Not even the one where our semi-heroic duo battle giant sperm made the list.
Meanwhile, if Roiland thinks he has to make up for what he sees as a bit of a sag in quality, he has plenty of more chances to atone.
(Via IGN and The AV Club)
