Rick and Morty has reached the point of knowing what its audience expects, to its benefit. At nearly a decade into its run, creators Dan Harmon and Justin have found a way to balance homages to science fiction tropes that made early seasons special with original ideas of its own. While the previous season mostly utilised parodies of concepts from Voltron, Captain Planet, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind among others, Season 6 breaks new ground in science fiction.
Since last season ended with such a canonical storyline, this season’s first episode deals with its fallout, bringing back lore from the show’s history for this episode only, developing a few of its characters, and then dropping it in favour of focusing on one-off ideas for the remaining episodes. By frontloading the drama of its ongoing narrative and dropping the rather forced sappiness in a world of infinite timelines, the show discovers new freedom in exploring its characters through the most creative contributions to science fiction the show has yet to produce.
Two episodes stand out as some of the best the series has created and illustrate the two talents the show highlights this season. Bethic Twinstinct plays into the unit family drama that the show has adapted in switching from a show about its titular characters to their family. Although its conceit involves clones, the episode dissects the family in brutally real dialogue. In the John Carpenter-dressed Night Family, the writers create a concept so simple yet clever and then take it to its logical conclusion in a cheer-worthy action scene. These episodes distil what makes this show, and this season, great television: hilarious but iconoclastic science fiction shenanigans with beautifully constructed character-driven melodrama.
