REVIEWED: SEASON 4 (EPISODES 5 – 10) | WHERE TO WATCH: ALL 4
If there’s an overall theme to this half-season of Rick and Morty, it’s ‘consequences’. Every episode deals with them in one way or another (except, arguably, the opener), leading up to the season finale where some of the lingering plot threads from last season are resolved. We’re sure that matters to some people, but we mostly just care whether the episodes are funny.
And they are, very much so. Every episode contains its share of quotable lines and great dialogue exchanges, and the show regularly takes jabs at its own writing. For example, this half-season kicks off with ‘Never Ricking Morty’, which is clearly a rebellion against doing another anthology episode, and the whole thing feels like it came out of a story meeting where they couldn’t think of anything else. ‘The Vat of Acid Episode’ is for us the funniest of this run. Morty gains the ability to jump back to an earlier point in time, like checkpointing in a video game. There’s a lot of fun with this premise, and the three-minute montage of Morty’s new relationship is masterful. The whole thing is superb, especially how it all ties together at the end.
The season aims for an epic and emotional ending, which falls flat for us (probably because it’s a pretty standard finale formula by now). But, as with all of the others, it’s got loads of funny moments and you’ll find a lot to enjoy. So that’s your lot. God knows when we’ll get more, but we really enjoyed this batch. It might be too meta for some people, but it’s still just as hilarious as it ever was.