Board 8 > so i watched episode one of rick and morty

(+) Yeah! (+)

Melting ghost baby. Jesus.
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MariaTaylor posted...

I like the episode but it's not one of my favorites. I definitely understand why others love it so much, though.

Same, I was pretty surprised to see that most people cite it as their favorite. I don't think it's even in my top 5.
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Because Stephen Colbert!
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ClyTheCool posted...

"Uncle Steve isn't real D=" "he's a real PIECE OF SHIT"

God damn I loved that line
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2x06 was probably 'the ricks must be crazy,' right? i think that the idea behind it is so awesomely manic and unique - you become the god of a society but secretly exploit them... and then one of them has the same idea. and it's incredibly well executed, too, with a top-tier B-plot.
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The B plot is so good because it's not just a great plot, it's that it could only possibly be a B plot. It wouldn't work as an A plot, since it's all about cutting back to it for gags over random time.

Lots of shows (this one too) do B plots that are basically small A plots, and it can be cool, but it doesn't achieve the maximum potential like this.
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Yeah, the "Keep Summer Safe" B-plot is easily the highlight for that episode for me. One of my favorites.
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So, 2x07 is funny. Not nearly as original as the likes of 2x06, but hilarious all the same. Jim Rash's character is great, and I love the way Beth and Jerry react to their mental image projections. And it's kind of sweet, too - in Jerry's mind, Beth is the strongest, smartest creature in the universe. The one thing I find kind of silly is the idea that Beth and Jerry's relationship is somehow the worst that has ever been seen by the facility - they certainly have big issues, but they're not the worst. I'm able to retcon this slightly in my head with the idea that they're the worst who have put in the requisite time and effort to undergo this therapy.

Rick, Morty, and Summer find themselves in unfamiliar territory as a duo: B-plot-land. The best part of this subplot, by far, is Rick's delivery of Tiny Riiiiick! But the name Coach Feratu is pretty great, too, as well as the way Tiny Rick's lyrics keep alluding to how desperately unhappy he is to be trapped in this form with an old brain. This also gives us the cackling Rick butchering a bunch of cloned bodies to Morty and Summer's horror - 'PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!!!' - and to the sole crossover point of the episode, where Rick tells Jerry to shut the fuck up about trying to draw parallels between their stories.

No list of gags this episode since I have my notes elsewhere, but there are plenty of nice, silly moment this episode.
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That's a good episode. Just good. The best thing about it is how they wrap up the vampire stuff immediately. It's similar to the Devil episode where Rick immediately calls out the devil for being the devil. A lesser show would expand the vampire or whatever the entire length but Rick and Morty almost always throws an enormous wrench into things as soon as possible so you don't know what direction the story is heading. I love that.

There is any episode coming up that is ridiculously straightforward though which I think is why it isn't held in the highest regard but even then it's super entertaining. I won't talk about that til you get to it.
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I don't know that the direction is unknown - I think that Tiny Rick not wanting to go back to being Adult Rick was the most predictable element there. Didn't hurt much though!
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I think I meant more like, there's a clear setup for a storyline about hunting vampires at the beginning of thr episode and it is pretty much over with a simple jump cut and 'the gym teacher nosferatu was the vampire' or whatever. Most shows would make that the entire episode as opposed to a real fast joke. It's a good subversion of expectations and a prime example of a Dan Harmon joke. That's what I meant.
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wow

2x08 (the second interdimensional cable TV) was one of the worst episodes in the series

it was so bad, i'm still reeling from it the next day

we were ticking down with four episodes left and i get hit by this whammy

i'm not sure there was a single good TV gag. the jerry's-penis subplot had a few moments (pretending to be masturbating is my favorite moment), but it's undermined by how awful the overall episode is

it's not a shocker considering how the first interdimensional cable TV episode trended after the first five minutes, but this episode lacked the great first five minutes, and as a results, is terrible top to bottom
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2x08 is bad. There's a couple of good TV gags, but it's just entirely worse than the first one in every aspect.
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Yeah, I really didn't get how people kept talking about other episodes being the worst when this one exists.
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Yeah I mentioned this last time, but this what happens when you let Justin free without the influence of Harmon or the writers


Like I don't know if youve seen the original Doc and Marty short he made a long time ago that this show is based on.... but this is about what you'd expect.
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Is this show any better when you're drunk?
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I think they made that episode intentionally bad so people would stop asking for "another improv episode omg!!!!"
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The second cable episode is the worst episode, yes.

It's not great but I don't skip it on rewatches. It's only bad by Rick and Morty standards. Like season 1 of Breaking Bad.
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eh, season 1 of breaking bad is incredible TV. 2x08 of rick and morty is mostly just garbage. the only reason to watch it is to be completionist, which i entirely understand.

i think a lot of fans of good shows often will excuse bad episodes/seasons by saying that 'it's only bad for this show,' but... i don't particularly find that to be true most of the time, and especially not for this last episode.

anyway, hype for everything that's left, probably?
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One episode you have left is eh (but this one actually is just bad for the show) and the rest are great.
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SeabassDebeste posted...

eh, season 1 of breaking bad is incredible TV. 2x08 of rick and morty is mostly just garbage. the only reason to watch it is to be completionist, which i entirely understand.

i think a lot of fans of good shows often will excuse bad episodes/seasons by saying that 'it's only bad for this show,' but... i don't particularly find that to be true most of the time, and especially not for this last episode.

anyway, hype for everything that's left, probably?

I still enjoy the episode, so it's not bad. Or I can't say it's bad, anyway.

But I get why people would say it is because it's like, bottom quarter of RAM episodes. I just don't think that necessarily makes it bad TV.

Like, Stranger in a Strange Land is genuinely bad television in a show that was pretty good.
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LOST is still the one show I regret watching the most.
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XIII_rocks posted...

SeabassDebeste posted...

eh, season 1 of breaking bad is incredible TV. 2x08 of rick and morty is mostly just garbage. the only reason to watch it is to be completionist, which i entirely understand.

i think a lot of fans of good shows often will excuse bad episodes/seasons by saying that 'it's only bad for this show,' but... i don't particularly find that to be true most of the time, and especially not for this last episode.

anyway, hype for everything that's left, probably?

I still enjoy the episode, so it's not bad. Or I can't say it's bad, anyway.

But I get why people would say it is because it's like, bottom quarter of RAM episodes. I just don't think that necessarily makes it bad TV.

Like, Stranger in a Strange Land is genuinely bad television in a show that was pretty good.

hey, I like Stranger in a Strange Land.

what show is this?
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i don't remember SiaSL that well, but it was bad, yeah. i don't consider interdimensional space cable II to be better.

LOST ended badly and had some shit episodes, but I never regretted watching it (and following all those threads). the second half of S3 is one of the great television stretches to me.
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Somewhat ironically, Rick and Morty has taken Lost's place as my favorite show of all time. That's saying something, I adore Lost. Despite its numerous flaws!

Through the Looking Glass is GOAT-tier television. Hard to believe its from the same season as Stranger in a Strange Land
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Yeah Through the Looking Glass is obviously great

That's what I'm saying. There are bad episodes and there are episodes that are bad for that show. 2x08 still had that hilarious Roiland delivery as Rick and the cynical, sarcastic humor, and the bizarre plot and gags that you expect. That's like baseline RAM stuff and if it delivers that then I'm kind of hard pressed to call it "bad tv". Then there's the bit with Beth changing her mind when she sees the brochure, and I like some of the tv stuff (it just doesn't hit with the regularity of the first one). There's a lot there to not love, I just don't think it's bad.

I'd be more inclined to call the first episode bad TV than this one (and it still isn't bad) because Roiland's VA is definitely not up to par.
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Season 1 of Breaking Bad is better than the entirety of Season 2 and has parts that rival Season 3/4/5. It's really good.

2x08 of Rick & Morty is just crap. It's tied with the pilot for my least favorite episode, by a wide margin.
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Blah. I thought S1 of Breaking Bad was like the consensus worst, so it seemed the best thing to illustrate my point.

(It or S2 probably are my least favourite seasons - generally I think the show got better with every season - but maybe s2 would have been a better example)
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yeah, it looks like we agree what bad TV means, just not whether 2x08 fits. with KP 100% here.

also, i definitely thought that the marriage counseling episode was the purge

i guess i was wrong
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no no

we meant literally the purge
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yeah the phrase was namedropped in 2x07 so i was somewhat misled
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2x08 is definitely just bad for the high bar that R&M set. You need to watch more shows (spoilers they mostly suck) if you think it's that bad in general.
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There's a season 3 trailer
Woo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeAw6aXHzcY
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2x09 ... it's super-formulaic, super-predictable ... and super-meta and super-entertaining. This episode has the best of genre recognition from both titular characters.

We're nearing the end of the season after mixing it up a lot - Rick/Morty/Summer and Beth/Jerry and even the whole family have been getting it on together in A-plots. This episode begins with just Rick and Morty adventuring on their own, after what Rick notes has been 'a pretty intense, uneven, mixed bag of a year.' Just a great phrase.

Both Rick and Morty have a pretty good idea of the structure of the episode, too. Rick predicts the Purge, which the native takes as a sign that this means Rick has been here before. 'No, but I've visited planets that have the same gimmick!' Morty has a pretty good idea that being a voyeur to this slaughter is going to lead to their getting involved - though he thinks it'll be a random stone damaging the ship, rather than his own need to be the man, that pulls the duo into the fray. Rick also calls Morty's repressed rage pretty early on. (He claims that Morty's avoidance of beheading videos is symptomatic of this, and it appears to be confirmed, though I don't think this really fits most people.) The telegraphing doesn't take away from how funny it is to hear Morty going off on Rick, though.

Most of the Purging is pretty straightforward, with the mecha suits being pretty damn entertaining (opening credits scene!) and the 'fucking Amish bitch shot me' wearing the mecha suit at the end being fairly unexpected. The most out-of-nowhere plot element is the insanely annoying non-Purge dude who insists on telling his tale... which turns out to be an incredibly cliche screenplay. I cracked up at 'three weeks earlier.'

It's a great episode for Rick's morality. Despite his fairly disgusting voyeurism, Rick actually gets quickly nauseated by the brutality of the Purge while he's spectating. He also very quickly points out that Morty is being a real douche to the annoying host: 'Whoa, Morty, you're a guest here!' (It's also kind of a hilarious moment, given this is Rick. But guest right is holy!) In a hilariously meta - but also human - moment, Rick shows some pause before slaughtering the ruling class: 'I've had my fill, it's pretty gratuitous at this point.' He reins Morty in and And toward the end of the episode, he lies to preserve Morty's sense of self.

B-plot here is Jerry's unemployment starting to wear on Summer (and later Beth). The two best lines here are Summer's reactions - 'It's not a conversation, you're holding me verbally hostage' and 'Holy shit, shut the fuck up Dad!' are my two favorite deliveries. But also credit to the utterly despondent Jerry's 'This is what rock bottom must feel like, Jerry,' before getting hit in the head by debris from his wrecked garage roof. 'Ow!'

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* Responding to a greeting-type question with 'It's not a conversation, you're holding me verbally hostage' is just classic Harmon misanthropy. The thing is, there really isn't much harm in using a question as an approach. Summer is obviously very intimidating to her father, and he tries to establish some rapport. Doesn't deserve to be raked over the coals for that. Type of moment where I can sympathize with Jerry. That said, I also despise many rote, barely conversational platitudes. The scene doesn't really delve into these angles, but I like it for making me think.

* The girl going ham on the rich people was definitely gratuitous, but fucking hilariously so. She goes way hard on the trash talk. Best line: 'Suck my HUGE *****!' Best gratuitous violence: the rocket-up-the-ass kill.

* I do like that Morty points out, 'Why don't we use the space portal gun?' Always nice to rule out the obvious solutions.

* Morty is a creep for sure. I'm not sure why that girl at school seems to like him. On the plus side, the 'I have a boyfriend' scene at the end is great.
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"You want to cut back to three weeks earlier? When you were alive?" is the best quote on the show.
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I think it suffered a lot from the common parody flaw where being self aware of tropes doesn't excuse your use of the tropes. Most R&M parodies provide a lot more on top of the parody to make the troping justified, but this one just felt like a plain self aware parody.
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I actually think it's a great example of how something can be straightforward and predictable, as long as it's well executed and entertaining. I really have no problem with this episode. It was a lot of fun.
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Even though The Purge episode is straightforward I do love it. The lighthouse keeper telling Morty his story and Morty killing him is amazing. Just a solid, if not complex, episode.
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I think there was more than enough cleverness and just straight-up funny stuff in the episode. Plus, the tropes used aren't inherently bad. It probably helps that I haven't seen The Purge, but the execution is so hilariously silly that I bet I would have loved it regardless. There's also the slightly cleverer subversive stuff, e.g. Morty being the one to get entangled, rather than bad luck/Rick botching it.

And the screenplay dude was out of nowhere.
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I don't even view it as a Purge parody. It works best as it's own thing.
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ehh, the episode acknowledges its parody status too openly to deny that. doesn't mean it ain't good though!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJk4y9NGvE

The best thing to come out of the intergalactic cable 2 episode, although it only has the proper impact if you also enjoy 'how it's made' videos.
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i mean, i get the format, but it just doesn't really entertain me. it's just nonsense words put together and it's not enjoyable and the joke goes nowhere. the best thing to come out of that episode, aside from UHHH JUST MASTURBATING was beth's reaction to the penis prosthetics
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alright WUB A LUB DUB MOTHERFUCKERS who wants to finish season 2
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I just watched IC 1&2 back to back, I don't see how anyone considers either that much better than the other. They both kick ass in my books.
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read my writeup for IC1. the B-plot there is incredible (probably my favorite morty/summer B-plot, maybe my favorite jerry/beth plot), the jokes actually go somewhere, it's fresher, and rick/morty interact with what's on TV in a much more engaging way.

i did mention even there that after the first 5 minutes, the TV spots on IC1 get much worse.

IC2 is like the second half of IC1's TV spots... but without all the positives
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Yeah IC1 has stronger cable gags and stronger emotion in the B story. 2 is certainly worse, but I still enjoy it
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I don't know, I just think "Man vs. Car" and "How Did I Get Here?" are the two best TV gags out of both episodes. Plus I like the B-story from 2 more than the first too.
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2's B-Story is my least favorite plotline in the entire run of the show.
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