Mad Morty: Fury Road.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Rick and Morty must have set some sort of record for the most time separating a season premiere and its follow-up episode. It's been almost exactly four months since Adult Swim unexpectedly dropped "The Rickshank Redemption" into our laps. Finally, Season 3 continues onward with the debut of "Rickmancing the Stone." That long time gap didn't necessarily do this episode any favors. It's enjoyable in the way every Rick and Morty adventure is, but it fails to meet the standard set by the thoroughly excellent season premiere.
It's mainly the general premise where this none fell a bit flat. This episode basically played out as an extended Mad Max parody (with a touch of Romancing the Stone and a pinch of Fist of the North Star), which already feels a bit dated now that we're two years removed from Fury Road. In general, I'm not thrilled when this show is that blatant about its influences. It brings to mind the first few episodes of Season 1, which leaned heavily on lampooning movies like Jurassic Park and Inception. It wasn't until Rick and Morty moved beyond the direct parody approach that it truly found its voice, and this episode felt like an unfortunate step back in that regard.
Worse, it never felt like "Rickmancing the Stone" had anything particularly insightful to say with its Mad Max parody. The idea that these mutated barbarians could be pacified with a little dose of modern technology and a few creature comforts wasn't exactly mind-blowing. "Look Who's Purging Now" did a much better job last season of exploring the thin line separating civilization from man's innate barbarism.
Still, you have to appreciate the attention to detail with this episode, if nothing else. Clearly, a lot of effort went into designing the dozens of goofy BDSM mutants and recreating that iconic chase sequence from Fury Road. It was also a lot of fun seeing Joel McHale stop by to voice the character Hemorrhage. McHale did a great job of balancing out the tough guy machismo with the whiny, vainglorious man beneath the battered helmet and codpiece.
The world in this episode fell a bit flat, but the Smith family themselves didn't disappoint. It's pretty clear that Beth and Jerry's divorce is going to be driving a lot of the drama this season. Rick may be thrilled to have his son-in-law out of his life, but the rest of the Smith family is taking the divorce pretty hard. Both Summer and Morty are acting out in their own way, while Beth is resorting to that old standby - alcohol-based self-medication. There's an even darker, sadder undercurrent to the series this year that looks to be a solid source of character drama and those emotional gut-punch moments Rick and Morty does so well.
Certainly, much of the best material this week involved Rick and Morty using the Mad Max-inspired nuclear wasteland as a vehicle to work through their grief. This wasn't the first time that we've seen Morty unleash his repressed rage in deadly form, but there was an added dose of surreal brilliance to his struggle this week thanks to the fact that he was bonded to the hyper-muscular arm of a slain peasant warrior. Whether it was the sight of puny Morty smashing enemies into a bloody paste or struggling to communicate with his monstrous new arm, Morty's adventure was generally the highlight of the episode.
Summer was also a hoot this week, proving once again that the show is better off now that she's a semi-regular participant in Rick and Morty's intergalactic shenanigans. It's amusing to see how readily Summer seems to rise to the occasion whenever she's confronted with a post-apocalyptic wasteland where survival is the only goal. Summer's character arc took an amusing turn this week as she fell in and out of love with Hemorrhage and realized how quickly she could turn into her mother. Rick sure knows how to play "Sum-Sum" like a violin.
I only wish Beth and Jerry had seen a little more attention this week. Beth had a few bittersweet moments as she bonded with her family's robotic doppelgangers, but as usual, it doesn't feel like Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon are as interested in her story as they are the rest of the family. As for Jerry, he had a couple hilarious but too-brief scenes as he dealt with his new solitary existence. The post-credits sequence in particular was amazing. I love the idea that there are feral dogs roaming the city whose main purpose in life is to inconvenience Jerry Smith.
The Verdict
This was a fairly weak episode of Rick and Morty, especially coming after the excellent Season 3 premiere. But "weak" is still a relative term here. "Rickmancing the Stone" may not have broken new ground with its Mad Max parody, but it still delivered plenty of humor as Morty and Summer both dealt with family drama in their own, terribly unhealthy ways.
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