Current Events > the whole character deconstruction stuff on Rick & Morty feels really forced

(+) Yeah! (+)

like i feel like this entire season is going to keep circling the idea of peeling back the layers on Rick or w/e until it reaches some sort of major breakthrough but like...why?

why does it need a really shoehorned in monologue from a psychiatrist that is probably meant to represent one of the creators talking to himself anyway.

i feel the whole thing is an attempt at trying to make more 'serious' television using the medium of R&M but it just seems really awkward currently.

the 'emotional' parts in previous seasons of r&m worked because they were self contained; things like Rick pointing a laser at himself but it missing at the last moment, or Jerry and Beth seeing a vision of their alternate realities worked because they were so tactfully done but also isolated in their own episode. they would have been all the worse if they involved a tacked on monologue 'explaining' the people involved or if they dragged the arc out over a whole season.

like just do the fun, chaotic, off the cuff stuff you're used to and the emotional punch will follow from that. just seems like they're forcing it a lot this season.
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The writing this season so far has been pretty subpar compared to the unregulated absurdity in the first two seasons.
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Yeah, the first episode was pretty good, but since then it's been kinda meh.

It doesn't really have the heart of the rest. And the over arching plot is just weird for Rick and Morty.
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I kinda feel like this is something that people will be chastised for criticising too, because it'll be seen as criticising supposedly 'deep' character arcs in favour of unhinged lunacy of previous seasons.

like there's a 50+ post topic elsewhere on CE where people are discussing what characters are 'bad' people and idk, I don't feel like S1 and 2 ever intended for things to be that intricately analysed. Yet it seems like they've almost bought into that now and are trying to work in more elaborate character arcs as a result.
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I liked the Mad Max episode a fair bit

they definitely seem to be utilizing more on the nose character monologues and nothing has been as subtle or clever as say the Roy game or dreamcepting the dog away from repeating human treatment of pets or countless other moments I enjoy it for
and even in that episode the whispers of 'loser' don't evoke as much patheticness as something like a Jerry daycare setpiece

that said, the previews for last episode had me worried it would buy into its own hype too much and rely on the inherent meme-y nature of the callbacks, and I was glad to see it more character driven than that and thought the resolution was good
I am excited to see them do more with that and hope that this proves to be a transitional phase of showing the characters coming to terms with accepting each other's nature
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prettyprincess posted...

they definitely seem to be utilizing more on the nose character monologues

That's Harmon going full Harmon. The therapist monologue in the last episode was as Harmon as you could get.
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prettyprincess posted...

that said, the previews for last episode had me worried it would buy into its own hype too much and rely on the inherent meme-y nature of the callbacks, and I was glad to see it more character driven than that and thought the resolution was good
I am excited to see them do more with that and hope that this proves to be a transitional phase of showing the characters coming to terms with accepting each other's nature

this is true too and I imagine if they went fully meme crazy and deferential to the often annoying rabid fanbase then I would be complaining about it too.

I am more than happy to see how things pan out though and I will definitely be watching the rest of the season keenly. as you say, hopefully the pay off is good and the very on the nose stuff currently is setting that up.

the clip for the rest and ricklaxation ep doesn't fill me with confidence, though...

Gheb posted...

prettyprincess posted...

they definitely seem to be utilizing more on the nose character monologues

That's Harmon going full Harmon. The therapist monologue in the last episode was as Harmon as you could get.

i've heard people say this but honestly I have no great experience with his work!
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ThePrinceFish posted...

The writing this season so far has been pretty subpar compared to the unregulated absurdity in the first two seasons.

This was one monologue that lasted all of 20 seconds entirely ignored by Rick who spent most of the episode as a pickle collecting parts of roaches and rats to give himself mobility and go kill a bunch of Russians

Seems like this topic is being nitpicky just for the sake of being nitpicky. This isn't the first episode where Rick or any of his family have been under the microscope for a brief amount of time. There was a divorce of course they would spend time talking about the effects
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They're trying to be like Bojack horseman where the show has monologues all the time about how broken Bojack is and there's no way to fix him
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the character stuff is a bit dry

it feels like their head is up their own ass on it

like yes, we know why rick is the way he is. if you paid attention it's spelled out pretty subtly in the first two seasons. we don't need to keep looping back around to this
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MacadamianNut3 posted...

ThePrinceFish posted...

The writing this season so far has been pretty subpar compared to the unregulated absurdity in the first two seasons.

This was one monologue that lasted all of 20 seconds entirely ignored by Rick who spent most of the episode as a pickle collecting parts of roaches and rats to give himself mobility and go kill a bunch of Russians

Seems like this topic is being nitpicky just for the sake of being nitpicky. This isn't the first episode where Rick or any of his family have been under the microscope for a brief amount of time. There was a divorce of course they would spend time talking about the effects

it's not just the monologue though, although that is a neat microcosm of the issue.

as I noted in my earlier posts and here:
prettyprincess posted...

they definitely seem to be utilizing more on the nose character monologues and nothing has been as subtle or clever as say the Roy game or dreamcepting the dog away from repeating human treatment of pets or countless other moments I enjoy it for
and even in that episode the whispers of 'loser' don't evoke as much patheticness as something like a Jerry daycare setpiece

the issue is that they've gone from subtly working these characterisations into the episodes to uhhhh having a new character drop in and spell them out to the audience. it's very jarring for a show that used to juggle things so gracefully.
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