Review: Rick and Morty Presents: “Fricky Friday”

 

Overview

‘Fricky Friday’ is the latest entry in the Rick and Morty Presents series, which is a collection of one-off romps that’s been running since 2018. It tells the cautionary tale of a Rick gone rogue, hopping from universe to universe, doing mind switches on the Smith-Sanchez family. Rick Prime takes umbrage with the multitude of possible complications that could arise from a world full of Summer-Beths and Jerry-Mortys, and crafts a plan to stop whatever it is that he’s up to. Drugs are a key part of the plan. Meanwhile, Jerry gets high and has a vision of a slightly better life for himself that would be completely obtainable if he weren’t so Jerry.

Our Take

The one-off format of Rick and Morty Presents always has a lot of storytelling potential – it’s a finite space to explore a well established universe in any direction. Writer Michael Moreci has already proved his Rickability with ‘Heart of Rickness’ – an ongoing and deeply entertaining saga that pits the family against primal versions of themselves.

‘Fricky Friday’ makes the most of its brevity by building a simple story around the already familiar concept of mind switchery. Explaining the situation through similar movies is also a nifty time saver – Rick favours the 1988 Fred Savage vehicle ‘Vice Versa’, while Jerry supports 1987’s star-studded “Like Father, Like Son”. The 1980s truly was a golden age for mind swap movies.

The R&M universe is no stranger to minds getting moved around – without mind swap technology, we wouldn’t have Tiny Rick or Pickle Rick, both of whom are widely considered to be two of the greatest character variations of our time. ‘Fricky Friday’ adds a great twist to the classic personality switcheroo  – in addition to forcing family flips without consent, Rogue Rick also extracts all memory of the encounter from his victims, so they don’t even know that their minds are in the wrong body. The Morty mind in Jerry’s body thinks he is Jerry, and always has been.  It’s a premise that inspires a lot of deep-ass questions – is a person’s selfhood defined by the contents of their mind, or the confines of their body? Is it better to know you’ve been swapped or remain in the dark? Is the mind I’m using right now my own, or am I unknowingly some nightmare chimera, unrecognizable by God and bound for the shores of Hades?

In translating the feel of the show for the page, ‘Fricky Friday’ aims for spot-on characterization, rather than trying to emulate speech patterns with fancy font work – a wise choice when you’re swapping minds left and right.

On the Jerry side of things, being at a club specializing in drug fuelled fantasies is the order of the day. Jerry’s vision of the adoring family he doesn’t have is pretty Jerry. This storyline has major Philip K Dick vibes, and I for one would love to see Jerry become a full out fantasy junky for an entire arc/season.

The deceptively simple art style of Jarrett Williams works well with the zippiness of a one and done. Williams also did the artwork for the first of the three variant covers – all of which present an eye-catching image capable of causing the casual comic shop browser to take pause and wonder what wild tale is contained within. Williams and colourist Leonardo Ito offer up a classic shot of Rick and the grandkids flying over a mindless horde of family doppelgängers, while Marc Ellerby’s ‘Rick within a Rick’ look is a work of art that would make a great prog rock album cover. The third cover is a space noir tableau by Beck Kubrick, which is full of intriguing details like the hovering task bot, smashed panel and subtly smiling kids.

When Rick Prime finally corners the culprit, he finds a broken, strung out man that’s not that much different than him. He may call himself the One Indivisible Rick and have an extremist plan to unify all versions of his family into a hive mind, but that seems like a pretty plausible place for the Rickest Rick to end up in. They are both men in relentless pursuit of something to make up for their past losses, and they recognize that connection in each other.  Let’s hope for an future collab for these two lost, lonely Ricks.

Beyond fomenting existential dread, Fricky Friday is a lot of fun. It may not be breaking any new ground in the Mortyverse, but it fits in neatly with the rest of the cannon, from its effectively confusing intro to its sitcom style ending. It commits to its bits, keeps it simple, and succeeds at being an enjoyable read. What more could you want?