Review: Rick and Morty “Cryo Mort a Rickver”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Rick and Morty have to blend in with a group of cryo-sleeping aliens who just woke up so they can steal their space coal.

OUR TAKE

We’ve had it to the halfway point of this season and…unfortunately we do not have another banger. Once again, this is a perfectly fine episode on its own, and may simply be the result of a show being on its eighth season. It’s got a workable premise, being a commentary on the influence the super rich have on the working class and how Rick and Morty being thrown in there messes all of that up, but it’s not exactly a novel one, especially for this show. Of course Rick is going to end up with the rich side and live it up there while he can, even come to like his new “parents”, while Morty will be grouped in with the workers since he’s the more compassionate of the two. If I wanted to be generous, I could say this may be hinting at Rick’s enigmatic childhood, an aspect of him that we know less about than his time with Diane, but whether this is more the childhood he wanted or a reminder of what he lost is anybody’s guess. The main issue is just that, well, we already had a better version of this type of story only a few episodes ago with the coda to the Citadel of Ricks storyline. I kinda get the impression this plot had been on the table for awhile and they’re only getting to it now, but having these so close together does this one no favors.

Then again, after the first three episodes were clear subversions of the typical formula (a Morty and Summer episode, a Rick and Space/Clone Beth episode with no Morty for the first time, a mostly main Rick-less and Morty-less episode), maybe this is just trying to even things out with a very standard Rick and Morty adventure. And maybe I’m just spoiled at this point, but I don’t know if standard is going to cut it now. I don’t think I’m saying they have to one up themselves each and every time, or that fifth episodes of the season need to reach some arbitrary level of quality to suit my needs, but this one in particular had the unfortunate side effect of the show feeling its age. That said, I don’t doubt that the second half is going to do some neat things. I’ve had fun all this time up until now, so some duds are unfortunately inevitable. But that dud is this one and I gotta call it as I see it.