Review: Rick and Morty “Solaricks”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Rick and Morty gets an Avengers: Endgame rescue from Space Beth and now we’re ready for take off for the show’s sixth season! Problem is, the portal gun needs to be rebooted so we’ve jumped right from Infinity Saga to the Metaverse Saga in like five seconds because the reboot goes haywire and sends the boys back to their multiverses of origin.

Nobody’s place of origin is all that friendly with Rick now back at the house that murdered his wife, Morty in a world where Jerry is the only survivor of Cronenberg, and Jerry is sent to season two? Eventually Rick and Morty reunite and Rick needs to kill Rick Prime but are caught in an almost Vindicators-like labyrinth.

Meanwhile, the girls head to what’s left of the Citadel of Ricks to find a way to fix the original portal network so that everyone can come back. Rick and Morty return first and then everyone travels to save Jerry from a season two storyline. After all that trouble, the family returns to a planet that is overtaken by Mr. Frundles and opt for another universe.

Our Take

In the past, the premiere episodes of Rick and Morty had always been sort of a big event. The show’s third season had the surprise premiere that subsequently led to the Szechuan sauce craze, season four was the last Mike McMahan-written episode before the producer went on to create shows like Solar Opposites and Star Trek: Lower Decks, and the fifth season premiere recently lost an Emmy to Arcane. That said, for my money, the show always seemed to have better finales than it did premieres…until now…but more on that after these words.

Season four and five seemed to have solid season premieres, but nothing compared to the season three kickoff that saw Rick escape prison and helped complete a carryover arc and that’s what good sci-fi TV does, it keeps you hanging until next season. Rick and Morty season five’s finale was one of the show’s best, and season six succinctly succeeds in picking up where things left off and not only helps close a chapter, but also open a new one with possibilities in the upcoming season with a bunch of unanswered questions like, where’s Evil Morty? What’s the deal with this Rick Prime? And…more on that after these words…

And what the hell was even the point of the Wormageddeon living episode other than just making ads for State Farm and Green Hydrogen? Maybe all of it means something or, in typical Rick fashion, maybe none of it means anything. But, Rick and Morty is almost a theatrical experience now, pushes and pulls and even complete with the aforementioned Avengers Endgame/ Doctor Strange sequences that reminded us that this show is one of the funniest still around. Albro Lundy is becoming that next important writer for Rick and Morty with the likes of Jeff Loveness, Jessica Gao, and Michael Waldron no longer here, the person this franchise can lean on for the important stuff.  I was hooked with “Solaricks” and I wanted more like a yellowfin on Wicked Tuna, Rick and Morty’s season premiere did its job in spectacular fashion. I don’t know what’s coming down the pike, but Adult Swim already has a better case for an Emmy than it did with the season five premiere, and with a summer filled with bad news thanks to it’s parent company, the network helped remind viewers that adult animation appears to be safe, and that Rick and Morty is here to carry us into the holidays.