Really, “The Vat of Acid Episode” is a variation on a very similar theme as both it and “Edge of Tomorty: Rick, Die, Rickpeat” give Morty a piece of technology that allows him to tinker with his life so that he can choose whatever outcome he favors. The season premiere (which aired approximately twenty years ago, if you remember) did this and it was, like this one, one of the strongest episodes of the season. Rick seems to be all but resigned to not giving a shit about anything, but Morty, though understandably more jaded these days, is still a teenager who still has wants and hopes, so poking at this bit of his character remains a reliable way to eke out some development. Rick and Morty isn’t completely out of tricks, however, and “The Vat of Acid Episode” draws from the conflict vat that has yet to run completely dry: Morty and his feelings and junk.
#WATCH RICK AND MORTY ONLINE SEASON 3 EPISODE 8 SERIES#
Typically, when the series fails to be engaging is when it gets obsessed with Rick and Morty’s adventures in and of themselves ( “Never Ricking Morty” being perhaps the most quintessential example of this) because post-season-one the show has never found a solid way to make the adventures feel like anything more than distractions for our characters to tidy away.
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It only makes sense to write a nihilistic, all-powerful character like Rick like this, but it also gets old to watch him deadpan his way through adventures while hardly lifting a finger. This isn’t just a plot problem, but a character problem because Rick-and, often, by extension, Morty-feel like they don’t give a fuck anymore as they nonchalantly mow down whatever new sci-fi threat fruitlessly tries to impede them. When one of your protagonists can do anything and, in the rare case he can’t can instead dip out to another dimension to avoid the consequences of his actions, it’s tough to get worried that he’s ever in a real pickle, even when he physically embodies one (hope you all enjoyed what I just did there).
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The problem I’m a broken record about (and probably won’t stop being any time soon) is that after confidently blowing through a ton of character and multiverse development in the first season, Rick and Mortyhas struggled to come up with conflicts with meaningful stakes. This RICK AND MORTY review contains spoilers.