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Rick and Morty Season 4 Review

The fourth season of Rick & Morty is a major step back in comparison to all the previous seasons. It has its great episodes, but most are far from terrific.

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“Oh boy, so you actually learned something today?

What is this, Full House?“

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Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat represents everything that is wrong with this season – its over-reliance on clones, time travel and chaos that emerges in respect to these particular story machinations. This one has some good moments between grandfather and grandson, but overall it’s a weaker season opener.

The Old Man and the Seat is actually very strong. It’s one of the better episodes of this season that, yes, focuses too much on toilet humor, but it’s undeniably impressive visually speaking and in terms of world building, which is amazing here. Rick’s friendship with Tony the alien is very moving here, and it’s such a shame that the show continues to dispose of new characters instantly, thus never getting us to know them more as supporting characters maybe.

One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty is overly concerned with admitting the show’s “ingeniousness”, which is one of the biggest problems of the entire series. It likes to pat itself in the back for being too clever and cool and original, but that only comes across as smug and unlikable. The episode has its moments, but it’s overly action-oriented.

Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty is the infamous dragon episode, one that many dislike, but I find very funny in its crude, incredibly sexual humor. Morty gets a dragon, but it somehow rapes Rick, and he is sentenced to live with other slut dragons in a cave. Needless to say, this is the crazies, raunchiest episode of this season and it’s a blast to watch.

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Rattlestar Ricklactica is actually really interesting as this very well established snake alien planet with their own history parallel to Earth’s one. It is a highly imaginative episode with a great concept that works, and these episodes usually are the best. I also really liked the subplot with Jerry and his clumsiness.

Never Ricking Morty is an utterly forgettable episode, though it deals with representation reasonably amusingly and the last COVID-19 reference was a lot of fun, though I wanted a story that focuses more on viruses.

Promortyus is probably the best episode of this entire season! It is a hilarious episode that deals with alien parasites and is thus very cool, suspenseful, well crafted and fun. The two most memorable scenes are the one that was borderline incestuous and that finale, which was utterly hilarious despite being so damn crude and childish.

The Vat of Acid Episode is very overrated. Yes, it’s interesting as this mostly silent experiment, but it’s also repetitive that way and again not as original in storytelling as it thinks it is. I actually find the show becoming more repetitive as it goes along.

Childrick of Mort is a very familial episode that is for once quite moving in its exploration of this family and their interactions. I also continue to find Summer a badass, terrific and cool character that it’s a shame she is not a part of the damn team already.

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Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri is again needlessly complicated and messy, but I did like its exploration of a father-daughter relationship. Beth and Rick have a lot of issues, but there is care there and it’s so well explored in this instance.

Overall, I found this season messy. Some episodes are undeniably terrific and so much fun, but some are becoming repetitive and patting themselves on the back way too much. The imagination is still there, but the show needs more greatly crafted stories for future seasons.

Worst Episodes: One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty and Never Ricking Morty.

Best Episodes: Rattlestar Ricklactica, Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty and Promortyus.

My Rating – 3.7

You can get the first three seasons of Rick and Morty on Amazon.