Rick and Morty Season 6 Review: It Keeps Getting Better With Age

It is fair to say Rick and Morty season six is a far cry from what the show used to be. The sci-fi animated series began as an irreverent cult hit, but now, the Adult Swim series is a mainstream giant. Rick and Morty has established a complex mythos in its past seasons, and creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland are still pushing boundaries whenever they can. But with new creative influences in place, Rick and Morty season six commands a sense of confidence fans of all backgrounds will find impressive. 

The first two episodes of Rick and Morty Season 6 were screened for the press – and it’s clear why they were handed out as a set. Without spoiling any details of either episode, the first episodes of Rick and Morty Season 6 illustrate the aspects of the show that fans love the most: crazy high-concept sci-fi tales, irreverent (and raunchy) comedy, actual progression of the series’ revered (and often mocked) canon, and somehow, somewhere, in all that, deep and heartfelt character drama. And it all hits. 

To be fair, Rick and Morty Season 6 had a lot of challenges facing it, right off the bat. Season 5 ended by taking on the biggest developments in the series’ main story arc we’ve ever seen. The cliffhanger ending left the Citadel (and most of its inhabitants) annihilated, and Rick and Morty stuck in space, while “Evil Morty” finally managed to escape the Finite Curve Rick had created to ensure his own place as the smartest man in the multiverse. It was the tease of a whole new show possibly coming in Season 6. 

While the premiere of Rick and Morty Season 6 may not reinvent the wheel, it is a masterful mix of the series’ most pleasing fan-service elements: significant plot-advancing reveals (Season 3 premiere), and high-concept sci-fi stories that mess with the show’s status quo (see also: Season 2 premiere). As stated, the Season 6 premiere has the added advantage of having so much mythos and lore behind it that it can touch on deep-cut callbacks and plot elements either not seen in a long time or only hinted at before, without losing the central theme common to every Rick and Morty Season premiere: the characters finding new inspiration to keep doing what they’re doing. 

After six seasons it’s also good to report that Rick and Morty is now letting its characters grow into their own, respective, three-dimensional people, as both the creators and actors now have such tight grips on who these characters are, where they’ve been, and where they may be heading. Everyone in the ensemble (even Jerry) is now much more than a caricature, and the show seems to get that as the character dynamics get more complicated – without ever getting too far away from the beats we know and love.  Rick and Morty is still as funny, irreverent, and raunchy as ever, which is probably the least surprising thing about it, at this point. 

Rick and Morty airs Sundays on Adult Swim.