A giant head appears in the sky causing massive damage to earth and its climate and, when it demands to see what the planet has got, Rick knows that he has to perform a new hit song for Earth’s survival. Meanwhile, Beth and Jerry witness the rise of a new religion and the birth of a newer and kinder Summer.
Five episodes in and Rick and Morty finally delivered its first disappointment of the season. It wasn’t terrible by a long shot and there are enough funny moments and originality to keep it from getting terrible, but compared to what this show has been doing — running the gamut of emotions from hilarity to heartbreak in its 30 minute chunks of brilliance — “Get Schwifty” felt like an episode from the Futurama reject pile. It felt like it was slumming and doing things that were beneath it.
The idea that Earth become part of a big reality show really isn’t that original. South Park did it and, quite frankly, they did it better. The idea that the reality show be an American Idol parody? Frankly… everyone has done that. To death.
Having Ice T on the show (but not voiced by Ice T) almost felt like a Family Guy level of satire. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s what Family Guy does… not Rick and Morty.
I even had trouble with the Head religion subplot. While it was nice to have another B story that was actually dependent on what was going on in the A plot, it was too easy of a target and done in too easy of a manner. Summer’s sudden conversion was just that: Sudden and it made her look foolish at the end. For a while, I though that Summer losing a faith would be traumatizing to her as every character on the show has had a deeply traumatic event happen to them this season (except Summer), but we got nothing. Bupkiss. Bahzoop.
I’m being overly critical here because, again… it was not terrible, but it did feel derivative and a lesser effort than the four episodes that came before it. It’s the curse of doing a television series of such high caliber… when you misstep, it sticks out.
Jason Gaston 