If you were wondering why the only thing that everybody seemed capable of talking about over the weekend was decades-old McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce, Rick and Morty‘s to blame. The unannounced Season 3 premiere of the popular sci-fi comedy hit the air on April 1st as part of Adult Swim’s annual April Fool’s Day prank, ahead of its official launch later this year. And yes, one of its best gags involves a promotional tie-in for Disney’s Mulan.
The series, self-described “high concept sci-fi rigmarole” initially conceived as a Back to the Future parody, follows the misadventures of nihilistic scientist Rick Sanchez and his estranged grandchildren, Morty and Summer, as travel through the Multiverse for fun and profit. Despite this basic premise, the series has consistently proven to be one of the best written, most imaginative and funniest things to watch on television
Despite its almost two-year hiatus since the end of Season 2, Rick and Morty is still just as good as ever. Although it initially seems to brush past the cliffhanger from “The Wedding Squanchers,” which had Rick go to prison for a lengthy list of galactic felonies in order to spare his family from life on the run, it’s only misdirection. The episode not only explores the episode’s fallout — including Rick’s interrogation by the Galactic government, alien colonization of Earth and whatever happened to that Cronenberg universe from Season 1 — but promises to fill in Rick’s much-speculated-on back story.
Season 3’s “The Rickshank Redemption” will doubtless be remembered as one of the best episodes of the series, alongside The Purge parody “Look Who’s Purging Now” and the extra-multidimensional “Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind.” In a scant, 20-something minute run-time, it succinctly wrapped up several key series plot points, dramatically altered the established status quo and gives us some of the most memorable laughs of the franchise. It is, in short, everything that anybody could have wanted from the show.
And there’s more on its way. The rest of the series is due out later this year, largely presumed to be sometime this summer. If the rest of the season is even half as good as its premiere, we’ve got a lot to look forward to.
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