Idiot Boxing: Rick and Morty, season 4 (2019-2020)

The latest season features some familiar
faces, but plenty of new intergalactic and
interdimensional oddballs, too.

Boy oh boy, did this show come back with a vengeance. While it may not have been as consistently, accessibly funny as the first three seasons, the razor-sharp wit and irreverence are still at full-tilt for this already legendary animated series.

Unlike standard shows, there's no over-arching plot to summarize with Rick and Morty. While there's a certain continuity and recurring characters, each episode stands alone. The highs and lows for me of this ten-episode season were:

The Low (there's only one)

Episode 4: "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" - it wasn't a "bad" show, really. It was just obviously not as good as nearly any of the other 41 episodes of this incredibly consistent program. It involves Morty fulfilling his wish to have a dragon of his own, only to find out that it's not all it's cracked up to be. His dragon, Balthromar, is pretty crotchety, and we eventually learn that he and the greater society of dragons are just a bunch of depraved sexual deviants. There's certainly funny stuff here, but more gags than normal are rather broad and obvious.

The High

Episode 1: "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Repeat" - Morty gets his hands on and (of course) misuses some crystals that can show you a multitude of possible futures, depending on your decisions. This is one of those episodes, like season two's "A Rickle in Time," that feature hyper-fast, multi-layered storytelling and jokes that are as dazzling as they are funny. 

Episode 2: "The Old Man and the Seat" - Rick puts all of his limitless intelligence and abilities to preserving his most treasured possession: a toilet placed in a paradisical setting of his discovery. 

Episode 3 (I swear I'm not going to put every episode here. I swear): "One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty" - a lightning-paced spoof of the "heist crew" genre of movies. If you revere the "Ocean's" movies, this one is likely to upset you. 

A lasting image from "The Vat of Acid Episode." I always
find joy on the rare occasions that Morty gets to bust Rick's
chops for conceiving a poor plan.

 Episode 8: "The Vat of Acid Episode" - I found this one to be a nice return to the relatively slower-paced feel of many of the earlier episodes. Morty grows frustrated with one of Rick's less-than-genius escape plans.

Episode 10: "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" - This fourth season ended with a blast, as Birdperson returns as a deadly enemy in this galaxy-jumping adventure in which the entire family has a ton of fun and saves the universe. Well, except Jerry, of course. 

The remaining four episodes not mentioned above were all good, and this show continues to dazzle. My only fear at this point is that it will feel the need to keep ramping up the speed, pace, and insanity to levels that overpower the humor a little too much. It hasn't happened yet, but I feel as if I catch a glimmer of potential for it. 

One can only guess how long it will be until we see the next season, but like nearly every fan of this show, I'll be all too ready to see them. Until then, I'll have plenty of laughs going back and rewatching this most recent season, since I was laughing hard enough to miss more than a few gags or clever plot points during every episode.