Valkyrick

As a long-time fan of Rick and Morty, I never thought I'd say this but the magic is gone.

It's painfully obvious now that Justin Roiland was the creative heartbeat of this show. While Dan Harmon brings structure and depth, Roiland brought the chaos, the wild unpredictability, and that signature absurdist humour that made Rick and Morty not just clever, but electric. Without him, the show feels like it's going through the motions, trying hard to imitate a rhythm it no longer understands.

Yes, the voice replication is decent. The new actors clearly studied the vocal cadences of Rick and Morty down to a science. But sound is not soul. The characters might speak the same but they no longer feel the same. The dynamic between Rick and Morty feels flatter, more performative, like a cover band doing their best impersonation of the real thing.

The biggest tragedy is in the storytelling. Where Roiland once helped steer the show into brilliantly unhinged directions the kind that danced on the edge of genius and insanity what we're left with now is safe, overly polished, and at times, self-conscious. The surreal, improvisational chaos that defined early Rick and Morty is now replaced by tightly plotted, but soulless narratives that try too hard to be clever without ever being truly fun.

A side note, if you want to see what complete creative collapse looks like without Roiland, look no further than Solar Opposites. It's almost shocking how badly that show fell apart. Rick and Morty is at least trying to keep the illusion alive but it's just that: an illusion.

It's not awful television. If you never watched the earlier seasons, you might still find it entertaining. But for those of us who remember the show's peak, Pickle Rick, the Citadel of Ricks, interdimensional cable, this version just doesn't come close.

I never thought Rick and Morty could become just another adult cartoon. But here we are.

Seems like a return to form compared to the last season. New actors are settling in finally and I think so far the first 3 episodes of this season are solid 9s. All of them. This season is panning out nice to possibly be one of my favorites. Which is nice because 7 was 50/50. Some episodes were awful, some of the worse, but also some solid episodes like the hole. Season 7 seemed rushed, season 8 is seeming like they took their time on the scripts. I see a lot of h8 and I dont understand it. This season feels elevated, keeping the ball rolling. Hopefully the rest of the season follows this trend.

If it wasn't obvious then, it should be obvious now. The characters felt more alive, and the show felt more dynamic and authentic when Justin Roiland was still writing for the show. You can try to downplay his creative contributions all you want, but you can never downplay his results. With those results being 3 seasons (season 1-3) of some of the best written TV out there.

Multiple people working there have said Dan and Justin turn into creative geniuses when they are working together. This is just as much Justin's show as it is Dan's and like it or not, the show falls apart when one is without the other. They both have different strengths, weaknesses and approaches that when mixed together, turns the show into the iconic, explosive success that it became. With Dan having the more methodical approach, and Roiland having the more "throwing darts/ideas and seeing what sticks" approach. In other words, Dan was the "stick to your guns" type of writer, and Roiland was the "high risk, high reward" type of writer when it came to the show.

Dan provided the amazing narrative structure, character driven storytelliing, and the philosophical depth/complexity each episode had. While Roiland provided the chaotic energy, amazing character dialogue that sounded like improv at times, and character depth/complexity each episode had. He was also responsible for the world building and the crazy sci-fi creativity of the show. Like for example, the idea of a Galactic Federation full of insects, and the idea of a Mr. Meeseeks box where Meeseeks can't die unless they perform their task. In other words, Dan laid the foundation for the show, while Roiland gave life to that foundation.

Finally, this is just a personal gripe of mine. But I hate how Rick uses these over the top, tech gadgets that turns him into a god to solve his problems. Where as before, he used to use his witts/genius, invent stuff/solutions to his problems instead of already having them, and got lucky in tough situations instead of being essentially indestructible. It's just a lazy way of writing solutions to your problems.

There's little hope for Rick and Morty if they can't figure out how to write episodes with A-plot and B-plot structures again. If this was an earlier season, Morty wouldn't be completely absent here, they would have established some sort of B-plot for Morty before Rick got the call and was summoned into space-

Which it seems like they easily could have squeezed in here by reducing slow paced or repetitive scenes and awkward jokes which grind everything to a halt, which there are a lot of.

For example we didn't need to watch the bug gangster guy falling through portals for a whole minute, and the action scenes could have been reduced overall, since Rick is an unstoppable murder god and the gromflomites pose no serious threat to him, never have, probably never will, so it all lacks impact.

Here's hoping the rest of season 8 has some classic-type episodes where Rick and Morty go on adventures together and/or there is a B-plot somewhere. A decent episode needs at least one of those things.

Episode 1 was surprisingly decent. It brought back a bit of that early-season Rick and Morty energy - chaotic fun, quirky dialogue, and a hint of emotional depth. It wasn't groundbreaking, but for a moment, I felt like the old magic was still there. Then episode 2 completely lost the plot. The writing felt lazy and uninspired, with no real stakes or clever twists. The humor was flat, and the story lacked any complexity or originality. It just felt like a filler episode made with no real effort or passion. Whatever momentum episode 1 created, episode 2 immediately crushed. It's sad to see a show that once felt so smart and exciting become this dull and empty. I really hope it turns around, but right now, it just feels like a shadow of what it used to be.