REVIEW: I'm Sure Season 8 Of 'Rick And Morty' Will Be Fine

Disclaimer: This review contains minor spoilers for Rick and Morty, Season 8.

Given its whirly-dirly legacy (e.g.: creator Dan Harmon’s long reputation for drama  / his post-Season 2 onset of Impostor Syndrome [and then taking advantage of production limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic to get back on track] / the 18-24-year-old male fanbase’s tantrums over sharing ‘their’ sandbox with the fairer sex and McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce / Justin Roiland’s firing), Rick and Morty making it to Season 8 is impressive. Though there are yet miles to go before the show reaches the upper echelons of its promises of “100 years of Rick and Morty” - Season 8’s upcoming batch of ten new installments of “high-concept sci-fi rigmarole” makes 81 episodes thus far, with current plans through Season 12, circa 2029 - the continued high caliber of storytelling, paired with the titular Rick Sanchez’s reluctant evolution as he continues to embrace being a family man and even occasional forays into the trappings of serialized drama, keeps the intergenerational duo’s adventures fresh. 

One, Three, Four, Five

Press screeners for Season 8 dodge slyly around any aforementioned serialized drama, with the exception of the backstory for the third episode, “The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly,” wherein a selection of survivors of the Citadel of Ricks now duke it out in a wild west dystopia following Rick’s multiverse-shaking portal reset in the Season 6 premiere, “Solaricks.” That is, their home dimension amounts to a dilapidated factory farm for Mortys. If this review was in spoiler-free meme format, this episode might be represented by a picture of a fidget spinner. 

Even less can be said, pre-the May 25th premiere, about the Season 8 opener, “Summer of All Fears,” despite its tight rhetorical turns and the ethical considerations that arise when Rick’s creative punishments for his sticky-fingered grandchildren go awry, as they are wont to do. Likewise, while bits of Episode 4, “The Last Temptation of Jerry” have found their way into teaser trailers, Adult Swim has been careful not to reveal precisely what “space Christians” from a “Wicker Man-looking place” wielding cross guns have to do with Rick’s son-in-law, Jerry Smith’s overzealous Easter decorating, though the episode’s lore and Jerryrigging (fart noise) have the makings of a fan favorite. Finally, in “Cry Mort a Ricker” (Season 8, Episode 5), Rick and Morty tackle space capitalism after Rick takes advantage of a case of mistaken identity and Morty aligns himself with the adventure’s underdogs. 

Hands Off Grandpa's Phone Charger

Potentially, the latter half of the season will air following a break after “Cry Mort a Ricker’s” June 22nd premiere, a common practice in the era of streaming service business models, consumer demand for high quality production, and writer’s strikes, all amidst a global recession, no less. Ergo, while the yet mysterious contents of the season’s second episode, “Valkyricks” have at least been hinted at (“Space Beth calls her dad for a ride, broh”), however obnoxiously vague Harmon’s summaries tend to be, viewers can only guess at what “The Curious Case of Bethjamin Button” (perhaps a rare glimpse into Rick’s daughter’s adolescence?), “Ricker Than Fiction” (probably funnier than a Fourth Wall-breaking writing utensil that brings a family member’s stories to life), “Nomortland,” “Morty Daddy,” and/or the season finale, “Hot Rick” might entail. If episode title puns aren’t red herrings, “Nomortland” would hardly be the first waste land under Rick and Morty’s belt. Likewise, Morty is already a ‘baby daddy’ a couple of times over, raising both a male half-Gazorpazorp baby after unwittingly siring it with an alien sex robot in Season 1, as well as accidentally fathering a giant incest baby in Season 5 that the United States government promptly launches into space. One can only hope that “Hot Rick” is an allusion to Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs,” or perhaps Rick simply eats a bunch of hot wings.

© Adult Swim

Regardless of what ends up on Season 8’s docket and beyond, Rick and Morty has proven itself capable of character-building adversity and clever commentary on all manner of social issues and storytelling tropes alike, regardless of whether the adventure-in-question satirizes history and/or classic pop culture or simply plays out the consequences of Morty’s teenaged wiles. Much of the show’s success centers around Dan Harmon’s 8-step Story Circle, itself based on academic Joseph Campbell’s concept of the Hero’s Journey, a rhetorical structure that Harmon and company continuously manipulate via Rick and Morty. Ergo, whether Rick ends up working on a novel, testing the limits of his octogenarian palette, and/or helping Space Beth bring down the fascist intergalactic government (aka the Smith family’s version of father-daughter bonding), fans of the show will continue to enjoy watching him do so, hopefully for “forever and forever a hundred years!”

Rating: ★★★★★

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Rick and Morty © Adult Swim

About Rick and Morty

Premiere Date: May 25, 2025

Episode Count: 10

Executive Producer/Showrunner: Dan Harmon, Scott Marder

Writer: Jess Lacher, Albro Lundy, James Siciliano, Michael Kellner, Beth Stelling, Heather Anne Campbell, Nick Rutherford, Scott Marder

Production: Harmonious Claptrap, Williams Street

Distribution: Adult Swim

Cast: Ian Cardoni, Harry Belden, Sarah Chalke, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer

Synopsis: Rick and Morty is back for Season Eight! Life has meaning again! Anything is possible! Look out for adventures with Summer, Jerry, Beth, and the other Beth. Maybe Butter Bot will get a new task? Whatever happens, you can’t keep Rick and Morty down for long. People have tried!