This wasn’t an easy show to rank.
And not because there were so many episodes to get through, since there’s only been three seasons with ten episodes each, and each episode is only 20 minutes long, so you could quite easily tear through the entire show in less than half a day.
No, the problem with Rick & Morty is that it is almost TOO good for its own good.
Even at its worst, the show is still smarter, funnier and just downright better than 99% of other shows on TV right now, and when it is at its best? It is practically unparalleled.
With the finale of Season 3 now available to watch on Netflix – and with no real idea when (or even IF?!) we might be getting a Season 4 – we’ve decided to look back over the best three and worst three episodes of the show to date.
We fully expect every reader to profoundly disagree with these lists, and to them we say…
Clip via sclerine
So here we go, kicking off with the “worst” three:
- 3rd WORST – “The Rickchurian Mortydate” – Season 3 Episode 10
Yep, we’re sorry to say it, but the potentially last episode we’ll ever see is also one of the worst. Which isn’t to say that isn’t good. There are some GREAT bits in here, particularly the frenetic, OTT shoot-out between Rick and the President which sees The White House being pretty much destroyed. But after all the progress that was made in the third season, especially with Rick kicking off by destroying the Council Of Ricks, the Galactic Space Government and getting rid of Jerry, the show essentially pushes the reboot button and we’re right back where we started. Not terrible, but also not particularly satisfying.
- 2nd WORST – “Raising Gazorpazorp” – Season 1 Episode 9
This episode is split down the middle – Morty is raising his new half-alien son, Rick finds himself with Summer on a female-ruled planet – and it never really adds up to the sum of its parts. Every episode of the show usually introduces us to a new character we’d love to meet again, but neither Rick Junior nor the female rulers of Gazorpazorp are exactly screaming out for a return visit. That being said, it was great to spend more time with Rick and Summer isolated from the rest of the group, and some of the jokes on the Ladies Planet were painfully spot on. “I am here if you need to talk.”
- 1st WORST – “Something Ricked This Way Comes” – Season 1 Episode 7
Okay, first things first, even though we think this is the worst episode of Rick & Morty, we’ve still watched it about ten times, and would gladly watch it again. Alfred Molina is clearly having a ball playing The Devil, and there are some great one-liners scattered throughout (“I haven’t learned a thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!”). The biggest problem with Something Ricked This Way Comes is that it just doesn’t feel like an episode of Rick & Morty, it feels more like an episode of Futurama. Don’t get us wrong, we also love Futurama, but we don’t come to Rick & Morty to see a mad scientist fight against the devil over magical monkey paws. We hate to say it, but this was Rick & Morty at its least intelligent.
And now, for the best three:
- 3rd BEST – “Meeseeks And Destroy” – Season 1 Episode 5
If there was an episode of Rick & Morty that perfectly captured the spirit of the show, this was it. Both of the parallel storylines started off in a relatively light-hearted place (Rick & Morty head off on a do-good adventure in a magical kingdom, Jerry & Beth (and Summer, to an extent) use the Mr. Meeseeks to improve themselves in some small ways) before everything goes to hell and becomes insanely dark (Rick kills the Jellybean King after he sexually assaulted Morty, the dozens of Meeseeks take a restaurant violently hostage because Jerry can’t improve his golf swing). Every time you think you know where the episode is going, it pulls out yet another rug from under you, keeping you laughing all the way down. Plus, Mr. Meeseeks is an absolutely genius creation: “Is he keeping his back straight?” “Ooooh, he’s tryyyyyyyyyin’!”
Clip via Kamal Elhoseny
- 2nd BEST – “The Ricklantis Mix-Up” – Season 3 Episode 7
We thought that this mixed bag of stories was going to be the third season’s answer to Interdimensional Cable (at least until Morty’s Mind Blowers arrived as the actual stand-in), but instead we got this incredibly layered, powerfully intelligent, and dark-as-night funny collection of tales from the Citadel. The build-up to the return of Evil Morty was inspired, especially considered that our Rick and Morty were practically absent for the entire episode, so every iteration of the characters we know and love are practically strangers, off by just one degree, but enough to make them entirely new to us. You can’t think about the logistics of the episode for too long – if they’ve been there for a number of years, how come none of the Morty’s have aged at all? – and instead focus on the multiple messages that are being told. Just let the genius wash over you.
- 1st BEST – “Total Rickall” – Season 2 Episode 4
The funny thing about this episode is that the family never actually leave the house, but we’re also introduced to the most new and memorable characters in the show. There are so many comedy pile-ups happening that the episode needs at least three re-watches to let the jokes properly sink in, with Jerry mourning for the loss of a gay relationship with Sleepy Gary which he actually never had, or Rick suddenly getting emotional for Pensylvester based on his name alone, or the introduction of Mr. Poopy Butthole in the episode’s opening credits. The mad-cap nature of the characters we’d already been introduced merged so perfectly with the hard sci-fi idea of a parasitic alien that feeds on creating false memories is the kind of stuff that most other shows would be too afraid of confusing their audiences with. Not Rick & Morty though, the writers know that the audience expect their brains to be given a work out while they’re laughing along at Photography Raptor trying to get a family portrait, and Total Rickall is Rick & Morty at its most inspired.
Clip via RufusZombot
