Rick and Morty

[Reply #200 on:]

No, it isn't.  Their problem was probably In fifth dimensional space, possibly sixth.  Time is solidly fourth.

[Reply #201 on:]

Yeah, four dimensional timelines would make up the fifth dimension or something. And speaking of which, I did like the first episode very much. It was well made and the clever concept holds it up well.

The second episode was solid with better story overall. I can't say which one was better, but I'm glad it's still same quality as season 1.

[Reply #202 on:]

I can't really pick between them, to be honest. I loved the first episode for its brilliant science fiction concept (I honestly don't think I've ever seen that done before), and the second one for how relentlessly funny (and dark) it was.

At any rate, I'm just really happy the show's quality hasn't dropped in the slightest. If anything, this season may prove even better than the first, assuming these two episodes are the benchmark.

[Reply #203 on:]

Yeah, four dimensional timelines would make up the fifth dimension or something. And speaking of which, I did like the first episode very much. It was well made and the clever concept holds it up well.

The second episode was solid with better story overall. I can't say which one was better, but I'm glad it's still same quality as season 1.

They weren't in multiple timelines.  Fourth dimension contains all of time; fifth dimension contains all possible arrangements in time (think alternate timelines/universe). I have trouble expressing things in dimensions higher than five.

They were in a state of superposition, and some of the possibilities of them could not exist; arguably they didn't, hence why they may have ceased to exist.  That's why I said fifth or sixth; since they may have done technically impossible things.  In fact I'm certain now they were operating on a dimension greater than five; these weren't technically alternate versions of them, all versions were parts of the individuals in that timeline.  Like I said though I have trouble expressing objects in dimensions greater than five.  I guess I should practice more.

[Reply #204 on:]

Show spoiler

They weren't in/operating on an "extra dimension", they were in a state of quantum instability caused by the superposition winna mentioned, which pushed them into an unstable "pocket reality"or micro "bubble universe" (pick your preferred term), allowing them to undergo quantum decay without affecting the timeline/universe/reality they normally inhabited. They were able to resolve their instability, allowing them to return to their normal plane of existence before the collapse of the one that they'd created via their instability in the first place.

Technically though, all of this is just technobabble which only has meaning within the framework of the show. I mean, that's not actually how quantum phenomena, time, or the universe work. So any attempt at an explanation of what was going on is effectively bullshit. It's just that some stink worse than others.

[Reply #205 on:]

All of reality can presumed in logical fashion to be observable and defined as a single physical object.  In order to locate, define, and discuss parts of this whole we must describe properties of its location within the whole.  To one degree or another this requires understanding of the scope in which we are observing.  As three dimensionally observing beings, in general and in order to have meaningful communication, we merely require observation within the scope of three dimensions though we often utilize the four (time; time is actually part of data defining a physical location).

For the show's purposes they discuss the fifth dimension (though they haven't stated that explicitly) and so various versions of Rick & Morty are possibilities of Rick & Morty in other timelines.  This is descriptive of fifth dimensional scope and Rick and Morty can interact with other Rick and Mortys because Rick possesses access to observe reality on this scope.  Though they are alternate timelines or alternate universes as some people deacribe them, there are no physical laws being broken with these hypothetical interactions; rick and morty are merely capable of traversing to locations others cannot clearly perceive; no matter is being destroyed or created because all of reality contains all of these sets od possibilities.

That said, when asked if time dimensions was an adequate method of describing the situation in that episode, I said that no it was not.  None of these variations were alternate timelines of Rick Morty and Summer, but rather that they were possibilities unclearly defined for a single timeline as they were in a state of superposition.  I can't clearly define which scope would be needed to express this situation correctly (though I am certain it can be expressed real, physically, and finitely with the examples) because I have a lot of trouble currently observing and expressing reality in a dimension greater than five.  My best guess is that the lowest dimensional scope required to do so would be six.  It's also possible I am wrong on my ability to express correctly space in five dimensions (I could be missing a dimension, as an example).

However, all of that is just basic logic concerning reality and it's neither technobabble (as it expresses clearly defined and understandable language), nor is reasonable to expect it to be wildly inaccurate from the truth (as its assertions are simple and firmly grounded).  It is speculative though, but that's merely because we haven't obtained the ability to observe reality in spacial dimensions greater than three, though we are vaguely capable of observing the fourth.

[Reply #206 on:]

Different possibilities of wavefunction aren't an extra dimension(s), but it would at least be intuitive to think so.

None of these variations were alternate timelines of Rick Morty and Summer, but rather that they were possibilities unclearly defined for a single timeline as they were in a state of superposition.

I don't see the difference, but then again, I don't know the definition of timeline in quantum mechanics.

[Reply #207 on:]

The closest you can come to defining a "timeline" in terms of QM is probably something like a cascading series of branched choices, following a specific and defined choice each time so as to navigate from one predefined state to another possible state.

It's very handwavy. I wouldn't try to define temporally dependant scenarios, states, or effects in terms of QM, personally. It's not really suited to that.

[Reply #208 on:]

It's not handwavey at all.  It's precisely how lighting strikes.  Another human example would be the A* pathfinding algorithm.

[Reply #209 on:]

Definitions of anything except quantum phenomena themselves in QM are handwavy by default, winna. Made of pure handwavium.

[Reply #210 on:]

Episode 3 leaked online, too. It's got a good concept.

And the ending is quite dark, moreso than episode 2's.

[Reply #211 on:]

Damn, I wonder how all these episodes are leaking? Roiland and Harmon must be concerned.

[Reply #212 on:]

Roiland and Harmon must be concerned.

They aren't too bothered, actually.

(Well, Roiland, at least.)

[Reply #213 on:]

I think I slightly preferred 3 to 2.

As for the leaks, I'd feel bad about it if this show was legally available in the UK in any capacity. I find it really upsetting that we still haven't got a DVD or blu-ray release of season 1, frankly. I don't want to have to import a copy from abroad.

[Reply #214 on:]

It seems most Adult Swim shows never get a region 2 release, which makes me fear we'll never get Rick and Morty over here in the UK.

[Reply #215 on:]

The Venture Bros. has had very limited releases, so it could happen. I suppose the show is still new and it might take a while for a distributor to come along.

[Reply #216 on:]

Wow, that's very strange, given that it's been out in region 4 for a while (not that it matters to me since I imported mine from the U.S. - I can't stand the 4% framerate speed-up in PAL, especially with animation where it's really noticeable in the characters' voices). Generally region 2 and 4 releases often happen around the same time.

[Reply #217 on:]

Just as we (perhaps justifiably) were about to give up hope, an annoucement has been made about Rick and Morty airing in the UK.

Hopefully this means a DVD release is on the horizon. Hopefully.

[Reply #218 on:]

I would like to buy the DVD at some point too and even better if I didn't need to get it from UK or something, but let's see if there's going to be a region 2 in the first place. I just want those audio commentaries and deleted scenes sooner rather than later.

[Reply #219 on:]

Good show, hope it stays sci-fiey and not become too realtionshippy or too pop culturally like Futurama did in its later seasons with its stuff about IPhones and whatnot.

Favourite line was "Where are my testicles Summer?"

Favourite episode was the one where they are in a simulator.

[Reply #220 on:]

Just as we (perhaps justifiably) were about to give up hope, an annoucement has been made about Rick and Morty airing in the UK.

Hopefully this means a DVD release is on the horizon. Hopefully.

AWWWH YES, WUBBA LUBBA DUB DUB! Great news!

Thanks for sharing, Boxy.

[Reply #221 on:]

Fantastic. If it airs here, it's pretty much guaranteed a home-media release to follow.

[Reply #222 on:]

How are we not already talking about last nights episode? It was a great episode, although a bit depressing at the end...

[Reply #223 on:]

I enjoyed it as much as any episode of the show, but it definitely didn't hit me on the same level as the first two episodes this season. The notion of Rick being romantically involved with a parasitic hive-mind organism is very humorous on paper (and I did enjoy most of the jokes regarding how Unity interacted with Rick), but overall I just wasn't laughing out loud like I normally do with the show. Perhaps it will resonate with me more on repeat viewings - as was the case with the few season 1 episodes I wasn't initially fond of.

EDIT: Oh, the nipple-oriented race war was gold, though. I almost forgot about that! Definitely the funniest part of the episode for me.

[Reply #224 on:]

After this week's episode, I'm very curious about Beth's mom/Rick's wife and what that family's life was like before Rick abandoned them. What was Rick even like at that point?

[Reply #225 on:]

They've definitely been doing more to flesh out Rick's character lately, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get a flashback episode (or at the very least, more information on the points you've raised) by the end of the season.

[Reply #226 on:]

Wow. That was a dark point for Rick, just before the credits. I actually felt sorry for him, despite the arbitrary cruelty of bringing that... ...thing... ...to life and then turning it to ash just to test his... um... machine for turning creatures to ash, I guess... ... ...

... ... ...yeah. That was a dark ending to the episode. I want more episodes like that. Crazy fun for fifteen minutes, and then five minutes that just get darker and eventually punch you in the gut with some feels.

I've got a really good feeling about the overall rest of Season Two.

[Reply #227 on:]

I dunno, his suicide attempt just felt too emotionally manipulative to have any impact on me. This show normally handles emotional moments very well - for example, Morty revealing the other Rick and Morty's graves to Summer - but that one just fell flat for me (which is strange, given my own history with depression and suicide attempts).

Though one thing I didn't notice first time around: The creature he brought to life was a Cronenberg! I dare say it may have even been a mercy killing on Rick's part, given the number of twisted reasons one could imagine as to why he'd been holding on to it in the first place. Rick may be a beacon of self-destruction, but he's not without a conscience, and it's quite possible he'd want to do some sort of redemptive act before turning the machine onto himself.

Also, I loved the subtle Community reference. "Now cancel it! Now put it back on!"

[Reply #228 on:]

‘Rick And Morty’ Renewed For Season 3 By Adult Swim

[Reply #229 on:]

Very happy the two best shows currently on tv have both been renewed for third seasons.

[Reply #230 on:]

I dunno, his suicide attempt just felt too emotionally manipulative to have any impact on me. This show normally handles emotional moments very well - for example, Morty revealing the other Rick and Morty's graves to Summer - but that one just fell flat for me (which is strange, given my own history with depression and suicide attempts).

Nothing against Rick and Morty, because I've thoroughly enjoyed all of what I've seen. But I watched BoJack Horseman over 3 days, which I think made the emotional devastation all that more devastating because I could not stop watching and because so many times that show got too real for me in terms of my own depression/suicide attempts. These heavy moments on Rick and Morty seem downright average in comparison. But also I think the extreme creativity of the universe(s) in Rick and Morty makes it a little easier to separate it from reality.

That Community joke totally took me out of the episode for a moment because I forgot all about the fact that Dan Harmon is involved in this. It was funny though, because Rick and Morty probably would be the only show to ever reference Community.

[Reply #231 on:]

I dunno, his suicide attempt just felt too emotionally manipulative to have any impact on me.

Eh. I've been in that position before (rejected by individuals rather than a planet-spanning hive-mind, but it's a similar feeling), and I know how it feels when you're drunk, depressed, and feel like there isn't really a point to continuing. That might have been why it didn't feel so cheap for me. To be rejected by somebody you care for... (and I think that Rick cared for Unity a lot more than he'd be willing to admit; beyond the mindless hedonism, I got a sense that he felt connected to Unity in a way that he can't feel for most people) ...it can really sting deeply.

Rick fits the template for a manic depressive genius - he fills the emotional hole in his life with booze, hedonism, and losing himself in his work. But they're all just distractions that each have a turn and then are discarded in favour of another. He goes through phases of each. The constant in his life is his family - he needs an emotional connection, and he puts an awful lot of work into it compared with anything else. He could clone himself a dozen Mortys and hide away on some unclaimed planet in another reality, free to get on with his work. He could escape from the petty frustrations of Jerry and Beth's daily shouting matches. He could just fuck off into the universe if he wanted.

But he chose at some point to re-connect with Beth, and to be a part of his grandkids' lives, and even to put up with Jerry. There are some powerful emotions that drive him, as much as Rick would probably never want to admit any of that. He's a complex enough character that as much as he's an awful person I can respect the fact that he at least makes a token attempt not to be sometimes.

Which makes me feel pretty bad for him when something penetrates his emotional armour.

I dare say it may have even been a mercy killing on Rick's part, given the number of twisted reasons one could imagine as to why he'd been holding on to it in the first place. Rick may be a beacon of self-destruction, but he's not without a conscience, and it's quite possible he'd want to do some sort of redemptive act before turning the machine onto himself.

I would love to have something positive to think of Rick, so I wanted to take this to heart and believe it. But the fact that he had the damn thing frozen/preserved in a cupboard, where it was out of any misery, and brought it to life before destroying it rather than simply destroying it outright means that I still think it was a pretty cruel (and thus unmerciful) act that had more to do with testing his machine prior to sticking his own head in it.

Also, if you think carefully about it, the "infinite timelines" nature of the Rick-and-Morty-verse means that several variations of Rick didn't pass out before their heads were turned to ash. By sticking his head into that machine, he had to have reasoned out that somewhere, some version of him, was being condemned to death even if he survived (and that by extension he just killed a whole bunch of other Ricks off).

That's pretty fucking cold. I can't say that anything about what Rick tried to do was particularly merciful, noble, or anything else laudable. Which is another piece of evidence that it was driven by deep emotional pain - his reaction to the idea of a townful of people being bombed or his grandkids dying earlier was one of horror. Logically, it must have been an emotionally numb Rick that made his decision to put his head into the machine, knowing what he does about the nature of reality and possibilities.

Or perhaps I'm just overthinking it because I've possibly gotten a little too into this show. Although in my defence, having a mad scientist in the family who could teach me all sorts of crazy shit was one of the things I used to daydream about in school. Some long-lost uncle maybe, who'd show up out of nowhere and have me help him with insane experiments like building rayguns and backyard space probes. Which is probably one reason I loved Futurama early on; I'd have been thrilled to be in Fry's position, able to participate in Professor Farnsworth's various mad science experiments and be part of new discoveries.

But I watched BoJack Horseman over 3 days, which I think made the emotional devastation all that more devastation because I could not stop watching and because so many times that show got too real for me in terms of my own depression/suicide attempts.

There's another extremely dark and emotionally devastating show that'll punch me right in the feels? Hmm. I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if my plans for Friday night through Sunday suddenly changed to include binge-watching something new.

[Reply #232 on:]

Yep, the best drama on tv right now isn't some gritty cable drama or prestige period piece - it's an animated series about a talking horse.

Seriously though, BoJack Horseman was the other show I was referring to in my previous post, and while there are many reasons to rave about it, Spacedal hits it on the nose: It has one of the most realistic depictions of depression I've seen in any form of media. The cast is also phenomenal (Will Arnett and Aaron Paul are roommates!) and it's jam-packed with background jokes, callbacks and foreshadowing that give it great rewatch value - and it's comparable to The Venture Bros in terms of its level of continuity/serialisation.

Be warned, however, as the general consensus among both critics and fans is that the show doesn't get off to a great start - it arguably doesn't begin to come into its own until the back half of season 1 (I personally didn't mind the first few episodes, but they definitely pale in comparison to what comes) - the show veers dangerously into Family Guy-esque territory in its early episodes, particularly the first one - but once it drops the guise of being a comedy and changes its focus to the crushing void of emptiness and self-destruction that drives its characters (or, rather, fails to drive them), it becomes something really unique. So those first few episodes are definitely worth powering through.

As for all the observations on Rick (and the mentions of Harmon's involvement), there's not a whole lot more to say that hasn't already been covered, but I definitely think there's a lot of Dan Harmon in him, particularly when it comes to the self-loathing aspects of his character.

[Reply #233 on:]

Six seasons and a movie!

[Reply #234 on:]

I'm both glad and not really surprised about third season.

About latest episode, I think it's as good as first two. Continuing constant good quality and I really liked the ending. It was kind of very sad and true to the Rick's character.

[Reply #235 on:]

I was already planning on watching this show after I finished that 70's show, which I'm mostly through now before I read your guys's thoughts, which encouraged me even more.  I love animation and Rick and Morty has been raved about. I'm excited to start watching soon.

[Reply #236 on:]

Twelve seasons and two movies!

[Reply #237 on:]

Saw last nights episode and I must say, looking back on my initial reactions, this show just keeps getting better. I saw the ending coming, but holy crap was it well done! That post-credits tag!

 I really enjoyed rewatching the episodes before the season started as well, and kept finding small things I didn't notice before.

[Reply #238 on:]

Wow, that ending. I didn't see it coming and I should have and I'm glad I didn't. It was a good episode once again, starting silly and self-referential, ending with a profound remark about life.

Also this turned out to be much better in context of this episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6vdUM7_yEw

Well, this is yet another preview of Season 2. It seems to just be some random slideshow of Rick saying stupid things..... It makes me a little worrysome for Season 2. I mean the "graassss..... is bad" joke was just terrible. But hopefully those are just the few bad jokes scattered throughout the season.

[Reply #239 on:]

That was a phenomenal episode. One of the best they've produced so far.