Rick and Morty – Amortycan Grickitti Review

Rick and Morty arguably reached a low point with the episode “Rickdependence Stray.” So, the way to go for the follow up episode was up.

It’s Friday night! Rick and Jerry prepare to go on a guy’s night with a lot of demons. The demons enjoy the embarrassment and misery that Jerry causes. But Jerry is unaware of this. Morty and Summer attempt to impress the new kid in school with an intergalactic joyride in Rick’s car.

“Rickdependence Stray” was criticised for being a 22-minute-long gross gag involving killer sperm monsters and a giant incest baby. “Amortycan Grickfitti” was a much better episode by comparison. “Amortycan Grickfitti” was a more traditional episode because it had an A-plot and B-plot as different members of the Smith household go on separate adventures. This episode had a lot less gross-out humour and didn’t seem like a random series of events.

“Amortycan Grickitti” had themes of popularity and coolness. Both adventures see the characters navigate these pitfalls. Jerry was made out to be a likeable and sympathetic figure in this episode because he thinks the demons like him when in reality they were just mocking him. It hurts Jerry when he found the real reason why the demons wanted to hang out with him. Jerry was just an embarrassing husband/dad which many people can relate to on some level. It makes a change from Jerry being a doofus who deserves ridicule.

The guy’s nights take Rick, Jerry, and Beth to Hell which led to the trio having to fight their way out. It was funny to see Rick and Beth dressed like they were going to a BDSM dungeon. The horrific demons were a sight to behold because of all their mutilations. But this section did feel too similar to when Rick, Morty, and Summer go to the dragon world in “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty.” This episode and the Season Four episode saw the characters going into a fantasy to perform a rescue mission and Rick sci-fi gizmos not working as intended. The Second Season of Disenchantment had a better Escape from Hell episode.

Morty and Summer’s adventure felt similar to what they got up to in “Childrick of Mort” with teenage hijinks gone awry. They cause mayhem across the galaxy before having the tables flipped on them when the car’s AI blackmail the siblings. The car was the one going on a psychopathic killing spree. This storyline ended up becoming a bizarre mix of American Graffiti, John Hughes movies, and Transformers because the car tries to hook up with a transformer.

Summer and the car have a history. In “The Ricks Must Be Crazy” the subplot focused on the car being assigned the mission to ‘keep Summer safe.’ Summer adding more restrictions to the mission which led to a strained relationship between the two. It was fun to see the show, to put these two together, and their relationship was even more fraught. The car got to have fun with mass murder, something she hasn’t been allowed to do.

When compared to “Rickdependence Stray,” “Amortycan Grickfitti” is leagues ahead, but in the context of the rest of the Rick and Morty this episode was a middling affair. It felt like a case of ‘been there, done that’ which was a shame because the story possibilities for Rick and Morty are infinite.