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Rick and Morty serviced the worst parts of its fanbase and made a mess
Dan Harmon has made a name for himself with his ability to take the common tropes of virtually every genre and turn them in on themselves. Community would often break the fourth wall and announce what kind of episode it was doing and then deconstruct it. While his second major work, Rick and Morty, tones it down a bit with the fourth wall breaking, it is not scared to punch at other genres as well. Last season we saw a superhero movie-Saw cross over and mafia-esque conspiracy films and prison breakouts have seen their time under the magnifying glass as well.
One Crew Over The Crewcoo’s Morty was the latter’s attempt at satirizing the heist genre, but despite Harmons’s experience with these types of episodes before, this one feels like less of a fun joke and more arrogant and self-indulging.
The key to these episodes is balancing the punching satire with self aware comedy. While you might be making fun of another genre, you also have to make fun of yourself a little bit for making an episode within the genre.
In Community, this was usually done through Abed. The study groups resident cinephile would often directly reference how the situation the group was in was eerily similar and then excitedly take part in it. While they would poke fun at the genre, it was in a cute, tongue in cheek way that made it feel like the characters were in on the joke as well.
Rick was not in on the joke in this episode, he was above the joke. He constantly belittled every aspect of the heist. It did not feel like a fun deconstruction of a genre, but instead an insult of one. The jokes all came off a little too strong and they seemed to last a little too long. A scene at the end where Rick takes on his own creation in a battle of the wits seems to linger for too long, and it quickly stales out and feels it’s just a little too much.
“Just a little too much” was a common problem for the episode. While it started strong with the “anti booby-trap” suit gag, it quickly devolved into overaggressive and masturbatory, even. The main takeaway from this episode is that Harmon and the writers believe the heist genre is dumb, and that the writers of the genre are not smart enough to come up with anything new.
