TV Review: ‘Rick and Morty’ – “A Rickle in Time”

Rick and Morty fans who were patient enough to wait for the official Season 2 premiere: your time has finally come. A Rickle in Time debuts Sunday night on Adult Swim and it will be worth the wait.

The episode picks up right where Season 1’s excellent finale Ricksy Business left off with Beth (Sarah Chalke) and Jerry (Chris Parnell) being re-animated after Rick (Justin Roiland), Morty (also Roiland) and Summer (Spencer Grammar) have finished cleaning up the house.

But the stoppage of time and a few moments of indecision have left the trio in a quantum-uncertain state of existence that leads to branching timelines that overlap and threaten to collapse all of existence.

A Rickle in Time doesn’t miss a beat from the intelligence, humor and bizarreness of Season 1. The multiple split screens representing each branching timeline is a brilliantly-executed idea, and mind-boggling to watch. I don’t know how they pulled off all that animation, but it was impressive to behold.

There’s a really fun dynamic going on in the episode between Summer and Morty since Summer’s character almost rose to being at an equal sidekick level as Morty to Rick by the end of Season 1. The sibling rivalry is great character progression and Rick even seems to enjoy their squabbling before things get nuts.

The main negative to take away from this episode is that the laughs that are in there, aren’t all that big. Sure, there are some really funny moments, but A Rickle in Time excels more as a fascinating concept than a straight-forward hilarious episode. But having also gotten access to the press screener for the second episode of Season 2 Mortynight Run, I can tell you, the big laughs are on the way.