Although Rick and Morty season 7 was a lot of fun, I could see some of the problems that plagued other adult animated hits in the outing. Rick and Morty borrows inspiration from a lot of sources, but the show’s success is unique. Most earlier animated comedies followed entirely different routes to their cult classic status. The Simpsons was a massive pop culture phenomenon from early on, while Family Guy was canceled before it could gain a foothold, only to be revived and endlessly renewed in the decades that followed. Futurama was never a huge ratings hit, but still merited two revivals.

In contrast, Rick and Morty started as a modest success, only to become Adult Swim’s biggest show ever within a few seasons. By Rick and Morty season 8, the show has become a pop culture staple but still enjoys better reviews than the similarly anarchic, R-rated South Park did at that stage. Rick and Morty’s season 7 ending proved that the series still has plenty of clever, subversive sci-fi stories to tell. Rick and Morty was already renewed through to a tenth season, meaning the show’s fate is no mystery. However, I’m still concerned about its future.

Rick and Morty Season 7 Borrowed From Two Classic Episodes

“That’s Amorte” and “Rickfending Your Mort” Imitated Earlier Outings

When Rick and Morty first began airing, it felt like every episode was more subversive than the last. I remember being blown away by the show’s verve and invention, the way that it played with tropes and subverted viewer expectations by flipping clichés on their heads. Rick and Morty didn’t just expect viewers to know the rules of sitcoms and sci-fi shows, but it also wanted the audience to keep up as it twisted these familiar forms into new, surreal shapes. The third episode wasn’t just a parody of Fantastic Voyage or Jurassic Park, but a mashup of both.

The same episode was also a masterclass in cringe comedy, and somehow simultaneously a Christmas special. Rick and Morty was one of the most consistently inventive shows I had ever seen, with its storylines never taking the shape viewers anticipated. However, season 7 saw that change. Episode 6, “Rickfending Your Mort,” featured a silent sequence with Morty stranded on a desert island that closely resembled the iconic montage from season 4, episode 8, “The Vat of Acid Episode,” while the ending of episode 4, “That’s Amorte” mirrored the “Roy: A Life Well Lived” gag from season 2, episode 2, “Mortynight Run.”

Rick and Morty Risks Repeating Itself Too Much

The Simpsons Struggled With This Around The Same Era

It is understandable that Rick and Morty occasionally revisits crowd-pleasing joke formats. Rick and Morty’s season 7 Stephen King parody even borrowed from Bob’s Burgers, much like one season 6 episode riffed on an earlier outing of American Dad. These references, like the show revisiting its greatest hits, are all part of the comedy’s loose, freewheeling appeal. However, season 7’s willingness to borrow from earlier outings reminded me of another show’s meta-jokes and how these uneasily tread the line between fond self-referentiality and lazy rehashing. I’m old enough to remember when The Simpsons first joked about its repetitive plots.

In season 11, episode 13, “Saddlesore Galactica,” and season 13, episode 17, “Gump Roast,” The Simpsons mocked its writing shortcuts in a way that felt newly cynical to me. Comic Book Guy pointed out the plot’s repetitive nature, only for Homer to shout him down. The show included a parody of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” that used outlandish potential future storylines as its lyrics. The show had mocked itself before, but this was different. The joke’s target was no longer the network or the show’s writers, but viewers. This was the first sign of The Simpsons’ decline.

Rick and Morty Can Still Reinvent Itself

Season 7 Proved Rick and Morty Remains Inventive

I saw the same thing crop up in Futurama’s 2023 revival, where numerous episodes were just sequels to existing outings. Luckily, I don’t think that Rick and Morty’s peak has necessarily passed yet. The fact that Rick and Morty’s highest-rated episode in years came at the end of season 7 proves that the series still has the potential to surprise viewers, but this requires a level of ingenuity and invention that some sequences lacked. Luckily, with outings like episode 5, “Unmortricken,” and episode 10, “Fear No Mort,” Rick and Morty proved it still has plenty of narrative ambition.

Ultimately, Rick and Morty needs a new direction if the show is to avoid the fate of The Simpsons. The downfall of The Simpsons has been blamed on many factors, including the popularity of its competitors South Park and Family Guy, its excessive self-referentiality, and its repetitive storylines. These are all fair critiques, but I feel like they miss out on the overarching issue. The Simpsons stopped caring about its characters, resulting in plots that rehashed existing storylines, decisions that felt wildly out of character, and episodes with no stakes. Rick and Morty altering the show’s routine would avoid this issue.

Rick and Morty Can Avoid The Simpsons’ Mistakes

Rick and Morty Season 8 Can Reinvent The Show’s Formula

Although Rick and Morty season 8’s biggest problem seems to be the show’s lack of a grand narrative after Rick Prime’s death, this could secretly be great news for the series. The introduction of Rick’s nemesis Rick Prime in season 5’s finale made much of seasons 6 and 7 feel redundant. The Smith family went on zany adventures, but anything that didn’t contribute to Rick and Morty’s larger canon storyline felt like a waste of time. Now that Rick Prime is finally gone for good, Rick and Morty can afford to give its two heroes more episodes apart.

This would fundamentally reshape the appeal of the series in a way that The Simpsons was never quite able to pull off. At the end of the day, The Simpsons is still the same show about the same family after 760 episodes. Its title provides the parameters that have limited the scope of most episodes, even if I must concede that it is still one of the most ambitious shows ever created. In contrast, Rick and Morty season 8 no longer needs to be about Rick and Morty’s adventures together. Instead, Rick and Morty can finally move past its original premise.