The third season of ''
Rick and Morty
{{Infobox television
, image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png
, alt =
, caption =
, genre = {{Plainlist,
* Animated sitcom
* Adult animation
* Science fiction
* Black comedy
* ...
'', an American animated television series created by
Dan Harmon
Daniel James Harmon (born January 3, 1973) is an American writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator and producer of the NBC/Yahoo! Screen sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), creator and host of the comedy podcast '' Harmontow ...
and
Justin Roiland, originally aired on
Cartoon Network's late night programming block,
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
. It premiered with "
The Rickshank Rickdemption", which aired unannounced on April 1, 2017, as part of
Adult Swim's annual April Fools' prank. As a result of production delays, the remaining episodes began airing weekly nearly four months later, on July 30, 2017. The season comprised ten episodes but it originally was supposed to fourteen episodes, and its initial airing concluded on October 1, 2017.
The premiere picks up where the second-season finale left off, as the show continues to follow the adventures of the members of the Smith household. When Jerry asks Beth to choose between him and Rick, the strength of their marriage is tested. Jerry is confronted with the loss of his family, while Beth begins to discover her independence again. Morty and Summer deal with their parents' separation by seeking more control over their lives. Rick's nihilistic way of life continues to prevent him from bonding with his family, as he remains unable to change his self-destructive behavior.
The third season of ''Rick and Morty'' delivered the highest ratings in Adult Swim's history and was the top-rated comedy among millennials on television. The season received largely positive reviews, with many critics highlighting its focus on character development. The season has also received a number of awards and nominations, including the win of a
Critics' Choice Award for
Best Animated Series, and the show's first
Emmy Award which it won for the third-season's standout episode "
Pickle Rick", in the category for
Outstanding Animated Program.
Cast and characters
![Justin Roiland, XOXO 2015 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Justin_Roiland%2C_XOXO_2015_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The actors and actresses listed below
lend their voices to the corresponding animated characters.
Main cast
*
Justin Roiland as
Rick Sanchez
Rick Sanchez is one of the two eponymous characters from the Adult Swim animated television series ''Rick and Morty'' and resulting franchise. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon and voiced by the former, Sanchez is a misanthropic alcoh ...
and
Morty Smith
Mortimer Chauncey "Morty" Smith, Sr. is one of the eponymous characters from the American animated television series ''Rick and Morty''. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, and voiced by the former, Morty is a 14-year-old boy loosely ...
, the two main characters of the show; Rick is an eccentric
mad scientist
The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...
and Morty is his kind but easily distressed grandson
*
Chris Parnell as
Jerry Smith, Rick's son-in-law and Morty's father; a simple-minded and insecure person, who disapproves of Rick's influence over his family.
*
Spencer Grammer
Spencer Karen Grammer (born October 9, 1983) is an American actress best known for her roles as the voice of Summer Smith in the Adult Swim animated science-fiction series ''Rick and Morty'' and as Casey Cartwright in the ABC Family college come ...
as
Summer Smith
Summer Smith is one of the main characters of the American animated television series ''Rick and Morty''. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon and voiced by Spencer Grammer, Summer is a conventional and often superficial 17-year-old teenager, ...
, Rick's granddaughter and Morty's sister; a conventional teenager who worries about improving her status among her peers.
*
Sarah Chalke
Sarah Louise Christine Chalke (; born August 27, 1976) is a Canadian actress and model. She is known for portraying Elliot Reid on the NBC/ ABC comedy series '' Scrubs'', the second Becky Conner on the ABC sitcom ''Roseanne'', Stella Zinman on ...
as
Beth Smith, Rick's daughter and Morty's mother; a generally level-headed person, who is dissatisfied with her marriage.
Guest cast
Other cast members
Other cast members of the season, who each have voiced one or more characters, include: Dan Harmon, Brandon Johnson,
Tom Kenny
Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in '' ...
,
Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor, comedian, and impressionist. He has voiced the Brain in '' Animaniacs'' as well as its spin-off '' Pinky and the Brain'', Big Bob in ''Hey Arnold!'' (1996–2004), and a variety of ...
,
Nolan North
Nolan North (born October 31, 1970) is an American actor best known for his voice acting roles.
After his breakthrough role as Dr. Chris Ramsey on the ABC soap opera '' Port Charles'' in 1997, North moved into voice acting when the show ended ...
,
Cassie Steele
Cassandra Rae Steele (born December 2, 1989) is a Canadian actress and singer known for portraying Manny Santos on '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'' and Abby Vargas on ''The L.A. Complex''. In 2014, she played Sarah in the MTV horror televisio ...
,
Kari Wahlgren
Kari Wahlgren (born July 13, 1977) is an American actress who has provided English-language voices for animated movies, TV series, and video games. She got her start in anime voice-overs as Haruko Haruhara in '' FLCL'', and would later land ma ...
,
Laura Bailey
Laura Bailey is an American voice actress. She made her anime debut as Kid Trunks in the Funimation dub of ''Dragon Ball Z''. Her other anime credits include Emily / Glitter Lucky in ''Glitter Force'', Tohru Honda in ''Fruits Basket'', Lust in ...
,
John DiMaggio
John William DiMaggio (; born September 4, 1968) is an American actor. His various voice roles include Bender on ''Futurama'', Jake the Dog on ''Adventure Time'', Marcus Fenix in the ''Gears of War'' series, Dr. Drakken on ''Kim Possible'', H ...
, Ryan Ridley, Scott Chernoff, Dan Benson,
Clancy Brown
Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.
Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...
,
Echo Kellum
Echo Kellum (born August 29, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. Kellum is best known for his roles as Curtis Holt on The CW drama series ''Arrow'', Tommy on the FOX sitcom ''Ben and Kate'', and Hunter on NBC's ''Sean Saves the World''.
E ...
, Melique Berger, William Holmes,
Tara Strong
Tara Lyn Strong (née Charendoff; born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as '' The New Batman Adventure ...
,
Jeff B. Davis
Jeffrey Bryan Davis (born October 6, 1973) is an American actor, impressionist and comedian. He is known for his work as a recurring performer on the improv comedy show ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' From July 2016 until October 2019, he has starr ...
, Jonas Briedis,
Phil Hendrie
Philip Stephen Hendrie (born September 1, 1952) is an American radio personality and actor. He is widely known for his voiceover talent throughout the radio and film industry. He came to prominence in the 1990s hosting ''The Phil Hendrie Show'', a ...
,
Rob Paulsen, Alex Jayne Go,
Jennifer Hale
Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-American voice actress. She is best known for her work in video game franchises such as ''Baldur's Gate'', '' Mass Effect'', '' Metal Gear Solid'', '' BioShock Infinite'', '' Metroid Prime'', ''Overwatch'', and '' Sta ...
and Mariana Wise.
Episodes
Production
Renewal and staff additions
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
renewed ''Rick and Morty'' for a third season on August 12, 2015, shortly after a successful second-season premiere. Talking about the renewal, the two co-creators and executive producers expressed their delight at the series' popularity.
Dan Harmon
Daniel James Harmon (born January 3, 1973) is an American writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator and producer of the NBC/Yahoo! Screen sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), creator and host of the comedy podcast '' Harmontow ...
stated that it is "an honor to see ''Rick and Morty'' join the exclusive club of shows with over nineteen episodes", and
Justin Roiland added "I am blown away by the seemingly instant success of ''Rick and Morty''. I look forward to continuing their adventures!"
In an October 2015 interview with ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'', Roiland revealed that the team had received a lot of scripts from female writers for the upcoming season, which had never happened before. He stated that "We've gone from having zero
spec script
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or ...
s
n the running from femalecandidates, to having five or six of them, so it's looking very likely that season three will have one, potentially two gals in the room." Eventually, four female writers were added to the staff, and—counting out the co-creators of the show, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon—the writing room for the third season was gender-balanced.
The writing staff consisted of eleven writers, who collectively wrote and repeatedly rewrote each episode.
Harmon noted that the writers' ideas were blended and refined during the writing process, and that the name of the writer that appeared in the
opening credits of an episode is usually that of the person who had been assigned to prepare the episode's outline.
Sarah Carbiener, one of the new female writers, said that she managed to learn many things from her experience as a member of the writing team. She explained that a story that for other shows would have been an entire episode, for ''Rick and Morty'' it will be only its first few minutes. Therefore, the team had to write a large amount of story in a very short time.
Schedule delays and conclusion
Writing began on November 2, 2015, and the first episode was recorded on February 18, 2016. In July 2016, already behind on schedule, the production team admitted that the success of the series had increased pressure to meet the expectations of the viewers. The creative freedom provided by Adult Swim entailed taking responsibility for product quality, and as the bar had risen higher, work had become harder, improvements were constantly being sought, and this often resulted in delays. Harmon told the assembled press at the 2016
San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is ...
that "it’s not an endless perfectionism because you know when something finally clicks and you go 'this is a good episode of TV.'" He added that the animators had to suffer the worst part of the schedule delays, as they were forced to work weekends in order to cope with the demanding workload.
In September 2016, the writing team had finished writing new episodes and they were waiting on their return from
Bardel Entertainment, ''Rick and Morty''s Canadian animation studio, for in-house screenings. After the
animatics
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...
(video recorded versions of a hand-drawn storyboard with very limited motion) for each episode were made, and the production team was able to
pre-visualize the animation, additional passes on the scripts would follow.
In an interview with ''
The Detroit Cast'', writer Ryan Ridley revealed that the writing process for the third season was completed in November 2016, and noted that a season of ''Rick and Morty'' takes a long time to write and animate.
In February 2017, Harmon announced on his podcast, ''
Harmontown
''Harmontown'' is a comedy podcast that aired live weekly from June 16, 2012 to December 3, 2019. It was hosted by writer Dan Harmon, best known as the creator of the television series ''Community'' and the co-creator of ''Rick and Morty'', along ...
'', that the season was in the animation process, after a long period of writing. Around the same time, Bardel Entertainment's production supervisor Mark Van Ee confirmed that "everything is on track." In June 2017, when production of the season had been completed, Harmon wrote a series of posts on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, where he refuted reports about his disagreements with Roiland being the main cause of the delay, and explained that the writing process took longer than expected to complete because of his perfectionism. As a result, the third season of ''Rick and Morty'' consisted of only ten episodes instead of fourteen, as was initially intended.
Release
The third season of ''Rick and Morty'' originally aired Sundays at 11:30 p.m EST. on
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
, the adult-oriented nighttime programming block of
Cartoon Network. The network offered free livestreams for the first two episodes of the season, with the remaining episodes requiring a cable subscription to watch the show live as it aired. Following the conclusion of the show's third season, Adult Swim made a
livestream
Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but ...
marathon of ''Rick and Morty'' available to watch on its official website in select regions, hoping to dissuade viewers from watching other illegal livestreams.
The episodes were made available to watch on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
in a number of countries outside the United States, one week after their original airdate. The season was added to
Hulu on June 23, 2018, with the expansion following a similar timeline with that of the two previous seasons for the streaming service. Uncensored versions of the season are also available to purchase on various digital distribution platforms, including
iTunes,
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
and
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform app ...
.
The digital release includes commentaries on every episode, and seven more short videos featuring co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland.
The season was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
on May 15, 2018, with special features including exclusive commentary and
animatics
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...
for every episode, the origins of ''Rick and Morty'', "inside the episode" material and an exclusive "inside the recording booth" session. ''
Game of Thrones'' star
Peter Dinklage
Peter Hayden Dinklage (; born June 11, 1969) is an American film, television and stage actor. He received international recognition for portraying Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which he ...
and showrunners
David Benioff
David Friedman (; born September 25, 1970), known professionally as David Benioff (), is an American writer, director and producer. Along with his collaborator D. B. Weiss, he is best known as co-creator and showrunner of '' Game of Thrones'' (2 ...
and
D. B. Weiss
Daniel Brett Weiss (; born April 23, 1971) is an American television writer, director, and producer. Along with his collaborator David Benioff, he is best-known as co-creator of ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), the HBO adaptation of George R. ...
recorded audio commentary for the episode "
Pickle Rick". Other guest commentaries include
Marilyn Manson,
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...
,
Russell Brand, and the winner of a crowdfunding campaign launched by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon to support
Planned Parenthood. In his Blu-ray review for ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', Luke Y. Thompson describes the release as "a thorough set that seems to have covered all the angles, and will provide hours of fun to even those fans who've watched every episode multiple times already."
Reception
Critical response
The season has an approval rating of 96% from
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 10 reviews, and an average rating of 8.95 out of 10, with the site's consensus: "''Rick and Morty'' dives into new and even kookier cosmic dilemmas in a third season that interrogates familial bonds, love, and nihilismtreating all existential topics to the series' trademark serrated wit."
Jesse Schedeen of ''
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' described the third season of the show as darker and more unpredictable than the first two, and praised its
high-concept storytelling and character development. Schedeen gave the season an 8.8 out of 10 rating, saying that it "didn't quite reach the heights of Season 2, but it is the series' most consistently entertaining and ambitious season yet". Holding a similar position, Corey Plante of ''
Inverse'' said that ''Rick and Morty'' managed to be both dark and funny in its third season.
Zack Handlen of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' agreed that this was the darkest season of ''Rick and Morty'', though he noted that the viewers have become desensitized to the show's violence. "In previous seasons, the show managed a balance between self-mockery and honest joy in absurd scenarios. That joy is still there, more or less, but there’s a bitterness to it that’s harder and harder to ignore."
Mike Cosimano of ''Comics Gaming Magazine'' did not think that the third season was dark; he said that it used "cheap gut punches to elicit that very reaction". He added that too many of the season's episodes were weak, since the show focuses on character development only in its first half, resulting in an uneven season. He considered the season to be a disappointment, rating it 6.5 out of 10.
Kayla Cobb of ''Decider'' focused on the dynamism displayed by Beth and Summer, as the characters broke the stereotypical conventions of the first two seasons. Cobb stated that "Season 3 is the first time ''Rick and Morty'' really to its leading ladies, and it was a horrifying delight." Julia Alexander of ''Polygon'' highlighted the philosophical conflict between
nihilist
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
realism and life in ignorant bliss as the season's main theme, and noted that "after an introspective season built on the importance of self-realization and reflection, ''Rick and Morty'' third year ended on a total reset," with Beth and the kids reuniting with Jerry in the season-finale, as they seek comfort through escapism and ignore the realities of their lives. Zack Handlen considered Jerry's return to be an
anticlimax and "a necessary corrective to an arc that was in danger of going off the rails completely". Handlen appeared skeptical about Beth's statement in the final episode, that from this point things will be like season one again, saying that "the problem with going as far as season three went is that bridges stay burned."
Ratings
''Rick and Morty'' completed its third season with overall viewership numbers increased by 81% over the previous season,
and delivered the highest ratings in
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
's history. ''Rick and Morty'' was the most popular television comedy within the 18–24 and 18–34 age ranges in the United States, based on "Live+7" ratings data spanning from December 2016 to September 2017.
This rating system tracks live viewership plus streaming and
on-demand viewing over an initial week-long period, and provides a more accurate picture of delayed viewing as compared to "Live+Same Day" ratings. Considering that episodes of the third season originally aired at 11:30 p.m. on Sundays, it is very likely that people would have watched them on-demand the next day or several days later.
Christina Miller, the president of Adult Swim, told ''
Fortune'' that ''Rick and Morty'' "goes beyond just appealing to
millennials," as numbers suggest that people of all ages are watching the show.
The second episode of the season, which aired nearly four months after the unannounced premiere, was the season's most-watched episode with 2.86 million viewers, and the second-best on cable for the day it aired in adults 18–49, behind the weekly episode of ''
Game of Thrones''.
The season finale was watched by 2.6 million live plus same day viewers and it was the most-watched telecast across all age groups.
Fanbase reactions
In an interview with ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'', female writers Jane Becker, Sarah Carbiener and Jessica Gao addressed negative comments regarding their involvement in writing the third season of ''Rick and Morty'', recalling a post on
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
that called them "the social justice warriors that Dan had to hire". Gao stated: Following the release of "
Pickle Rick", one of the season's best-rated episodes, a number of fans participated in an online harassment campaign that targeted female writers of the show—especially Jane Becker and Jessica Gao—as they felt that they were "ruining the show" for them. Said writers received rape and death threats on Twitter, and had their personal information put online.
In an interview with ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'', Dan Harmon confronted the
trolls
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
, saying:
![McDonalds Szechuan Sauce 2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/McDonalds_Szechuan_Sauce_2018.jpg)
The
Szechuan sauce reference in the
season premiere
A season premiere is the first episode of a new season of a returning television show. In the United States, many season premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or late winter.
In countries such ...
brought huge online attention for
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
discontinued promotional product.
Internet memes spread rapidly on
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, more than 40,000 people signed a petition at
Change.org
Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...
, asking for the return of the sauce, while an
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
auction resulted in a 20-year-old packet of this
teriyaki
''Teriyaki'' (kanji: 照り 焼き) is a cooking technique used in Japanese cuisine in which foods are broiled or grilled with a glaze of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar.
Fish – yellowtail, marlin, skipjack tuna, salmon, trout, and mac ...
sauce being sold for $14,700. On October 7, 2017, McDonald's served limited quantities of the sauce, without explicitly naming ''Rick and Morty'' as a reason for the return. Many fans waited for hours in long queues, but not all of them were served as the fast-food outlets ran out of the product. The fiasco prompted enraged reactions by disappointed fans, with some of them acting out and mistreating the company's workers.
In the wake of these events, the ''Rick and Morty'' fanbase received a bad reputation, with James Grebey of ''Inverse'' noting: Cameron Williams of ''Junkee'' attributed this "toxic behavior" to the rise of an aggressive type of entitled fan in the past decades, and examined the motivation of these people, noting: Emily Gaudette of ''Newsweek'' said that, with the spike in popularity, the show has obtained an army of online devotees, and commented on groups like the self-described "Real Ricks", who identify themselves with the series' main character and believe that high intellect is an excuse for mistreating others. Gaudette noted that these groups do not represent the ''Rick and Morty'' fanbase, but they "tend to suck all the oxygen out of the virtual room." Series co-creator Justin Roiland said on his Twitter account that he sees more good than bad in the series' fanbase, and chooses to focus on that.
Accolades
''Rick and Morty'' received a total of eight nominations for its third season in 2017 and 2018, of which it won an
IGN Award and a
Critics' Choice Television Award
The Critics' Choice Television Awards are accolades that are presented annually by the Critics Choice Association (CCA). They were established in 2011, and the first ceremony was held on June 20, 2011, and streamed live on VH1.com. The fourt ...
, both in the categories for "Best Animated Series". Furthermore, the episode "
Pickle Rick" received three nominations, of which it won an
Emmy Award for "
Outstanding Animated Program" and an
Annie Award for "
Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production". With two nominations, "
The Ricklantis Mixup" was another awarded episode of the season, that won its writers Ryan Ridley and
Dan Guterman an Annie Award for "Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production".
Justin Roiland won an IGN Award for "Best Comedic TV Performance", while
Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He made his film debut with a leading role in ''The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakthrough role as Jason "J.D." D ...
was nominated for a BTVA Voice Acting Award for his performance in "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender".
Notes
References
External links
{{Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty
{{Infobox television
, image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png
, alt =
, caption =
, genre = {{Plainlist,
* Animated sitcom
* Adult animation
* Science fiction
* Black comedy
* ...
Rick and Morty seasons