What happens when the creator of a show leaves the writer’s room? Rick and Morty seasons four through six have the answer. Each season has a decline in quality from the last, with season five being especially bipolar, with some episodes being excellent and others being unspeakably terrible. Season six has lows that are not quite so low, but its highs are not nearly as high. 

   There’s nothing notable in the new season, merely a sea of mediocrity that repeats the worst rather than the best. The show is renewed up to season ten, and one can only wonder if this pattern and slow decline in quality will continue. This season sees an entire episode, “Rick: A Mort Well Lived,” that JUST focuses on dated Die Hard jokes about how dated Die Hard jokes are.

   A majority of the episodes this season are pointless filler. Rick and Morty is at its best when it focuses on overarching plot (such as “The Ricklantis Mixup”), character (such as “Pickle Rick”), or interesting sci-fi concepts (such as “The Vat of Acid Episode”). This season has none of the above. No new information is explained about the characters, nothing new has been explained of significant plot relevance, and there are no new interesting concepts.

   The last season ended with one of the best episodes of the show, “Rickmurai Jack.” This episode left off on a major cliffhanger, which involved Rick and Morty floating off into space with no method of returning to Earth. Season six opens with a solution to this problem: a poke at the poor writing of Avengers: Endgame, with Space Beth flying in to save the day immediately.

   However, Rick and Morty’s poke at lazy writing can’t distract from the fact that this is just a method to distract audiences from their own lazy writing. The writing team has changed drastically from the previous seasons, with Ryan Ridley, Jeff Loveness, Mike McMahan, and Dan Guterman gone, and this has impacted the quality of the show as a result. 

   I’d speak to the positives of this new season, but what is there to say when the best parts of the show are just okay. All in all, this new season isn’t bad; it’s just absent of all the qualities that would make something good.