Rick & Morty: Season 8 delivers what season 7 should have been, and I’m thrilled

Rick & Morty's “Summer of All Fears” feels like a fresh reboot — clever, chaotic, and soothing. I couldn’t be more relieved that Season 8 proves the show can thrive without Justin Roiland.

Fans were skeptical after the rough seventh season, paired with co-creator and original voice actor Justin Roiland’s exit. Season 7 was struggling with finding its footing, offering the show’s lowest-rated audience score of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes. The adult swim giant felt soulless, the Adult Swim comedy dead, and the storytelling hazy at best.

Re-energized is the feeling after season 8’s premiere. Rick and Morty’s revival seemed distant before the eighth season premiere, but the sting of pre-season 8 worries has evaporated, at least for now.

The season kicked off with the compelling Summer of All Fears, which not only seems to capture Roiland-era madness but early reviews have shown his pre-pandemic 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, reclaiming the attention the show lost in season 7. Per reviews, it seems to deserve the praise.

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A bold reset with “Summer of All Fears”

As Season 8 of Rick & Morty opens, we are treated to an amusingly ludicrous premise: Morty and Summer are sentenced to a hyper-realistic simulation crafted by Rick’s mind for 17 years, all because he designed it and they ‘technically’ misplaced his charger.

However, the simulation contains a rather unique aspect: it transforms charger theft into some sort of psychologically traumatizing necessary evil that requires deep trauma and reconditioning to overcome. The moment Rick comes to, he proceeds to zap them back to ‘normal’ — typical Rick.

“Rickmurai Jack” shuffles around the mix by not only adding dolly zooms to every action scene in order to lean into Rick and Morty’s distinctive nonsense, but it also provides some mortification as a form of evolution to give both characters a chance to evolve and carry the story.

For once, Summer aligns with the main arc, and Morty, who for years accompanied the stage as a soundboard sidekick, emerges changed and damaged.

Everything seems to run smoother with the recent change in head writing, the freshness merges well with the sharpness of the animation — more fluid, pacing more cohesive rather than staggered like Season 7, in this instance.

The show has also returned to being funny for once: no longer is season 7's concept of random-for-randoms-sake touted, instead humor takes the form of witty and clever meta-commentary. With transforming away from Roiland’s company baggage, the creative team seems to finally feel like they are breathing again.

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Rick & Morty doesn’t need Roiland — and that’s a good thing

In season 7 of Rick & Morty, the writers appeared to try to convince the audience that nothing had changed, but there were too many signs to the contrary. Although there were several standout episodes like “Fear No Mort” sprinkled throughout, the entire season felt disjointed, aimless, and lacking cohesion. This is why season 8 is such a breath of fresh air; it does not try to be what it used to be. It is something new, and is better off because of it.

What is most important is that, as previously stated, the show fully accepts the ensemble. Characters such as Beth, Summer, and even Jerry now feel more like integral parts of the plot instead of revolving around Rick.

The new voice actors for Rick and Morty (whose performance was surprisingly seamless) feel less like the placeholders they were cast as; they are Rick & Morty now. There is a shift in tone; the writers are not put up against walls dictated by the show’s history but instead are using it as guidance.

Best of all? You don’t need to binge all the prior seasons to appreciate season 8. The season functions as a soft reset, inviting those unacquainted with the franchise while still providing plenty of references for loyal viewers.

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Looking forward to a new era

Seeing ahead to Season 12, it looks like Rick and Morty will get a creative boost. If “Summer of All Fears” is anything to go by, Season 8 may go down in history as a watershed moment – the season where the show managed to articulate a perspective, and then sharpened it.

In Season 8 Episode 1, Rick and Morty revive themselves, and I mean that in the best way possible. After newly discovering order from the chaos, it seems there’s an entirely new era of the show to uncover. It still has its registered bends and wacky tangents, yet now, at last, manages to be outstanding.

To be frank, there is nothing more encouraging than this.