The Pickle Rick episode of Rick and Morty just got nominated for an Emmy and let me just say,

Submitted by cute_spider_ni_srsly in GoldenAgeOfTV (edited )

Good. Jessica Gao was the lead writer on that episode, and it was really good. I've listened to most of Whiting Wongs, the podcast she and Dan Harmon do together about race and gender, and she's putting in lot of good work to help make Dan (and by extension his fanbase) better people. She's waded deep into abusive fanbase territory and she's strong against it and she's doing good and important work to improve the attitudes of internet nerds around the world.

Edit: also I think Dan is putting in real effort to improve his behavior and mindset, and I really appreciate that about him. I relate to him a lot since I used to be a lot like him and I think he's taking a similar path to self-improvement.

Also the episode and whole season three was really good since it showed every character besides Rick grow, and I think that the work Jessica, Dan and the writing team put into season three is going to set up season four to be more than just "funny mad scientist show".

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voxpoplar wrote

the therapist tearing rick apart at the end was fucking great

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cute_spider_ni_srsly OP wrote (edited )

Yes. But also, my favorite part of the episode was when Morty and Summer are in the backseat to their mom and grandfather, and they're realizing together, as brother and sister, how sick their guardians are. I think they realize how much they need to grow on their own and how little guidance Rick and Beth can actually provide. I relate to that moment a lot, since I tend to look towards traditional mentors for guidance, but in my experience the people whose lives have gone just swimmingly do not have answers for important or interesting questions. It's the people whose lives have been difficult and weird who have useful and interesting advice.

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cute_spider_ni_srsly OP wrote (edited )

Also I love this episode because I didn't know about "I statements" before then but I find them to be a really useful tool for expressing my feelings so thank u dan and company for teaching that to me.

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Moonside wrote

I think the reception of Pickle Rick is just so characteristic. The show's fans seem to think it's either about lel random joaks or science and philosophy. The show is honestly a bit deeper than most adult animated series, but not hugely so and apparently independently from Harmon's intentions (which is ok since the author is dead). The show is more about amusing situations, riffing on sci-fi, horror and film tropes and being oddly endeared by the dysfunctional family members.

The end result is that Pickle Rick had a genuinely well done action movie parody that was better than it had any right of being, the Pickle Rick thing was hilarious as it was genuinely absurd how far Rick could go to avoid his responsibilities, the therapist speech was great and seeing the kids develop and gaining insight into Betty was cool.

While these galas are sort of horse shit, I very much hope good things for the new female hires of season three, they made the episodes clearly better and must have held back Harmon's worst tendencies. I don't know what the other nominees are, but Gao did good work.

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Moonside wrote

Also, my real motivation: I so sorely hope to see better for adult animation. It seems like it's only allowed in comedic and satiric form and has to be edgy. R&M probably would be better if it had less gore and burping, it's as if the networks think that an animated show can't survive without pandering to a teen male audience.

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