Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few years, you’ve probably heard of the Adult Swim comedy series, “Rick and Morty” by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. The show has accumulated 3 seasons (the third of which is airing right now), been nominated for an Annie Award (the animation equivalent of the Oscars) for Best General Audience TV/Broadcast Production, and gained millions of fans. But is Rick and Morty really worth the hype? Why is it so popular? Well, fear no more because were here with our next edition of “Why You Need to Watch”!

But first, a little background. “Rick and Morty” follows the exploits of scientific genius Rick Sanchez and his naïve grandson Morty as they travel through space and alternate dimensions on zany misadventures, often spoofing popular media and delving into societal commentary along the way. The minor characters of Morty’s sister Summer, his dad Jerry, and his mom and Rick’s daughter Beth are also entertaining, especially Beth and Jerry’s constant marriage issues. Besides the idea of jumping dimensions, most of this feels like its been done before, so what sets “Rick and Morty” apart from the crowd? Well it’s a combination of two factors.

First, even though its an animated comedy series on Adult Swim, its really funny. It’s hard to explain how comedy series are funny, without ruining a bunch of good jokes, so I’ll keep it brief, but “Rick and Morty” uses a lot of dark and existential humor and not in the Family Guy shock humor kind of way, but in the ironic or absurd kind of way. It also uses the pop culture spoofing and has a lot of improvised moments. In fact, once every season an episode airs that’s just a bunch of improvised sketches by the creators, framed as Inter-Dimensional TV.

The second factor is that even though its a comedy series, “Rick and Morty” has a great story. I’m not going to spoil it here, but as they travel through the universe Rick and Morty ponder the meaning of life and dive into a number of different philosophical theories including absurdism and existentialism, and their character arcs throughout the series are well-paced, logically sound, satisfying, and relatable, especially to teenagers who are just starting to ponder these issues and decide where they stand. And as an aside, the main-ish villain is so enjoyable to watch, especially when his theme kicks in, I love it!

I hope I convinced you to at least check out this amazing show, trust me you won’t be disappointed! If you do happen to love it, or even hate it (which you won’t) then maybe come back and write an article on your reaction, we’d love to read it!