I’ve never reviewed Rick and Morty before. That’s because there wasn’t anything monumental to talk about when it came to the show. It was fun, everybody understood what it was. But now it’s season 7, the premiere is “How Poopy Got His Poop Back,” and we’ve got some stuff to talk about.

So why haven’t I talked about it before? Well, first off, I’m always in that effort to try to keep this channel very family friendly. But I realized with the Fall of the House of Usher review we did that it’s possible to do reviews where we’re generalized enough and talk about the stories enough. And clearly it’s in the zeitgeist, clearly it’s in the social consciousness, and I think it’s really silly for us to try to act like it’s not.

That, plus I like it. And this entire channel is about yours truly and what I like.

One of the things I love about this series is that it’s always been very tongue in cheek, and of course it’s got its roots in Back to the Future. So I’m not going to cover any ground that hasn’t already been covered.

Two Voices Replacing One

You can’t help but discuss some of the major things that happened over the last year with Justin Roiland. There’s a lot that happened, and there are plenty of videos out there that took the opportunity to talk about the drama. I’m not going to rehash that. They can help you understand what happened or didn’t happen, so you pick your side if you want. I personally don’t care.

What I do care about is that we were introduced to the brand new voice talent that replaced Justin Roiland as the voices of Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith.

“The family wants you upstairs to deal with Mr. Poopybutthole.”

“It’s finally time, huh? Well, lucky for you guys, I know how to make someone leave.”

Two voice actors replacing one, and I’m okay with that. Give everybody something to focus on. So what you got was Ian Cardoni replacing Justin Roiland as Rick Sanchez, and the voice talent of Harry Belden replacing him as Morty Smith.

One of the things Baby Know-It-All pointed out last night was really interesting. She tracked them down. After it aired on both coasts, they updated IMDb and whatnot, and you were able to see who the talent was and go, oh, okay, cool. And what she noticed was these extraordinarily humble people. These are nobodies. By that I mean they’re not big, big time celebrity people, and that’s awesome.

So you’ve got brand new folks. Not brand new, because if you actually look, they do have some credits under their names. But their Instagrams had like 70 people, or 60 people, or whatever it was. Very low numbers. And now these guys are going to blow up, because they’re now voicing two of the most iconic characters in current pop culture.

I don’t know about you, but it felt like a breath of fresh air.

Back to Season 1

For many seasons, well, six already, they’ve really been struggling with this idea of what it means to get back to season 1 Rick and Morty. And at the risk of starting a fight, this episode did that.

Having come from film and television, I know the struggle it is to try to get people on board and get buy-in from your audience on several levels. So one of the things they had to do was make sure the audience bought into the new voices. They showed us the trailer finally a week or two ago, some time ago rather, and I didn’t really hear a huge difference. They had music and things happening, and it was quick, and you’re like, all right, whatever. A lot of the fan base went nuts over it, and you can check the comment section yourself for all the various things people had to say about it.

But for me, this was a return to season 1 style. It was a standalone adventure. It was fun. It had multiple dimensions, it had all kinds of stuff.

More importantly, Dan Harmon and the folks over there at Adult Swim made one of the smartest decisions they could’ve ever made. They brought the entire other cast of characters who normally surround Rick Sanchez, and they made you buy in immediately through the story.

An Intervention of Me Not Intervening

The short version is that Mr. Poopybutthole has been staying with the Smiths. He’s overstayed his welcome and they want to get rid of him. They get Rick to try to help him through some sort of intervention, and Rick is vehemently against it.

“Dad, you can’t keep putting this off. You’re doing an intervention with us.”

“Nope.”

“Then we’re sticking Poopybutthole downstairs with you.”

“What is this? Is this an intervention of me not intervening?”

So what does Rick do? He goes and gets Poopybutthole’s friends. He gets Squanchy, he gets Birdperson, he gets Gearhead, he gets the neighbor Gene, and ultimately they go on a cross-dimensional adventure. Poopybutthole makes it sound like it’s his birthday, but that’s just his way of trying to show how horrible they are as friends, because they don’t actually know it’s not his birthday.

It’s this wonderful encounter, and ultimately they end up running into Hugh Jackman through Gene, who apparently is friends with Hugh Jackman, and going on sort of a bender. Hugh Jackman tells them we’re a team, we’re a group, we’re all going to work together.

And what do they do? They go to try to get Poopybutthole back together with his ex-wife. Poopybutthole sent the Predator to track down his wife, because the Predator can stay invisible, and ultimately his wife fell in love with the Predator. Very uncomfortable. Very awkward.

But at the end of the day, they worked very hard to build this narrative, and when you get to it, it ultimately becomes about the feeling that nobody really cared too much about him. Rick didn’t really want to have to deal with it.

The First Episode of the Beginning

I like this version of Rick. I feel like this whole thing brought us a brand new chapter, and I feel like this is actually the first episode of the beginning.

That’s one of the reasons why, when I watched this, I’m sitting here going, I need to do this show. I need to review this show. Because this is not the last season. I know a lot of people have been saying it feels like this, that and the other. I feel like having the whole Justin Roiland situation swept away, and having the new guys, and having the new direction, I genuinely feel like this is a rebirth. That’s what they’ve done. And I genuinely feel like this is an excellent place for them to start from and move forward.

There you go. Now you know. And if knowing’s half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.

The Verdict

Rick and Morty season 7, episode 1, “How Poopy Got His Poop Back,” is an 8 and a half out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

I liked it. I liked it a lot. I thought it was a good start, and I can’t wait to see where they’re going.

For the people who want to get hung up on the voices, look, let’s be real. For maybe the cold open, I heard a little bit of it. But the minute he’s surrounded by all these voices we know, and they didn’t skip anybody, it’s gone. You hear from Beth, Jerry, Summer. You hear from Morty, obviously. You hear everyone’s voices, plus the whole other roster of characters they brought in who were Rick’s friends. What you end up with is that you’re so invested in the story, in what’s happening and who’s talking, that I remember midway through I was like, I see what they did here. They just Jedi mind tricked everyone.

I was in, and you will be too.

Let me know what you thought of the episode. Did you like it? And if you’re a hardcore “I heard the difference” person, talk me through it. Nobody has to fight. We’re all friends here, we all love stuff, let’s love it together. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. Never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.