SINGAPORE – If there is one thing that fans of the animated comedy series Rick And Morty love, it is death. Characters dying in poetic and spectacularly gory ways is a show trademark.
Take, for example, the Emmy-winning third episode of Season 3, Pickle Rick. In an orgy of violence, scientist Rick Sanchez metes out destruction to an army of monstrous rats and evil humans with improvised slashing, burning and explosive weapons.
Rick And Morty writer and producer James Siciliano, 37, says that for the creative team, character deaths are not just a means to an end, but stand alone as visual feasts.
“A writer might write a death scene, but there are also times when the artists and animators bring their element and make it so cool,” he says.
Giving artists the freedom to design death scenes and fight sequences, such as the Season 4 finale battle between Rick and Bird Person – now reborn as Phoenix Person – ensures that the quality of the animation remains high.
“It’s really a cool marriage of writing and design,” says Siciliano, speaking online to the media to mark the launch of Season 5. New episodes premiere on Mondays on HBO Go.
In a typical episode, genius scientist Rick drags shy teenage grandson Morty across planets and dimensions to steal treasures without care for the suffering he brings other civilisations. Rick aims to be Morty’s primary influence because he despises Morty’s father Jerry, whom he considers an intellectual weakling and a poor match for his daughter, the soft-hearted veterinarian Beth. Morty’s older sister Summer is at first shown to be self-centred and vapid, but in recent episodes, has proven that she can hold her own against her grandfather and brother.
Rick’s behaviour causes family squabbles, which hamper any attempt they make to forestall world-ending situations brought on by Rick’s inter-dimensional antics.
“People connect with the dysfunction – it’s human. They are interested in things such as, why is Jerry a punching bag? They connect with how Jerry wants to be a good dad, but he gets in his own way,” Siciliano says.
The characters of Rick And Morty are voiced by series co-creator and executive producer Justin Roiland, while actors Chris Parnell, Sarah Chalke and Spencer Grammer voice Jerry, Beth and Summer respectively.
The series has won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program twice: in 2018, for the Pickle Rick episode, and in 2020, for Season 4’s The Vat Of Acid Episode.
A trademark of the show is its conceptual density. A typical episode is packed with science-fiction tropes cribbed from films and books, included with the aim of improving them, or mocking them.
Siciliano says writers pitch “thousands and thousands” of episode ideas each season. Most never see the light of day while others might flicker into life on-screen for a moment.
“An idea might be shrunk down into a scene, or even a joke. Writers keep trying to top themselves,” he says.
Producer Scott Marder, 41, who was in the same conference, says it helps that the writing staff have diverse interests in science fiction and fantasy.
“Every writer on staff is an encyclopaedia of a particular niche. There are anime fans, role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons fans. It’s a beautiful spectrum of specialisations.”
New episodes of Rick And Morty 5 premiere on Mondays on HBO Go. The four previous seasons of Rick And Morty are available on HBO Go.