Justin Roiland's Favorite Rick And Morty Episodes All Have One Thing In Common
The sixth season of the Emmy award-winning animated series "Rick and Morty" made its triumphant return last week, picking up where the chaotically hilarious multiverse hopping season 5 left off, and the Sanchez/Smith family forced to reckon with the aftermath of Evil Morty and the continued madness of Rick's interdimensional hijinks. "Rick and Morty" was a rousing success from the very beginning, successfully combining endlessly quotable humor, powerful existential questions, and painfully relatable family turmoil. Of course, fans have their own favorite episodes but after over 50 episodes aired, we can't help but wonder which episodes show creator Justin Roiland enjoys the most. Fortunately, thanks to an interview with IGN Africa, we finally have the answer.
When asked about his favorite five episodes, Roiland said that he didn't have a specific ranking, but knew which five he loved most. Season 2, episode 4, "Total Rickall," which deals with memory parasites; season 1 episode 8, "Rixty Minutes," the first episode featuring the multiverse hacked cable box; season 2 episode 7, "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez," which features Tiny Rick; season 2 episode 6, "The Ricks Must Be Crazy," which introduces Stephen Colbert's Zeep Xanflorp, and season 1 episode 4, "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!," where aliens transport Rick, Morty and Jerry into an alternate reality. These five being Roiland's favorites make sense, as all five share a really interesting connection outside of the noticeable pop culture title references.
Roiland's Rubik's Cube episodes
In the interview with IGN, Roiland likened these favorite five episodes to a Rubik's Cube," as each put together complicated story challenges, like a puzzle, for the writing team to solve. Roiland and co-creator Dan Harmon would gather with the rest of the team around a whiteboard, while they would all debate all of the minor possibilities that could impact the episode until exhaustion. "Little things," according to Roiland, like the possibility of whether or not Jerry would lose his suit with the alien simulations of "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" would go away. It sounds a lot like the writer's room of another sci-fi adult animated series–"Futurama." In both circumstances, the writers are not just crafting a creative story to entertain audiences, but also forced to figure out how to make sure the science all tracks, even if it's science that doesn't exist yet.
If you hadn't already noticed, all of these favorite episodes of Roiland's occur early in the series, before the show became a bit more serialized and less likely to pull huge swings out of nowhere. "We weren't just going to rip it all up and throw it away and start over," Roiland said. The show has become a lot more than the bizarro mayhem of its earlier years, but Roiland says he still prefers the first two seasons, specifically due to the show's "silliness and fun that was happening in the creative process." It's safe to say that "Rick and Morty" is a bit of a well-oiled machine at this point, but has fortunately not lost its sense of adventure or disruption along the way.