Once upon a time in the 1980s, there existed two well-loved characters - a wacky scientist and his heartthrob teenage sidekick - who starred in a trilogy of blockbuster movies involving time travel, high-school drama and hover boards. Almost 30 years have passed since then, but Back to The Future" (1985) still remains a nostalgic trip. In recent decades, the stock characters of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) have been parodied to various ends, the most recent of which is animated Adult Swim series "Rick and Morty" (2013-present). This newest project from "Community" (2009-present) creator Dan Harmon features two characters oddly familiar to the duo from the original Robert Zemeckis movie.
It goes without saying that "Rick and Morty" is a parody of "Back to the Future" at its most basic level, yet the show is so much more than that. Although it utilizes the stock profiles of the mad scientist and his sidekick, the tropes are reduced to their very core and then transformed into their own individual personalities. Rick (Justin Roiland), the mad scientist, is an alcoholic with a cold exterior - though perhaps somewhere deep on the inside he feels love. Morty (also Roiland) is an awkward 14-year-old that is probably as distant from Fox's character as can be, even if they look similar. What "Rick and Morty" manages to do best is to take these two absurd characters into even wackier adventures: You're never really quite sure what is going to happen next.
This unpredictability can, at times, make "Rick and Morty" a rip-roaringly funny show, as the show seems to take an almost a no-holds barred approach. Serious topics such as feminism, alcoholism and divorce are lampooned alongside more conventional sources of comedy, such as toilet humor and references to sexual acts. Some of the show's best moments come from a bizarre combination of lowbrow and highbrow humor
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