Review: Rick and Morty

The best sci-fi on television right now is an animated series called Rick and Morty on the Cartoon Network.

You might dismiss it, as on the surface it appears to be yet another edgy, poorly-drawn cartoon like The Simpsons or South Park. And in many ways, it is. But at the same time, hard sci-fi concepts infuse each episode. Sometimes, it's a parody of well-known sci-fi, such as shrinking a ship to voyage through a body. In other cases, it's wholly original sci-fi, such as creating a parallel "micro" universe whose inhabitants power your car battery. At least I think it's original. It might be based on some obscure sci-fi story I haven't read. Also, the car battery episode is vaguely similar to William Gibson's latest cyberpunk book "The Peripheral".

My point is this. It's got that offensive South Park quality that I love, but mostly, what I really like about the series is its hard sci-fi stories, and the way it either parodies or laughs at them. I know that in next year's "Mad Kitties" slate, I'm definitely going to write in Rick and Morty for a Hugo Award.