Tim Maddocks

Like many of prestige TV’s great male protagonists, from Tony Soprano to Don Draper to Walter White, Rick is a colossal asshole who drags a family down into a black hole of agony by embracing his own worst instincts. His drunken nihilism stems from a genius that is too great to bear — it alienates other people, leaving him alone, depressed, and sometimes suicidal. Moreover, his awareness of an infinitely expanding multiverse in which everything can, will, and has already happened leaves him to expound on the meaninglessness of it all. Clearly, this is catnip to the type of young man who perceives himself as a misfit due to excess brainpower and an unsentimental view of reality, yet Rick’s characterization goes further: He knows he’s an irredeemable piece of shit.