No, Female Writers aren’t Killing Rick and Morty.
If you’re reading this I assume you and me have two things in common:
- We’re fans of the sci-fi spectacular animation Rick and Morty.
- We've caught up with every episode of Season 3 up to and including the long awaited debut of Pickle Rick.
If either of those things don’t apply to you, please, do yourself a favor and use adultswim.com to catch up with Rick and Morty. If they do, read on.
Assuming you’re still here, you might have heard that a lot of fans feel like Season 3’s episodes are disappointing and lackluster, and that the new female writers are to blame for that. On face, this makes zero sense, because each episode with female writers is approved by the two male creators and the male supervising director to begin with.
That being said, the general consensus among the skeptics is that the comedy doesn’t hit like it used to and the focus on Beth’s divorce is killing the show with touchy-feely nonsense.
Oh, and they don’t like the fact that Dr. Wong finally beat Rick at his own game of monologuing so well it leaves the other person speechless. If you don’t remember the epic monologue, I suggest you skip to 1:28 in the video below to watch it again. Trust me, it’s worth the wait.
Notice anything different about Rick after the monologue? Notice how he shuts his mouth, wears his seatbelt, and sincerely apologizes for lying to his daughter?
Some fans feel this seeming submissiveness is out of character for Rick. I feel they are mistaken.
You see, Dr. Wong’s monologue was not an assertion of her intellectual superiority. Rather, it was a complete and honest breakdown of truth’s that Rick knew, but didn’t want to admit to himself or his family.
This breakdown was epic in 2 ways: First, it was completely accurate. Rick’s nihilistic attitude and seeming apathy towards the damage he causes isn’t meant to be a good thing — rather, it’s a sad and self destructive coping mechanism he uses to stay sane after watching friends, family, loved ones, and entire worlds burn before him in a blaze of fire caused by his own “unstoppable force” of an intellect.
You might think that this doesn’t square with Rick not caring about anyone, but the truth is that Rick does care for his family.
Whether it’s saving Morty when he thinks it’ll kill himself, sadly wandering around the house looking for someone to interact with, going on some kind of orgy-binge with his ex that would have ended in suicide if he hadn’t collapsed from exhaustion, Rick *does* care about other people. In fact, it is that very care which makes him develop a perverted sense of nihilism in order to protect himself from the temporary nature of most of his relationships.
After all, if Rick’s choices mattered- if he was in control- that would mean he’s responsible for all the death and destruction that he brings to the people around him. Being told this face to face takes away from his self-deluded mentality where no choices matter, and instead forces him to face the impact of his choices head on.
The second way Dr. Wong’s monologue was awesome is that she worded it in a way that left Rick’s ego no room to object. She repeatedly affirmed Rick’s intelligence and even stated that healing for him is more of a chore than it is beyond his capabilities. If it weren’t for her ability to tell the truth without attacking Rick’s intelligence, she wouldn’t have been able to get through to a man whose sense of self-esteem is built on his brain.
With Dr. Wong’s epicness sorted out, let’s zoom out a little bit and look at the overall makeup of this new season.

Yeah, there’s a newfound focus on how having your entire life derailed by an interdimensionally wanted criminal narcissist with manipulative tendencies and an addiction to alcohol can screw with your emotional health.
As it turns out, it can put a strain on your relationships, cause an increase in violent tendencies, have the man’s granddaughter emulate his drug habits, and even have the two children seek out stability and control in unhealthy, destructive ways.
Maybe they get addicted to the thrill of beating the living hell out of other people with someone else’s arm- or maybe they get addicted to murdering others with a romantic partner before settling down into a relationship.
Either way, these negative outcomes prove an extremely important point to us, the fanbase: Rick’s actions have consequences. His choices matter.
Think about it. If Rick were able to drag Summer and Morty into whatever violent, crazy, and traumatic experience he wanted with absolutely no impact on their emotional health, would his nihilistic attitude even mean anything at all?
No. It wouldn’t. Instead, Rick and Morty would be just another Family Guy clone, this time with lasers and fancy technology! The flaws of the main character would not be flaws, they would just be jokes. The nihilistic coping that Rick, Morty, and Summer are all at various stages of developing would cease to be a heartbreaking, blunt truth about what happens when you live life like Rick, becoming the pandering angst of a comedian trying too hard to be psuedo-deep for the sake of ratings.
To be clear, if you want that, Rick and Morty’s not your thing, you know? Family Guy, the Cleveland Show, and American Dad all have that kind of low-brow comedy you’re looking for. Hell, even American Dad tends to have a narrative surrounding one character or another’s flaws. Keeping things light and slapstick is Family Guy’s thing, while teaching a lesson about self-destructive nihilism ruining your own relationships is Rick and Morty’s. Without the family drama, there would be no unique appeal for Rick and Morty in the first place. It would truly be just another cartoon.
So no, the female writers aren’t ruining Rick and Morty. Rather, they’re just developing the characters in a way that is actually consistent with their choices. As far as I’m concerned, that is exactly what should have went down.
