You are now the showrunner and are tasked with bringing the show back on track with season 8.
How are you going to do it?
Hard mode: you can not bring Roiland back
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You are now the showrunner and are tasked with bringing the show back on track with season 8. How are you going to do it?
Nothing much, really. The damage is done and we're too far into the show to reverse track on any major things.
This, the characters cannot go back to their season 1 selves anymore, everything that worked in season 1 wouldn't make sense in season 8. Unless of course you kill this current Smith family and start over with a fresh one from another reality.
All Rick n Morty needed to do was be a simple, silly and crude comedy about a super smart grandpa and his dumb grandson
They didn't need to go all deep n serious and shit, they didn't need social commentary, they could've just kept making absurdist jokes and laughing at Rick's ballsack or whatever and it would've been fine
Literally the best way to fix it now would be to have episode 1 start out with Rick having a big emotional cry and directly speaking to the audience telling them something like "Oh, woe is me my life is so sad and this is all a metaphor for uhhh idk global warming or some shit, none of this would've happened if only I voted for current presidential runner-" and then have the TV go static before we cut back to the "real world" where Rick n Morty are still in the dimension they were in in season 1, and Rick says something like "oh man, so that's what our lives would look like if we were in some kinda unfunny cartoon that takes itself way too seriously" and then they go on an adventure to planet Armpit Hair to save princess Bush E. Pitt from the clutches of count Shaving Razoor and make a lotta dumb jokes
Bring back any seasons 1/2 writers
Kill Space Beth
Give Rick mild dementia to bring him back to season 1 levels of crazy
Give Jerry a job (his unemployment has stopped being funny and is just depressing at this point)
It sad how four simple as frick things actually would improve the show vastly.
I would love to do a whole "Jerry's Job" arc where he tries over and over to get a space job. Maybe landing on being in charge of the Jerry Jambori.
10 episodes of season 8:
ep 1: rick kills his family, all the regulars and then himself
ep 2-10: black screen without sound for 22 minutes
Watch it still be the highest rated show on cartoon network and win an emmy
I would reboot it completely without explanation and make fun sci-fi parodies and mashups. No continuity of the family and side characters they remain basically the same each episode and the shows focuses on the situation and adventure that the sci-fi setting rather than on the characters proving a point about their personality or exposing an emotinal aspect of their lives
Go back to silly interdimensional adventures, parody itself by introducing a group called 'the loose association of Ricks' which is made up off a bunch of Ricks that specifically thought that the Citadel was dumb but kept in contact with each other to share research and maybe a little help sometimes but are vehemently NOT a teamup.
Use the fact that the central finite curve blew up to introduce things that have not shown up before because they are coming from 'outside the curve', like Morticia reality or just things and threats that Rick is actually totally ignorant of because he's never heard of them before which puts him out of his element because this isn't something he is already jaded to.
Eventually build up a soft metaplot about there being a legit interdimensional empire that has been growing outside the Curve, which noticed the use of the Omega Device and wants that weapon for themselves. Hiding from them is easy, but as the season(s) go on you start seeing their iconography in more and more places that Rick and Morty go to, and eventually a confrontation becomes necessary.
>How are you going to do it?
I'm not.
webmrel is permanent. that's all.
Have evil Morty use the omega device to erase all ricks as a safety measure. Or just as a mistake like a fly lands on the button.
Prime Morty has to figure out portal tech for himself so he can find evil Morty and undo it. They fight to a draw and it is revealed the omega device can not be undone. Morty goes home and there are a few wacky random episodes with Morty and the family. Maybe Morty tries to move on and reconnects with one of his exes.
Then it dawned on Morty that he can use time travel to kill Rick prime before he kills C137's Diane, undoing everything. Morty goes back and shoots Rick prime on the shitter. He wakes up in his own dimension and everything is different. C137 Rick never came. None of the alien stuff happened. All of his adventures never happened.
If the show wants to be series they would just end the show there. That Morty grew up and did what he had to save his grandpa, giving up his whole life to do it.
If they want a happy ending, c137 Rick could show up with Diane and thank Morty. Or Morty go to c137's universe and despite Rick forgetting who he was, take Morty at his word and try to build a new healthier relationship.
If he travels demensions and time to be with c137 Rick after saving c137 Diane Morty prime could also end up with a Plantina since she was probably create around the c137 beths death. You could have a happy ending where Rick c137 never bothers with portal tech and helps Morty prime and Planetina create a better world.
I doubt we will get that last ending though as the show runners do not seem to believe you can or should fix trauma.
I suspect the show will end with a wet fart and and dancing in front of a rap song from 1998
If Time Travel could be used to save Diane, Rick would have done that already. He has a box labeled time travel stuff, and calls out time travel as a 'garbage science'. I think the takeaway there is that he must have tried to use time travel to undo the tragedies of his past and found out that for some reason or another it's impossible. Probably the classic time paradox of 'you can't change the past in such a way that it would prevent you from building the time machine in the first place', a Rick that doesn't lose Diane never has reason to make a time machine so he can't fix what matters most to him, or the time machine would paradox itself out of existence which prevents him from going back in time to save Diane.
That or he gets beat up by time cops every time he tries and eventually was forced to give up.
is there any possible way to save a show that sucks 8 seasons in? the best way to fix it is to write goofy episodic stuff but better
The show needs a complete philosophy overhaul in the writer’s room to save it from mediocrity. If I was the showrunner today, this is my vision for Rick and Morty’s future:
>Section 1: Premise/Overall Vision
Rick and Morty is, at it’s core, a show about a teenaged boy and his wacky science grandpa going on cool adventures. The show is allowed to do other things (domestic plots with a twist, dramatic episodes, lore episodes) but this is the bread and butter.
The main character of the show is Morty. He needs to be in the driver’s seat as the audience’s window into the world. Rick can still lead or drive the larger narrative, but Morty should be our perspective character.
The bond between Rick and Morty needs to be reforged. This is priority number one. Priority number two is de-rickifying Morty. Priority three is improving the rest of the family where possible.
(CONT)
The overarching narrative of Rick and Morty should be one of growth and overcoming demons in a cold/nihilistic world, not decay and being consumed by it. Slowly but surely, Rick needs to unlearn his nihilistic philosophy and let himself love/get attached again. Morty on the other hand should grow to be interested in science through the adventures, getting closer to Rick in a healthy way. His applied creativity slowly empowering him to exist in Rick’s world as an equal (of sorts). He doesn’t have Rick’s brain, but he has stronger moral convictions and a unique perspective that contributes to Rick on the adventures. This results in a positive feedback loop of growing them closer together and developing them in a positive arc (they can still be put through the ringer, but Morty needs to lead with optimism in the darkest moments). This is a gradual process. In the end, Rick should be happy with retiring as a family man and Morty should want to continue contributing to the multiverse as somewhat of a wandering hero/explorer. The trick is to slowly validate Morty’s worldview more on adventures. Have him trust somebody that Rick doesn’t and he turns out to be right, or convince Rick they need to do the right thing to save a situation they aren’t directly involved in and it turns out for the better. Stuff like that.
>Section 2: “Rules”
The following rules are imposed on the writers room. Exceptions only considered in special circumstances (a really good idea):
(CONT)
>Only Rick is allowed to acknowledge that they’re in a television show (be “meta”).
>Rick should no longer act as if he doesn’t like his own show/fans of his show.
>Pop culture references and parodies should be kept to an absolute minimum.
>Guest stars are forbidden to play themselves, and the characters they play must contribute to the episode well even if you don’t know who they are (think John Oliver in Anatomy Park).
>Almost every episode should hinge on a high concept right hook (feel free to steal from science fiction short stories and obscure pulp comics/novels as long as you don’t reference it + make it your own by Rick and Morty-ing it.)
>Summer/Beth are forbidden from making “being a girl” their thing. Criticisms they raise should not be gendered, and similarly when targeted in verbal sparring, their character traits should be emphasized over their gender (Summer is a suck up, a bit vapid and overly image conscious and Beth is an alcoholic daddy issues mess.)
>Because Roiland is no longer with us, the special episode of the season should no longer be improv, but a place to put special scripts like Tales from the Citadel. Wildcard that keeps people guessing.
From here I have specific ideas on how they could fix the main priorities but whatever already too long. In a nutshell this is what my mid-run cleanup of Rick and Morty looks like. A pivot to adventure/high concept scripts, Morty being the main character and an arc that refutes Rick’s worldview and grows Morty/the family together.
i just want the showrunners to finally have the balls to kill off Morty and replace him with another multiverse counterpart just like how the rest of his family have been replaced of the seasons, sometimes multiple times.
It's not fair that everyone in the family has been replaced except for Morty.