Movies & TV Shows
Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 2 Review: Navigating the Irradiated Wasteland of Divorce
Rick and Morty is finally back, and they’ve tackled the trope of Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic science fiction in typical fashion in “Rickmancing the Stone.” Rick, Morty, and Summer find themselves running away from troubles at home to a wasteland where they each find a way to distract themselves.
The wasteland itself takes a back seat to the emotional baggage Morty and Summer try to shed by exploiting the violent tendencies of the tribe. Rick is already a pro at dealing with divorce and emotional trauma, so he uses his time to hunt down the powerful Isotope 322, as well as make sure Beth doesn’t know the kids are missing. This is the first real trauma Summer has faced in the show, and we learn a lot about her from the way she handles it. She distracts herself by killing mutants with Death Stalkers and involving herself with Hemorrhage, the leader of the tribe. She rises to become a sort of matriarch in her own right, however long as that lasts until Rick introduce the society to modern luxuries to speed up the deterioration of their relationship. This definitely falls in line with the show’s idea of the futility of relationships, but that actually comes second to how it affects Summer’s character. Summer didn’t lose herself in the wasteland only to learn a lesson about the pitfalls of monogamy, she realizes she can’t continue distracting herself from her own problems. This would have taken her a while to figure out if the tribe continued roaming the wasteland, so she’s lucky Rick is looking out for his ‘Sum Sum.’ Summer visiting her dad and telling him to keep looking ahead wraps up a great episode-arc for Summer, and functions as a major step forward for her dealing with the divorce.
Morty’s arc is more straight forward, projecting his cowardly father onto the waves of wastelanders that meet him in the Blood Dome. His mutant arm has baggage to deal with as well, and Morty is brought along for the ride and attempts to solve his own problems by extension. This helps Morty release some of that pent up rage we saw in “Look Who’s Purging Now,” but ultimately will never be enough to really help him. Morty semi-confronts the fact that he isn’t dealing with the divorce in a healthy way (“who wants to be my pussy of a dad today!?”), and by the time Armthony completes his unfinished business, Morty is left to complete his. Unfortunately for him, Summer, and Beth, their business isn’t as simple as avenging your dead family, as their problems lie much deeper than that. While his realization isn’t as pronounced as Summer’s, Morty puts himself in a better position to heal by the end of his time with Armthony.
From the little we got from Beth, she seems to be a mixed bag of emotions. She seems unconcerned when Morty and Summer run off with Rick, and doesn’t ask too many question when Rick comes back without them. She trusts him (however good or bad of an idea that is) with the kids, and only at times wonders how they’re handling the divorce and what it’s doing to their family. Robot Morty and Summer are sort of therapeutic for Beth in a way, but it’s only until when her real children return that she can find herself at peace for a moment. We can expect the show togo into Beth’s handling of the divorce, including her backstory, in the future.
Mad Max isn’t the most creative Rick and Morty has gotten, but it served it’s purpose as a vehicle for Morty and Summer to confront their parents divorce. “Rickmancing the Stone” continued the season’s strong start.
The episode, of course was not without memorable one-liners:
“That’s because loser look stuff up while the rest of us are Carpen all them Diems.”
“Is it really easier to eat human flesh than to tell me why we’re here?”
“Save it for the semantics dome, E.B. White.”
“My body is chrome! My blood is gasoline!”
“Aw jeez my sister died in the spaghetti…”
Rick and Morty episode 3×04 is “Pickle Rick” where we get to meet… Pickle Rick! Watch “Rickmancing the Stone” on Adult Swim’s website here!
Generally, The Marvels is good. It has a 59 on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t great, but it’s better than Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Disney+’s Secret Invasion. Perhaps director Nia DaCosta’s video game inspirations contributed to that.
The American filmmaker said Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children influenced her latest film at a press junket with IGN. “It’s just an amazing movie, with great fight scenes and a great ending sequence with the main character being thrown into the sky by all the other characters,” she said.
Despite poor reviews upon release in 2005, Advent Children has become a Final Fantasy cult classic. DaCosta seems to agree that the film is a classic. PlayStation exclusives also influenced the Marvels.
In the interview, she said she didn’t want the superhero film to look “too much like a video game” but did draw from Sony’s biggest franchises, like The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn. “For me, it was from the best games, the best stories that you get, that sort of inspires me to play, and I think inspires people to watch movies like this,” she said.
Since movies have shaped video games since their inception, it’s interesting to see the dynamic slowly changing. Now that technology and interactive storytelling are more complex, filmmakers are looking to PlayStation for inspiration.
Netflix reported third-quarter earnings and is doing well. Revenue increased as the company added 9 million subscribers worldwide.
Netflix is also using this opportunity to raise the prices of some of its U.S., U.K., and French plans to differentiate ad-free plans from its entry-level ad-supported plan. New subscribers to the most expensive plan will pay $22.99 per month.
Let’s step back and examine Netflix’s current situation. Netflix cracked down on password sharing in its home market and dozens of others in May. The third quarter is the first full quarter under the new rules, so we can see the effect of password sharing.
The company removed the basic tier in the U.S. and U.K. two months ago to simplify its offering. People must pay a lot to remove Netflix ads.
Reports suggest that many customers are experiencing subscription fatigue and considering canceling some streaming subscriptions, but Netflix still has room for growth, especially with advertising revenue.
The company has 247.15 million subscribers. The number of subscribers increased 8.76 million this quarter. Netflix subscribers haven’t grown that much since Q2 2020, when Covid lockdowns were enforced worldwide.
Netflix earned $3.73 per share on $8.5 billion in revenue this quarter. As ads plan subscribers rise almost 70% quarter-over-quarter, ads are contributing more to the bottom line. Nearly a third of new subscribers use ads.
Netflix shares are up 13.75% pre-market ($393.79 per share) on good news for shareholders. However, subscribers will be unhappy because the company will raise prices for some plans again in three key markets. Full breakdown here.
In the U.S.:
- Standard with ads: $6.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (no longer available): $11.99 per month (up from $9.99)
- Standard: $15.49 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): $22.99 per month (up from $19.99)
In the U.K.:
- Standard with ads: £4.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (no longer available): £7.99 per month (up from £6.99)
- Standard: £10.99 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): £17.99 per month (up from £15.99)
In France:
- Standard with ads: €5.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (still available in France for now): €10.99 per month (up from €8.99)
- Standard: €13.49 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): €19.99 per month (up from €17.99)
New subscriptions start at these prices today. Bills for existing subscribers will rise in the coming weeks.
When your writer—one of Hollywood’s hottest—tries to hide their involvement, it’s a bad sign. The Borderlands film’s original script was written by Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, Chernobyl), who recently asked the WGA to use the pseudonym “Joe Crombie” instead of his name.
We hope this means Mazin considers Joe Abercrombie, Lord Grimdark, the grittiness GOAT, but that theory is unproven. Since Mazin wrote the script in 2015 for Eli Roth to direct, a steady stream of writers has been brought in. Aaron Berg, Chris Bremner, Sam Levinson, Zak Olkewicz, Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor, and Oren Uziel have put around 70 fingers in the honey pot.
The name change likely avoids confusion. Mazin probably doesn’t want to be blamed for Jack Black/Claptrap madness, but he wants to keep his rights.
To clarify, the Borderlands film finished filming in 2021, but Roth was replaced by Tim Miller (Deadpool) in January.
When this surprising star-studded film (Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Cate Blanchet) limps out, what are your expectations? We think this was supposed to coincide with Borderlands 3’s 2019 release, but it’s overshot the mark.
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