I think the iasue with Rick and Morty isn’t continuity, but the way they portray the characters.
Early Rick was an asshole but he wasn’t a complete psychopath yet, he was mostly just very damaged and depressed, but he still had moments that showed he loved his family and morty especially.The duo of Rick and Morty complemented eachother, Rick helped Morty mature and learn about the harsh reality of the world, while Morty kept Rick’s morality in check and reminded him of what’s important.
The end of season 2 was the culmination of all that character development. Rick realised how much he was putting the Smith’s in danger and decided it was best to sacrifice himself for their sake, because he loves them and because deep down he hates himself and thinks he deserves that fate. Even Jerry had an important role here, as he was the only one who was honest about how Rick’s adventures were hurting the family, while everyone else was trying to cater to him just to keep him around. We see in that scene how his speech influenced Rick’s decision to leave.
Then season 3 comes and he just… instantly, and easily escapes. From the prison that he voluntarily went into to protect his family, and in doing so, putting them in a ton of danger as well. Which completely undermines all the development from before, nevermind the fact that Rick is suddenly an invincible superhuman from this point on.
Now everyone in the smith family is just as much of a murdering psychopath as he is, so there’s no one for him to bounce off of anymore. And the episodes are just a bunch of pointless references to popular media rather than having actual plots. Sure they had the occasional reference in the first 2 seasons, but now it seems every episode needs to be entirely about parodying some piece of media, and it’s usually extremely shallow.
And about continuity, the writers are super weird about it, they make a ton of meta jokes about how continuity is bad and they hate it, but then at the end of the season they always continue the dumb overaching plot they have going, and then get mad that people like it.
I think the iasue with Rick and Morty isn’t continuity, but the way they portray the characters.
Early Rick was an asshole but he wasn’t a complete psychopath yet, he was mostly just very damaged and depressed, but he still had moments that showed he loved his family and morty especially.The duo of Rick and Morty complemented eachother, Rick helped Morty mature and learn about the harsh reality of the world, while Morty kept Rick’s morality in check and reminded him of what’s important.
The end of season 2 was the culmination of all that character development. Rick realised how much he was putting the Smith’s in danger and decided it was best to sacrifice himself for their sake, because he loves them and because deep down he hates himself and thinks he deserves that fate. Even Jerry had an important role here, as he was the only one who was honest about how Rick’s adventures were hurting the family, while everyone else was trying to cater to him just to keep him around. We see in that scene how his speech influenced Rick’s decision to leave.
Then season 3 comes and he just… instantly, and easily escapes. From the prison that he voluntarily went into to protect his family, and in doing so, putting them in a ton of danger as well. Which completely undermines all the development from before, nevermind the fact that Rick is suddenly an invincible superhuman from this point on.
Now everyone in the smith family is just as much of a murdering psychopath as he is, so there’s no one for him to bounce off of anymore. And the episodes are just a bunch of pointless references to popular media rather than having actual plots. Sure they had the occasional reference in the first 2 seasons, but now it seems every episode needs to be entirely about parodying some piece of media, and it’s usually extremely shallow.
And about continuity, the writers are super weird about it, they make a ton of meta jokes about how continuity is bad and they hate it, but then at the end of the season they always continue the dumb overaching plot they have going, and then get mad that people like it.