Rick and Morty Season 9 Delivers the Show's Best Episodes Yet

Season 9 isn’t just closing in on 100 episodes—it’s cracking open a brand-new era, as the Adult Swim staple surges toward becoming the network’s longest-running original animated series.

Rick and Morty is staring down the 100-episode milestone and somehow acting like it is just getting started. Season 9 lands with a very clear message: the show is not limping to the finish line, it is shifting into a new gear. Adult Swim has already locked it in through Season 12, which puts Rick and Morty on track to be the network's longest-running original animated series. And yes, the show is still joking about the 100-episode thing while also charging right past it.

Where the show is now (and how it got here)

The last few years have been a reset. After Adult Swim cut ties with the co-creator and original voice behind Rick and Morty, Seasons 7 and 8 felt like the team was rebuilding in real time. New leads Ian Cardoni (Rick) and Harry Belden (Morty) needed a runway, and you could feel them settling in across Season 8. That year was also the creative team re-centering the show: more classic episodic structure, with a couple of laser-focused character dives (including a sharp look at Beth and her connection to Rick). Helpful, necessary groundwork.

Season 9 walks in like it owns the place. The confidence is obvious in the storytelling choices, the pacing, even the way jokes are shaped. It is the most sure-handed the series has felt in a while.

What is different in Season 9

There is a fresh energy to all ten episodes. Somehow, nine seasons in, the show is still finding new toys to play with: a straight-up kung fu riff here, a spin on robotic companions there, and plenty more I am not spoiling. Most episodes blow out into at least one big action run, but they never feel like copy-paste set pieces. The storyboards stay inventive, and the finales do not blur together.

Tonally, the balance is better. Rick's default cynicism is still in the DNA, but it is not the whole temperature of the room anymore. The rest of the family has evolved over the years, and the show lets that growth matter. Rick even gets to be weirdly invested in things without the humor immediately undercutting it. The result is snappier comedy and bigger payoffs without the old reflex to roll in nihilism for nihilism's sake.

Season 9 also remembers its past

There are real deep cuts and callbacks, the kind you might have forgotten about, woven into episodes that push character work forward. A standout: 'Ricks Days, Seven Nights,' which digs into Rick's personality in a way that lands hard without turning into a lecture. Summer, Beth, and Jerry are not sidelined either; they all get their own brand of chaos around the edges. Even the more self-contained stories have character beats worth circling.

Another welcome shift: the comedy has stepped away from the show's worst impulses. No episodes built around shock-value sexual hijinks or the gross-out extremes that used to swamp whole plots. The jokes lean more on the honest absurdity of a situation and less on sneering at it. That 'matter of fact' delivery actually makes the punchlines hit harder.

Yes, they are still poking the 100-episode bear

The show has clowned on the 100-episode idea for years, and Season 9 keeps that bit alive. One of the promos goes right at it with Rick breaking the fourth wall, deadpan as ever:

'There are still an indefinite number more to go.'

Also, a little nerdy footnote: Adult Swim even rolled out the new opening credits ahead of the premiere, which is a fun tell that the show knows it is entering a new chapter and wants you to feel it immediately.

The bottom line

Not every episode is an instant classic, and a couple of guest stars get lost in the shuffle, but the hit rate is the best it has been in years. The season is confident, playful, and actually excited to be itself again. If you bailed somewhere along the way, this is the on-ramp back.

• Rating: 5 out of 5
• Pro - Fresh, inventive episode ideas even this deep into the run
• Pro - Sharp callbacks reaching all the way back to the early seasons
• Pro - A real jolt of creative energy across writing, action, and humor
• Con - Not every episode lands at the same level
• Con - Some guest performers get buried by the pace

Release details

Rick and Morty Season 9 premieres on Adult Swim Sunday, May 24 at 11:00pm ET/PT.