“Rick and Morty” establish the core of Rick’s morality right at the Adult Swim series opening. And while it may feel like a drunken jest on Rick’s part, or a one-off cold open joke, evidence mounts as the series continues that Rick’s neutrino bomb threat is a fair representation of Rick and a morality warped by the consequences of an infinite universe. And now, with the release of “Rick and Morty” Season 1 on DVD and Blu-ray, we can slam the whole series. I’ll be giving “Rick and Morty” Season 1 a rewatch, taking an in-depth look at what made the first season of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s Adult Swim show so great.

As always, you can watch every episode of “Rick and Morty” to go along with my reviews right here.

"Rick and Morty" Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot

Immediately after the credits we get some less subtle indications of Rick’s outlook, with his dismissal of God and traditional schooling, which he describes as a place where “they give you a carton of milk and a piece of paper that says you can go take a dump or something.”

Which is one of the things that caught me most by surprise while rewatching the “Rick and Morty” pilot: it is already dialed in to the nature of the characters and the anarchistic message right from the beginning. Upon originally viewing the “Rick and Morty” pilot I had found it light-weight, with Rick’s cavalier use of violence and non-stop callousness more akin to the no-consequences, no-continuity worlds of “Superjail” or “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” But “Rick and Morty” is not a consequence free zone. Instead, it’s a world where consequences are trivial in the face of a universe with endless permutations. It’s a surprisingly meaningful difference that somehow elevates “Rick and Morty” and grants it a greater capacity to shock in an Adult Swim landscape populated with plenty of shows trying to one-up each other (their new show “Mr. Pickles” is only the latest example).

In short order Rick murders a bully, smuggles illegal mega-seeds, and implicates his nephew in the murder of space cops.

There are two scenes that stood out for me once again.

The first is this:

The enthusiastic creature born of a human, then experiencing a truncated lifespan full of frantic meaninglessness, seems like an idea that “Star Trek: The Next Generation” would take 42 minutes to investigate (“The Child” isn’t quite that, but close). But “Rick and Morty” breezes right by it, with only Rick’s mantra, “Don’t think about it!” forcing us to dwell on it.

The other moment:

While Rick blowing up Earth with a neutrino bomb while drunk is the dark side of his (seemingly justified) nihilism, here is the other side of his philosophy. Yeah, he has his cousin kill some bug-TSA, but there’s something undeniably appealing about Rick’s rationalization for always taking what he wants. I suppose it’s a kind of pan-dimensional Randianism, the thought of which would usually make me puke, but it makes Rick seem almost swashbuckling in the moment.

After that the rest of the “Rick and Morty” pilot wraps up the parental side-plot, which gives Beth and Jerry some dull “real” concerns by having them contemplate putting Rick in a nursing home. It’s definitely the show’s most boring element, with Rick and Morty talking to Morty’s parents for maybe as much as a full minute (an eternity in animation time). But the parental, “Morty must go to school” plotline also contains the seeds of its own destruction, as Beth and Jerry relent and, as far as I can recall, never bring it up again for the rest of “Rick and Morty” Season 1.

The "Rick and Morty" Rewatch Will Be Back!

I’ll be continuing with my rewatch of “Rick and Morty” in celebration of the “Rick and Morty” Season 1 DVD and Blu-ray release, but for now let’s leave the last words to Rick:

“Rick and Morty and their adventures, Morty. Rick and Morty forever and forever a hundred years Rick and Morty… a hundred days Rick and Morty all day a hundred times…”

Small Things:

• Rick’s hair blows back when he opens a portal… a nice detail.

• The aliens are awesome. And yeah, I know there are more Cronenbergs to come.

• Rick understands the nature of Morty as a character right in the pilot: “Not very charismatic. Makes you kinda an underfoot character.”

• Rick’s drunk spittle takes on a lot of different forms in the pilot, including some baby-like dribbling.

• The sequence where Rick convinces Morty to put the megaseeds up his butt is pretty much a less disgusting version of the original cartoon short (be warned: very gross).

• There’s a yellow Ferengi at the spaceport, plus a lot of great smalltalk.

• Rick’s science vagueness is always hilarious: “I’m gonna be able to do all kinds of things with them… all kinds of science”

• The pilot doesn’t have an after-credits sequence!