Justin Roiland\u2019s swift dismissal from Rick and Morty <\/em>(as well as the rest of his multimedia empire) earlier this year immediately raised questions about whether the series might be in jeopardy. Fans \/ aspiring voice actors were all too ready to burp out their best \u201coh, geez,\u201d and Adult Swim assured everyone that it had a plan. But it was hard to imagine the show continuing without the voice behind its titular duo and so many other of its messed-up weirdos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the months since Warner Bros. Discovery \/ Adult Swim announced Rick and Morty <\/em>would absolutely be returning, details about Roiland\u2019s replacements \u2014 plural \u2014 were kept quiet, which made it impossible to know what to expect. But as concerned as longtime loyalists of Rick and Morty <\/em>might have been about the show falling off post-Roiland, the show\u2019s season 7 premiere should put those fears to rest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Rick and Morty<\/em>\u2019s last season ended with a grotesque snap as an uncharacteristically jacked Mr. Poopybutthole broke both of his legs attempting to squat enough weight to distract him from the pain of being left by his ex-wife. At the time, Mr. Poopybutthole\u2019s post-credits accident seemed like a depressing throwaway gag bolted onto a season of plots involving Rick begrudgingly accepting the truth about loving his family. But rather than leaving Mr. Poopybutthole to languish off-camera, Rick and Morty<\/em>\u2019s season 7 premiere puts him front and center as part of an addiction-focused story that, at times, feels a bit like the show acknowledging the problems from its past that it\u2019s trying to leave behind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though Mr. Poopybutthole\u2019s straight-to-camera catch-up in the opening scene of \u201cHow Poopy Got His Poop Back\u201d provides some insight into what the Smith family\u2019s been up to since we last saw them, it\u2019s also the show\u2019s way of establishing how little Rick and Morty<\/em>\u2019s changed now that new actors have joined the cast. As always, it falls to Summer (Spencer Grammer) and the two Beths (Sarah Chalke) to clean up everyone\u2019s messes while Jerry (Chris Parnell) does everything he can to help, which only makes matters worse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even with the emotional maturing Rick\u2019s gone through, he still has a hard time dealing with people he sees as his intellectual lessers, and Morty knows that a lot of his grandfather\u2019s act is just a front.\u00a0Almost everything about the cold open of \u201cHow Poopy Got His Poop Back\u201d \u2014 especially the voices of Rick, Morty, and Mr. PB \u2014 screams classic Rick and Morty<\/em>, and what\u2019s kind of wild about the premiere is how people used to having the show on in the background might initially be unsure whether they\u2019re watching a new episode or a rerun.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Much of that is due to the skills of the new voice actors (whose names were removed from press screeners, and Adult Swim declined to share for review purposes) as more than capable voiceover artists who step into their roles seamlessly with performances that make it sound as if Rick and Morty have cleared their throats and taken to enunciating a bit <\/em>more clearly. But it\u2019s also a testament to Rick and Morty<\/em>\u2019s writing staff being in rare form as they open the season with a story that feels like it\u2019s simultaneously trying to address the elephant in the room and show viewers that very little about how the show plays has really changed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHow Poopy Got His Poop Back\u201d doesn\u2019t explicitly address the fact that Mr. Poopybutthole, like all of the Rick and Morty <\/em>characters Roiland used to voice, sounds ever so slightly different than he used to. In its focus on addiction and people dealing with the consequences of their own (and their friends\u2019) habitual poor impulse control, though, it feels like the episode\u2019s trying to make a point about the dangers of enabling people to be their worst selves. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n That concept carries quite a bit of weight, especially on a show with Rick and Morty<\/em>\u2019s past. But as self-aware as this season feels, there\u2019s very little in the two episodes we\u2019ve seen to suggest that the show\u2019s lost any of its nihilistic edge or its ability to temper that same edge with absurdist, gross-out humor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n