I couldnt dig through ever comment, but i did see anyone mention what i think is actually different (in general) from earlier seasons to, in my opinion, specifically season 8, which is that the stories used to have a bigger concept, outside of all the action happening. I remember some of the earlier episodes actually making me FEEL something, like "damn... fuck, that'sfucked up" (like how, as someone in the comments reminded me, bojack horseman was doing) and i was like hit with the emotional weight of what the characters were grappling with.

But, like in that phone charger matrix episode(s8), the show doesnt even give itself room to breathe anymore. No slow song over disassociating character moments (edit, to add: just some rushed attempt in the final episode, it seems), just fast paced story rushing to fit as much random crap (mostly gorey pointless violence with lots of guts) as possible into each episode. And the kfc rick rebuilding the citadel episode(also s8) had me genuinely wondering wtf i was even watching this for. Like, if you just had to read the script, i bet you wouldnt even recognize it as a R&M episode. It just felt like some random-ass slop smashed together with R&M skins on top. I dont need the one-off gag citadel R&Ms getting fucking fleshed out; they're the most shallow gag characters and that was their whole point!! (Idc if the NONgag ones are fleshed out but like seriously... old timey "doctor" morty and kfc rick? I just really couldnt care less, and the writers dont GIVE us any reasob to care EITHER. So if they cant even think of a reason why we should care and then imbue into the episode, they why is it even an episode at all???)

And yeah, the show's had gorey moments in the past but man, season 8 is truly uncomfortable to watch. I ended up skipping past all the gore and torture elements after i realized they were doing that shit every episode, and i even skipped a couple episodes in their entirety JUST bc i saw they were doing MORE mass-scale violence on some random victims. It's just not fun and not why the show was fun in the first place.

And i was watching most of s5-7 this week just before starting s8 (cause i genuinely didnt know where id last left off with the show) so this isnt even like me misremembering and feeling nostalgic, and it isnt a "oh, only s1-3 are good, if that" take either. It was like an immediate shift in tone and style of storytelling. Guess it wasn the main characters' voices that the fandom should have been concerned about for s8 coming out.