2016 was an inarguably great year for television, and I'm not just talking about Westworld and Game of Thrones. The Girlfriend Experience followed in Fargo's footsteps and turned a great movie into a great TV series, while Louis C.K.'s Horace and Pete yielded one of the great works that can be filed under the rubric of "web series." Elsewhere, Atlanta finally gave us the fearless comedian and social observer that Donald Glover always hinted at being in Community, and Insecure and Fleabag gave the world two new bracingly distinct visions of modern femininity, nationalism, and race.

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Image via Cartoon Network

And that's honestly just the tip of the iceberg. In the realm of animation, Bob's Burgers, BoJack Horseman, Archer, and South Park all had extraordinary seasons that reaffirmed their already sterling legacies. There was one clear omission, however: Adult Swim's pickled and peculiar breakout hit Rick and Morty. Many imagined that the year would end with Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's series debuting at least the first episode or two of Season 3 but, unfortunately, that doesn't look likely at all at this point, unless they're pulling some Run the Jewels 3 shit and are just going to premiere the new season without any promotion whatsoever. That does not seem likely, but if any show were going to try it, it would probably be this one.

As a placeholder for the most devout of Rick and Morty fans, Adult Swim live-streamed an assemblage of clips from the new season recently, made up of voiceover work, designs, storyboards, and other rough-draft imagery. The footage opens with young Morty attempting to talk up a high school girl, and later, there's a pretty familiar reference to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. More importantly, the show's bitter tone doesn't seem to have been swayed that much following the weirdly effective end of Season 2. For those impatient to see where Rick Sanchez ends up next, this will serve as both a blessing and a curse, it would seem.

Here's the sneak peek at Rick and Morty Season 3:

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Image via Cartoon Network
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Image via Cartoon Network
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Image via Cartoon Network