Venture Brothers return tonight!

[Buster's Uncle]

I just found out...

The Venture Bros.: The Venture Bros Season 5 Sneak Peek

...and I'm spazzing out pretty hard.  As one of the YouTube comments said

funny, i remember having my pants on when this vidoe started

[Buster's Uncle]

Seriously, if you've never given the show a look, I pity you.  It's dead brilliant.

I spent a good deal of my time the last few days catching up on season four - it's an unbearably frustrating experience on the Adult Swim website, but sorta worth it.  (I do recommend looking around further for complete episodes.)

The show keeps getting better and better.  This is some seriously clever and awesome [poop].

[Unorthodox]

Is this the Johnny Quest spoof? 

(I'm usually not watching things I can't have one of the kids stumble upon, and this falls into that category IIRC.)

[Buster's Uncle]

It is and it does.

It's one of those things where the character designs and voice acting are a little obnoxious - I remember when it was new to me and I still noticed.  No, it's Adult Swim, and dirty enough often enough that your kids ought not be exposed.  It's also thematically about the death of the shiny dreams of youth, and I don't think they'd like it at all, either - it's definitely made for me and you, not your kids.

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, I've caught an episode or two.  It's not something I'm going to DVR, but don't mind when it's on after the kids go to bed. 


Silly, but it's shocking to realize my kids have never seen Johnny Quest.  Why the hell doesn't Boomerang play THAT instead of half the crap on there. 

[Buster's Uncle]

If you've only seen a few early ones --- again, it just keeps getting better, though I don't know how much that applies to a casual viewer who hasn't followed the character development.  It's a weird show, not least for being a broad parody with ever-increasing depth.

[Buster's Uncle]

You’ve Probably Never Heard of One of the Best Shows on Television
By Chris Wade


Do you like Archer’s mid-century modernist aesthetic and fascination with the bureaucratic machinations of superheroes and villains? Do you like Arrested Development’s self-referential callbacks and its obsession with how failure and dysfunction are handed down from one generation to another? And sure, I’ll go there: Do you like The Wire’s complex web of characters whose motivations and relationships are slowly teased out over season-long and even series-long arcs?

Then you will probably love The Venture Bros.

Written, directed, designed, edited, and largely voiced by two men, Eric “Doc” Hammer and Christopher McCulloch (aka Jackson Publick), The Venture Bros., which airs on Adult Swim, is one of the best—and certainly most original—shows on television. In four seasons produced over the course of a decade—the fifth premieres this Sunday—the series has grown from a goofy, oddly specific riff on Jonny Quest cartoons and other pulp adventure stories into an elaborate and wonderfully realized universe.*

The premise is complicated enough: Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak) attempts to recapture the fame and success of his world-famous super-scientist father, with his two sons Hank and Dean (the titular brothers) and their herculean body guard Brock Samson (perfectly voiced by Patrick Warburton) along for the ride. And that barely hints at the world of bizarre and hilarious characters, twisting plot lines, and superbly specific referential humor that makes the series so damn exciting.

There’s the self-absorbed, butterfly-themed villain The Monarch and his Jackie Onassis-channeling 2nd-in-command/romantic interest, Dr. Girlfriend; the New Wave music enthusiast Albino and his hydrocephalic best friend, who met competing in illegal underground Quizboy competitions; the secret intelligence officer who bears a striking similarity to Hunter S. Thompson; the family of industrialists who illustrate just how messed up the Fantastic Four might have turned out; Phantom Limb, a villain with invisible appendages who vies for control of the organized villainy union, the Guild of Calamitous Intent, currently controlled by (who else) David Bowie. Actually, there’s a lot of David Bowie.

It’s the kind of show where no thread is ever dropped, where jokes and characters mentioned once in the first season suddenly become major plot points in the fourth. And it’s the rare comedy where characters actually grow, change, and develop over time—and the more you watch, the more you learn about characters’ histories and just why everyone is as messed up as they are. It can seem impenetrable, but the rewards for attentive viewing are considerable.

Few TV showrunners have as much control over their final product as Hammer and Publick, and that control surely has much do with the utterly singular voice and perspective of the series. Unfortunately, the amount of work involved has also meant long delays between seasons: It’s been nearly two and half years since the finale of Season 4 aired. (There have been two specials in the meantime.) And for much of that time, the show was unavailable on any streaming services.

But now is the perfect time to jump in. You can finally binge through the first season via Netflix. If you’re skeptical, I’d recommend starting at episode 6, “Ghosts of the Sargasso,” an episode featuring a hilarious parody of Scooby-Doo style rubber-masked Ghost Pirates; Brock Samson executing one of the most delightfully foul hands-free combat techniques I’ve ever seen; and the excellently meta Bowie-riffing cold open linked above. If that piques your interest, Hammer and Publick recently released an epic 8-minute summary of the first four seasons, which should give you enough background to start watching this Sunday.

It’s true, the specificity of Hammer and Publick’s vision and references can become overwhelming. But for every extended joke comparing Hanna-Barbera characters to famous misanthropes of the ’60s and ’70s there’s a great Star Wars joke pitched right into the pop-culture strike zone, giving the show a kind of something-for-every-nerd appeal. Give it a chance. It just might be your new favorite show.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/05/31/venture_bros_season_5_premiere_the_return_of_one_of_tv_s_best_shows.html

This pretty much echoes my opinion...

[JarlWolf]

I have actually watched the odd episode of this off and on (enough not to be lost at the present moment), a friend of mine showed it to me via Skype. Jolly large fellow he is. But that's another subject, this show was made for cynics and it's probably why we all love it, as it ruthlessly murders any optimism and other such things with crude, but intelligent humour and enough parody and satire to make someone's kidneys fall out from laughing enough. Add in the plot and you have a nice little gift basket labelled: Good. Surprised they didn't mention 21 and 24's comradeship and evolution in that blog.

[Buster's Uncle]

I've got to say that the show being about failure doesn't appeal to me.  I'm a consumer of escapist fantasies, and people working in that kind of fiction has made this mistake increasingly in recent decades, especially since the thing that happened in New York in 2001.  I see plenty of failure in real life, and stories about unhappy people who never win are not my cup of tea.

Now, I don't mind that it's a deconstruction of what it probably would be like to live in such a gee-whiz adventure world, but they're still surrounded by all the cool trappings that go with the milieu.  21 is a rather pathetic person with an unfulfilling life, but HE sees the coolness of the cool sci fi gadgets he always encountering -unlike the Ventures who were born to it- to the extent that his catchphrase could be said to be "COOL!".  In that way, he serves as a sort of viewer surrogate.

-Also?  It's funny.  That excuses a lot.

[JarlWolf]

Well, it uses failure but it uses it in a funny way; and in many parts the failure evokes pathos for many of the characters and that's why we become somewhat more attached and interested to them. And when they do succeed in something its rather epic. The eccentric cast of characters also helps diversify the show without misleading it, I am surprised they could have such diversity without just boggling down the show with references. But the Venture Bros carries it fairly well.

And the events of 2001 BUncle, I wouldn't consider failure. I would consider it tragedy that progressed into a exploitative cesspit, rather then failure. The failure is what is within the following cesspit. As for myself I've also experienced both and I know how you feel on that note.

But on another note, back to the show, who's your favourite character(s)?

[Buster's Uncle]

Dunno.  At first I couldn't stand Hank and Dean, but they've grown a lot on me.  Last season, I had a lot of trouble forgiving Sgt. Hatred for taking up space - he's no Brock.  But he's grown on me a lot, too.

I suppose the straight answer is The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch - they're just hilarious.


Now, as to the 911 stuff, this country went all crazy and fascist afterwards, and I got SICK!  SICK!  SICK! of hearing it obsessively discussed in RL by mid-October of 2001.  The last thing I wanted to have to put up with was having that crap contaminating my escapist fantasies, which it did, a lot.  And that's pretty directly antithetical to the basic appeal of consuming escapist fantasies.  Likewise, I'd rather these characters I enjoy following won more of the time - it's an escapist fantasy, after all.  But then, Adult Swim cartoons tend, alas, to usually be about failure for some reason.

[JarlWolf]

I think it's less about failure and just more of they are a satire of modern societies of which they try to mirror in a funny way. Now for people like ourselves that could be just tiring, but if you look past it though there IS a degree of success in these shows and its believable: which is far more powerful then just some escapist fantasy where EVERYONE WINS or some Hollywood ending. The show is better for that and the audience that watches this show is more mature then that. It gives us a hard cynical realm with lots of humour and the successes that do happen are amazing and vital to the story and it's characters. An example? There was an episode where Rusty's mutant little "brother" (the tumor grown one) was tasked to build something in Space but needs a specific thing built, he turns to Rusty and Rusty attempts it in his incompetent way and the project has such high levels of radiation that the workers mutate and form their own mutant tribal society. Now they manage to build it of course but due to his incompetence he has that mutant tribal revolt thing to deal with: Of which due to the Monarch's meddling and Rusty's funny but somewhat effective (at making everyone forget because he drugged them severely) to solve the situation, reverse the mutations and make sure no one remembers a thing.

And he delivers his quota on time. That's a story of multiple failures that form a massive success: Which is more amazing then a Hollywood ending.
And failure is used as a lesson in the story to teach the characters, and like in real life failure is a thing we use to learn and adapt with as cruel as it is. And a life full of failure, when you achieve success it's monumental and empowering.

[Buster's Uncle]

Sure, but I didn't say ALWAYS win - just not ALWAYS lose. 

Jackson Public and Doc Hammer, the creators of the show have said publically a number of times that Venture Brothers is about failure.  I can dig up quotes easily, if you want.

[JarlWolf]

Sure, but I didn't say ALWAYS win - just not ALWAYS lose. 

Jackson Public and Doc Hammer, the creators of the show have said publically a number of times that Venture Brothers is about failure.  I can dig up quotes easily, if you want.

Perhaps. But through failure, we find success. Mind I am not saing you are wrong, the show is about failure in that regard: All I am saying is that if you look through it with a bit of different perspective you can see the success that forms from the failure.

[Buster's Uncle]

But I'm watching it for the cool factor - I enjoy science fiction and fantasy and comic books.  Escapist stuff. 

I'm certainly glad that The Venture Bros is a lot smarter than the Jonny Quest cartoons it mocks, but I'm not watching it to learn anything.  There are other things I watch or read when I'm looking to learn - not my escapist fantasies.