Thoughts on the Venture Bros. Season 4 Trailer

• One of the best parts about watching this trailer, just like when the trailer for Season 3 came out last year, is how a lot of the clips shown are even more amusing in no context whatsoever. (Like Dean’s “Hitler just needs someone to believe in him!”)
• Part of me is still a little concerned about how entertaining 21 will be without 24, but I do admire the balls it takes to kill off a character everybody loves.
• Anyone else kind of sick of Sgt. Hatred? I liked him better when he was a reoccurring off-screen joke, rather than an actual character with still, just one joke.

Why did you buckle it? Why would you do that?

So, was anyone else vaguely disappointed by the season finale of Venture Brothers?

It was not a bad episode, per se, but it was a let down. It didn’t really resolve many of the arcs set into motion through out the season (Brock’s kid, Monarch vs. Sgt. Hatred, whatever Doctor Girlfriend was up to, etc.) and instead dealt with a Brock arc that was shoehorned into the end of the season.

I think the writers just had too many plates in the air this season and they just weren’t able to do it all justice.

That is not to say it was a bad season, not in the least. I was just left unsatisfied in the end. And not it in the good way, leaving me wanting more. Instead I was just disappointed by the lack of resolution. Compare this to how the first and second seasons left me, I was ready to commit violence or pay untold amounts of money to see new episodes.

Of course, the season may play better for me on DVD. We will have to wait and see.

Digest O’Crap II: The Electric Boogaloo

Below are some of the things I should have blogged about but didn’t (along with a much of random thoughts…):

I absolutely love that they kept the glasses

Did you know there are some sweet new pictures from the Half-Blood Prince Movie up on these here internets? Exciting! And yes, that’s why I have used them in the last two posts. (Via Club Jade).

This is stupid, a fake scandal if I’ve ever heard of one.

I saw Wall-E and it was one of the most beatiful things I have seen in my entire life. Honestly, Pixar out did itself. Truely a “family film” in that kids get cute, fun robot action & adults get cute, fun robot action and an important message. Oh, the machines are more human than humans!

I saw Hancock and it was bad. The movie couldn’t figure out what it was. Was it an action-comedy? A straight forward superhero flick? Or a serious drama? And the backstory, ugh. Stupid. But Will Smith and Jason Bateman are very watchable. So the movie was more bad than horrid.

I’ve been going back and forth between believing we are facing utter DOOOOOM in November and a sort of giddy triumphalism with a shot of depression. When is the Democratic convention again?

Speaking of the election: Isn’t John McCain a great man for joking about killing Iranians? I think you know the answer! (The answer is absolutely yes)

Heroes was a great con, I wish I’d had the energy to write up a whole big thing about it. But I just couldn’t do it. Needless to say though, we’ll be doing again next year. Hopefully that time I’ll actually do some live blogging from it!

I think the lines at Baltimore this year will be crazy.

I am excited about one piece of news at San Diego this year: The Scott Pilgrim title & cover announcement.

Where I saw the fireworks on THE FOURTH they played “Proud to be an American” the 9/11 remix. I drunkenly had to stop my friends from laughing. And failed. Does this make me a miserable person?

I bought the Vampire Weekend cd and it is awesome. There are three tracks right at the beginning (Oxford Comma, A-Punk, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa) that are just beyond catchy and make it worth 9.99 ITunes download. The whole ablum is pretty sweet too.

The last two weeks of Venture Brothers has been some of the best the series has produced. “The Buddy System” episode made me laugh so hard and the writing was so sharp. Damn Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick and their amazing writing abilities.

Brilliance, hilarious brilliance.

I’ve become re-obsessed with Scott Pilgrim and am sort of planning an extended post on the subject.

Lord, I am going to flunk out of grad school because of this. I know it. Damn you Lucasarts! (Via Club Jade, again)

Anybody else excited for Hellboy II?

More later.

Presented in Glorious Extra-Color! Venture Brothers Top 6 Countdown! (#2-1)

#2 Ghosts of the Sargasso

Years ago, one of Jonas Venture Sr.’s friends, Major Tom (yes that’s a Bowie reference), crashed a jet into the ocean. Dr. Venture returns to salvage the wreck, but his ship ends up taken over by a group of pirates pretending to be ghosts. The threat stays minimal until the ever-screaming real ghost of Major Tom resurfaces.

Why it’s #2

It’s not perfect, but I feel this is the episode that first truly captures the characterizations of Dr. Venture, Brock, and the boys. The bitter Dr. Venture is left alone, bitching to his Jacques-Cousteau-esque recording as he sits at the bottom of the ocean, musing on his failures and inadequecies relative to his father. The good-natured Dean is left with the “villain” head of the ghost pirates, surprisingly resourceful as he convinces them that an even tougher bodyguard is on the loose. The bold but naive Hank tying up pirates with knots with big bows, and Brock behaving as his mentor, though he’s just as tough without the use of his hands.

This episode also wonderfully embraces the show’s ongoing theme of failure. The fake ghost pirates are sub-Scooby-Doo villains, not only dressing up as supernatural threats, but only able to pillage Toys-R-Us ships. And Dr. Venture, of course, trying and failing to dig up one of his father’s old inventions, once again must deal with the fact that his best ideas are the one’s his father had decades before.

Presented in Glorious Extra-Color! Venture Brothers Top 6 Countdown! (#4-3)

#4 Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II

Dr. Venture, Brock, Hank, and Dean are “trapped in a cliche,” as slow-moving spikes inside a pyramid are about to crush them. Dr. Venture, remembering his “boy adventurer” days, climbs through a small hole to try to figure out a way to rescue the rest of them. Soon as he returns home though, he gets wrapped up in quarrel with Dr. Orpheus and forgets the others. Brock, Dean, and Hank, meanwhile, must deal with the increasingly nonsensical challenges that time travel storylines usually bring about.

Why It’s #4

There are some shows that I appreciate the most at their simplest. Many of the best Simpsons episodes are the ones that focus on the most mundane things. King of the Hill is a whole series dedicated to the celebration of the mundane. Sometimes though, something can become so over-the-top and so gleefully absurd, that there’s no way not to love it. This episode takes the best of both worlds, the comparatively mundane magic vs. science argument between Dr. Venture and Dr. Orpheus as the “A” plot, and the insanity of time travel and Egyptian cults as the “B” plot. But it’s not just the juxtaposition of the two plots that elevates this episode to greatness. The story hinges on Dr. Venture’s preoccupation with the mundane “A” plot, completely forgetting the insane non sequitor dangers Brock, Dean, and Hank are still in. For anyone who’s ever watched a multi-episode series of Super Friends or, of course, Johnny Quest, this episode’s impossible not to love.

I also have to give special any episode that’s going to include a guest spot by H. Jon Benjamin as “The Master,” probably best known as Coach McGuirk from Home Movies. Now there’s a show that doesn’t get near the credit it deserves, but I digress…

My Brothers…

I was so incredibly excited by the return of Venture Brothers last night that I don’t really know how to put my feelings in words.

But I’ll try.

Why I think Venture Brothers is some funny is that 80% of the humor, at this point, is character based. As the writers reveal more and more about each character’s back story the humor becomes more and more about the characters and less about situational comedy. The humor is drawn from the character interactions, not from out of nowhere asides. The Venture Brothers, Dr. Venture, Brock, the Monarch, and Dr. Girlfriend are legitimate characters, not ciphers for the joke or stereotype of the moment.

Last night’s episode is case in point. The humor is (nearly) entirely drawn from an exploration of the relationship between the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend. And its all hilarious. The call-backs to previous bits of characterization and humor through-out the series. Venture Brothers is a show that rewards close watching, it makes you want to watch each episode over and over again.

I’m not sure how this premier holds up compared to other episodes in the series, to provide such a judgment I’d have to see how it fits into the whole arc of the rest of the season.

What judgment I can make is that the third season premier of Venture Brothers did not disappoint and it seems to spell good things for us over the next couple of months.

I did miss one thing, what exactly was it that Dr. Girlfriend told the Monarch at the end of Season Two?

Presented in Glorious Extra-Color! Venture Brothers Top 6 Countdown! (#6-5)

Introduction:

June 1st marks the beginning of the 3rd season of The Venture Brothers. Is two seasons too few to have a “best of” countdown? Most likely. But we’ve got to anticipate somehow, and the people love their lists, particularly complaining about all my glaring omissions. Because of the dearth of episodes, this will only be a top 6. I could easily have done a top 10, but at that point I’d be dangerously close to going through every episode and talking about why it’s great. (Though I could do that easily.) I’ll split up the episodes into pairs, covering two a week until the premiere.

For the oblivious, The Venture Brothers is a character-driven show that, on the simplest level, is a parody of the old Johnny Quest cartoons. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture was a Johnny-Quest-type is his own day, now middle-aged and living in his super-scientist father’s shadow along with his hyper-violent bodyguard Brock Samson and two children, Dean and Hank. The parody only works as a set-up though, and the well-written and well-defined cast of dozens quickly takes on a life of its own.

So if you’ve never seen the show, here’s a few suggestions of places to start. If you have seen the show, now’s the time to start disagreeing with me. Here’s number 6:

#6. Ice Station Impossible!

Dr. Venture goes to work at an arctic base with his old college instructor, Prof. Impossible (voiced by Stephen Colbert). Meanwhile, Hank, Dean, and Brock are treated to Race Bannon’s unglamorous death and Hank becomes injected with an explosive serum.

Soon! SOON!

Venture Brothers Season Three preview.

Let the anticipation continue.