Man, did I miss this show. Besides the Halloween special last year, it’s been two and a half years since we’ve had a Venture Bros. episode. The third episode of season five premiered on Sunday (with a small but cheeky performance from Gillian Jacobs) and between that and the hour-long premiere the other weekend, this show continues to surprise me with big changes for the Venture clan.

Show creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick have never been shy about making story choices that greatly change the characters. I mean, in the last moments of the season three finale they killed off 24 right after Brock quit — two fan-favorites gone from the series, at least as regulars. But that fearlessness and willing to shake things up is how the show went from a straight-forward Johnny Quest satire to the eclectic, often bizarre and even touching show that it is today. The one aspect of the show that has ultimately changed the least is the boys.

That’s not to say Hank and Dean haven’t grown up at all during the first four seasons. Both boys have been disillusioned about their father’s success as a scientist and have an overall better idea of the world around them. But while the show has had the boys change in previous seasons, their naivety seems to snap them back over and over. In the last couple weeks (on top of the Halloween special), I’ve started to think the brothers are really changing.

Hank’s personality hasn’t changed nearly as much, but he is stretching his wings. Hank Co. is back at the compound  and as much as Rusty has belittled him for not being the ideal future super scientist like Dean, Hank is showing initiative. Then in this past episode, we see Hank with highly focused Dark Knight-esque survival and combat skills that save the day. Granted, he was hyped up on coffee at the time, but the only thing that went wrong in his plan was the iPad didn’t go off. That’s pretty impressive considering how many times he died previously due to his own incompetence (including via rooftop umbrella drop trying to be Batman).

But as Hammer and Publick have said before, the show is really about failure. And while the boys are becoming their own people, I doubt their lives are going to be any less disturbing. I mean, in the premiere Dean gets a girlfriend who slowly mutates thanks to Rusty’s new radioactive project, then beats the mutant’s leader in hand-to-hand combat to please his mutant girlfriend, which he then discovers will doom the world to a mutant apocalypse.

The boys might change, but some things stay the same. And I’m looking forward to watching it all.

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This autumn has been a dark time in the Schenkel household. Between Community pushed back to February, DC Nation (which includes both Young Justice and Green Lantern) put on a surprise three month hiatus after only two weeks back and a bunch of my favorite shows like Legend of Korra still not back after their summer seasons, I’ve been pretty bummed out lately. Luckily, Adult Swim was kind enough to give me a little taste of the show that always keeps me waiting — The Venture Bros.

Look, the show is well worth waiting for, but that doesn’t make the couple years between seasons any easier to swallow. Last year we got a very brief, less-detailed animated short chronicling Hank’s band in a Behind the Music-eque documentary (narrated brilliantly by Bill Hader). Besides that, the last episode we got was the hour-long season four finale “Operation: P.R.O.M.,” which premiered on November 21, 2010. So yeah, after close to two years since the last season ended, I’ve been hungry for more from Astro Base Go! … which is why the Halloween special was a much needed treat.

The episode was chock full of characters thanks to three storylines of various significance (four if you count Dermot and Hank separate from Dean). Rusty and company betting on whether or not trick-or-treaters could get through the compound’s intense and homicidal defense systems was classic. Orpheus’ seance was heavy handed writing-wise, but having the Master (voice once again by the awesome H. Jon Benjamin) turn into a zombie-destroying Santa was a brilliant surprise (and I have a feeling “pleasure toast” is going to be a new inside joke for Venture Bros. fans). But the real bright spot of the special was Dean.

Last season we got to see Hank get out of his shell, but he didn’t quite develop into a more self-aware soon-to-be adult. I mean, he tried to take his middle-aged female mail carrier to prom. But the very last moments of the last season finale showed a hint of Dean getting a good dose of reality. So when I saw Dean in all black with the black hair and blasé attitude, I paused the episode to cheer a little. After four seasons, Dean Venture is finally coming into his own. This is only expanded when he meets the very Lebowski-like Ben (J.K. Simmons once again knocking it out of the park) and discovers the long-buried truth of his clonehood. His eventual acceptance of it and his choice to hide the painful revelation from his brother is just another reminder that The Venture Bros. isn’t afraid of genuine character’s growth.

While we still don’t have an air date for season five, the Halloween special was a friendly reminder of how much I love this show. It somehow balances very dark, adult humor with obscure pop culture references and just enough sincere storytelling. I’m very excited to see where Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer take us. Oh, and it was awesome to finally see former CliqueClacker Annie Wu’s name in the credits (she’s working on the color design for season five).

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