Over the years, a lot of fans of a lot of shows have lamented the treatment of the object of their affection. People just didn’t get their show. Or it didn’t get the credit it deserved. It was just so much better than the great unwashed masses understood. All of those people should find themselves somewhere behind Venture Bros. fans in that big line looking for recognition. Seriously. Forget cable. Forget animation. This is one of the best shows on all of TV, and it airs at frickin’ midnight. The season four premiere, “Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel”, only served to reinforce that idea. It was better than I could have even expected.
Things picked up right where they left off last season, kind of. Proving once again that they have no problem working with crazed episode structures, this thing was time shifted all over the place. I actually had to watch a second time so I could actually grasp everything in the proper order. Of course, the boys down at VBHQ were thinking of us when they laid the story out that way, providing a handy, CGC based, time code for the episode. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch on to what those numbers meant until 21 gave up the gag late in the episode.
Along with being a thoroughly entertaining show, we also learned just about everything we need to know about how things stand for all of the major players, except The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend. I’ll admit that I was a bit taken aback when I saw that Hatred had been elevated to the lofty heights of a spot in the opening credits, but they quickly won me over. The newly modified (de-pedophiled?) Hatred is a kick, and I’m good with him being along for the ride for a bit. His scene trying to earn Hank’s respect was great.
Dr. Venture, meanwhile, was once again strapped for cash. And, as expected, that didn’t go well at all for him. Fortunately, what’s bad for Dr. Venture, is good for the viewer. The entire Indiana Jones/Nazi storyline was outstanding. From the moment he finally caught on, “Hey … you guys are Nazis!” to the culmination of the experiment when Brock ended it, “I can cross stab Hitler to death off my list of cool crap I thought I’d never do.”
I was also happy to see that, while Brock has left his Venture home, he’s still a big part of the show. And, in fact, the show is better for his having left. The little trip down memory lane with Brock was awesome, and it ended by putting a whole new spin on Hunter. Or, rather, brought a very old spin back. Who doesn’t want to see what kind of shenanigans are coming now that Brock has joined Hunter, Shore Leave, and Mile High in Sphinx? It’s going to be so good.
I made notes of my favorite bits of the show as I watched, but at this point it’s starting to look an awful lot like a copy of the script. Every bit of it was that good. So rather than having you all read the whole thing again, I’ll just point to the show on the [adult swim] site, and we can all go watch it again. Venture Bros. is back!
Clacked by Brett Love
on Oct 20, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I was really pissed that [adult swim] messed up the west coast feed and aired the first half twice … but thankfully they re-aired the premiere last night …
this show is definitely worth the time it takes to produce it.
You forgot to mention the return of Steve Austin and Big foot. Too funny to see them again.
*POST AUTHOR*
There were just too many great parts to fit them all into the post, so I bundled Steve and Sasquatch in with Brock’s trip down memory lane, but I do agree with you all the same. It was fun to see them pop up again.
Point of order though, it’s Steve Summers.
Dean professing his love for and devotion to Hitler again and again just killed me. An incredibly dense, self-referential premiere.
I think Brock might go the entire season never realizing that the OSI is not trying to kill/brainwash him.