Customer Reviews

The Venture Bros.: Season Four, Vol. 1

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's really very simple. Are you a fan of this show? Yes? Well then what is the point of whining about getting 8 instead of 13 episodes? Consistently one of the best shows on TV, Jackson and Doc have so much love and respect for both their subject matter and their audience that I have absolutely no doubts this 'half' season won't be chock full of extras to make up the balance of 'lost' material that would have been on a DVD set of an earlier season.

I'm poor as hell like most of y'all but the argument that you are getting fleeced is weak. When it comes down to it spending your money is something you do to reward the artists out there that kick ass all day and deserve compensation. It's not like anybody on this show is rolling in it. Sack up and buy something awesome.

As far as season 4.1 is concerned, it was definitely my least favorite in terms of themes and plot. It lacked the settling in feeling of meeting everyone that season 1 possessed as well as the breakneck, loaded and utterly brilliant second season. I'm almost more interested in hearing the commentary to see where things are heading. The Ventures have earned a lifetime pass from me and as long as they are willing to keep making the show I'll keep watching.

Seriously? People are feeling "ripped-off" because they're not waiting to release the first half of season 4 with the second half? Call me crazy, but I personally will pay whatever they ask, simply because it's easily one of the best written and voiced shows of the past decade. I will show my appreciation with monetary ease, cause truth be told I'm a bit sick of falling in love (or even in like) with a well-done show only to have it cancelled for lack of whatever (Starz being the most recent executioner of brilliance with the cancelation of Party Down). I'm delighted to not have to wait an extra eight months to enjoy something that was originally aired eight months prior. I'm aware of the necessary "tightening of the financial belt" for some, in fact empathetic since currently I'm an unemployed writer and know what it means to be thrifty. But don't say it's a scam. I promise you, Cartoon Network executives aren't sitting in a boardroom somewhere wringing their hands, conspiring to part as many people from their hard-earned change as possible. If you really can't spend the extra few bucks then don't, I'm sure your patience will be rewarded with an extra awesome box set like the one they did for Home Movies. Maybe I'm the crazy one for not seeing the point of your financial argument.
(not really though)

I was so happy to start watching this season and find out that it is still a funny show. I wish there was a single season four set, but the content is all still worth watching. Anyone that grew up watching shows like Jonny Quest, got older, more cynical and wondered "what happened to Jonny when he grew up and didn't have his dad around" here you go.

After getting all 4th-wall-y and tiresome in season three, this show has returned in force. I dawdled about getting this DVD because I thought the series was ruined, but Doc and Jackson have somehow managed to un-jump the shark and wrest triumph from the ashes. I didn't know how the show could be good without Brock, but Sergeant Hatred is a really enjoyable character (and Brock isn't completely gone after all... The writing is once again excellent, full of hilarious dialogue and super-awesome-kick-ass action. The ongoing plot that bogged down season three takes a backseat this time, allowing each episode to stand on its own. The episodic style plays to the strength of the writers much better than the soap-opera feel of the previous season. The episodes about Phantom Limb's ongoing quest for vengeance were among the weakest material on this disk but thankfully he plays a very minor part in this one.

There is a lot more cussing this time, but the sheer frequency of it seems to somehow lessen its impact. It also occurs more naturally, in situations where the characters would actually be likely to drop an F-bomb or two. The swearing didn't bother me as much as it did in season three, where it seemed to have been inserted randomly, perhaps in an effort to test the thrilling waters of "ooh, we can say dirty words now." But in season four they made it work.

My only real criticism is that perhaps the vocal cast is being spread a little too thin. I started to notice that Phantom Limb sounds like Dr. Venture ... Sgt. Hatred sounds like Hank ... and a bunch of Doc's characters (especially Dermott, Henchman 21, and Billy Quizboy) all sorta sound the same. Also there are, like, NO women on the show. The only significant female character is "Dr. Mrs. The Monarch" (nee Dr. Girlfriend) and she is voiced by a man. Something about this season made the absence of ladies seem very noticeable to me.

Both Volumes are absolutely hilarious. I laughed my ass off from start to finish. Just when you thought you knew what was going to happen it all changed on you. I hope they keep it up and look forward to more to come.

I do like the earlier seasons more but I still like the direction the show is going. I'm interested to find out what happens next in Season 5 whenever it comes out. The packaging was great. Thanks.

The Venture Bros. is that rarest of all beasts: a great show that actually improves with each subsequent season. Perhaps the thing I love most is that the characters do genuinely grow as people, as does our understanding of them. And just for once, no, that isn't merely a euphemistic way of saying that they learn the same tired old lessons about caring and sharing we have rammed down our throats in so many other shows. No. The characters in the Venture Bros. really do develop into more complex and interesting people. Horribly, deeply flawed people, but people nonetheless. People that we genuinely want to get to know better. People that, for all their faults, we may find that we have even come to like.

Parallel with this, the show's internal universe (the "Ventureverse" if I may) likewise grows into a more complex and interesting place. Fundamentally, this is a show that satirises the adventure comics and cartoons that so many of us grew up with - Johnny Quest in particular. The satire we find in the Venture Bros. is by turns cutting, affectionate, and even brutal, but always devastatingly spot on. Indeed, given that Cartoon Network actually has the rights to the Johnny Quest franchise, Johnny Quest himself, now fully grown up and profoundly traumatised by his bizarre upbringing, has regularly made guest appearances throughout this series. So it is fitting then that just like the shows it parodies, over time the Venture Bros. has developed its own extensive internal cosmology and pantheon of players. Here again, one of the things I love most about this series is that even the bit players emerge as credible, memorable people with their own agendas and stories. None are merely throwaway cardboard cutouts.

It is also interesting to compare the current generation of [adult swim] cartoons with the one that preceded it. The humor in Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021, for example, often stems from the characters being so absolutely selfish as to qualify as literally psychopathic. Similarly so for Robot Chicken. By contrast, in shows like the Venture Bros., things are less cut and dried. The characters are certainly not saints; in fact, to borrow a line I used in an earlier review I wrote for season one of Archer, "the characters are all selfish, petty, and utterly and completely venal: the three great ingredients from which comedy is made". This is not quite so true of the Venture Bros. as it is of Archer, but it is true enough nonetheless. But at the same time, we are no longer dealing primarily with characters entirely devoid of compassion or humanity. They may, to varying degrees, actively dislike and even resist their own tendency towards basic human empathy, but they are no longer simply psychopaths. The brutal abstract craziness of the older generation of shows is not entirely lost. Rather, we might say that much like the eponymous Venture brothers themselves, it has emerged from childhood and at least begun the process of integrating itself into a more complex and more fully grown up world.

Finally, no review of the Venture Bros. could be considered complete without mentioning this show's gloriously retro sense of style. Once again the show has much in common with Archer in that it's impossible not to notice the jet-age aesthetic. But whereas in Archer this comes across simply of a pop-art homage to the shows that inspired it, and which it in turn parodies, in the Venture Bros. the chosen aesthetic is far more of a two-edged sword. On the one hand, the show's creators clearly have a genuine affection for the style they affect, even as they mock its absurdities (try searching for images of Doc Hammer on the web sometime and check out his wardrobe). At the same time, in the Venture Bros., unlike Archer, we are very much aware that we are in a world that has moved on since this form of modernism was indeed modern. Concord-like aircraft and cheesy 1970s-style wood panelling become emblematic of a generation of inheritors; or dare I say, of two such generations. Of characters who have not built upon what they were given, but rather, have presided over its decline.

And so we end where we began: with the characters. Deeply flawed, deeply human. But if we ourselves are to take away any lesson at all from this series, it should perhaps be simply this: Tragically flawed as we all might be, it may yet be possible for us too to go forth into this no less flawed and no less tragic world of ours and have some ripping adventures of our own.

Go team Venture!

Theo.

this is the best cartoon on tv. in writing, voice acting, and art direction, it is unparalleled. it's my favorite tv show of all time, and that's coming from a real tv geek.

season 4 had exceeded my expectations.

One of the most well written shows on TV, and certainly tied for best on Adult Swim, continues its series with a strong Season 4 outing. The season is short however but moves along the major storylines, is hilarious, and is rife with references from Astro Boy to The Hardy Boys.

I'm loving this season.
The whole world feels a bit broader, characters are a bit more fleshed out.
Also you cant beat watching it uncensored(four letter words, shriveled penis' and all).
The price in my opinion is fair, you get the first eight episodes of season four, along with commentary for each episode.
I love their commentary, even though they sometimes go so far off topic you never know if they'll ever stop.
The good news is that they do and are informative and often hilarious.
Also, you get deleted scenes with storyboards, a comic con promo that's just plain fun to watch, and a opening scene that got cut(even though its brilliant).
Can't wait for Season 4 Volume:2!