Customer Reviews

The Venture Bros. - Season Two

5 star:		(93)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The second season of Adult Swim's The Venture Bros. surpasses its first in nearly every way. The first season introduced us to the Venture universe, which is occupied by hilarious characters who never cease to reach new levels of incompetance. Many of the episodes were laugh-out-loud hilarious that remained so throughout the entire half hour. So if season 1 was taht good, yet this year is so much better, that really says something to the quality of season 2.
The precredits sequence of the season premiere, "Powerless in the Face of Death", is amazing to watch, though some of its power may be lost on DVD. There was a 2-year gap between seasons 1 and 2, and season 1 ended with the deaths of Hank and Dean Venture, the title characters. In the hiatus period, there was a lot of speculation of how the show would go on (Dr. Thaddeus Venture and his brother Jonas Venture, Jr. would be the new Venture Bros., Dr. Orpheus would ressurect them, Dr. Venture would clone them, Dr. Venture would use the Grover Cleveland time machine to save them), and it would be an understatement to say that fans were eagerly awaiting to see what happened next. Set to the tune of the song Everybody's Free, the opening sequence is a montage of the various major characters, reminding us where they were left and how they are dealing with their various situations. Dr. Orpheus is still upset about the boys' deaths, for which he blames himself, the Monarch is still in prison while Dr. Girlfriend appears happy, if somewhat bored, living with Phantom Limb, and the Mondarch's henchmen have nowhere else to go after blowing up the Coccoon lair. Pete White and Master Billy Quizboy have fitted Jonas with a robotic hand replacing his deformed chicken-wing-like appendage. Meanwhile, it appears that Dr. Venture hasn't been coping well with his sons deaths. He steals the X-1 jet, forcing his bodyguard Brock Samson to go on a global hunt for the good doc.
By the end of the first episode, we find out the creepy truth about the Venture Bros, which was heavily hinted at in the first season. From there the 13 episodes of the season, with possibly one exception, are superb. One thing I liked this year was that there was a little more of an overarching story to the season. The first year had episodes that were pretty much all stand-alone stories, which work with a show like the Venture Bros., but I'm a huge fan of serialized story-telling, and when I started to see developing stories at the end of season 1, I was really excited. The season's arc actually has to do with the villains, though. It is about the Monarch's quest to get Dr. Girlfriend back from Phantom Limb. The first two episodes of the season show how he escapes from prison and begins to rebuild his influence. Throughout the season, episodes like "Victor. Echo. November." and "I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills" show the hilarious journey that the Monarch takes to win back his love from a vastly superior villain.
Still, there are plenty of stand-alone episodes. In my opinion, no other Venture episode embodies that idea so well than "Escape From the House of Mummies, Part II". The episode satirizes multi-episode stories, as there is no Part I, but it also pulls a huge trick by switching around the A and B stories. While the story of Hank, Dean, and Brock's journey through a cursed temple accompanied by various historical figures would normally be the focus of the episode, it is merely the backup story that supplements the story of a silly bet between Dr. Orpheus and Dr. Venture over whether magic or science is superior. "Twenty Years to Midnight" is a great example of parody of adventure tales, with the Venture family trying to track down various pieces of a machine built by Hank and Dean's grandfather. The Impossible family, a wonderfully twisted parody of the Fantastic Four, show up to make things more difficult for the Ventures, and a cameo by Johnny Quest (the main influence of the show) make for an amazing episode. Nearly every episode was phenominal (with the exception of "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?", which even the creators kind of agree with), from "Fallen Arches", which introduces Dr. Orpheus' old team to "Hate Floats", which features a team-up of Phantom Limb and Brock.
The season ends with the 2-part extravaganza "Showdown at Cremation Creek", which completely changes the status quo for the next season. There is a wedding, a huge battle led by Brock and soldiered by the Monarch's henchmen, a bizarre fantasy sequence involving Dean filling in the role of the lead in The Neverending Story, and David Bowie! It ends with a great cliffhanger, though after having the title characters die, it would be hard to match the season 1 cliffhanger.
While there are plenty of crazy situations, the show wouldn't be half of what it is without the amazing characters. With few exceptions, everyone in the Venture universe is somehow a failure. Dr. Venture is utterly incompetant as a "super-scientist" despite what he believes, his sons are oblivious to nearly everything in life (Dean and Hank think that an erection is caused by evil spirits), and Brock, though a great bodyguard, has no self-control. The Monarch and his henchmen can barely do their "jobs"; the Monarch is jealous, weak, and unable to understand why people can't get anything done, while his henchmen are out of shape nerds who quiver at the words "Brock Samson". Though Dr. Orpheus is a competant necromancer, he is a know-it-all workaholic who drives away the people he cares about.
Most guest stars from season 1 returned, including the Pirate Captain, the Impossibles, Peter White and Billy Quizboy, Baron Underbheit, and the Impossibles. All of these characters were loved by fans, and were effectively used this year as well. But there were plenty of new characters this year that quickly became fan favorites as welll. Personally, I really want to see more of Jefferson Twighlight and The Alchemist, the two other members of Dr. Orpheus' group the Order of the Triad. Twilight is a parody of Blade and the Alchemist is a gay monk who can't really decided what to do with his life (voiced by Dana Snyder of Aqua Teen Hunger Force). Dr. Henry Killinger is a hilarious "consultant" whose true purpose is better left to be found out while watching. Finally, there was the strange Observor from "Twenty Years to Midnight", whose catchphrase "IGNORE ME!" was incredibly funny every time it was spoken.
Despite one misstep, this is a great season of animated television. Many shows on Adult Swim's lineup (that were created for AS) look awful; the animation and/or plot appear to be worth almost nothing, but the Venture Bros. is at the other end of the spectrum. Despite being underrated, it is one of the funniest cartoons I've ever seen, ranking up there with South Park and The Simpsons.

First of all, let me correct Fernando Gonzales by saying that this show IS still hand-drawn ... only the coloring and inking are digitally done. That's one of the reasons it's a favorite of mine, really.

Now, on to the review. It's not that I didn't think Jackson and Doc would be able to top Season One. It's that I knew they could ... and they STILL blew me away. If you've seen Season One of The Venture Brothers, you -need- to see this one. It's got everything the first had, and more ... the character development, in particular, is absolutely stupendous. The boys at Astrobase Go really know their characters, and they've started to show us just how much.

If you like your cartoons smart, funny, strange, and full of more clever pop culture references than you can shake a shrink ray at, check this one out. I did, at the urging of a friend, while the first season was still out, and I was hardly disappointed. VB is one of the few shows on television I actually care about missing, these days. I'm looking forward to seeing what the special features and commentary have in store, too - the ones on The Venture Bros. - Season One were phenomenal.

So, in the words of Dr. Byron Orpheus... "Yes! GO, Team Venture!"

One of the funniest shows on Adult Swim is the "Venture Brothers," a deeply warped look at boys' adventure characters like Jonny Quest and the Hardy Brothers.

The second season is basically much the same as the first, building on previous storylines (example: Jonas Jr.) and having various kooky violent adventures for our friends, and hilarious dialogue ("You've come to steal our great ideas. You've been foiled--we have none!"). That is, after they deal with the shocking cliffhanger that the first season ended with-- the death of Hank and Dean, the title characters.

The second season opens with Dr. Venture escaping to various exotic locales, before being dragged home by Brock. A devastated Dr. Orpheus decides to use necromancy to bring the boys back to life, but can't find their souls -- and a zombielike Hank and Dean appear in the doorway.

Oops, it turns out that the boys have a penchant for getting killed, and so Dr. Venture always keeps handy clones in the compound -- and presto, the Venture Brothers have returned, unaware that they ever died. Meanwhile, Dr. Venture has a nasty encounter with a teleportation device, and the Monarch escapes from prison (courtesy of a gay gorilla with a romantic streak).

In the episodes that follow, the newly cloned Venture Brothers (plus Dr. Venture and Brock) must deal with a variety of new and bizarre adventures: a crazy woman who might be connected to the twins, evil Egyptian cults, aliens, Lincoln's ghost, Japanese demons, "Venturestein," villainous double-dates, bad porn, and Baron Ünderbheit mistaking Dean for a girl... and falling in love with him.

The second season of "Venture Brothers" is, if it's possible, even funnier than the first was -- the storylines just keep getting stranger and more comic, and the characters are just as kooky as ever. The climax of all the weirdness is the finale, with a big battle, and a shocking discovery about the Guild's Sovereign... right before we get another cliffhanger.

On the new front, there's plenty of unethical experiments, blood'n'gore, wacky quests, teenage crushes, and two-part episodes with no "part 1." And since we were left wondering about questions like "where is the twins' mother?", "how did Brock get this way?" or "when will Dr. Orpheus get an arch?", we actually get some answers on that front. Since this is the "Venture Bros," there are no remotely normal ones.

The stories are as well-written as ever, with weird plot details (when Ünderbheit hears that there are no holding cells, he orders "Put zhem in... ZE PANTRY!"), and gloriously wonky dialogue ("I have watched you pull a man's eyes from his head and make him dance like a marionette with his own optic nerves!" " At least I didn't break his heart").

James Urbaniak is excellent as "amphetamines and failure" scientist Rusty Venture, and Patrick Warburton is (as always) hilarious as the bloodthirsty Swede secret agent Brock. Michael Sinterniklaas and Christopher McCulloch are also great as (respectively) Dean, Hank and the whiny-voiced Monarch, and Steven Ratazzi is great as the hyperdramatic necromancer. Too bad a certain real-life person doesn't play himself.

The second season of "Venture Brothers" is every shred as good as the first one, and will leave viewers dangling painfully at the end. When does Season 3 start?

Season Two outdid Season One on all levels, and Season One was no slouch. But the creators of the show figured out who their characters were, who was the most interesting, and became more confident in what they could do with them in the second season.

In other words, Dude, Season Two schools Season One! The aging "Scooby Doo" spoof with a domineering "Fred," angry lesbian "Velma" and Son of Sam "Shaggy and Scooby" alone was amazing, not just because it was clever but because it was well integrated into the whole Venture Brothers story line.

I love this show, simply said, I love it, and this season was a level above the last bringing even more excellence. The jokes are amazingly funny, the plots are amazingly funny, the characters are amazingly funny, it's just great. And one of the great strengths of the show is that you actually love the characters. Brock, although he is a Swedish murder-machine is a great guy when it comes to the kids. The kids although they are emotionally stunted freaks are intensely lovable. And although Dr. Venture is an immoral loser he's lovable in a George Costanza sort of way. All around excellent show, one that will go down for the ages as a classic.

A surprise hit in it's first season, Adult Swim's Johnny Quest-spoofing Venture Brothers returns for another batch of hilarious excellence; picking up from the first season's cliffhanger ending. The last time we saw Hank and Dean, they were, well, dead. A distraught Dr. Venture is drug back home by a now mullet-less Brock (still voiced by the great Patrick Warburton), as an even more distraught Dr. Orpheus prepares to go into the black arts to bring the twins back from the dead. The end result is simply hysterical. After all that, arch enemy Monarch escapes from prison, villains inadvertantly, and inappropriately, fall in love, and dangers abound for the Venture crew. And, just like the first season, the conclusion of season two of the Venture Brothers will leave you in stitches and begging for more. Easily one of the best shows to ever grace Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, the Venture Brothers is still a just plain awesome treat.

I bought season 2 on iTunes, and I can't help but be compelled to get the dvd version as well... Being a huge fan of season 1, I worried that the series might loose steam. Much to my delight, I think AstroBase Go! & Noodle Soup really came into their own with this round of episodes.

WARNING: The introduction to 'Hate Floats' (episode 2:2) may cause viewers to laugh hard enough to either cry, soil themselves, or likely both.

The Venture Brothers is the best animated series currently in production. This show, turned out at what can be reasonably described as a snails pace, may even lay claims to being considered one of the best in history. Still further, one could state that considering the dreadful state of most entertainment on television in the United States, it is one of the best shows period. It is fast, witty, and interestingly enough, when it appropriates characters or themes does so in a fresh take.

THE GOOD:

The graphics of the casing are great. If you open the back of the inner lining you find a marvelous piece of art work with sketches of the Venture Family and various other characters. Super Cool Stuff.

The Episodes are just bleeping fun. Escape to the House of Mummies (Part 2) is a favorite of mine. And who doesn't want to know what Dr. Girlfriend whispers to the Monarch on their pseudo wedding night? I never tire of watching these episodes. There is always something new that I didn't get, be it a gage or the design of the show. It is never dull.

THE BAD:

Although I normally do not fuss over my settings in particular, this time I found the arrangement of it a bit vexing. Episode, language, and extras are all set on separate slides that rotate like the ones your instructors used at school. This forces you to go back to the main menu to get back to a show. If you want to change a setting, in most cases you get bumped back to the beginning of the episode. Not a good design.

THE UGLY:

I almost feel bad in bitching about it. I have a special fondness for DVD commentary. I will often wait for a better version of a film or show if I think the extras will be more extra like. But this time the good people of ASTRO BASE GO let me down. The commentary on these episodes is some of the worst, the most puerile lets get baked and talk about nothing I have ever suffered through. There was only brief discussions of the episodes during these sessions. These guys are smart. What happened?

However, despite its faults in design and content, I still score these gentlemen high marks for what is one of the few shows preventing me from turning my TV into a makeshift night stand, or in this vacuous age of television, the stuff of landfills.

GO TEAM VENTURE!

Other reviewers have done a good job of running down the basics of what the Venture Bros. formula is, how this season builds on (and in my opinion is better than) the first, and how it truly is one of the better cartoons currently being animated.
I have much affection for the Adult Swim block, but VB could stand on its own two legs and what's more is almost out of place with more obtuse Williams St. productions. If you are a cartoon fan this DVD is a must, some of the animation is, unfortunately, still somewhat limited but still enables the creates to tell stories with a broader canvas than if it were live action.
Much credit, if not all goes to the creators, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. These are two adult age lost boys who through this series get to riff on subjects common to just about every adult 25-35 can wax nostalgicly about: Star Wars, wearing costumes, toys, Marvel comics. At its very, very best VB presents us a world where archetypes like the boy genius, the arch rival, the stony assassin, the mad scientist, lead lives that parallel our own, they endured insufferable college roommates, settled into disillusioned adult lives and banter among themselves the way you would among your own friends.
If you're already a VB fan or are sitting on the fence about buying a DVD of episodes you may have already seen, I would encourage you to buy this volume if for no other reason than for the 'extra' tour of Moon base Astro-base Go. Far more than padding to round out the DVD, this is a nice look at what the creators can do when not necessarily working to the constraints of the Venture Bros animated world. It is well written and dovetails perfectly with the tone of the second season and allows a behind the mirror look at the minds behind the show. Commentary by these guys can be fun or irritating, often shy on productin details it mostly revolves around them discussing the strange and sometimes hilarious stream of consciousness pool of influences that get distilled into the show.

Definitely desert island library material.

Seems Adult Swim made the right choice to renew this show for another season, as this season contains some of the funniest and craziest material I've seen in years!...considering how much sluggish comedy makes it on TV and in the theaters these days.

Here are my thoughts on all 13 half-hour episodes of this set:

Powerless In the Face of Death: Great season opener, as you find how the VBs Hank and Dean come back to life (and how they kept coming back to life) after their demise in the end of the first season. Plus the Monarch makes his daring escape from jail with the help of a...gay gorilla? 8.5/10

Hate Floats: Not one of my favorites, but still works. The Monarch makes his return to find an abandoned cocoon lair, and almost all of his henchmen departed and moved on. 7.5/10

Love Bheits: Disturbing, but hilarious. On the way to a costume party, the Venture family crashes into Underland and its head-honcho, Baron Underbheit, holds them hostage and plans to marry Dean, whom Underbheit mistakes in Dean's Princess Leia costume for a woman. 9/10

Escape To the House Of Mummies, Part Two: One of my four favorites from this set. After abandoning Brock and the rest of his family from a big "two-parter" adventure, he makes a bet that he can preform a task--shrinking--better with science than Dr. Orpheus can with magic. Pure hilarity. 10/10

Twenty Years To Midnight: Another one of my favorites, Dr. Venture reluctantly teams up with his brother Jonas Jr. to put together the four pieces to his father's "greatest invention". Fun from start to finish, as I love the character of Jonas Jr. This also contains my favorite Venture moment: Jonas and the ghost pirate captain encounter a middle-aged drug addict Johnny Quest ("WHOOOAAA!! Don't you talk about my father! OOWWWW!!"). Not to mention the returning debuts of the Impossible family and the ghost pirate captain, and a "Contact" spoof. 10/10

Victor. Echo. November: Lots of things happen in this episode: Dean and Hank on a date with Triana and a "surprise date", Dr. Venture renting the worst porno ever (in some of the episode's weakest spots), and Phantom Limb trying to impress Dr. Girlfriend by sending a fierce army to the Venture industries with hilarious results. (7.5/10)

Assassinanny 911: This explores Brock's past, and how he met mercenary Molotov C***tease. Brock puts Molotov in charge of guarding the Venture family as he hunts down an old friend of his. On a sidenote, Hank develops a crush on Molotov. 8/10

Fallen Arches: Dr. Orpheus is one of the best characters of the show, and this is my favorite story about him: Dr. O. realizes that he has a lair-screening from the Guild of Calamitous Intent, and all he needs to do is to bring back the Order of the Triad he'd departed 16 years ago. 9/10

Guess Who's Coming To State Dinner?: Heard this is one is the most underrated episode of this season. I think it's pretty funny. While in the Venture family's visit to the White House in reluctant celebration for a survivor of a spaceship crash, the ghost of Abraham Lincoln tries to foil a plan to assassinate the president with the help of Hank and Dean. 8/10

I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills: The third of my four favorites. The secret about the Ventures' mother is revealed as a mysterious man helps the Monarch in organizing the cocoon and #21 and #24 and not liking the changes one bit. 10/10

Viva Los Muertos!: Yes! I've been wanting to see the dull Scooby Doo gang wickedly satirized, and now my prayer has been answered! To bad it's just a B-story. The A-story involves Dr. Venture playing Frankenstein as he resurrects a dead corpse Brock has recently killed, and Brock not like himself since the resurrection. While having a disturbing hallucinogenic scene involving Hunter, this marks the fourth of my four favorites of this set! 10/10

Showdown At Cremation Creek, Parts 1 and 2: Having these two episodes together alone will make a great season finale, as it contains hilarious moments throughout, secrets revealed, action galore, and a great cliffhanger that'll set the stage for the third season opener. 10/10

An excellent season, by and large. In addition, all 13 episodes are presented in Dolby 5.1 surround as they contain commentary tracks by the creators of the show. Also included in this set a big batch of deleted scenes, and a neat tour through the studio AstroBase Go!.

("Penny for his thoughts.")