Here at Techland, only one television program manages to tie into so many of our geeky obsessions all at once. Superheroes, mythical creatures, action figures and barely believeable sci-fi all flop onto each other on the glorious cavalcade that is The Venture Bros. Cartoon Network’s just started airing the series from the start and Techland’s Hive Mind is taking the occasion to re-watch the exploits of Hank, Dean, Brock and Dr. Thaddeus Venture. Join us as we witness how Venture Bros. evolved over its four stellar seasons.
[Programmming note: Anyone who's been actually watching the Venture Bros. re-runs has noticed by now that they're not showing the series in order. Rather than jump around the continuity, the Joint Venture feature's going to keep going on in series order. This is because we love you, dear reader.]
This week, Michelle Castillo, Graeme McMillan and Evan Narcisse talk about Season 1/Episode 5: “Eeney, Meeney, Miney… Magic!”
GRAEME: For all that “Eeney, Meeney, Miney… Magic!” is about the McGuffin of Rusty’s new invention – and, again, it’s not a complete failure, even though it isn’t necessarily working for the right reasons (Exactly how did he make it out of parts of an orphan, anyway? More foreshadowing about Rusty’s complete lack of morality, perhaps, but still, HOW did that work?)
MICHELLE: I think it’s powered by the pathetic hopes and dreams of a tortured orphan’s heart. That doesn’t explain how it works exactly, but then again there’s a lot of things that don’t get explained on this show, like how H.E.L.P.Er. ended up broken or how Hank and Dean got into the JoyCan.
GRAEME: This is really an episode about unfulfilled dreams. We get to literally see Rusty’s and Brock’s, the machine shows us Hank’s and more of Brock’s, and what happens in reality gives us Dean’s. Way to show character through plot, people.
EVAN: The JoyCan also reminded me of the Orgasmatron from Sleeper, Woody Allen’s only (?) sci-fi movie.
GRAEME: On the dreams themselves: Rusty’s is foreshadowing the eventual appearance of JJ, his more successful brother, but I’m not sure how much of that was present when this was made. It could just be more self-hatred, with Rusty either killing his twin in the womb or showing that he was under attack himself, underscoring his persecution complex.
MICHELLE: He does seem to show a little bit of uncharacteristic guilt over killing his twin though, especially since he seems to be having a nightmare. Rusty feeling remorse?
GRAEME: Brock’s is awesome. Not only does he feel sadness over accidentally injuring (killing?) a football player (and friend?) at some point in the past – and does the flower he has in his hand when he meets him again in the machine hint at some latent gay subplot? – but then things get ridiculous, and ridiculously great: He fights off ninjas (Fulfilling Hank’s comment earlier: “Is it because you killed a whole bunch of ninjas while it was playing, and now it reminds you of ninjas?”), flame-throwing cowboys on dinosaurs and finally gets passed second base with Molotov Cocktease.
EVAN: I interpreted Brock’s dream sequences as shout-outs to the Superman and Batman origins. The whole “can’t play football lest you kill a man” riff smacks of post-Byrne revamp Clark Kent (can’t remember if it predates that) and the flower reminded me of how Bruce leaves two roses for his parents every year on Crime Alley.
See, this is how Venture Bros. rewards nerdiness. Even if I’m wrong, I’m still right.
GRAEME: Hank wants Rusty to be a real dad. We’ve seen hints of this before, but it’s at its most obvious here, and this episode really underscores why Hank is so drawn to Brock: Not only does he have all the masculine qualities that Rusty doesn’t, he pays attention to Hank and tells him he’s alright. Awwww.
MICHELLE: Brock also seems to be the only other person who listens and responds to Hank besides his brother. He also doesn’t make fun of Hank’s idea to pee on a shirt and put it on his head to block the JoyCan’s powers and doesn’t mind talking to Hank even though he wakes him up in the middle of the night.
