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.
[Programming 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 and Graeme McMillan talk about Season 1/Episode 13: “Return To Spider-Skull Island”
MICHELLE: First of all, can we talk about the opening? Not only do we get a taste of the “sins of the flesh” a.k.a Rocky Horror Picture Show, we get to see the bickering detective family at their finest. It reminds me of a dysfunctional Scooby Doo team.
GRAEME: There is so much to love in this episode, from the Rocky Horror outfits – and Brock’s “Uhhh, yeah,” when the doctor asks if that’s where they were, as if he had no idea what that means, which makes it even funnier. Dean makes a good Magenta, don’t you think? – to the sheer surreality of Jonas Venture Jr. But really, that ending: It’s so incredibly perfect. Especially Rusty’s line, “Get the clothes.”
MICHELLE: If only this was a musical Venture Bros! (Or I could just really be one of the only people really into that Rocky episode of Glee.)
The Monarch’s list of revenge tactics that he shares during the prison visit with 21 and 24 is hilarious. Destroy the cocoon headquarters? Check. Wrote letters to Monarch’s sponsored Ugandan children? Done. Unleashed the herpes-filled sex bots? Meh…questionable. I enjoyed all the scenes of the Monarch in jail. His language grows increasingly more crass, and yet, he becomes more emotional and caring in a way, venting to the boys about his lost love.
GRAEME: There’s a certain feeling to a lot of this episode that, because it was the end of the first season, they were going for broke. I mean, even if you ignore killing off the title characters in an aside at the end of the episode, a twin that had been near-murdered in the womb only to become a tumor inside Rusty that then gained sentience and tried to kill him in revenge? There’s more than a slight sense of “Wait, WHAT?” about the whole thing that nonetheless feels right, as if it’s what the show has been leading up to all along.
But there’s also a sense of… finality, perhaps, to the conversations Hank and Dean have about their family, and even about Triana, that would’ve made this a satisfying final episode if there had never been a second season. Everyone seems to make peace with their circumstances in some way or another, no matter how temporary it turns out to be; Rusty blames his problems on the tumor that was Jonas, Dr. Orpheus gets some form of recognition from foreign dignitaries, and even the Monarch gives Hank and Dean a pep talk and appears to get over his desire to kill them. If you skip that whole death thing at the end, everyone gets a happy ending.
MICHELLE: Yes it would make a good ending if we ignore finding out who mothered Hank and Dean, the whole bit about Phantom Limb and whether or not Doctor Girlfriend will take the Monarch back?
Personally, I just love the interactions between Doctor Orpheus and his daughter Pumpkin – err Triana. She’s the most realistic character out of the whole show despite her purple hair.
GRAEME: My favorite exchange of the episode was between Rusty and Brock: “What would I do without you, Brock?” “You would have died.”)
MICHELLE: However, I don’t like her influencing her father to wear the blue windbreaker. Purple capes are so his season.
But best quote overall: “Now I’m going to show you all what it feels like to be a victim of super villainy. Now give me your shoes… Now give me your wallet. There, wow does that feel!?” “How does what feel?” “I just took your wallet, still want to be a super villain!?” “Well, I do now you have my wallet.”
GRAEME: That this episode managed to feel so emotionally fulfilling while entirely insane – and that the next episode managed to write its way out of the end of this one without breaking a sweat – really impresses the writing chops of Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick on the audience again. It’s one thing to write a smart, funny show every week, but Venture Bros at its best does more, it successfully – maybe until the fourth season? – builds a larger mythology around itself that has an emotional weight to it that isn’t always immediately apparent. We’ve had some really, really good episodes of the show so far, but this one feels like the first of the really great ones, to me. Am I just sleep-deprived?
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