Thursday, April 02, 2009

Recommended: The Venture Bros.

My favorite currently-running show on TV now is The Venture Bros. It's an animated comedy, but beyond that, it's quite hard to describe. It could be described as a parody of Johnny Quest and similar shows from the 70s, as well as the superhero genre. It is a completely unserious, character-driven comedy drenched in dry humor.

The show centers around the family Dr. Rusty Venture, the son of a famous scientist/adventurer who has never lived up to his father's reputation, despite his own talents. His two dim-witted sons, Hank and Dean, constitute the Venture brothers, who imagine their lives as filled with adventures on their enormous family compound. Super agent Brock Samson is their bodyguard who possesses, literally, a license to kill and uses it frequently.

The Ventures are often pestered by a pathetic, wanna-be super villain named The Monarch (in reference to the monarch butterfly), who is the sworn archnemesis of Rusty Venture. He does so even though the Guild of Calamitous Intent -- the licensing bureau of villany, sort of the American Medical Association or Bar Assocation -- has not paired him with Dr. Venture.

One of the best things about The Venture Bros is that the dialogue is completely realistic in a way that I don't think I've ever seen on TV. Costume-wearing maniacs think and talk like ordinary people about mundane things. It's hard to describe, but it makes the show even funnier because it consists of ordinary people doing bizarre activities without realizing how bizarre they are.

You can catch new episodes as they appear on Adult Swim.com. Here's one of the earlier episodes:

[Video Link]

3 comments:

larry said...

Patrick Warburton lending his voice to Brock, the bodygaurd, is outstanding! Hadn't heard of this show, but will check it out more - thanks for the post.

JD said...

While extremely strange, almost Robot Chicken strange, the episodes that I have watched have been fun.

Oh, and Larry, any time Warburton voices a big, dumb jock, fun ensues. Check out "Rules of Engagement" on CBS Monday nights.

PAX
JD

John said...

I saw Warburton in The Tick and he was fantastic.