Now maybe I got a little intoxicated before starting this review, but I don’t think my opinion would have changed in the slightest: The Venture Brothers Season Four Blu-ray is the most concentrated source of awesome that money can buy. I am 90% sure that isn’t the whiskey talking, and is instead my unadulterated devotion to this genius series. If you are a fan of comics, science fiction, or anything that uses the word “adventure” in its genre tag, you probably already know about The Venture Brothers from their first three excellent seasons. If not, you should. Look into it now. They are on Blu-ray (and DVD)!
This perfect blend of action, adventure and comedy delves into the mundane life of Dr. Thadeus “Rusty” Venture, a former child star and son of super scientist and adventurer Dr. Jonas Venture. Now Rusty is all grown up, and he has two sons of his own, the titular Venture Brothers, sheltered child-clones raised by talking beds who represent some kind of inspired mash up between Johnny Quest and the Hardy Boys. They live in a bizarre world of super heroes and villains, super scientists and secret agents. They are constantly hounded by the unnatural forces of other worlds and by the all too common forces of social awkwardness.
The Venture Brothers is like somebody packed twelve pounds of awesome into a pint glass and made you shotgun the resultant brew, then skimmed the top off of your craziest fever dreams and pressed it onto a piece of plastic that can only be read by your fancy bluray player or Playstation 3. There is a lot of backstory going on by this point, so I wouldn’t jump in at season four, but if you’ve been following the story thus far, this collection is well worth your time. I’ve loved every season so far, but I have had a little bit of trouble following the series for the past few seasons. Each episode stands on its own, but at the same time, a lot of little plot arcs have built up over time, and the dynamics have shifted dramatically from the first three seasons. This is made worse by the show’s fragmented fourth season, which was split in half and separated by months. It made the show hard to follow, let alone love. All of these issues are solved by the bluray release, which not only allows you to see the episodes at your leisure, but packs in all sixteen season four episodes instead of splitting the season into two halves, as the DVD packs have done. Even with my hazy memories of season three, I was able to understand what was going on, and having all of the episodes at my disposal at once made the series that much more enjoyable.
And let me tell you, this series has some fine writing. The creative team at Astrobase Go (led by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer) have thought up a thrilling world for the Venture Boys and their comrades to play in. It allows for anything that a fan of serialized adventure could dream. Necromancers and Henchmen, Super Spies and Human Flies and Robotic Boys and Crazed Dictators with Iron Jaw Replacements. You might think I just made that all up right now, but it is in there. I know, because I just watched the entire season. This is a review.
Highlights:
“Everybody Comes To Hank’s”: Half of a two-parter that split the Venture Brothers up in order to tell their separate summer vacation stories. This episode, which follows the brawny Hank, becomes a grainy, black and white noir parody after Hank dons a fedora and private detective’s whip and sets off on a quest to discover his new friend’s true parentage, unaware of the secrets he might unleash. This is one of those episodes that shows just how well informed the writers are, and aside from being a perfect homage to the 40’s film staple, it is simply a lot of fun.
“Operation P.R.O.M”.: Everything comes together in this epic season finale as Doctor Venture throws a party for his sons’ homeschool prom. All of the usual cast shows up, and antics ensue as partygoers debate the raunchy details of a sex act called the “Rusty Venture,” after Doctor Venture’s childhood TV persona. The episode ends with a brilliant musical action sequence as Brock Sampson races against time to save the guests at the Prom from a fate worse than death. Actually he is trying to save them from a fate equivalent to death. Or just save them for death.
“The Better Man or Assisted Suicide”: Really, I just like the character of Doctor Orpheus, a Doctor Strange tribute who can’t help but be a little melodramatic about every single thing he does. Both of these episodes focus on Orpheus as he tackles occult mishaps, and both of them are great. The Better Man has an additional perk of developing the character of Orpheus’ daughter Triana, while Assisted Suicide features a look at the damaged subconscious mind of Doctor Venture.
Special Features:
-Creator Commentary Tracks
-Deleted Scenes
-“So This is Captain…” Line Reading
-Finale On-Air Promos with Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick.
-Comic-con Promo Video
-“Lost” Open, an unused opening sequence.
-1080p!
– Dolby 5.1 channel sound!
Overall:
I’ll be honest, I was so excited to write this review I only got half way through the deleted scenes before running for my word processor. But I promised my rough draft that I would go back and watch the rest of them. For you, reader. And I did. The deleted scenes really weren’t that great, usually a few throwaway lines from extended scenes with rough storyboard quality drawings that vaguely show what should have been going on. Most of the best lines from the cut scenes managed to make their way into the finished product, but these do provide an interesting look into the creative process for an animated project like The Venture Brothers. The other special features are equally interesting: there is the comic-con promo for season four, a series of commercials for the season finale featuring the series’ creators, a blooper reel with one actor trying over and over again to get the right reading for a tricky line, and an alternate episode opening, though I couldn’t tell you which episode it was for. That brings up one of the only quibbles I have with the Bluray disc: the menu text was unreadably small on a standard definition TV. Looks great on a high-def set though. But honestly, you have a bluray player and/or playstation three, you are probably watching this on the finest of TVs instead of squinting at a tiny old set in the corner of a dilapidated apartment while drinking yourself into a stupor to forget the miseries of your small pathetic life. Stupid small TV…
Anyway.
If you are reading this website, you probably owe it to yourself to give The Venture Brothers a chance, especially if you like off-color humor and genre parodies. Season Four isn’t the place to start, but if you like what you see in the first three seasons, Season Four provides some glorious, laugh out loud humor, and action that turns the awesomometer to one thousand percent. (Yes, awesomometers go that high.) It doesn’t stand as well on its own as the first few seasons did, but it is a wonderful continuation to the series, and the bluray release is the way to watch: all at once on one disc. You should start watching Venture Brothers from the most convenient starting point available to you.
ComicsOnline gives The Venture Brothers The Complete Season Four – five glasses of Jack Daniels out of five to… wait, we have to reference something from the show? Fine.
ComicsOnline gives The Venture Brothers The Complete Season Four five recently deceased henchmen out of five.
I am not a drunky.
Get your copy of The Venture Brothers The Complete Season Four on Blu-ray at Amazon.
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