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Five Thoughts on the Venture Bros. “O.S.I. Love You” [Review]

By | July 1st, 2013
Posted in Reviews | 2 Comments

Well that was certainly an uptick from last week’s episode, now wasn’t it? Lets investigate further.

1. Many Happy Returns

This episode featured a lot of stuff that had previously been mostly background noise (if that) for this season of Venture Bros. It’s strange, really; after spending so long developing various aspects of the Good Guy Vs. Bad Guy fight that began the TV show, this series had ostensibly abandoned a lot of that and just focused on the lives of the characters. It makes sense to a certain degree (the old team is a husk of its former self), but it has been a bit strange not seeing certain people.

So, hey, look at that! OSI front and center, plenty of Brock and the return of Monstroso and Molotov Cocktease. That’s certainly a welcome return to the show. And to throw in a little Brock/Molotov backstory? Excellent.

2. The Return of the Guild

Speaking of things that had been missing, we had the semi-return of the Guild last night, at least in spirit. They’ve been lurking around and had a familiar face in the season premiere, but I miss things like the Council and the various envoys. I guess with Sphinx gone and the GI Joe joke pretty much dead, OSI is just flat out becoming SHIELD and the Guild is coming back to be AIM and every other super villainous organization you can think of.

But while last night there was a lot of villainy, there seems to be a new player in town. And who knows why? I’d venture a guess that the new arch-rivals of Season 5 are beginning to become known here.

3. The Sovereign is not David Bowie

My favorite callback joke of last night was the revelation that the Sovereign is not in fact David Bowie, but rather a shape-shifting beast that likes to take the form of David Bowie (rumor has it that the only true vision of the Sovereign can be seen on the cover to either Pin Ups or Diamond Dogs).

It’s a funny throwaway joke, but with the return to more classic villain-based stories as well as the three new players, whoever they are, we’re going to see something happen between the Guild and Sovereign and this new organization.

4. Some Weird Animation

So, I don’t particularly know why, but something strange is definitely going on with the animation of the show — and it’s to a distracting vision. Last week we had the Clash of the Titans homage with the stop-motion and that was fine, but this week we have some crude 3D animation thrown in on top of some really low-rate Flash animation to boot.

Watching season one of the show, it’s amazing to see how far it has come in terms of its animation. It’s a lot more traditional now, things are smoother and the previous reliant on Flash that every other [adult swim] animated show uses was abandoned in favor of something better. So why is it that yesterday they went back to that at certain parts? It’s kind of odd.

It’s not enough to really detract from the overall episode, but at the same time it’s really off-putting to see the show essentially regress in this aspect.

5. All that and a the Avengers Parody To Boot

On a more positive note, that was a damn funny episode. And there is no way that it wasn’t on one hand a parody of the Avengers. Just no way. The engines getting blown up on the Helicarrier seemed a direct nod, and the fact that they were able to right the ship so quickly and fix that mess is the thumb on the nose at one of the main action sequences in the Avengers. And that’s hilarious.


//TAGS | Venture Bros

Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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