As Summer enters the dog days, we continue our look back at the first season of The Venture Bros. The show is available for streaming on Hulu.
1. The Great Brisby
“The Incredible Mr. Brisby” is easily the most satisfying of these early episodes in the series. It has a clear and cohesive story that doesn’t just rely on subversion and gags for humor. The episode has a clear beginning, middle, and satisfying end while still providing subplots for Hank, Dean, and Brock, an early series episode story construction staple. The characters introduced are not just throwaway concepts, and they are quickly and efficiently given humorous and even compelling backstories. Sure, Brisby and his manservant Mandalay are straight out of the eccentric billionaire playbook, but the the show’s creators are not content just to present them one-dimensionally. Mr. Brisby’s frozen visage is an instant classic character design, and his gritted-teeth vocal stylings that should be grating turn out to be pretty ingenious. I look for him to be a worthy adversary (despite his advanced age) if he can keep from setting himself on fire. Series writer Jackson Publick can’t help but yank the rug out from under the Mandalay character by making the loyal henchman out to be a self-preserving hired goon before facing off with Samson, but it’s a minor quibble that’s good for a laugh at least.
2. Bombshell
Molotov Cocktease makes her first series appearance in episode five as Brock’s antagonist and former lover. There’s a history between these two characters that yields some ribald laughs while finally giving viewers a formidable match for Samson. What makes her character so fun, apart from her dangerous sexual magnetism, is that she doesn’t just seem like a riff on another character from another series. There is a dash of Black Widow, both in character design and mercenary vocation, but Molotov is so unabashedly ruthless the slight comparisons end there. After four episodes, it’s good to get a fierce female character with a promising future into the series that’s not just a companion to another character (like Doctor Girlfriend). Molotov is a key element in the wildly inventive and satisfying fifth episode, and her hotel room tête-à-tête with Samson is one of the episodes many highlights.
3. Monarch Schmonarch
It’s was also a bit of a treat to view two episodes in a row that don’t default to a plot by The Monarch to destroy Dr. Venture. It’s clear that The Monarch will be the chief rogue in the series, but the longer he can stay away, the better the series should develop into new and more interesting storylines. The Monarch is a great foil for the Venture clan, mirroring Dr. Venture’s lack of physical prowess and substituting it for ruthless cunning, but my hope would be that the creators continue to show some restraint in his use.
4. The Kids are Alright
Hank and Dean are evolving and differentiating. While Dr. Venture and Brock Samson are more rigid in their characterizations, the two boys continue to surprise with an occasional joke that hints that the two are not as dim as they at first appeared, just more socially awkward than anything else. If there were ever poster children for the dangers of home schooling, the Venture boys are it. Dean is clearly morphing into the more romantic, sensitive, and emotive of the two, even being given a teenaged crush in the series’s sixth episode. At first, he was simply characterized as the smarter of the two, but his freckles and 50s haircut underscore his more innocent and wholesome nature. Hank clearly is more worldly. He’s got a modicum of street smarts and has started to exercise superior physicality over his brother when faced with Dean’s sophomoric ribbing. Naturally, Hank has begun to gravitate toward Brock, looking to the family’s bodyguard for guidance and companionship. In the sixth episode, Dean turns to his father instead, who again largely belittles and ignores him. It will be interesting to see how the boys continue to develop over the remainder of the season and the series, and this is a promising start for two characters who initially seemed interchangeable but for their appearances.
5. Uneven Ventures
When viewed together, these two episodes represent the heights of The Venture Bros. hilarity as well as the show at its most flat. “Eeney, Meeney, Miney… Magic!” doesn’t quite hang together. The plot is thin to start with, and the jokes are few and far between. Doctor Orpheus is such a binary Doctor Strange analog as to be largely uninteresting, and Hank and Dean mistaking something relatively benign for imminent danger is becoming a bit of a threadbare storytelling convention. Again, their own father and his invention is the real danger. In the end, the episode is a very low stakes affair that feels like another variation on a theme. It’s all very understandable as the show continues to work toward finding its comedic stride in these early installments, but after the satisfying previous episode, episode six feels like a step back.
Join us next time for the next two episodes in The Venture Bros. first season.
