The Venture Bros. - CaB Rewatch

[Dirty Boy]

Heh the commentaries are fun, but don't expect to learn much about the show beyond proof that Jackson and Doc are true brothers from another mother.

Stuff that comes up later that I didn't realise was mentioned so early:

Spoiler alert

Bud's spooky story is the Movie Night Massacre.
Rusty hallucinating(?) his Dad's ghost hits different.

[close]

Spoiler alert

Watch Careers and Arrears (S7) back to back. There's loads of stuff that was later expanded into major plot points not least who was the actual PHANTOM SPACEMAN!

[close]

Don't have the Venture book, so appreciate the screenshots.

[The Culture Bunker]

I do wish I could join along with this, but I find my limit to a show is one a week, and even then I need a bit of a break between series. As in, at least a couple of months. I think my brain is too hard-wired into the "old" ways of watching TV that it struggles to have a lot of one show in quick succession. I'm trying to remember where I checked out - I think somewhere in series 5, not the show's fault, I just went through some life shit that made it hard to get back into it. The last one I remember watching had Billy and Pete planning a playlist for a party and Billy says 'Our Lips are Sealed' is on it:

"Urgh - the Go Go's?"
"No! <proud> Fun Boy Three."

I loved those little mentions to English bands they'd put in there, like Pete's Phil Oakey haircut and the Monarch refusing to believe "the guy from Depeche Mode" is straight because "he's the guy from Depeche Mode!" (Dr Girlfriend: "Totally straight - I saw it on the VH-1")

[madhair60]

but it's two episodes

it's less than an hour

[Agent Dunham]

Still won't give them a break between seasons. We're like a train.

[madhair60]

while i don't understand your position, i will defend its validity with every bone in my body

[Agent Dunham]

As I said, like a train.

[Stinky Lomax]

August 14th - 03 Home Insecurity + 04 The Incredible Mr. Brisby

Home Insecurity
This is good stuff! Enjoyed the two villains and their henchmen fighting then bonding, gave me big The Tick vibes, and the Brock storyline had a great improv quality to it. Also loved the boys' superhero jammies. The show has a weird editing style where a scene will cut to the next one the millisecond after the last line has been delivered  - I kind of like it, though, it gives it a rough jam-packed feel.
Only real negative in this episode is the sound mix - the combination of overly-loud dramatic music and thick foreign accents made it very difficult to follow the dialogue in a few scenes!

The Incredible Mr. Brisby
Another good one, I'm getting into this now. Fucking hell, though, did one of the boys see the henchman Mandelay and say "Hey dad, Black guy"?! Hadn't realised quite how retro their Hardy Boys characterisation would be! Only other note is that it's a shame this isn't in HD, the visual artefacts are really noticeable in such a clean art style. Apparently it moves to HD in S3.

[madhair60]

I was surprised by how confident Home Insecurity was; I was sort of braced for a lesser time with these season 1 episodes but outside of certain weaker bits of animation or the odd line they probably wouldn't use later on, it felt fairly complete. I enjoy the use of Helper in these early episodes; there isn't much room for his brand of slapstick as the episodes get more and more dense with story and character beats, so it's fun to see it here.

The Incredible Mr Brisby is one of the most disliked episodes, and all I can say to that is if this is the worst that The Venture Bros gets then it should tell you something about how dn good this series is. The horror-stroke-victim bit isn't really on, but they do a decent job making the humour around Brisby about physical comedy or at the expense of Rusty's apparent bigotry. It is far from perfect, though, and does feel out of place. Still, I enjoyed Brock's non-fight with Mandelay (sp?) and his repeated throwing-knife rescues of Doc, resulting of course in the eventual reveal of the blade through his hand - funny rule of three bit. The Orange County stuff is amusing.

I'm out of the house but I'll post the related book pages when I get back in.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I think it's worth bearing in mind (re the stroke victim jokes) that season 1 was made in 2003/4 and that kind of shock humour was the style at the time.

[Agent Dunham]

I really like the Brisby episode. Our first sight of Molotov for one.

Spoiler alert

And a dark secret is hinted for the first time.

[close]

Brisby's appearance harks back to earlier Hollywood horror films that I remember as a child so was fully onboard with him. Everything about him is antiquated & delightfully sinister (and I say that as somebody similarly-handed).

[Pink Gregory]

Only real negative in this episode is the sound mix - the combination of overly-loud dramatic music and thick foreign accents made it very difficult to follow the dialogue in a few scenes!

I feel like this is the case for the first season in general, though I'm only watching for the second time.  A lot of straining to hear quieter or mumbly line reads.

[Agent Dunham]

Turn the subtitles on.

[selectivememory]

Feel like Brock has already settled into being quite a different character to the twitchy psychopath of the first couple of episodes.

Didn't care so much for his camping plot, but did like all the shenanigans back at the Venture compound with the two groups of would-be assassins.

The Brisby episode wasn't amazing, but it had a handful of amusing moments. Show is still warming up for me at this point though.

[Dirty Boy]

Yeah, Home Insecurity is a great episode and has the first big laughs of the season for me (Hank trying to impress Brock by jumping out of the car, Spider vs Scorpion and the chaos that ensues, sulky H.E.L.P.eR, the 'face-off' between the Monarch and Underbheit). Also the first real introduction to Henchmen 21 and 24 and a mention of the Guild Of Calamitous Intent which will become important later on.

Following one of the best early eps with one of the worst imo. There's maybe only a small handful that don't do much for me and Brisby is definitely one of them, the Molotov stuff and final battle aside. As already mentioned some of the humour seems a little edgelordy watching the early ones back, but i suppose that was always there in some form (ie: Captain Sunshine).

Something i've not seen referenced anywhere: is named after a song by Foetus who's main man Jim Thirlwell is responsible for the music in VB.

Hadn't realised quite how retro their Hardy Boys characterisation would be!

There's reasons for their incredible naivety that will later become apparent. Don't think we've seen the learning beds yet.

[madhair60]

something to bear in mind re: the sound mixing - if you are using the 1080p downloads ripped from HBO Max, the sound mixing is utterly fucked and several episodes will be essentially impossible to watch without subtitles - they made an absolute fuck-job of the whole thing, somehow. in some episodes they inexplicably, randomly start playing the theme song under certain scenes. god knows how it happened. i strongly recommend the Blu-Rays (or Blu-Ray rips if you haven't the means).

Don't think we've seen the learning beds yet.

we have, but not to the extent that they've been explained.

relevant book pages. Please note that the book order is different to the broadcast order, so ignore that discrepancy:

[Agent Dunham]

I really like the Brisby episode. Our first sight of Molotov for one.

Spoiler alert

And a dark secret is hinted for the first time.

[close]

Brisby's appearance harks back to earlier Hollywood horror films that I remember as a child so was fully onboard with him. Everything about him is antiquated & delightfully sinister (and I say that as somebody similarly-handed).

I haven't watched the episodes for the thread yet as I'm away from at work for a few days, but I suppose I better add that it's the scenes with Brisby I'm fond of in this episode. Not so keen on all the OC shenanigans. I can understand its low rating with fans on that count. But Brisby is always priceless in the scant appearance(s?) he makes in the future...

Spoiler alert

One of the VB universe's Illuminati.

[close]

[Stinky Lomax]

Turn the subtitles on.

Ugh, no. I avoid them at the best of times (excluding foreign language movies in which case subs > dubs), but especially with comedy - nothing kills it faster than subtitles imo.

There's reasons for their incredible naivety that will later become apparent. Don't think we've seen the learning beds yet.

There's naivety and then there's seeing a Black guy and saying "hey Dad: Black guy"..!

i strongly recommend the Blu-Rays (or Blu-Ray rips if you haven't the means).

Apparently seasons 1 and 2 never came out on blu-ray.

[Agent Dunham]

Ugh, no. I avoid them at the best of times (excluding foreign language movies in which case subs > dubs), but especially with comedy - nothing kills it faster than subtitles imo.

Just to check dialogue if you missed it? The audio isn't that iffy all the time. The subtitles for this are not so bad compared to some I've come across; almost like it was created from a script or the person writing it out actually understands what they're hearing.

[Agent Dunham]

I go away for a few days to come back and find this place in disarray.

Belatedly...

August 21st 22nd - 05 Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic! + 06 Ghosts Of The Sargasso

Nah, you're all OK with me.

[Stinky Lomax]

I knew someone would post while I was watching them!

August 21st - 05 Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic! + 06 Ghosts Of The Sargasso

Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!
This one was okay. I never really got a handle on the Dr Strange guy as a comedic character, and they don't do much with the joy tank. I liked Dean calling t-shirts blouses and Triana's carry case a lunch pail (tbf it's a pretty weird thing to be carrying around, like a mini flight case). Oh, I also get a rush of nostalgic bliss whenever they use one of the old stock sound effects from He-Man, like the one when a heart appears over Dan's head.

Ghosts Of The Sargasso
Really enjoyed this one, the Scooby-Doo riff and Space Oddity riffs worked bizarrely well together. Loads of great bits like Brock killing two guys with his ass, and the pirate and Dean repeatedly talking over the ghost screams.
I was going to say that clearly this came before Eeney Meeney Miney Magic in the production order because Dean mentioned encountering ghost pirates in that one, but then they call up Necromancer guy so this must not be their first time dealing with ghost pirates!

[Agent Dunham]

There's a space/time anomaly regards the introduction of Dr Orpheus and Trianna, and Dean's mention of ghost pirates before he has an adventure with ghost pirates.

[Agent Dunham]

And I learned a new word from episode 6; sargassum. I have first-hand witnessed the sargassum.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I think season one was originally broadcast in a different order. There's a clip of HELPeR giving Brock a lucky rabbit's foot and a hug in Home Insecurity (ep 3 in current order) that comes from Mid-Life Chrysalis (ep 8 in current order).

I love the exchange between Dr. O and Rusty when the former is inspecting the joy can.

"Did you say an ORPHAN?!"

"Yeah, a... little orphan boy-"

"It's POWERED by a FORSAKEN CHILD?!"

"Well yeah, kinda, I mean I didn't use the whole thing!"

[The Mollusk]

Sargasso is the first truly great "classic" VB episode for me. I remember watching it for the first time and laughing my head off at the Captain's reaction to seeing a real ghost. "Wow, no way!" Also the Bowie reference in the opening scene flashback is fucking glorious, what a setup for the episode!

Didn't care so much for his camping plot

Ah man I love it. Contains one of my favourite first season quotes:

"Dude, that was a shaved bigfoot, and Steve Summers in a wig, made out of shaved bigfoot."

[Imperator Helvetica]

I liked Dean calling t-shirts blouses and Triana's carry case a lunch pail (tbf it's a pretty weird thing to be carrying around, like a mini flight case).

There was a trend in the 90s for Goth kids to carry lunchboxes around as bags - to store their clove cigarettes, Nine Inch Nails CDs and Jhonen Vasquez comics. I thought it actually was a lunchbox/lunchpail, but Dean's not socialised enough to know a Hot Topic Goth.

Spoiler alert

I think the boys have a similar reaction meeting Triana's friend later.

[close]

[Stinky Lomax]

August 28th - 07 Ice Station Impossible! + 08 Mid-Life Chrysalis

Ice Station Impossible!
Didn't think much of this one. Bit disjointed and the 'what if known superheroes were a bit fucked up' thing isn't strong enough to carry a whole episode. I hope they don't go to that well too often.

Mid-Life Chrysalis
Enjoyed this one a lot more. Pretty mild, but good character-based stuff, lots of fun running bits.

[Dirty Boy]

It's still early days, but i rather like the Ice Station one. Stephen Colbert as the prof and the first appearance of Billy and White (both underused, but still...) and has there ever been a more CaB-friendly line than "well, i think my foreskin might have just broken off"?

Laughed a lot at Hank getting socked by the falling cannister and his reactions to being exposed to the serum and Dean's "so that's why the plane crashed, there were Skeletons driving it". Driving?

Spoiler alert

Pertinent final line considering the last ep of the season

[close]

Where's Madhair gone with his funny pages?

[Agent Dunham]

I can upload them if he's skimping on the info; let me check.

[Agent Dunham]

[Agent Dunham]