This action-comedy spoof of sixties Johnny Quest-style super-science, evil nemeses, and supernatural happenings is by far, the best original Adult Swim program to date. The story follows The Venture family, Dr. Venture, a forty-something pill-popping scientist who never managed to step out from his father's shadow, his two sons, Hank and Dean (both rather Leave it to Beaver-like in their refusal to swear and constant wearing of sweaters and pants), Brock Samson, their James-Bond-on-steroids bodyguard who apparently works part-time for the office of secret intelligence and refuses to carry a gun, favoring of his serrated bowie knife. Most of the hilarity stems from The Monarch, the self-declared arch-nemesis of the Venture family, a weaver of ridiculously circuitous plans against them, an employer of hilariously incompetent henchmen, and a man who harbors an unhealthy obsession with monarch butterflies and an over-wrought sense of self-importance. His melodrama usually falls on the deaf ears of his girlfriend, Dr. Girlfriend, who, in complete contrast to the Monarch, is professional, take-charge, and inexplicably husky-voiced. The cast of supporting characters is of equal quality, including a well-meaning but dim-witted robot named Helper, a necromancer renting out the Venture family's garage apartment named Dr. Byron Orpheus (doctorate in communications, minor in women's studies), whose propensity towards unnecessarily dramatic changes in pitch and dire warnings of disruptions in the spirit world offer the Monarch's only competition in the melodrama department. Baron Underbheit, the tyrannical and oppressive ruler of Underland, who sports an Arnold-like accent, enormous (and anatomically complimentary) armor, and a metal lower jaw, is another arch-nemesis of the Venture family, blaming Dr. Venture's inattentiveness when they were college lab partners for the loss of his jaw. There's a myriad of others, ranging from fake ghost pirates to the forbidden love of a fugitive and a sasquatch. Check it out; you won't be disappointed.
Review of The Venture Bros.
