The Venture Bros. Season 2 DVD
Over the course of the last year or so, "The Venture Bros." became my favorite show on television.
Partially because "Arrested Development" got cancelled. Partially because I finally realized that "The Simpsons" had fallen off in quality to the point that it wasn't the same show anymore. It didn't have any of the things I loved about it anymore -- an ironic, but also weirdly reverential sense of nostalgia; brilliant plots with impeccable continuity; fully realized characters, even down to the most minor bit players; and the amazing ability to cause me to laugh until I can't breathe.
And the rest of it is that "The Venture Bros." is all those things, in damn near perfect measure.
Where other animated comedy shows have gone down the road of funny-but-preachy or crazy scheme of the week, or most commonly, non sequitur humor in which simply remembering the A-Team with no real frame of reference passes for humor, "The Venture Bros." goes the extra step with interesting stories and hilarious characters. You know, depth.
And the second season of the show added it on in layers. We learn far more about what may possibly be the best pathetic failure of an anti-hero since Yossarian in Catch-22, Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, as well as bodyguard Brock Samson, Dr. Byron Orpheus, the Monarch, Dr. Girlfriend/Queen Etheria/Lady Au Pair and the boys, who all but stopped being the focus of the show for the sake of Doc, Brock and the Monarch.
Oh, and David Bowie.
But along with that, we get 13 jam-packed episodes this season, with all the Jonny-Quest-pastiche adventure we didn't really get during the show's first season, which was good but was clearly a period in which the creators, the awesomely-pseudonymed Jackson Publick and two-tone-haired Doc Hammer, were still hitting their stride. But this season is all stride, where even the episodes the two of them admit they don't like have way more laughs than anything probably ought to.
As for this DVD set, let me start by saying the packaging is some of the best I've ever seen. And yes, I'm the type of person who cares about packaging. The art and design is awesome, and instead of glossed-over cardboard, it's got a very cool cardstock feeling to it.
There's a lot of stuff on the two discs in the set. The extras include a kickass tour of the creators' studio, Astrobase Go! and an introduction to their robot friend Soul-Bot, as well as lots of so-called "deleted scenes," which actually appear to be scenes that the voice actors recorded but which were never animated. Still, neat.
Every episode has commentary, though it would maybe be better termed "over-the-episode conversation." It's very fun to listen to, but if you're looking for insight into how the show was made, it's probably not the best place to go. Apparently Cartoon Network's legal department was working overtime on it, too, since there are big chunks that seem to be missing from Jackson, Doc, and sometimes Dr. Venture and Dean voice actors James Urbaniak and Michael Sinterniklaas' conversations. Not sure what that's all about. Also, Jackson is really hard to hear. Clearly, not a whole hell of a lot of effort went into the commentaries. Still, pretty fun just to listen to the guys chatter about basically whatever pops into their heads.
All together, it's a mighty fine presentation of the best show currently being made. Well worth it, friends.
Shows: A
Extras: B
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