The Venture Brothers
Season 3 Premiere
Animated
Adult Swim
Air date: June 1, 2008

As you may be able to tell from the name I’ve taken to review for this website, I’m a bit of a fan of the Venture Brothers, the funniest show on television. So I’ve been anticipating the start of the new season since the end of the last one. Well, with the premiere of season three, I can say that the show is back and is as good as ever.

Created by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, the series is a send up of Jonny Quest, comic book villainy, and anything else they want to throw in. Generally the show follows Dr. Venture, his sons Hank and Dean, and their bodyguard, Brock Samson (voiced by the hardest working voice actor in the business, Patrick Warburton). This first episode was a bit of a departure, as it follows Dr. Venture’s arch-nemesis, the Monarch, and his now wife, Dr. Girlfriend. In fact, Brock only shows up for one scene and the main characters don’t have any lines. But the episode was so good, I hardly missed them.

How happy was I to see the episode start with my favorite character of the show, Henchman 21, and his best friend, Henchman 24, standing in the wreckage of the Monarchs’ cocoon? Very happy, that’s how happy I am. The hilarity continues for the rest of the episode as the creators go into the history of the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend (a.k.a. Dr. Wife, Lady Au Pair, and Queen Etheria). By the end, the newlyweds are inducted into the Guild of Calamitous Intent and we get a few mysteries explained and a few more created. There were no bad moment of the show, from the Murderous Moppets, to the Council of Thirteen, to Betty Rage, to Truckules (half Greek god/half Transformer), to the death of 24’s (mostly) powder blue Nissan Stanza, to the surprising return of Phantom Limb. Oh, I can’t wait for the next episode.

I can’t imagine people not enjoying this series. It’s not like some of the other adult swim comedies that are so divisive they seem to set friend against friend in a battle of what’s funny and what’s stupid. If you’re a comic book fan, you have to be watching this show. There’s just no excuse. The whole show is drenched in comic book lore, but turned on its head. The series is the highlight of the adult swim lineup, and I’m glad to know they already have season four lined up already. Seriously, if you’re reading this webpage, and you’ve never watched this show, go out, buy the DVD’s of the first two seasons and then sit back on Sunday’s and watch the new season. It’s more consistently funny that South Park, it blows new Simpson episodes out of the water, and it’s only a million times funnier than The Office. There’s no TV comedy firing on all cylinders more than the Venture Brothers.