Season One
2003
Created by Jackson Publick
Adult Swim has such a stealthy presence that it's capable of being both incredibly popular while seeming almost totally unknown at the same time. Fans of the Swim line-up don't congregate in heaps like Monday night 24 clubs, nor do they gather around water coolers like Soprano's fans. Even now, with Aqua Teen Hunger Force showing up both on C.S.I. and the "Danger Doom" album, Adult Swim cartoons still manage to feel like personal secrets when late night viewers happen to catch a 15 minute block of Sealab they've never seen. Venture Brothers has had one of the tougher times of it as well-the recent DVD release of the first season comes almost three years after the episodes actually aired, ensuring that by this point the show has been re-run so many times that few people who have seen it have managed to catch the serial aspect of the show, and those that did are probably worn out by sheer lack of quantity. Now that the show has returned with new episodes, it's finally discovered a fan base it never knew it had--the DVD set, when finally released, was Amazon's number one seller within weeks.
For those who have yet to experience the show, be assured, it's all that your wide-eyed overweight friends were sputtering about: inventive, funny, exciting and really good. Watching it in rapid succession, isn't just recommended but necessary: if ever there was a good reason to hit "play all" on the menu, The Venture Brothers has it in spades. Although the first two episodes are a little unwieldy, the show rockets in quality and intelligence by the third and is ceaselessly amusing until the brutal close of episode 13. It's the show you never knew you were missing, and never thought you'd enjoy, and it's funnier than just about anything on television. (Although The Simpsons remains the gold standard for 22 minute single-episode humor, there's nothing serialized that comes close to Venture for exploring character dynamics in comedy: imagine what Seinfeld would be like if Kramer and George incorporated actual growth from season to season and you'll start to comprehend what happens between episode to episode with the Venture crew.) Whether or not Venture has maintained it's exploration of character development into it's second season remains unclear at this point--after all, the extensive downtime between seasons coupled with fears of cancellation are likely to have caused considerable difficulty in returning to the aggressive pace found in the closing third of the first season. All the major and minor players involved have returned, and if they're able to match up to even half of their former glory the show is certain to be good. We'll have our answer in a few months.
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