9.0/10. And so my journey though The Venture Bros. comes to an end, at least for now. (Though with how long this show goes between seasons, who knows when the next episode might air?) It's been quite a ride.
But it's also been an interesting season. Again, there's been a somewhat renewed focus and serialization here in Season 6, with the Blue Morpho, arching rights to Venture, and the groups new digs in New York providing a little more episode-to-episode continuity than in prior years. One of the best outgrowths of this, however, has been the villains the show has introduced as it's gone through those with various arching rights to Dr. Venture.
Red Death is the piece de resistance in a season that's had its fair share of fun new baddies. Getting Clancy Brown (of Lex Luthor/Mr. Krabs fame) to voice him doesn't hurt, and the contrast between his snarling Red Skull-esque supervillainy and his soft, suburban dad lilt is a pretty genius move. Having The Monarch look up to Red Death and be so impressed that he's unable to take him out is a nice twist, and having Red Death stand as a figure to warn Monarch about not taking things too far, separating his arching from his real life, and not letting his obsessions consume him is a nice direction to go as well.
Apart (and related to that), having OSI and The Guild work together to lay a trap for Blue Morpho, replete with Hunter as Doc, Watch and Word as the boys, and Brock subbing in for Shore Leave as...well...Brock, led to a lot of entertaining bits, from Shore Leave taking the boys for a night out on the town (while still dressed as Brock) to Doc visiting Action Man and Colonel Gentleman and getting a little more backstory on Blue Morpho.
But the overall lesson of the episode is, oddly enough, not to take things too seriously. The OSI/Guild pool volleyball game is a delightfully absurd image, and a reminder that amid all the byzantine protocol and good guys vs. bad guys stuff, there's a group of people who all have something approaching the same damage and just happen to be on opposite sides of this ridiculous play acting world. There's something oddly heartwarming about Doc giving into the party and all the assorted misfits from both sides of the aisle banding together for some fun. The interspersed scenes featuring Saw riffs didn't do much for me, but otherwise, the episode did a nice job at fitting a lot of good humor and character work into a story about not getting so hung up on arching or super science or the endless battles between good and evil.
Overall, it's a nice way to close out the season, and a not very final, but yet oddly satisfying way to end my watch of the series. I don't know if I'd want it to be an inadvertent series finale -- there's still too many loose ends the folks behind the show ought to tie up -- but the image of all these heroes and villains setting aside their ridiculous super-powered squabbles and just hanging out together is a nice reminder of the human beings beneath those costumes, and the way the show itself deconstructs all the old saturday morning cartoon bombast to find the emotional truth underneath it. A fine episode, a fine season, and a mighty fine series.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-09-23T01:29:03Z
9.0/10. And so my journey though The Venture Bros. comes to an end, at least for now. (Though with how long this show goes between seasons, who knows when the next episode might air?) It's been quite a ride.
But it's also been an interesting season. Again, there's been a somewhat renewed focus and serialization here in Season 6, with the Blue Morpho, arching rights to Venture, and the groups new digs in New York providing a little more episode-to-episode continuity than in prior years. One of the best outgrowths of this, however, has been the villains the show has introduced as it's gone through those with various arching rights to Dr. Venture.
Red Death is the piece de resistance in a season that's had its fair share of fun new baddies. Getting Clancy Brown (of Lex Luthor/Mr. Krabs fame) to voice him doesn't hurt, and the contrast between his snarling Red Skull-esque supervillainy and his soft, suburban dad lilt is a pretty genius move. Having The Monarch look up to Red Death and be so impressed that he's unable to take him out is a nice twist, and having Red Death stand as a figure to warn Monarch about not taking things too far, separating his arching from his real life, and not letting his obsessions consume him is a nice direction to go as well.
Apart (and related to that), having OSI and The Guild work together to lay a trap for Blue Morpho, replete with Hunter as Doc, Watch and Word as the boys, and Brock subbing in for Shore Leave as...well...Brock, led to a lot of entertaining bits, from Shore Leave taking the boys for a night out on the town (while still dressed as Brock) to Doc visiting Action Man and Colonel Gentleman and getting a little more backstory on Blue Morpho.
But the overall lesson of the episode is, oddly enough, not to take things too seriously. The OSI/Guild pool volleyball game is a delightfully absurd image, and a reminder that amid all the byzantine protocol and good guys vs. bad guys stuff, there's a group of people who all have something approaching the same damage and just happen to be on opposite sides of this ridiculous play acting world. There's something oddly heartwarming about Doc giving into the party and all the assorted misfits from both sides of the aisle banding together for some fun. The interspersed scenes featuring Saw riffs didn't do much for me, but otherwise, the episode did a nice job at fitting a lot of good humor and character work into a story about not getting so hung up on arching or super science or the endless battles between good and evil.
Overall, it's a nice way to close out the season, and a not very final, but yet oddly satisfying way to end my watch of the series. I don't know if I'd want it to be an inadvertent series finale -- there's still too many loose ends the folks behind the show ought to tie up -- but the image of all these heroes and villains setting aside their ridiculous super-powered squabbles and just hanging out together is a nice reminder of the human beings beneath those costumes, and the way the show itself deconstructs all the old saturday morning cartoon bombast to find the emotional truth underneath it. A fine episode, a fine season, and a mighty fine series.