Cartoon Network’s golden era for original shows, at least for my generation, was the 2000’s. The primetime held shows like Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack and Dwayne McDuffie & Co.’s Justice League and Justice League Unlimited among other now classic animated series. However, the late night programming block known as Adult Swim is still considered by many to be the cream of the crop. The now legendary Cartoon Network spinoff channel has been home to several now iconic adult-focused animated series, but one of the best and now unfortunately overlooked is The Venture Bros. Created by Christopher McCulloch and musician & composer Eric “Doc” Hammer, The Venture Bros is a sardonic and satirical love letter to comic books, B-movies, and classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons of decades prior. Running for 7 seasons starting in 2003 and ending with a feature film in 2023 after the original show’s cancellation, the series is now often overlooked by modern audiences but has retained a well-earned cult status among fans who were around for its original run, who have in turn exposed it to new audiences. In my book, it’s one of the best animated adult comedies to ever grace the screen.
The Venture Bros stars the Venture family – twin brothers Hank & Dean Venture, and their former child star/failed scientist father Rusty. With them is their robot butler named Helper, along with their unstoppable badass bodyguard and fan-favorite character Brock Sampson (voiced by Patrick Warburton who has stated that Brock is his favorite performance that he’s done). Most of their time is spent dealing with Rusty’s desperate schemes to get rich off of ridiculous experiments or using his family name – Rusty Venture’s father was a legendary scientist and adventurer, and Rust has been riding his coattails ever since the old man disappeared. Elsewhere, however, the Ventures are always being stalked by “supervillain” The Mighty Monarch, his army of henchmen, and his way out of his league wife Mrs. The Monarch (who is also one of the show’s best running gags, but you have to watch to find out why). Structurally, the show dips into both episodic and serialized storytelling, with some episodes being odd one-offs while others include serious plot points that reveal shocking (or stupid, or somewhere in between) secrets about our main cast. By the series’ end, there are so many subplots involving each of our main and extra cast – the Guild of Calamitous Intent, the OSI, the Order of the Triad, etc. – but none of them feel overly boring or needless. The mixture of heart and absurdity that this show is filled with makes every one of these subplots feel earned.
As absurd as the situations Rusty and the rest can find themselves in, the comedy itself isn’t absurdist in the way other Adult Swim shows like Smiling Friends can be. Nor is it anything like the nihilistic black humor of something like Rick and Morty. McCullough and Hammer’s brand of humor is a distinct blend of wit, slapstick, cultural callback, and a fair bit of raunchiness. It’s the sort of comedic storytelling that you actually have to be paying attention to to get the jokes, without ever becoming pretentious – or, you know, British. Venture Bros was doing that Gen X/elder millennial cultural reference comedy before it became the thing to do. Here though, the references are all Johnny Quest, classic Star Trek, Kubrick movies, Hammer horror films, and of course OT Star Wars. Venture Bros never beats you over the head with references like the worst offenders of this kind of humor often do, but those pop culture influences are always in plain sight. Funny, I’m not sure how many viewers younger than myself would actually get a large chunk of this show’s humor. There are references and jokes even *I* don’t understand.
Despite Venture Bros being an Adult Swim comedy, there is a lot of character driven heart. Many characters, including a lot of the secondary cast, have genuine arcs of development in some way – and the ones that don’t feel like they are too stunted to grow anyways. Without getting into spoilers, the Boys grow in to their lots in life, Brock reflects on his life as a bodyguard and unblinking badass, The Monarch’s best henchmen come into their own as standout characters, and other developments flesh out this series’ stellar and wide-ranging cast of scientists, spies, supervillains, and freaks. Outside of the show’s unmistakable personality and sharp humor, there’s a surprising amount to get invested in as you continue watching.
For whatever reason, due to perhaps its declining popularity or some sort of strange rights issue, The Venture Bros has become a bit tricky to watch in its entirety. The first 3 seasons are on Netflix and Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, the feature film that serves as the show’s finale, is available on HBO Max. The show in its entirety is however available for completely free on Adult Swim’s website. However you decide to tackle it, The Venture Bros is a brilliant piece of animation from Cartoon Network and Adult Swim’s best era, and is a must for fans not just of great comedy but of comics, film, and TV of decades past.
