Jackson Publick-related stories
Posted Nov 16th 2009 12:41PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) This episode was certainly a surprise in many respects. It was one of the funnier installments of the season so far. It also brought back a lot of old themes and cleared up some incomplete storylines that had started to gather dust. On one hand, I'm glad that those have been resolved, because most of them were revealed to be kind of irrelevant anyway, but I also felt as though it was rushed, like, five loose ends from old major arcs had to be hastily tied up in twenty-some minutes. Well, it's better than continuing to string us along, right?
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - The Revenge Society
Posted Nov 9th 2009 12:40PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E04) It's enough to make you stop believing when tears come fast and furious, in a
town called Malice. Yeah. I totally just made that up. Right now. Free words of wisdom, from me to you.
This episode wasn't spectacular for the purposes of laughing-out-loud. It was funny in a few moments, yes, but I spent most of the twenty-some minutes resting my chin on my fist, brow furrowed with concern. All the characters are going through some heavy stuff right now, and that inner turmoil, dealing with loss and identity and love, came bubbling to the surface in this episode. Doing so, again, isn't much of a gut-buster, but it makes for beautiful character development. Can you tell I have faith in this show? Maybe a little too much.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Return to Malice
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 8:35AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews
(S04E03) I swear to you, dear reader, that I do my best to stay somewhat objective when reviewing
The Venture Bros. It's tough, though, when the writers keep knocking them out of the park like this. We're only a few episodes in, but I'm already enjoying things more than I did with season three, and it's not just because this episode had mind-blowing prog rock and UPS guys with the Shining.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Perchance to Dean
Posted Oct 26th 2009 12:08PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E02) First things first. If you are not a connoisseur of '90s superhero cartoons or a huge nerd that has been closely following
Venture Bros. news all the way through production, you may have missed out on the full "Handsome Ransom" experience. That is not to say the unaware couldn't have a good time, but things were made ten times funnier if a viewer knew that the not-so-pure Captain Sunshine was voiced by Kevin Conroy, aka Batman.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Handsome Ransom
Posted Oct 19th 2009 1:37PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E01) Is it going too far calling
Venture Bros. the
Lost of animated shows? Because, especially when one compares it to other programs in the [adult swim] line-up, it definitely is. While shows like
Robot Chicken are custom-tailored for short attention spans (which isn't necessarily a bad thing),
VB does a beautiful job of rewarding the loyal who take time to learn and love the show.
You know how else it's also kind of like
Lost? It's really damn confusing sometimes. It wasn't until the very end of the premiere, when bits of my brain were coming out my ears, that I finally managed to put most of the story together in my head, though I knew I would have to watch it at least once to more to seriously understand. I see what you did there, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick. Real sneaky.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel (season premiere)
Posted Sep 13th 2009 11:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim
In case you have not heard already, the fourth season of
Venture Bros. arrives on [adult swim] at midnight on October 18 (meaning the night of the 18th, technically the morning of the 19th). Mark your calendars.
This news has already been floating around for a while, thanks to sites like the
Mantis-Eye Experiment, but things have been confirmed by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer during their panel at DragonCon. Some footage of this has finally been released by AdultSwim.com, so you can stop crawling around YouTube for people's crappy cell phone recordings.
Continue reading Venture Bros. premieres October 18
Posted Aug 20th 2009 10:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Video, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Adult Swim has put a three and a half minute promotional video for
The Venture Bros. Season 4 on their site. To save you folks a click, I've embedded it here at the end of the article.
The intro goes immediately into silliness, noting various significances of the number four, most of which are completely ludicrous. In the preview, Hank is sporting a different haircut, and I have no idea what's happening with Dean. He seems to be bonding with his father, among other strange misfortunes.
Brock is only in a quick clip with a shaven head without a clue as to what's happened to him since he quit his bodyguard position. The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend only appear in a brief segment, as well. It's weird to see 21 without his henchman outfit.
Continue reading The Venture Bros. Season four promo
Posted Jul 29th 2009 7:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
As our own
John Scott Lewinski pointed out in his
interview with Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, the
Venture Bros. masterminds, the show is a cult treasure, but not so hot in the big picture.
It's a source of perpetual heartbreak for me, knowing that the many people I convert with my DVDs are just a mere drop in the bucket. Even worse, despite the insane number of fans that flood convention floors to hear Hammer and Publick talk, other [adult swim] celebrities of arguably less awesome programming get the mainstream love. Just check out this great
LA Weekly interview (and photoshoot, ladies) with Hammer and Publick to remind yourself why these guys are so marvelous.
Continue reading Why aren't Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick crazy-famous?
Posted Aug 25th 2008 8:42AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E13) It feels like the third season started only yesterday, but it's over, kids. Even though it didn't end with a massive cliff-hanger like in previous seasons, it certainly went out with a bang. Because the lovely, creative people that make this wonderful show can feel our pain in waiting, Season Four is already in production and actors will be recording next month. Calm yourselves. If you're still looking for goodness to get your fix, check out our
VB-related posts.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part II) (season finale)
Posted Aug 17th 2008 11:55PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E12) Firstly, a bit of news. Both Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, as opposed to a solo Doc, will be attending this year's
Dragon*Con in Georgia, so go see them if you can. Secondly, the guys have done a
video commentary for "ORB" and you can watch it on Adult Swim's website. Not as many off-topic ramblings that we know and love in this one, so if you miss irrelevance and mimed nunchuck skills, revisit the old
"The Buddy System" commentary. And last but not least... This week's episode premiered on the Adult Swim Fix as usual, but this time there's actually bonus footage that was not included in the televised version. It's pretty self-contained, but definitely worth a watch. I've embedded it here, to save you that exhausting trip across teh internetz.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part I) - VIDEO
Posted Aug 11th 2008 1:41PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E11) We haven't seen the entire Venture family really buckle down and do some hardcore adventuring since last season's "Twenty Years to Midnight". This was more of a
Da Vinci Code-esque adventure though, in the sense that it also involved mysterious paintings, secret codes, and weird albinos. This was one of the best episodes of the season, finally setting us on the right path to understanding many of the strange revelations from the flashbacks. Plus, it has set the perfect tone for our inevitably epic two-part season finale, starting next week.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: ORB
Posted Aug 6th 2008 9:02AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Comic-Con, The Venture Bros.
I was a sad little
Venture Bros. fan at the peak of convention season this year, as I was unable to attend last month's Comic-Con. My pain was somewhat soothed by the presence of the Internet though, for I knew Flickr and YouTube would surely erupt with fan-documented material, with which I could experience the con vicariously.
As it turned out... not so much. Despite scouring the blogosphere, I didn't find much in the following days, apart from a few photos of my friends in Dr. Girlfriend get-ups posing with Jackson Publick and a brief report of one dirty joke from the panel. Well, probably because they could sense my silent fan-sobbing from across the country, the lovely folks from
Adult Swim online have directed us to this video from the panel with Jackson Publick and Mike Sinterniklaas. It's edited down from a longer event, but there are still plenty of good moments.
Continue reading Finally, some Venture Bros. footage from Comic-Con - VIDEO
Posted Aug 4th 2008 9:23AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E10) The world of heroes and villains has a long, intricate history and with that comes lots and lots of cliches. Like, I mean, a lot of cliches. It was cool to see the show take on itself, making fun of things from invulnerable redshirts to protagonist/antagonist banter. Plus, we got to see giant robots and death rays, so all in all, it was a good day had by all. Also, "The Lepidopterists" pulled us back to the post-credits clip from "
Tears of a Sea Cow". So, in case you're confused, all this took place
after the Museum party and that's why there was no mention of the Monarch in the last episode. Got it? Good.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: The Lepidopterists
Posted Jul 28th 2008 9:22AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E09) This was a real treat for all of those that love some old-school Team Venture action ("Action, action, action!"). In this episode, we found past and present protagonists and antagonists meeting for the first time in decades. The action-packed cold open featured Jonas Venture, Sr. as a terribly unconvincing Asian stereotype sporting a nipple on his face. You know,
that same old story. Of course, this far-fetched disguise was just another part of the Team's plan to bring down Scaramantula and his Fraternity of Torment, a sort of a not quite as impressive Guild of Calamitous Intent boasting the powers of Brainulo and a young Manotaur.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: Now Museum -- Now You Don't! - VIDEO
Posted Jul 21st 2008 1:01PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E08) After a surprisingly Jackson Publick heavy run, we finally got another Doc Hammer solo with this episode (the first was "
The Buddy System"). Apparently, the first half of the season just worked out to be a lot of Publick episodes and we'll be getting a lot more Doc Hammer scripts in upcoming episodes. Right on, right on.
This episode felt more like a
Venture Bros. episode than the backstory-tastic stuff that has been dominating this season. Many hilarious moments, beautiful character interactions and gross-out moments were had.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: Tears of A Sea Cow
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