This Blog Is Retroactive

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Adult Swim these days.  I think some of the shows on Adult Swim are still hilarious and delightfully bizarre (e.g., Family Guy, Squidbillies, Robot Chicken, ATHF). However, these days I feel like the majorityof the shows  on Adult Swim are completely inane, psychotic, unfunny weirdness, suffering from a  severe deficiency of production value (e.g., Tim and Eric, Morel Orel, Xavier: Renegade Angel, Lucy the Daughter of the Devil).  This being the case, it’s easy for shows truly worth watching to get lost in the fracas of Adult Swim’s current A.D.D. inspired line-up.

If you’re a casual fan of Adult Swim programming, like me, then you’ve probably caught bits and pieces, perhaps even entire episodes, of Venture Bros on occasion.  Maybe you thought, “hmm, that was weird…kind of funny…but I have no idea what’s going on.”  Don’t let a lukewarm first impression deter you from giving Venture Bros a second chance because, in my opinion, it’s by far the best thing on Adult Swim right now.  Hell, it’s one of the best damn shows on TV, period.

Simply put, Venture Bros is one huge amalgamated parody of all the mystery, action/adventure and sci-fi cartoons we used to know and love.  Think Johnny Quest meets Scooby Doo meets G.I. Joe with a smattering of Fantastic 4, Voltron and Fear and Loathing in Lost Vegas thrown in for good measure.  I know Fear and Loathing was not a cartoon, but it did have drawings.  Does that sound insane?  It is.

You might think absurd adult humor paired with engaging and intriguing story lines set among a rich, multi-layered world of ridiculous super heroes and villains would be reason enough to start showing up at Comic-Con dressed up as Dr. Venture or The Monarch, and you’d be right.  What really takes this show above and beyond that is their exceptional art direction and formidable arsenal of voice talent.

The passion and creative brilliance of the shows creators, Jackson Public and Doc Hammer, is demonstrated in all that you see whilst watching Venture Bros.  You see it in the logos, the costumes, the backgrounds, the music, the opening credits, the DVD covers and all the promotional materials associated with the show.  Just look at the artwork above.  I would hang this in my house if I could find a print big enough!  What other show would bother?

These two mad geniuses are also the voices behind the majority of the shows best characters, along with massively talented and funny voice actors Patrick Warburton, James Urbaniak and Dana Snyder.  There are so many funny characters and great voices, but I think James Urbaniak’s Dr. Venture is my favorite.  Anyway, I’ve prattled on enough about the show.  Stop wasting your time here and go rent or buy all three seasons on DVD, or else.

UPDATE 08/19/09 Here’s a little preview of those things to come:

I’m not very good at catching shows when they first air on TV.  Thank god for DVDs and Netflix.  There are quite a few shows I really, really like, and I still can’t seem to remember when they’re on or make the time to sit down to watch them when they are.  The only show I was able to do this with was LOST, and that’s only because my friends and I made it a point to get together every week and have dinner while we watch it.  This was only after I was able to go back and watch Seasons 1-3 on DVD to catch up.  It really takes a determined committment on my part to do this.

Burn Notice is one of those shows that deserves that determined committment.  That show is awesome.  Allow me to explain why.

• Burn Notice gives you badass, explosive action every episode.
• Burn Notice has hot people in hot places looking hot.  It doesn’t get much hotter (metaphorically and literally) then Miami, Papi.
• Burn Notice is not just an action show.  It’s funny.  It reminds me of all those great action/adventure movies in the 80’s that weren’t only exciting, but could be really funny, e.g., Indiana Jones, Romancing the Stone, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, etc.
• Burn Notice has genuinely interesting and well developed characters.
• Burn Notice has do-it-yourself instructions for a myriad of espionage techniques and tactical maneuvers.
• Burn Notice not only gives you a fully completed story arc in every single episode, but there is also a much deeper, more sinister and far reaching story arc that is happening behind the episodic one, continuing throughout the season.  That’s the one that will get you hooked.

Patton Oswalt puts it best on his MySpace blog talking about ”The New Silver Age of Television”.

…this past season of BURN NOTICE was amazing, and not on a weekly, hot babes and action kind of way. The show has become an ongoing pulp epic, with new, stinging layers peeled back at the end of every season, and the darkness deepening around a hero who’s determined to use the darkness to preserve the light. Plus, every episode you can learn, through Jeffrey Donavan’s laconic, winking voice-over (and some pretty nifty montages) how you can use non-dairy creamer and Christmas lights to destroy a city block. There’s even a growing YouTube cult of weirdos who test out every homemade death-device…and so far, they’ve all worked! And there’s new episodes coming in June! And Bruce Campbell! BRUCE Campbell! That’s all you need to know. Again, television shows have turned into bombastic cinema, doled out in hour-long doses every week.

What more could any one discerning viewer ask for?

Trouble is, I still need to catch up to the current episodes.  I’m emotionally committed now and I don’t want to ruin any of the surpises by watching the current episodes without watching all those prior.  However, one of the other great things about Burn Notice (unlike LOST) is that you don’t necessarily have to have seen all the episodes preceding to know what’s going on or get some genuine enjoyment out of any single episode.   Like I said, each episode has it’s own little plot line that begins during that episode and is neatly wrapped up by the end of the hour.  Yes, perhaps that makes the show somewhat formulaic, but the formula works, and they mix it up enough to make each show feel unique.

I have to admit, I’m going through a little bit of Burn Notice withdrawal.  I’m in serial limbo.  I’ve watched all the ones they’ve released on DVD, but I’ve missed the first episodes of the current season and I don’t want to start in the middle.  Such is life.

Watch Burn Notice on Hulu and make your brains all mushy.