3 out of 5

Created by: Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick

Have you watched Venture Bros.?  Do you enjoy it?  If so, then you will enjoy – have, probably, already enjoyed – this special, which is placed after season 5…

Followers of the show have gotten used to long pauses between seasons / episodes in recent years, and while I have no problem with this if it keeps quality high (and despite my three star rating, Venture is really a perfect blend of humor and building narrative and imagination), I have to admit that the wait really undermines the kind of fanboy fervor I felt when plot-revelations were a’building with seasons 2 and 3.  The delays do make sense from this quality perspective, as season 4 felt (to me) more wandering and less inspired than what came before, while the several year silence before season 5 made that a resurgence of awesomeness.  But for all of the payoffs they stuff in this special – the opening of Jonas Venture’s space station, as well as some significant development to his character arc which really hasn’t occurred since his “birth”; Revenge Society nonsense; and some amazing Council of 13 changes – along with, of course, plenty of nerd references, it was hard to really get excited since the future (if / when) of the series is so gray.  So on the one hand, the special is a true testament to the sense of history Hammer / Publick and their writers have given to characters who started as jokey pastiches – Brock, the Venture twins, the Monarch – while on the other hand, while the writing and animation remain strong, there’s no urgency here, so it’s like you’re watching cool stuff happen from a distance.

In the future of TV, when Venture is over and done and some future boyo discovers it on Netflix 10.0 and streams it into his penis cam and can watch episodes created over 10+ years (!!) in one go, I bet this special will rock.  But, y’know, my penis cam is on pre-order, so here we are in the comparatively boring present, and instead of a special I’ll take another season of Venture.