5 out of 5

Director: Venture

Ah, its back. The crackerjack plotting from season 2 kicks off to a genius starts in season 4, part 1. The Venture Bros has always been the one of the standout shows in the Adult Swim library simply thanks to its building plotting. Season 1 wandered to build the footing, but it really came to a beautiful head in season 2 before getting lost in the forever subplots of season 3. But with episode 1 of season 4 theres a sense of vigor: an unbelievably smart time-shifting episode that quickly shows us so many pieces from the previous seasons and how they lead up to now. The rapid pace never slows down, making even the episodes that are a departure from any streamlined plot enjoyable, and further fleshes out the one joke characters – Sgt. Hatred, for example – to become full parts of the cannon. Whatever. You cant start here, anyway, so go back and start rewatching so you can catch up to this great season.