The Venture Bros.: The Complete Collection
While The Venture Bros is set to wrap up in July 2023 with a new movie, they’ve released the entire run on DVD and digital.
While it hasn’t attained the level of fame as some of its animation counterparts like South Park, Rick & Morty, or The Simpsons/Futurama, The Venture Bros. is easily one of the most clever, hilarious shows on TV. It’s actually Adult Swim’s longest running show, yet, in 15 years, they’ve only produced seven seasons. But word on the street is that the creators, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, focused on quality and not selling out. They did everything themselves instead of bringing more people on board that would dilute their vision.
They’ve spent those years building a show that gets bigger and better every season. Its DNA references a blender of great stuff; The Hardy Boys, Johnny Quest, superheroes and G.I. Joe, even icons like Hunter S. Thompson.
The show was cancelled (by the creators) in 2020 and there will be a movie coming out (Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart) in July, 2023 to put an end on the series. So, there’s no better time to binge the series from start-to-finish, which you can now do with the amazing new DVD and digital release, The Venture Bros.: The Complete Series.
That’s right, all seven seasons, 82 episodes, lovingly gathered, for our viewing pleasure. I remember a time when you had to cobble together and trade bootlegs of the cult show (before we had Adult Swim readily available in Canada). This set is an embarrassment of riches.
The series follows the adventures of the Venture Family: an unethical scientist with an inferiority complex, Dr. Rusty Venture; his good-hearted but dummy twin sons Hank and Dean; the family bodyguard and killing machine, Brock Sampson, and a cornucopia of ridiculous characters. And of course, let’s not forget their archnemesis, The Monarch and his gang of henchmen as well as other antagonists like The Guild of Calamitous Intent. In fact, The Venture Bros. was one of the first shows to explore meta storytelling around these themes, for example, taking us inside the experience of being a low-level henchman for a super villain.
I can’t wait to dive into this set and watch it all again from start to finish before the movie comes out.
The set will be released on Tuesday, June 13th.
About the Author
Craig Silliphant is a D-level celebrity with delusions of grandeur. A writer, critic, creative director, editor, broadcaster, and occasional filmmaker, his thoughts have appeared on radio, television, in print, and on the web. He is a juror on the Polaris Music Prize and the Juno Awards. He loves Saskatoon. He has horrible night terrors and apocalyptic dreams.
