TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season Three

The Venture Brothers Season Three (Adult Swim)
Written by Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer
Directed by Jackson Publick

Season One of The Venture Brothers was rough, though very inspired. Season Two focused on tightening things up and connecting the elements introduced into this unique world. I remember the episodes from these seasons with much detail. I owned them both on DVD in the mid/late-2000s and watched them on repeat with my then-roommate Eddie. Season three came along as I was starting graduate school and dealing with some new stresses in life, so I watched it, but there were a lot of distractions. It was also the last Venture Brothers season I watched in its entirety, so everything after this will be new territory for me. Season three felt a little new as well, with sudden flashes of memories that I had seen these stories before.

In the wake of The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend’s wedding, the Guild of Calamitous Intent interrogates them. The Guild wants to learn more about Phantom Limb’s betrayal of the organization. He’s presumed dead, but because this series takes place in the realm of pulp fiction, I fully expect to see him return one day, as there is no body found. The Monarch and the newly named Dr. Mrs. Monarch settle into Limb’s former mansion in a gated community for supervillains. 

Of course, Rusty Venture struggles to keep the lights on, but this season highlights what a terrible father Dr. Jonas Venture had been to his son, how he put him in deadly situations and failed to guide him in the way you expect a parent to. This makes us feel considerable sympathy for Rusty, though not too much, because he is still an asshole. The Guild assigns Sergeant Hatred as Rusty’s new arch, and The Monarch gets to bother J.J. on Spider Skull Island. 

This season doesn’t have much for the titular Venture Brothers, Hank & Dean, to do. They are ever-present, but none of the episodes really feature their arc as the main ones. Who does get a complete arc is Brock Sampson, who by the end of this season will have resigned from O.S.I. and as the Venture bodyguard. There’s a growing sense of dissatisfaction within Brock that the creator started laying the seeds in the latter half of season two and comes to a climax in the first two-part episode that serves as the season three finale. We get some exciting revelations about his former mentor, Hunter Gathers, and it sets Brock up for some new storylines in season four.

The Monarch’s Henchmen 21 and 24 get much more development, becoming fully realized characters in this season. 21 expresses an ongoing unrequited attraction to Dr. Mrs. Monarch, and he and 24 live in constant fear of her murderous moppets Tim-Tom and Kevin. They, too, get more screen time, serving as The Monarch’s moles when Rusty hosts a day camp for young wannabe adventurers as one of his money-making schemes. You can see that the cast is getting very crowded, which is why Hank & Dean seem like afterthoughts in many episodes. They still have great moments but no great story arcs.

The character who gets the most development in a single episode and what I argue (outside of the season finale) is the strongest episode of the bunch is Billy Quizboy. In the episode “The Invisible Hand of Fate,” Billy finds his prosthetic arm has gone haywire, and with that, he has flashes of memories from events he didn’t know he was present for. His career as a quiz show contestant went south, and it was revealed that the show’s host, Pete White, was swapping Billy’s incorrect answers for the right ones. This leads to Billy eventually working as a mole for O.S.I. in infiltrating Phantom Limb’s college physics class before he gains his powers. The way Billy and Phantom Limb’s origins intertwine has me convinced their story isn’t done yet.

I also had a lot of fun with “Now Museum – Now You Don’t!” where J.J. Venture opens a museum dedicated to his late father’s work on Spider Skull Island. This allows for a parade of guest appearances from all sorts of characters the Ventures have encountered before. We even get a retcon of the Sean Connery-inspired Colonel Gentleman’s death, allowing him to remain in the land of the living. There’s a continuation of the Doctor Impossible storyline, showing the stretchy scientist has descended into drinking after his wife left him for J.J. I’m interested to see where that character goes, and I imagine he may have a villainous destiny in his future. It’s also nice to see J.J. presented as not simply the better version of Rusty but rather someone trying to be so much like Jonas Venture. He’s making many of the same mistakes with his family that his father did. 

Season Three felt like a moment where the creators decided to take The Venture Brothers a little more seriously. They pile on the parodies and references still. I love pseudo-G.I. Joe member Shore Leave. There’s a wonderful flashback to a late 19th-century collection of adventurers, including Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, and more that made me chuckle quite a bit. I’m excited going forward because from here on out, this will be brand new territory for me, and I’m fascinated to see how these characters grow over the next four seasons and how those stories wrap up in the Venture Brothers movie.