With season six premiering tonight, get up-to-speed with Idle Time’s two biggest Venture Bros. aficionados.

BC: The Venture Bros. to me has always been a crown jewel of serialized storytelling and detailed character development. When creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer premiered the show in 2004, it already felt like something special but I had no idea of the creative depths the show would reach. Within the past 12 years (holy shit), a show that caught my attention due to being a parody of Jonny Quest has grown into the universe I am the most emotionally involved in and feel the most compelled to watch as these characters grow.

As it began, the show was simply about Doctor Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture whose childhood as a boy adventurer alongside his world famous father Jonas Venture, a Doc Savage/Benton Quest mashup, left Rusty a pill-popping, PTSD-filled sack of sad. Left in the shadow of his legendary father, Rusty tries to rise from failure with his killing machine bodyguard Brock Samson and his constantly killed/cloned twin sons, Hank and Dean. Doc Venture is tormented by his archenemy The Monarch and his soulmate Dr. Girlfriend (now Dr. Mrs. The Monarch) but ultimately Rusty causes his own failures.

Most characters on this show are held back by these invisible ties to the past as well. The amount of story that goes in between now and then would take a series of articles to explain so I will leave with where the show left off. By the time of the 6th season, Doc Venture has inherited a billion dollar corporation from the death of his twin brother, and with it, the opportunity to finally let himself and his family succeed. The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch are poised to take huge new positions in the super villain organization, The Guild of Calamitous Intent. The real question is will these new chances to improve be squandered by characters’ own inability to move on? Are these characters truly ready to be successful? Continue reading Venture Bros. Is Back! →