The word just came out that Adult Swim has cancelled their long running (if not exactly prolific) animated show, The Venture Bros. While in today’s day and age a cancellation doesn’t necessarily mean that something is gone forever, with the show in such a precarious position, I found myself thinking back to it over and over. It may be that myself, and others, simply took The Venture Bros. for granted. Due to a very slow release schedule, with new seasons coming out two or three years apart, it was perhaps too easy for the show to be put at the back of peoples’ minds. We should remember, however, that the slow release schedule was mostly due to the incredibly intricate scripts, plots and animation being worked on for every season.

Trying to talk about The Venture Bros is difficult for me without simply falling into trying to explain why so many scenes and characters are so memorable. The original premise of the show is an amusingly dark take on Hanna-Barbera era cartoons, particularly Jonny Quest. (A thinly disguised Johnny actually shows up in the show as a washed-up drug addict). The show focuses around the family and employees of Rusty Venture, who was a child adventurer with a “super-science” father, similar to Jonny. The constant encounters with danger, an impossible to live up to father figure and an emotionally abusive upbringing have left Rusty as a bitter, narcissistic underachiever with two dimwitted sons, coasting on his father’s achievements and money. While he shows little skill at the “super-scientist” life, he still goes through the motions with half-baked inventions, and suffering the attention of various super-villains, most notably the obsessive Monarch. Few of these villains ever manage to do much permanent damage, however, due to Rusty’s murder machine of an assigned bodyguard, Brock Sampson.

The show was famously described by its creators as being “about failure”, with the various characters inheriting the broken dreams of the optimistic Space Age cartoon era. And yet, if this was all the The Venture Bros. was, I don’t think it would have had as much charm as it did. Many shows present “incomplete” characters to attract audience sympathy, but then proceed to never give them any sort of development or growth, constantly retreading the same lessons and mistakes. The Venture Bros. manages to find meaning in failure, even if in small and incremental steps, and part of the fun of the series is watching the excellent character arcs play out. It’s not only the characters who get development however, but the world. The heroes and villains are shown to operate under a strict set of rules and guidelines, ensuring that their escapades can continue through to the modern day with minimal impact. The combination of comic book antics with the minutiae of awkward personal lives makes the series feel like a sweeter hearted Watchman at times.

These are the broad strokes of what makes the show so watchable, but the success is really in the details. Even with the great character development and worldbuilding aside, The Venture Bros. is flat out hilarious, especially once it hits its stride after a season or two. A stellar voice cast manages to make even minor characters memorable and often hilarious, and a hallmark of the show is gag characters turning into important parts of the series. It would be too long to explain all of the varied cast, but I have to say my favourite is the avuncularly villainous Dr. Henry Killinger, a demented but charming combination of his namesake (down to the accent) and an evil Mary Poppins.

The show thrives off of references like that but, unlike other “reference humour” based shows, they never feel like an impediment on plot or the humour of the script. The show might toss out visual, dialogue and scene replication gags at a mile a minute, but the story nearly never slows down to for a laborious explanation. The references feel more like Easter eggs for the attentive viewer, and range so widely as to have something for everyone. My personal favourite running gag is that the leader of the main villain organization is David Bowie, and the shows milks those lyrical references for all they are worth. The fact that the references go above and beyond obvious “nerd” ones are part of the charm. Sure, the show will pull out references to The Empire Strikes Back – but then blends in a healthy dose of Barbarella at the same time. It’s the perfect salve for the soul for those of us stuck with the pain of living in a post Big Bang Theory world.

This is all building up to the fact that the scripts and delivery are absolutely on point, and the comedy manages to feel both tightly designed and improvisational at the same time. When combined with the excellent voice actors, simple dialogue between characters becomes hilarious. This is aided by the fact that the characters are so endearing, even the side ones, and watching them play off of each other is fun in its own right.  You can tell that the slower release schedule is well used to get the comedic timing fine-tuned to perfection. This attention to detail also allows for very clever call backs and self-references, further rewarding the attentive viewer.

As far as adult animated television goes, I can confidently say that The Venture Bros. should stand up there with the like of The Simpsons and Futurama. Arguably it may be better than either of those overall, as it never really developed the issue of later seasonal rot. The biggest disappointment is that the cancelled eighth season was supposed to be the last, the one that would have brought closure to certain lingering questions and character arcs. Even without this final season, I would still heavily recommend the show. Hopefully my prayers will be answered, and the eighth season will find a platform for release. Here’s hoping!