The Venture Bros.: All This And Gargantua-2

January 19, 2015 10:15 PM - Season 6, Episode 1

The one-hour special that kicks off the long-awaited season 6 of The Venture Brothers! Everyone shows up on J.J.'s swanky new space station, Gargantua-2. But there are a lot of old scores to settle...
posted by GuyZero (64 comments total)

Also I'm not sure if this really counts as episode 1 of season 6 or whether it's an inter-season special like previous Halloween and Christmas specials. Regardless, it was amazing.
posted by GuyZero at 10:16 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

THAT WAS AWESOME! The Ventures are back!
posted by JHarris at 10:19 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

And next to every character ever showed up! Dr Killinger in fine form.
posted by GuyZero at 10:21 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Per the previous talk thread, if you saw this you MUST see the online epilogue. It sets up a mind-melting season 6.
posted by GuyZero at 10:26 PM on January 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

And if you need a little refresher, Adult Swim has some excellent clips playlists, like Beatdowns By Brock. It actually highlights really well the changes in animation style over the years on the show.
posted by GuyZero at 10:41 PM on January 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

According to Doc and Jackson, this is actually the big finale episode of Season 5, though the budget for it came out of Season 6.

This episode was fucking amazing and just perfect. My roommate and I laughed uproariously at the outcome of Headshot's accidental shot.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:43 PM on January 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

I like that Hammer and Publick are willing to upend all the established relationships and tropes before they start to get stale. At least seven major deaths (Treister, Jonah, Zero, the shapeshifter, and the three Investors) and a bunch of other councilmember deaths too! And I don't even know where half of the characters are going to live now. What's going to happen to the Sea Captain? Or Orpheus? Or Richard Impossible (voiced by Stephen Colbert once again!)? Or Hatred? Or Swifty? Or Underbite? Or Dr. Z and the Two-Headed Councilmember?

All the double-crossing was a little too complicated to catch on first viewing. I'll have to watch it again to figure out exactly what everyone had planned. I love how bizarrely complicated it all got.

Brock smokes an e-cigarette now! Well, in the epilogue he was back to a normal cigarette. Either that was a mistake or the e-cigarette was all that was possible on the space station.

Killinger's fighting style was outstanding.
posted by painquale at 11:53 PM on January 19, 2015 [6 favorites]

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (boy, she really needs a new name) is totally going to take over Mommy Longlegs's colony and use them to replace the Moppets, right?
posted by painquale at 11:56 PM on January 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

Apparently, the Investors are named after three of the four Greek minor wind deities, or Tempest Winds: Kaikias, Skeiron, and Lips. This would make Dr. Killinger Apeliotes, the southeast wind.
posted by painquale at 12:14 AM on January 20, 2015 [9 favorites]

I need to watch it again too. It was a ton of fun but there was way too much going on to properly digest it all.

I was hoping to learn a bit more about the shapeshifter but maybe we will in the future even if he is actually dead.

I liked the epilogue a lot as well. I was a bit tired of the compound so some changes in scenery will be nice.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 12:34 AM on January 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Here's the special online.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:25 AM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (boy, she really needs a new name)

Anymore, I just settle for calling her Sheila.

Any word on when Season 6 starts up for real?
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:12 AM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Amazing as always. I don't trust that anyone who died is actually dead, except maybe Zero. I also love finding out that Dr. Killinger is one of the investors, or something. The Guild is going to be very interesting this coming season. And after that epilogue and trailer for S6, I'm excited to see what Doc and Jackson have in store. And I know I saw Augustus St. Cloud in that trailer, who's always fun.
posted by hobgadling at 7:48 AM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, its not exactly a shirt club but there's new swag here.
posted by hobgadling at 8:04 AM on January 20, 2015

So of the many, many references in the episode:

- "This place looks like a Howard Johnson's" - which was the hotel on the space station in 2001. That cracked me up.

- Gargantua-2 is uncannily similar to the space station in Moonraker

Brock and Amber Gold steal the Texas couple's shuttle & outfits to sneak aboard Gargantua-2... I have a feeling this is a reference to a movie but I can't quite remember what. It will be obvious once someone points it out to me.
posted by GuyZero at 9:19 AM on January 20, 2015 [6 favorites]

Holy crap, that was amazing. They had me convinced they were going to kill off Dr. Girlfriend/Mrs. The Monarch. But at least Gen. Traister finally got to hulk out!
posted by vibrotronica at 9:59 AM on January 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

OMG I just remembered it after several minutes of wracking my brain. Stealing the identities of a couple from Texas to get in was straight out of the movie The Love Punch with Emma Watson and Pierce Brosnan. It's totally obscure but the characters actually look the same even if the situation is pretty different. Maybe it's just me that sees the similarity.
posted by GuyZero at 12:26 PM on January 20, 2015

Now that Killinger is the new Sovereign (I assume), I hope he continues to use the Sovereign's traditional method of broadcast. I want to hear that big red growly head declaim Killingerisms like I AM THE HAPPY PAPA.
posted by painquale at 1:16 PM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Apparently, the Investors are named after three of the four Greek minor wind deities, or Tempest Winds: Kaikias, Skeiron, and Lips. This would make Dr. Killinger Apeliotes, the southeast wind.

Tinfoil hat time! Jonas and the original Team Venture were at Jackie and Aristotle Onassis' wedding in Greece (flashbacks in "Spanakopita!"). I can't find confirmation that Kissinger was there (though he did attend dinner parties with Jackie O and Maurice Tempelsman at their apartment), but it would be kind of awesome if he was possessed at the wedding during some mishap that released the Tempest Winds.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:01 PM on January 20, 2015 [6 favorites]

Smiles, everyone, SMILES!
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:04 PM on January 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

This Wired article on the new episode, containing some commentary by Hammer and Publick, is pretty good.
posted by painquale at 11:31 PM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

From the opening coaching session between Killinger and Fat Choice to that final sick burn aimed at The Monarch, I have maybe not had so fine a time watching an episode of television since the last Venture Bros. episode (which was an hour long as well).

You know, the hour long special format kind of works perfectly for the show now.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:40 AM on January 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

GuyZero: It's totally obscure but the characters actually look the same even if the situation is pretty different. Maybe it's just me that sees the similarity.

They're all about obscure references. For example:

While berating his new urban henchmen on their lack of subtlety, The Monarch mockingly labels them a bunch of "hotshot, Young Turk 182s". Turk 182! was a 1985 movie starring Timothy Hutton as an injured firefighter's brother seeking justice by spraying graffiti around the city. Voice actor James Urbaniak was also an extra in the film.

I can see myself watching this episode a few more times in the near future in an attempt to catch more references (then write them up for the Venture Brothers Wiki, which currently is lacking this episode). It was a slab of fried gold.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:18 AM on January 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

man this episode was great. i want to go back and watch all of season 5 just so i can see this "finale" in context. Question: the extra online bit doesn't want to stream for me - are there other places i can watch it?
posted by rebent at 7:53 AM on January 21, 2015

The epilogue is on Youtube right here.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:12 AM on January 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

thanks PG!

I want to get my friend to start watching venture bros. What would you all say is the best early episode to get someone hooked?
posted by rebent at 8:33 AM on January 21, 2015

rebent: I would say the first truly great episode is Tag Sale, You're It
posted by hobgadling at 8:46 AM on January 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

Ahahahahahaha ... Crash Test Dummies as "an old pirate dirge" ... and I'm excited about the eventual season all over again.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:28 AM on January 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

I love that Dr. Mrs. The Monarch is the only competent, sane person in the entire milieu. And even she's sabotaged by her affection for The Monarch.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:08 AM on January 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

I thought Brock and Amber Gold were pretty solid until they were locked up, due to no fault of their own.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:33 AM on January 21, 2015

I love that Dr. Mrs. The Monarch is the only competent, sane person in the entire milieu.

A better candidate is arguably Triana Orpheus since she's sensibly removed herself from the Venture scene, moving back with her mother and studying magic on her own.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:07 PM on January 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

OK, also, if the four-armed override mechanism was built for the interns from What Color Is Your Cleansuit? shouldn't the holes be in a square pattern and not four in a row?

Also, I miss emo Dean.
posted by GuyZero at 5:23 PM on January 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

DEAN!

(We started watching Gilmore Girls for the first time and every time Dean comes on we yell DEAN! in Venture-voice).
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:25 PM on January 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

I tend to favor Tag Sale, You're It! and Ghosts of the Sargasso as introductory episodes. Tag Sale introduces most of the core cast and sets up a lot of how they interact, while Ghosts is one of the biggest "Okay, it's Johnny Quest, except..." episodes. Together I feel that they lay out the show's universe and themes as well as two episodes can.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:53 PM on January 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

Ghosts is also the first time they really let their Bowie freak flag fly.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 11:39 AM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh, on Crash Test Dummies as "an old pirate dirge" ... this was mentioned in an old Consequence of Sound "guilty pleasures" article.

Most of the songs are based around the acoustic guitar, and the Dummies are equally apt to jettison the rock and roll genre all together and mosey into a country vibe, deliver a funeral dirge, or kick out a Celtic jam we could river dance to.

Well, without the "pirate" part.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:11 PM on January 23, 2015

... and what a perfect (and, yes, perfectly tacky) song for JJ and his pirate friends to sing when they lose a crew member. Ultimately, its a song that sort of celebrate misfits from a child's point of view. There's only the barest wisp of judgement ("one kid had it worse than them") and its sung more from the point of view of describing why these kids are unusual.

Anyhow, I love that everyone sang along - except, of course, Thadeus, who is jealous that they're not celebrating *him* (he reminds me that saying about Teddy Roosevelt - at weddings, he was jealous of the bride, at funeral, he was jealous of the corpse) and deservedly salty about the fact that he'd lost his house.

Actually, it will be interesting to see how ol' Rusty feels about JJ now that JJ had made him rich and powerful (as per the epilogue) in a way that he's only wanted to be until this point.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:21 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Dr. Venture is the most complex character on the show. He's like 90% bitter and cynical, but that remaining 10% is at the core, and what makes him ultimately sympathetic. Remember, nothing that JJ accomplished would have happened if Rusty had let Brock crush him at the end of Season One, and Rusty did ultimately make the V-for-Venture sign for JJ when he took the reactor core out with Gen. Trister. And Rusty does still honor his father's memory, although often with rueful acknowledgement that he really wasn't that great a father, and he probably recognizes that JJ fell a lot closer to the tree than he did.

I thought it was interesting, in the doctor's station, for JJ to say that Rusty got the good genes after all, and that he did it right. The creators have said that Venture Bros. is a show about failure, and probably not just Dr. Venture's.
posted by JHarris at 3:50 PM on January 23, 2015 [7 favorites]

My favorite Dr. V moment might have been his moment with Hank once all the clones were destroyed.

"You only live once."

He cares he's just not good at it.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:22 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

and the Dummies are equally apt to jettison the rock and roll genre all together and mosey into a country vibe, deliver a funeral dirge

The funeral dirge in question would have fit much better into the scene, but in a far too on-the-nose way, and at the expense of the humorous incongruity.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:14 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

So.... The boy brigade?
posted by bq at 9:13 AM on January 25, 2015

The Boys Brigade was an organization of Venture supporters back in the day, young scientists who were associated with Jonas Venture but not old enough or badass to be part of team Venture. Professor Richard Impossible/Incorrigible was a member (and can be seen in that capacity taking a picture of Team Venture after they took Spider-Skull Island in "Now Museum, Now You Don't"), as was Hamilton Fantamos, AKA Phantom Limb. Here's Phantom Limb looking at an old photo; that's him in the wheelchair, and obviously Impossible next to him.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:29 AM on January 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think the Boys' Brigade is a reference to the Blue Blaze Irregulars from Buckaroo Banzai, but I don't know for sure.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:31 AM on January 25, 2015

Who are the other members of the Boys Brigade? They look really familiar.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:36 AM on January 25, 2015

The two others in the Boys' Brigade snapshot have been provisionally identified as Bud Manstrong and Al "the Alchemist", but there's nothing official.

If the Boys' Brigade count as surrogate kids of Dr. Venture Senior, though, their subsequent careers only compound his failings as a parent.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:42 AM on January 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think the Boy Scout on the far right might be Manservant? The chin's not quite right (it's admittedly more like the Alchemist's), but, hey, chin implants are a thing. Mostly, I just want it to be Manservant because if it is indeed him, that'd make Baron Ünderbheit's pledge of loyalty to the Revenge Society even more effed up.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:00 AM on January 25, 2015

Something I like about this show is the sense of there being good-bad men and bad-bad men.

When it comes down to it the Guild of Calamitous Intent, with their hundreds of treaties with OSI, probably prevents far more superpowered damage than it causes. Which makes a kind of sense -- for all the power a bunch of maniacs with laser guns and killer robots might have, a major government could probably crush it with something like the military if they wanted, especially if they employed superhero squads themselves. It seems like what the Guild and OSI have really done is carved themselves out a little mutually-beneficial niche, where they each get paid to maintain their little pocket war. (The Guild is supported probably in fees from members who steal just enough loot to avoid causing real societal harm, OSI of course by the US government.)

So, I'm given to wondering actually how serious Trister/Hunter were/are about catching the Council of 13. If they destroyed the organization, all of those villains would have no incentive to bide by anything, and they themselves would be out of a job. (Well, there are other organizations like the Guild, but they've barely even been mentioned, and could well just be a throwaway gag.)

So, the good-bad men are those who participate in this arrangement, and the bad-bad men are those who work to overturn it and get to use their science/powers unfettered, which would in the long run bring the whole system crashing down and so both groups work against.

I wonder if this was the plan of Dr. Killinger, who seems to be the best of the good-bad men.
posted by JHarris at 2:03 PM on January 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

When it comes down to it the Guild of Calamitous Intent, with their hundreds of treaties with OSI, probably prevents far more superpowered damage than it causes.

That's definitely one of their selling points- check out the video they send Dr. Orpheus at the beginning of Fallen Arches.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:25 PM on January 25, 2015

JHarris: “I wonder if this was the plan of Dr. Killinger, who seems to be the best of the good-bad men.”

I took the battle between Killinger and The Investors to be a battle for control over the Guild, one that had been going on under everyone's noses for quite a while. Everyone is aware that the Council of Thirteen has been mostly destroyed, but I'm not sure everyone is aware that The Sovereign was killed, since it was an accident and apparently unnoticed.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:11 PM on January 25, 2015

Outside of the seemingly omniscient Killinger, I'm not sureanybody is aware that the Sovereign is dead.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:28 PM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

It'd be funny if the actual David Bowie—

No! I don't wanna jinx it.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:42 PM on January 25, 2015

So who was Billy Quizboy's mom?

Also, I feel like there have been subtle hints that Rusty and the Monarch are related, like half brothers. Does the Monarch know that? Is that why he was able to "think like a Venture"?
posted by sleeping bear at 1:05 AM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

There was an episode late last season where the Monarch looks through an album at the Venture household and finds his parents in a picture with Jonas Venture Sr. I forget the other details.
posted by JHarris at 3:56 AM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Billy Quizboy's mom, Rose Whalen, was a super-hero back in the 60's who was named Triple Threat (because she can sing, dance, and kick ass). In Colonel Gentlemen's flashback in "The Devil's Grip", she's seen as one of the two crushes Brainulo wants to force The Action Man, Colonel Gentleman, and Humongoloid to fight.

Actually, come to think of it, I think everything we know about her is from "The Devil's Grip", the episode immediately preceding the special. I don't think she's been mentioned previously.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:05 AM on January 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Good lord, that was amazing. I should do a proper rewatch from the start at some point. Few things have made me as happy as Killinger fighting the Investors with an umbrella and winning handily.
posted by sparkletone at 6:47 AM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

The best part of the lightsaber fight is the implication of what everybody else who shows up on Meteor Majure sees.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:21 AM on January 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

JHarris: The creators have said that Venture Bros. is a show about failure, and probably not just Dr. Venture's.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
posted by filthy light thief at 11:27 AM on January 27, 2015

Also, I feel like there have been subtle hints that Rusty and the Monarch are related, like half brothers.

Even their character design hints pretty strongly at this... look at their faces, ignoring costumes, facial hair, and eyewear.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 6:14 PM on January 28, 2015

Any news about when the new season will debut?
posted by not_on_display at 12:11 AM on July 9, 2015

There might be news at NYC Comicon.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:24 AM on July 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

For those unaware, the new season 6 trailer.
posted by GuyZero at 4:41 PM on October 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Looks pretty sweet.

And January 24 is the currently-dangled premiere date, which is earlier than the February 7 premiere dangled last month. An interesting reversal of trends, though whether it holds up is anyone's guess.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:44 PM on October 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

IF YOU BUY THE SEASON ON AMAZON VIDEO YOU CAN WATCH EPISODE 1 NOW

THIS IS NOT A DRILL
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:47 PM on January 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ugh, so there's still no legit Canadian option?

What exactly is the deal with Cartoon Network Canada and/or Teletoon? Scheduled on the former at midnight is an "all new" Rick & Morty--I guess they're just now getting around to it--and on the latter, thanks to the recent reabsorption of Teletoon Retro, is a jillion-year-old Mighty Hercules.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:42 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]