The Venture Bros.: It Happening One Night
March 7, 2016 7:24 AM - Season 6, Episode 6 - Subscribe

A team of avant-garde supervillains known as "The Doom Factory" get an opportunity to arch Dr. Venture, and announce their attack to take place on the same night as Hank's date with Sirena, which he planned with the help of Dean. Meanwhile, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch struggles to convince the rest of the Council that Dr. Venture is the Blue Morpho.
posted by filthy light thief (22 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
GuyZero and everyone else, I'm sorry they patched up the hole in the lobby.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:26 AM on March 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


It's not just us, even The AV Club review noticed that the Doom Factory didn't end up in the hole.

Not my favorite episode of the season, honestly, even if the Doom Factory was hilarious. I wish they had been the total focus of an episode, and Hank's date had gotten a full episode too, it felt really cramped.

The best parts were The Monarch and Gary again. I for one wouldn't go anywhere near the Gowanus in anything that touched the water. Also: "Dude!" "Dude!" "Dude!"
posted by hobgadling at 7:32 AM on March 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


This episode was so delightful! The Superstarvillains from the amalgam of the Legion of Doom + Warhol's Factory is one of the best things this show has ever done.

I've been trying to figure out the fusions. Here's what I've come up with:

Wes Warhammer = Lex Luthor + Andy Warhol

Frigid = Captain Cold + Brigid Polk
(Brigid was a rich socialite, so Serpentine calling Frigid a Poor Little Rich Girl isn't just a reference to the movie. Also: breast-made artworks.)

Serpentine = Riddler + Bizarro + Ondine
(Serpentine has a Bizarro-style face, but his costume and mannerisms suggest the Riddler. Bizarro always speaks falsehoods and the Riddler is a trickster, so of course a fusion of the two would be hyper-sarcastic! I've seen people suggest Lou Reed for the Warhol half of the amalgam, but Reed wasn't a Warhol Superstar, and this guy looks and acts more like Ondine. Also, there's the name similarity.)

Eenie-Meanie = The Wasp + Queen Bee + Edie Sedgwick
(The Wasp isn't a Legion of Doom villain, but Janet Van Dyne was always kind of an homage to Edie Sedgwick. Queen Bee was at least a Legion of Doom member who could have contributed the striped shirt to the character design.)

Gerard the Gorilla = Gorilla Grodd + Gerard Malanga

Black Maria = Black Manta + Paul Morrissey
(The Black Maria was the name of the first Kinetoscope film production studio, opened by Edison in 1893. Really cool and inventive villain design.)

Trashenstein the Exquisite Corpse = Solomon Grundy + Joe Dallesandro (in his role in Andy Warhol's Trash) + the creature in Andy Warhol's Flesh for Frankenstein)

Ultraviolent = Cheetah + Ultra Violet

Billy Maim = ? + Billy Name
(I have no idea who the supervillain base is.)

Shehemoth = Giganta + Baby Jane Holzer
(Holzer is a guess based on the hair and the irony of the name. There's not much to go on here.)

Hard Candy = Toyman + Candy Darling
(Toyman is also just a guess.)
posted by painquale at 8:14 AM on March 7, 2016 [10 favorites]


I rarely say this of any show, much like animation, but Venture Bros could really pull the 45 minute episode without getting tiresome.

The Monarch is really getting a kick from being a hero. To the point he'd rather go after the ones arching Venture
than roleplay with Dr. Mrs. And the Doom Factory stuff was amazing, Silver Clouds and the VU soundalikes were on point. I cracked when Black Maria/Black Manta turned out to be a camera.


And RIP, The Hole. my favourite inanimate VB object since...


The Nozzle.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:34 AM on March 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


Venture Brothers did pull off a 45 minute episode

Also, thank you for the reminder of...

The Nozzle.
posted by hobgadling at 10:09 AM on March 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


The Nozzle.

That was, in turn, my favorite inanimate object on the show since the Problem Light.

I agree that this episode needed more room to breathe: I loved what was going on in each subplot, and they just needed more time. (I'm having a hard time with the notion that the season is almost over. Like someone said in an earlier thread, it feels like they're just getting rolling now.)
posted by mordax at 10:37 AM on March 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I love the world and the history the show ha created and I wish there was more time to play around in it than 10-12 episodes allows.

I know Doc and Jackson are precious about their baby, but it's my sincere wish that they'd let a team of writers do an anthology series between seasons of say: Guild Stories, Rusty Venture Boy Adventurer (and the og Team Venture), Jefferson Twilight Blacula Hunter, Order of the Triad, the Blue Morpho, Super Crazy Nowhere College, OSI vs SPHINX, Action Johnny (I don't like his adult character that much but I WOULD ACCEPT IT) or even a Triana Orpheus spinoff to be the Daria/Sabrina the Teenage Witch to their original Beavis + Butthead/Archive Comics.
posted by elr at 1:05 PM on March 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


I've been joking about a Shaw Brothers themed restaurant for years so the Ninja themed restaurant brought back some memories for me. It's great that the new age of great television continues and includes this animated masterpiece.
posted by juiceCake at 6:10 PM on March 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hank's date antics were physically painful for me to watch but his speech about what he believed in made up for it.

This season is weird in that nothing goes right for Rusty but The Monarch is firing on all cylinders as the Blue Morpho. He's knocking off villains left and right. A reversal of fortune versus the past five seasons.

And while the hole has left a hole-sized hole in my heart, that's OK if we can fine new ways to kill of each weeks random arches.

The Superfriends voiceover was great though. It was totally spot-on.
posted by GuyZero at 10:03 PM on March 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


This could be one of my favorite series ever. I don't get a lot of the references, even. Just the character and plot development and the build up are making me squirm to see what's going to happen next. And then, like the Up Series, we'll have to wait for another seven years for the next season.

Only by then, we'll all be wearing speed suits.
posted by not_on_display at 11:31 PM on March 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


And this is Brock's second teamup after Warriana right?

But we don't have to put labels on things.
posted by GuyZero at 7:23 AM on March 8, 2016


This may have been my favorite episode so far this season. I really liked how Dean "helped" Hank out on the date.
posted by wittgenstein at 8:29 AM on March 8, 2016


I really liked how Dean "helped" Hank out on the date.

Dean was great, but I feel bad for White and Billy, especially White getting punched by Brock and not getting to be a Ninja.
posted by hobgadling at 8:44 AM on March 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


The Superfriends voiceover was great though. It was totally spot-on.

It's too bad Ted Knight isn't still around, I'd bet he would have done it for a lark.
posted by beowulf573 at 9:24 AM on March 8, 2016 [3 favorites]




That intro makes clear that Serpentine is also based on Sinestro! He's introduced second, right after Captain Cold, and he creates a snake with his ring.
posted by painquale at 1:58 PM on March 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


And I knew Hank's speech was based on something but on Reddit of course someone knew it was from Bull Durham.

Also painquale you had the best breakdown of the Doom Factory around.
posted by GuyZero at 8:16 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ooh, fun fact I found out about this week, The Monarch's home in Newark is a real place. I had suspected as much.
posted by fings at 6:50 PM on March 10, 2016 [7 favorites]


God I love this show. The gorilla making screen prints made me die. I am dead.
posted by bq at 9:14 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


My friend watched this one with me, and he thought that ninja restaurant had to be exaggerated. It's not. If anything they toned it down for the show.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:38 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]


rewatched this last night - there were a lot of fucks.... was it just my version?
posted by bq at 8:36 PM on March 14, 2016


I am WAY behind but I find it very funny to think about how the depiction of the restaurant Yumi was like 90% identical to an actual tourist restaurant that used to be in Kyoto, called Ninja Kyoto. Like, the waiters would sometimes remove a panel from the drop ceiling and then hand your order down to you from up in the ceiling, even.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:23 AM on January 27


« Older The Walking Dead: Not Tomorrow...   |  Bob's Burgers: Sacred Couch... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments