old episode reactions - Venture Bros. s4e14
I was poking around some old stuff and found this post from last October that I'd written up but then never posted, for some reason, and figured what the hell. May as well put it up now!
Assisted Suicide
That was sort of fabulous, and made me happy enough that I immediately went back to the beginning and watched it all over again. Just... everything! It kills me how much this show cracks me up even as it's all about terribly broken people who are just all doing the best they can.
I love how we've gone from first season and not even knowing about the clones (although![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
therienne totally called that) to now finding out that those poor dead clones are eating Rusty alive, from the zombie army roaming around his subconscious (oh dear god, all those boys endlessly crying out for their daddy) to "so that's what happened to the sevens!" a few eps ago in The Diving Bell vs. The Butter Glider.
Which cracked me up completely, and still does on rewatch - it's Brock's deadpan delivery and the automatic covering up in front of the boys; but at the same time, it's completely horrifying that those boys have been dead inside their father for so long, basically unmourned and unmissed, not to mention that there have been so many cloned versions of those boys that Brock knows them by number. And yet -- hee! So THAT'S what happened to the sevens! And aw! Brock really did love every set, and can instantly identify them!
This show, so incredibly fucked up and brilliant. <3
Back to this week's ep, wow, were those perfect incarnations of Rusty's id, ego, and superego, or what? The id so hopefully lecherous and yet so bad at it (seriously, you can totally see where the boys get their terribly earnest innocence from); the ego trying so hard to be a creator, and failing, and pushing away his own kid without even realizing it as he tries to build a wooden boy; the superego locked in a cell because Rusty's life just doesn't allow for his actual brilliance to shine. Apparently due in large part to his utter jackass of a father. Man. By comparison, Rusty is father of the freaking year.
I love watching Brock just slide right back into his family duties, too; he may like being back in the swing of things with Sphinx, but he really does love those boys, and I love how automatically he takes care of them. Sgt. Hatred I could do without, but I do like that they're willing to shake up existing relationships and let things change.
Like, say, 24's death and how it completely changed 21. WHO MADE HIS MOVE OMG! \o/ I adore The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, but I was so happy to see Gary make his move and Sheila go for it, because seriously - those two are the only sane people on the cocoon (which is saying something, considering that 21 is currently just bugfuck). They were so cute bonding over how annoying The Monarch is but how they're both completely loyal to him anyway, and how alliteration makes for better dastardly equipment names, and The Corbomite Maneuver (\o/), while both of them are sitting there in their fetish outfits (I have to say, too, that cheerleader outfit looked awesome on Sheila. The leather straps were a little less awesome on 21, but he pulled it off, right down to that ball gag hanging around his neck after the Moppets left, with true aplomb). And seriously: "a perfect beauty center, and a coating made of perfect smart candy". ♥ ♥ ♥
And while all of that is going on, The Monarch is utterly failing to drive Rusty insane, because there's just nothing he can do to Rusty that's any worse than has already happened to him. *shakes head* I don't understand how this show gets me to a genuine "oh, poor Rusty!" place about a man who's really just a complete and total asshole, while completely cracking me up.
In summary: ♥Venture Bros.♥
Assisted Suicide
That was sort of fabulous, and made me happy enough that I immediately went back to the beginning and watched it all over again. Just... everything! It kills me how much this show cracks me up even as it's all about terribly broken people who are just all doing the best they can.
I love how we've gone from first season and not even knowing about the clones (although
therienne totally called that) to now finding out that those poor dead clones are eating Rusty alive, from the zombie army roaming around his subconscious (oh dear god, all those boys endlessly crying out for their daddy) to "so that's what happened to the sevens!" a few eps ago in The Diving Bell vs. The Butter Glider. Which cracked me up completely, and still does on rewatch - it's Brock's deadpan delivery and the automatic covering up in front of the boys; but at the same time, it's completely horrifying that those boys have been dead inside their father for so long, basically unmourned and unmissed, not to mention that there have been so many cloned versions of those boys that Brock knows them by number. And yet -- hee! So THAT'S what happened to the sevens! And aw! Brock really did love every set, and can instantly identify them!
This show, so incredibly fucked up and brilliant. <3
Back to this week's ep, wow, were those perfect incarnations of Rusty's id, ego, and superego, or what? The id so hopefully lecherous and yet so bad at it (seriously, you can totally see where the boys get their terribly earnest innocence from); the ego trying so hard to be a creator, and failing, and pushing away his own kid without even realizing it as he tries to build a wooden boy; the superego locked in a cell because Rusty's life just doesn't allow for his actual brilliance to shine. Apparently due in large part to his utter jackass of a father. Man. By comparison, Rusty is father of the freaking year.
I love watching Brock just slide right back into his family duties, too; he may like being back in the swing of things with Sphinx, but he really does love those boys, and I love how automatically he takes care of them. Sgt. Hatred I could do without, but I do like that they're willing to shake up existing relationships and let things change.
Like, say, 24's death and how it completely changed 21. WHO MADE HIS MOVE OMG! \o/ I adore The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, but I was so happy to see Gary make his move and Sheila go for it, because seriously - those two are the only sane people on the cocoon (which is saying something, considering that 21 is currently just bugfuck). They were so cute bonding over how annoying The Monarch is but how they're both completely loyal to him anyway, and how alliteration makes for better dastardly equipment names, and The Corbomite Maneuver (\o/), while both of them are sitting there in their fetish outfits (I have to say, too, that cheerleader outfit looked awesome on Sheila. The leather straps were a little less awesome on 21, but he pulled it off, right down to that ball gag hanging around his neck after the Moppets left, with true aplomb). And seriously: "a perfect beauty center, and a coating made of perfect smart candy". ♥ ♥ ♥
And while all of that is going on, The Monarch is utterly failing to drive Rusty insane, because there's just nothing he can do to Rusty that's any worse than has already happened to him. *shakes head* I don't understand how this show gets me to a genuine "oh, poor Rusty!" place about a man who's really just a complete and total asshole, while completely cracking me up.
In summary: ♥Venture Bros.♥
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I hope they give us more info on the Rusty's father and the events that led up to his death. I feel like there's a whole chunk of important backstory there that occasionally surfaces like the tip of an iceberg.
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But I wanted to let you guys know something that might interest you: Todd Alcott, a screenwriter who posts interesting analyses of scripts/films/TV episodes (which I loooooove to read, omg I love story/narrative/character breakdowns), has done a lot of discussing of Venture Bros.
His LJ posts with that tag are here, and the entries on his own website with that tag are here. I presume his LJ and his site are identical, though I haven't looked into the issue deeply so I can't guarantee it.
Anyway, if that's the sort of thing you like, then enjoy!
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It really does take a while to get sucked in; one of my favorite memories is me and
And man, yeah, on the backstory. There is just so much going on under the surface, which is nuts when you look at how crowded the surface is!
ETA: (whoops, sorry for the reposted comment -- I was replying to