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We all realize Venture Bros. is back, right?

Myasishchev

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
I haven't seen any of them rating/discussion threads, which is odd because VB Season 4.5 started last week, with "The Diving Bell vs. The Butter-Glider," which was a pretty good start, and continues tonight with "Pomp and Circuitry," which apparently features the boys looking at colleges or something, and--I fear--Phantom Limb... and possibly the Revenge Society.:rolleyes:

"Diving Bell" was actually pretty awesome, but ended in something of an anticlimax. I can't tell whether they're building No. 21 up for something big, or are going to take the series' failure motif and end his climb to power on the same note they hit here.

I wouldn't be surprised there, because that's the exact script they used for Limb and ORB. If you remember "The Revenge Society"--as you may not, because it was like eight months ago--you'll agree that episode was by far the weakest from Season 4 so far, because the anticlimactic-failure kind of ending that Hammer and Publick seem to enjoy doesn't work in every situation. Given all the buildup that ORB had, it really seemed cheap; and Limb being nerfed into a crazy person who talked to shoes left the series without a single truly competent, fearsome villain. (The Monarch doesn't count; see "Diving Bell," where he spends the majority of the episode dry-humping a Goblin Glider. No, that's the actual plot. Yeah, it's actually pretty funny. What works for the Monarch does not necessarily work for Phantom Limb.)

So if Phantom Limb is coming back in "Pomp," then I hope they've decided to return him to sanity, because he wasn't just a more effective villain that way, his foppish badassery was funnier than his delusional psychosis.
 
I missed the airing, and that's the only time they air it unfortunately, so I've had to download it and haven't watched it yet.
 
OK, saw the first two episodes. I'm disappointed that Brock isn't part of the team again and off doing his own thing, but at least he's appearing for crissakes. I definitely preferred the second episode; Mister Impossible! Baron Underbeiht!

Why in the world did they drop the Baron after S2? I love that guy.
 
As I understand, Hammer and Publick didn't like Unterbheit. So the real question is why he's back.

I am pleased that Phantom Limb has bounced from crazy loser-ville back to a plausible threat.

Good episode all around. Hank continually passing SPHINX's "tests" was hilarious.

Did anyone else expect Brock's "rookie" to actually be somebody? I thought it was kinda weird that he was kept faceless; I assumed they'd reveal him as Scott Hall, not dead but brain-damaged from his run-in from Samson, or something along those lines.

Has a 5th season been greenlit? I'm not particularly keen to wait another decade for new episodes when this season's over.
 
How can you not love him! He's Doctor Doom AND Apocalypse!

I gotta say, this show really peaked in S2. Had a good solid storyline with a big ending. S3 was very so-so, and S4 was pretty bad with no Brock and Hatred in every ep.
 
How can you not love him! He's Doctor Doom AND Apocalypse!

You'd think, right?

Maybe it's because he didn't have anyone to really play off of like the Monarch had with Girlfriend and 21 and 24. Catclops and Girl Hitler weren't quite in the same league.

I gotta say, this show really peaked in S2. Had a good solid storyline with a big ending. S3 was very so-so, and S4 was pretty bad with no Brock and Hatred in every ep.
I agree that S2 was the best--"Showdown at Cremation Creek" remains the best episode (or pair of episodes) of the series, and "20 Years Till Midnight" and "Return to the House of Mummies" are probably in the top five. But S3 was solid as well, if perhaps the weakest season so far (I dunno; I might like it better than S1).

I think S4 has been overall pretty great; personally a short break from Brock was no skin off my teeth; and it may look better in hindsight, when it can be viewed as a whole and not as two separate quasi-seasons.

I believe that it may be the best season yet, especially if the plot threads with Phantom Limb and Henchman 21 plays out as awesomely as they could (or, I concede, it might still suck, if they don't).

Davros said:
Shore Leave is fast becoming one of the funniest characters on the show.

Yeah, he's great; I'm surprised how much mileage they're getting out of him, considering he started off (still is?) a one-note camp gay. On the other hand, it's good that they have the Alchemist, Colonel Gentleman, Steve Summers and Sasquatch, and at this point (I wouldn't be surprised) Hank,* to balance that out.

*Holy cow, I started that not realizing how many male homosexual characters there were on VB. Cool.

Edit: actually, I guess Gentleman's bi. Also, the Sovereign. :shifty:

And I forgot Klaus Nomi.
 
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I saw Pomp and Circuitry, but I missed that Diving Bell episode. The show is amusing as always, but they need Brock back as a regular in every episode.
 
As I understand, Hammer and Publick didn't like Unterbheit. So the real question is why he's back.

I am pleased that Phantom Limb has bounced from crazy loser-ville back to a plausible threat.

Good episode all around. Hank continually passing SPHINX's "tests" was hilarious.

Did anyone else expect Brock's "rookie" to actually be somebody? I thought it was kinda weird that he was kept faceless; I assumed they'd reveal him as Scott Hall, not dead but brain-damaged from his run-in from Samson, or something along those lines.

Has a 5th season been greenlit? I'm not particularly keen to wait another decade for new episodes when this season's over.


For some reason "future Hank" or "Hank clone" popped into my head, since the guy's wearing more mask than any other SPHINX operative.

As for Shoreleave.....yeah, he's getting funnier all the time.

As for season 4, well I don't even remember much about the previous half of the season...but I do think I'll have to watch them all as a whole before I can pass judgement on it.
 
that "sad tits" exchange was maybe the funniest bit in the show's whole run. I had to pause and rewind it like 3 times to hear all the jokes.

and yes, I am aware how juvenile that makes me.
 
I wonder how long mournful tits had been kicking around in Hammer and/or Publick's heads. It was masterful. It's like one of those exchanges that work so well you can believe it if they'd spent the past six years, writing and rewriting that minute and a half.

Also neat:
we know where Scott Hall is these days.

Quick regular nerd Phantom Limb question: if his arms are invisible, why does his costume go around his "stumps"? Shouldn't we just be able to see into his marrow and such? And I was willing to chalk it up to "persistent VFX error" until "Pomp and Circuitry," when he just reattaches his detached arms to the stumps after his Boxing Helena trip was finished. So, are his arms actually stumps? WTF.

It also implies that his limbs are immortal, or, are at least are capable of independent living--which was a neat reveal, but what about the lost ones? Were they fully destroyed? Or are they still kicking around somewhere? I remember Al took one home. (Although the implication there was that it was his dick; this has been kinda quietly forgotten. I mean, according to last week's, he's somehow still capable of making love to a shoe.)

Phantom Limb's weird in that he's the only VB villain I can think of offhand that isn't either a satire of an existing character or concept, or a pure joke (even the Monarch, conceptually, is a total joke--remember when that killer butterfly schtick was a punchline and punchline only, rather than actually being kinda cool?). Like, I could see the Phantom Limb concept easily coexisting in a "straight" superhero universe. I mean, he's less much silly than Dr. Octopus.
 
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The costume and name, is all (and I suspect the costume came after the name). But the Phantom isn't superpowered, isn't a villain, isn't a scientist, and so forth; the legacy aspect might be a riff on the Phantom, although of course it's more directly a reference to Fantomas, the French literary supervillain.

One more reason why I love Wikipedia:

In the episode Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part II), David Bowie was shown to be immune [the arms'] effect, presumably due to his non-human or superhuman nature.

Just how does anyone write that with a straight face?:lol:
 
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