In a secret, high-tech laboratory, a famous man toils over some truly peculiar, and probably completely unnecessary, experiments. Outside, his two dimwitted sons insult each other and ride around on their motorized scooters. And an impossibly muscle bound man dreams of killing people and having sex with women, at the same time, if that’s possible.
This is the world of The Venture Brothers, the comedy series that will be returning for its fourth season on Sunday, Oct. 18, at 12:00 a.m. (ET, PT), on Adult Swim.
But The Venture Brothers, created by Jackson Publick III and Doc Hammer, is about more than a couple of dorky kids, their father and a trained killer. It’s about action, adventure, intrigue and some very odd villains.
Hank and Dean Venture are fraternal twins. Hank, elder son by six minutes, considers himself to be the duo’s “jock.” The truth is, he’s not particularly athletic. Dean, an avid reader, thinks he’s the duo’s “brains.” The truth is, he’s not particularly smart.
Always together, they treat even the most mundane experience as a bold new adventure or a curious mystery. This brand of youthful exuberance gets old pretty fast. Their banter, filled with phrases like “golly gee” and “gosh darnit,” is constant and completely annoying. So it’s no wonder that everyone, their father and their frequent kidnappers included, can’t wait to get away from them.
Dr. Venture is, frankly, pretty embarrassed by his kids. They’re dull and dim, not the super-geniuses he was when he was a kid. The son of a world-famous super-scientist, the young Rusty Venture traveled the world. But now, he’s literally haunted by the spirit of his dead father, constantly reminded that he has driven the family business, Venture Industries, into the ground. Once a science prodigy, Dr. Venture has become a bald hack with serious cash flow problems, a dated wardrobe and two completely annoying kids. This is not how he thought it would all turn out.
Luckily, he’s got Brock Samson. Brock is the kind of man Dr. Venture would love to be – strong, violent and catnip to the ladies. An operative of a shadowy government agency, Brock was assigned to protect the Venture family years ago. Then the agency forgot about him. Now he handles all the “man’s work” on behalf of Venture Industries – piloting the Venture Jet, “neutralizing” threats and rescuing the boys.
For a man of very little accomplishment, Dr. Venture has a lot of enemies. First, there’s the Monarch. A megalomaniac with a cumbersome set of wings, a loyal army of soldiers in butterfly costumes and a serious grudge against Dr. Venture, the Monarch is even more irate that Dr. Venture doesn’t even seem to acknowledge him as his mortal enemy. Dr. Baron Ünderbheit was scarred as a youth but now wears a menacing head-to-toe suit of armor, which sports a pronounced, and deadly, underbite. He wants to take over the world, or at least get back at Dr. Venture for something that happened when they were college roommates. Then there are the Phantom Limb, Molotov Cocktease and the Orange County Liberation Army. With all these enemies and a lab full of experiments, it’s no wonder that Dr. Venture relies so heavily on his “diet pills.”
When we last saw the gang there was an all out war between The Monarch, Hank Venture’s clones and the OSI (Office of Secret Intelligence). Brock Samson, the Venture family body guard quits the OSI and quits on the Venture family and the beloved Henchman 24 is killed in a fiery blaze. Season 4 promises to answer if Brock Samson will return to working for the Venture family? Will the Monarch ever succeed in killing Dr. Venture? And will Hank and Dean Venture ever get a piece of the action?
The Venture Bros. Season 4 premieres Sunday Oct. 18, at 12:00 a.m. (ET, PT), on Adult Swim.