On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of point in recapping TV shows from five years ago. And yet, I’m going through the first season of Venture Bros. and providing long-winded recaps of those early days when the Monarch was single, Hank and Dean hadn’t hit puberty, 24 was alive and well, and Doc was cranky and sexually frustrated. Well, that last one still holds up to this day, but everybody else has gone through some big changes.
Venture Bros. has picked up a considerable number of fans since Season One – partly thanks to Adult Swim keeping the repeats in heavy rotation, partly because people realized that it’s awesome. I’d like to think that there are newcomers following the current “from the beginning” set of repeats. And frankly, they might have a hard time figuring out some of the references. I still hold that you don’t need to understand or even notice the references to enjoy the show, but I think it’s funnier if you know how much OSI is based on Marvel Comics’ SHIELD. Or if you know that Lady Hawk Johnson and Lyndon Bee are based on a Matthew Broderick fantasy movie and not just the former President and First Lady.
