“The Venture Bros.: Season 7” Blu-ray, DVD Review

 

While not everyone cares about collecting their favorite TV shows on Blu-ray or DVD, those of us who do always appreciate when it’s done right.

Which is why fans of the animated adventure comedy The Venture Bros. will be rather happy with The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD.

For those unfamiliar with this show,

The Venture Bros. follows the adventures of Dean and Hank Venture, the sons of super scientist Rusty Venture, who was himself the son of a famous adventure scientist. Except that Rusty is a bit of a screw up, his kids are sheltered idiots, their enemies all belong to a heavily-regulated union, and everyone is bad at their jobs. Well, except for Brock Sampson, the family’s bodyguard— he kicks butt.

But while The Venture Bros. started out as a parody of such adventure ‘toons as Scooby-Doo and Johnny Quest, it has, over the years, evolved into its own thing, a dark, weird, and snarky comedy about bureaucracy and obsession and failure. All of which culminates in a cartoon very much in the vein of Rick & Morty and Archer.

Picking up where the episodes in The Venture Bros.: Season 6 Blu-ray and DVD left off, the ones on The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD still find the gang in New York City, where Dean is going to college, Hank is dating Wide Wale’s daughter, and their dad may finally be making a name for himself as an inventor. Meanwhile, Rusty’s self-proclaimed nemesis, The Monarch, is still masquerading as The Blue Morpho while his wife, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, is busy running the Guild Council.

As for how the episodes on The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD are presented, well, given that Adult Swim doesn’t obnoxiously run promos from other shows during whatever show they’re currently showing, these episodes look and sound as good — read: clean and crisp — as they did when they aired. They just don’t have commercials.

More importantly,

the episodes on The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD are uncensored. Which isn’t to say they’re radically different from the broadcast versions — we’re just talking about an occasional “fuck,” save for one graphic scene — but it sure beats being bleeped.

Along with the ten episodes, The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD also has all of the extras fans of the show could hope for. To start, this has optional running commentaries on every episode by creators, writers, and voice actors Jackson Public and Doc Hammer that are both funny and informative.

Next, The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD have nearly six minutes of deleted scenes from six of the ten episodes. While many are just storyboard drawings, they do all have the real character audio. More importantly, most are given context, with the preceding and subsequent footage from the respective episodes. It’s just too bad they also don’t have their own commentary to explain why they were cut, or are available individually in a section with their respective episodes.

In a similar vein, The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD has “Sirena Goes Off…”, five and a half minutes of voice actress Cristin Miloti, the voice of Sirena Ong, improvising different versions of her lines. In fact, it’s worth buying this alone to hear the mom from How I Met Your Mother curse like she’s Robert Di Nero at the Tony Awards.

The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD also has “Ghost In The Pro-BLEM,” which cannot be explained without a spoiler warning.

Finally,

The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray and DVD has the original season’s promo trailer. Which may not seem like a big deal, but as someone who thinks a TV show’s seasonal sets should be the complete version of that season — and that includes how it was promoted — the inclusion of this promo trailer is welcome. It’s ultimately what makes this collection complete, and thus something that will make those of us who want to watch The Venture Bros. on Blu-ray or DVD so happy with this Season 7 collection.

SCORE: 9.0/10