"The Venture Bros." Year Seven (or Fourteen)

Spoilers ahead.

It feels like "The Venture Bros." may soon be coming to a close, if anything can be "soon" for a show that only drops a new season every two to three years. Not only was there major plot progression this season, but the show finally offered some definitive answers to several longstanding mysteries. It also did something that I've never seen it do - after years of the Ventures and friends struggling with failure and disappointment, it let the major characters score some significant personal wins.

The Monarch and Henchman 21, for instance, spent most of the season steadily working his way up through the ranks of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, with plenty of encouragement from Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. Doc also had what was arguably his finest hour, helping to hammer out a new treaty between the OSI and GCI. He almost invented personal teleportation too. I really thought he would have bankrupted Ventech by now, but the Venture clan is still in New York and doing fine so far. There are plenty of conflicts still in the mix - things may get ugly for Hank and Dean - but I got a nice sense of satisfaction seeing so many things go right for these characters.

They also dove into the mythology of the show in a big way. The first three episodes were actually the repositioned finale of last season, detailing the twisted history of the Blue Morpho and Jonas Sr. Then we spent multiple episodes with the Monarchs seeing the bureaucratic ins and outs of the how the Guild operates, and how they play fast and loose with things like Arching levels. Spending so much time with the various Guild Council members has made me very fond of minor characters like Dr. Z and Red Mantle/Dragoon. Even characters I've been very cool on like Wide Wale and St. Cloud tend to grow on me after they come back around again a few times. St. Cloud becoming Billy and Pete's official Archnemesis, and having to start out as a Level One trainee under the Monarch is priceless.

The series has been going for so long that it's easy to take for granted how good it still is. The production values are fantastic. The writing remains as strong as ever. We've long since moved away from the formula of Doc screwing up an invention, the boys getting up to hijinks, and Brock being violent, but the show is still perfectly capable of doing any of those things, and doing them well. If you've missed Brock carnage, for example, the last episode of the season features plenty, plus another Hank vision quest. I think the show is at its best, however, when it comes to slowly nudging its characters along toward maturity. Dean has been screwed up for a while now, but this year he demonstrates that he's a completely different (and arguably healthier) kind of screwed up than he was three seasons ago.

I also want to point out that the content this year skews more adult than it has in the past, particularly an episode that involves an extended reference to the sex cult in "Eye Wide Shut." Possibly because there are several other adult-oriented action shows like "Archer" out there now, it seems like the "Venture" creators are more comfortable letting their characters get more freaky. It's all very much in the usual vein of Doc and Jonas's sexual behavior being an extension of their immaturity and irresponsibility, but the accompanying visuals definitely go farther and leave less to the imagination. Also, the boys are both adults now and being treated as such.

I'd love it if "Venture" could go on indefinitely this way, but one of the reasons why this season was so strong is because it feels like it's progressing toward an endgame, or at least some major changes in the status quo. Two of the central relationships are clearly never going to be the same after the finale. Meanwhile, I love that the show took the time to show the Monarch being supportive of his wife when she needed it, and that Gary is still firmly committed to "Hench 4 Life." The "Venture" universe remains one of my favorites because it's simultaneously so out there, and yet so intimately relatable and capable of genuine emotional moments.

And the pop culture references remain unabashedly nerdy to the extreme. Saprax and Alatheus were real historical Gothic warlords. Because of course they were.
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