EPISODE REVIEW: The Venture Bros. : “Pinstriped and Poltergeists” (Season 4, Episode 8)
Well, The Venture Brothers is back in full-on offensive mode after last week’s palate cleansing, unexpectedly sweet episode. This is also the mid-season finale (I hate those!) for thesixteen-episode fourth season. The show’ll be back in a few months.
PLAY BY PLAY
Two Ton 21 is in his quarters, talking to the ghost of his dead best friend, Number 24, who’s filling his head full of information about the afterlife that may or may not be full of crap - always hard to tell wit that one - and a good deal of which is highly offensive, when The Monarch comes in and demands he get dressed and come with him. The two of them, and Dr. Girlfriend fly the Monarchmobile to the offices of Monstroso, legitimate businessman/lawyer by day, illegitimate businessman/lawyer by night. Monarch brought him in as a way to destroy Rusty once and for all, and gave him a whole bunch of rough ideas on how to proceed, including covering the Venture compound in sugar, or simply putting Rusty in a sack and beating him with a rake.
Monstroso points out that all that stuff is stupid, and decides to kill The Monarch, but the ghost of 24 warns 21 about it, and 21 kicks a surprising amount of ass. Monstroso agrees to keep The Monarch as part of the plan, rather than double-crossing him. Then he proceeds to double-cross him anyway, but The Monarch doesn’t notice until much later. Suffice to say, Monstroso files a zoning board complaint against Rusty because the Venture Compound is partially on land owned by some do-gooder organization from like a hundred years ago, and hence 3/4ths of Venture’s property has to be turned over to “Doing Good” or else it’ll get taken away from him.
He immediately sets forth trying to screw Billy and Pete White in to living in the compound and volunteering to soup kitchens, and while giving them a tour, where they stumble in to one of the outlaying buildings and discover it is actually the headquarters of SPHINX, a badguy organization deliberately patterned after “Cobra” from the old GI Joe cartoons, and the evil nemesis of the OSI (Which is itself patterned after GI Joe from the old GI Joe cartoons, with a bit of S.H.I.E.L.D. thrown in so the Marvel geeks won’t feel dejected.)
Turns out that SPHINX isn’t actually evil. They were once upon a time, but as of 1987 they were defeated and all their crap went in OSI storage. When Colonel Hunter Gathers decided to go rogue, they said “What the heck, let’s just use all the cool Egyptian -themed crap in storage.” Brock and Shore Leave and the rest have been living on the compound this whole season.
Eventualy, Dr. Girlfriend and 21 realize that Monstroso has screwed them, and they can no longer arch Dr. Venture under guild law. Also, if Monstroso’s plan works, he’ll get all of Venture’s property and all the Monarch’s crap too. 21 attempts to break in to the compound to try and…well, I’m not sure what. Enlist Rusty Venture’s aid, I guess, and bumps in to Brock. The two of them beat hell out of each other for a while (“Someone’s been practicing” Brock says, amused) then team up and evidently go kill Monstroso, evidently.
Intercut
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Comments
27 December 2008
7 hours 39 sec
@ Gin: I agree it wasn't nearly as offensive as they've done in the past, and Sgt. Hatred was less disturbing and borderline actually funny this time out ("He seemed like a nice guy, he just couldn't get to his money"), but I do have to warn my fellow conservatives - particularly Social Conservatives - about stuffl they're unquestionably gonna' find offensive.
I'm not really sure if Astrobase Go! would willingly walk away from this show or not. I can't really see them getting bored with it, simply because they obviously have a lot of genuine affection for these characters. On the other hand, I could totally see CN saying "Oh, well, ratings are down half a point, and it's an expensive show, so let's cancel it and use the slot for Squidbillies: The Next Generation."
@ Neo: Oh my, yes, Gary/21 is completely nuts in a way that isn't commonly seen, and which cracks me up. Even as a badass, he's so totally out of synch with reality that he breaks in to the venture compound holding his hands like a gun, like a little kid would do.
I do think 24 is real, and I do think he's hanging out simply because he has no other friends, and is maybe "Living" vicariously through 21.
@ R1: "Poor devil, there's nothing he can do about it."
2 January 2009
5 days 13 hours
Whoooop!!
Pickled penis! Pickled penis!! My underwear is on fire.
27 June 2009
3 hours 14 min
You do know that in the Venture Bros. universe there are spirits and demons and such. So 24 might be real at lest part of the time I use as evidence that the episode that 21 kidnapped Dean and Hank at the end a hand was seen checking off the Ventures from the list of possible murders and when 21 opened the door no one was in the room and the skull had moved across the room.
So the spirit of 24 might be helping or haunting 21 however you look at it. This does not change the fact that 21 is backing at the Moon nuts but it adds possibilities. Even though he is crazy 21 is now a better henchman than he ever was, has learned to fight and is killing people with no thought. (Makes one think when you meet so one at the comic shop.)
I wonder if 21 is being setup to become a supervillian in his own right he did try to get 24 to start their own crew in one episode. He has developed that special brand of crazy and skill that makes a villain in this type of show and he has the Monarch as an example of someone going from a henchmen to villain.
1 June 2009
20 hours 5 min
I thought this was a good and funny episode, although as you mentioned, they stuffed a lot of backstory lose ends together a bit clumsily. I found very little here to be offensive, and most of it was was questionable due to it's origin being a ghost/hallucination or whatever. So Sgt. Hatred surfs porn on his computer? Like that is a surprise? Nothing in here is any worse than what they did in early seasons.
I think the show is just as good as before, but just not as shockingly original now that we are on keel with what to expect. If it ends after this season it would probably be the choice of the creators getting bored with old material.
27 December 2008
7 hours 39 sec
For some reason, I missed that explanation. I also forgot to make mention of the show making fine use of 21's insanity this time out. I mean, who dresses up like a Jedi before going to kill a guy? The Woodrow Wilson & Sparky gag was pretty hillarious, too.
27 June 2009
3 hours 14 min
Being a new viewer that has watched maybe 60% of the old shows on the internet it’s hard to tell if the show is better or worse. I can say that this year is uneven and some of the episodes just don’t seem to fit together well.
This week was ok but not as good as the last two and was lame for a mid season final. That said there were some gems the “Shark with a grenade launcher on its head” was funny and 21’s insanity was good.
They did explain why they went rouge because they wanted to fight bad guys and they hated the bureaucratic BS at OSI and playing footie with the league so they went Dirty Harry. It really is not a retcon because the first episode hinted at it when Brock was captured by SPHINX.
With the cartoon network seeming to go in a new direction with more live action I think this maybe the last year of the show. If it is I hope they finish what they started with the first episode of this season.