(Guest Clacker Katie Schenkel comes at us from movie website Just Plain Something, where she likes to walk the fine line between entertaining and informative.)
Something tells me Venture Bros. creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick were like the rest of us this summer and went to see Inception while it was still in the theaters. The 14th episode of the show’s fourth season seems to take inspiration from Christopher Nolan’s dive into the subconscious. That being said, “Assisted Suicide” is a uniquely inspired episode in itself and one of the best of the season.
It all starts with Brock sensing someone is messing with his car (Shore Leave admires his comrade’s very specific “superpower”), only to find a dull-eyed Rusty trying to kill himself. After the zombified Rusty awkwardly grabs Brock’s knife and slowly brings it to his chest, Dr. Orpheus reaches a different conclusion: Dr. Venture is actually possessed! Well, that’s only partially true. The reality is, the Monarch has snuck into his mind (very Inception-like) to psychically mind assassinate him.
To save Rusty from this unknown force, Dr. O goes into Rusty’s mind, which looks like a series of hallways and rooms, and makes his way to the control room with the help of the different parts of Rusty’s subconscious. The main counterparts are Eros and Thanatos (Love and Death), personified by Billy Quizboy in a cupid costume and Pete White in a sort of male gothic Lolita outfit (including umbrella).
We also get to see his Id, Ego and Superego, all played by James Urbaniak. It’s a treat to see him play different variations of his character’s persona. Perhaps the funniest was the Id, who is represented by Rusty the teenager showcasing the women Rusty “could totally get if he put in the effort.” It’s a big departure to the Ego, who is older, bearded and filled with a healthy dose of skepticism. Ego is maybe the most relatable Rusty has ever been. And then there is Superego, the “ideal” version whose physique is obviously based on his father. You know a Venture Brothers episode is really great when it can bring the audience on a fantastic adventure with a sci-fi twist while keeping it funny and still managing to give us insight into one of the more complicated characters.
The B-story had its own strengths, showing Dr. Girlfriend and Henchman 21 attempting to keep the Monarch’s body stable while connected to Rusty’s brain. I give the Hammer and Publick props for never explaining how the Monarch is doing it and just letting the audience suspend disbelief (going into the pseudoscience behind the assassination would have slowed the pacing to a halt). While the Monarch is under, his wife and his second-in-command drink together, bonding over their love of the original Star Trek series and ultimately making out after 21 reveals his feelings for her. With just two episodes left, my bet is that their torrid moment will be dealt with before the season’s end.
The weaker parts of the episode come from the C-story, involving Brock, Shore Leave, Sergeant Hatred and the boys as they wait for Dr. O to save Rusty. The bickering between Hatred and Brock was funny enough, but the bit about Dean getting ants in his pants (literally) felt tacked on. It’s hard to write about those couple of scenes because they weren’t very memorable, especially compared to the rest of the episode.
Every episode of Venture Brothers ends with a scene after the credits. As the credits rolled, I wondered if it was going to show how Dr. O got out of Rusty’s mind or maybe what happened after 21 and Dr. Girlfriend kissed. Instead, we were given a fairly quiet moment where Rusty opens up to Hank about how his own father treated him on his 16th birthday (possibly the worst 16th birthday in the history of man, by the way). It’s a sad moment, not so much because of what happened to him when he was a teenager, but how easily he accepted how his father treated him. Considering that Rusty started out in the series as simply a dark parody of Dr. Quest, this kind of quiet ending says boatloads about the talented writing and voice work over at Astrobase. I think this might be one of my favorite episodes of the entire series.
Clacked by Guest Clacker
on Oct 18, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
Hi there! Thanks for writing about Venture Bros., one of the best shows on TV. Finally someone picks up the slack to remind us all about that :-)
*waves to Annie*
“Something tells me Venture Bros. creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick were like the rest of us this summer and went to see Inception while it was still in the theaters. The 14th episode of the show’s fourth season seems to take inspiration from Christopher Nolan’s dive into the subconscious. ”
Seeing is how the episode was written along time before Inception ever hit the theaters I doubt this seriously. Also…Inception is not the first time this trope has been dealt with in films or television.
Akbar, thanks for the comment!
I did look it up before writing the review and Hammer and Publick did write the majority of the 2nd half of the season last winter, but also did a good amount of retooling over the summer before showing these episodes to the public.
I still stand by my comment that the boys could have been inspired by the summer blockbuster.
Thank goodness someone is covering VB here! This season has been amazing so far. I’m VERY worried about the new love triangle in the Cocoon. Or… I don’t know. Maybe Sheila will just chalk it up to a tipsy mistake.
Good review, but I have to chime in and agree that the ‘Inception’ connection is kind of a stretch. Mainly as a matter of timing (a screencap of The Monarch in the control room was revealed in March and the trailer [which included a clip of the dead Hanks and Deans attacking] debuted just days after ‘Inception’ was released). Even if the guys did somehow draw inspiration from the film, it would have been from, like, a vague early description or something and not the summer release itself. And, as Akbar Fazil mentioned, the whole mind infiltration thing has been done before.
Good Recap/Review. Venture Bros. has always been one of those strange shows that makes you laugh but has an actual story progression behind it, even if sometimes it seems totally random. The show as a whole is one of my favorite adult swim series and I am glad to see somebody else writing about it that enjoys the show as much as I do.