Spoilers Below

So Netflix decided it would be a good idea for me to have no life and added a whole bunch of Adult Swim/Cartoon Network cartoons recently. I applaud their efforts to eat at my free time. Good on you, Netflix. Now I can watch Metalocalypse and Johnny Bravo back to back. Also Dexter’s Laboratory because I fucking love Dexter’s laboratory.

Sorry, Blabberbuds, this isn’t a review for good old Dex, but for another show that devoured my free time as of late. This week I hopped in the Delorian and went back to 2003 for another fantastic review. This week, it’s The Venture Bros. Specifically the episode entitled: Ice Station Impossible. Off the bat, there are a great many reasons why I enjoy The Venture Bros. Hank and Dean are a couple of numbskulled adolescents who think they’re on fucking Johnny Quest or something. As far as spoofs go, you can’t go wrong with this one. Dr. Venture, their long suffering and morally ambiguous father, usually finds himself getting into all sorts of scientific kerfuffles and needs his chain-smoking, meatheaded body guard Brock to murder their way out of them. Combine this with colorful villains, a helper robot, and a next-door neighbor who is actually a necromancer and you have one of the funniest shows on TV.

One of the things I like about Venture Brothers, aside from the quick dialogue and over-the-top action sequences (brought to you mostly by a rage fueled Brock,) are the background characters. I enjoy how guys like Pete White and Master Billy Quizboy can show up in the background in one episode, get a line or two the next, and then get an entire episode’s worth of screen time. I also love Dr. Impossible for reasons which should be obvious given my moniker.

I digress: On to the episode.

So Dr. Venture, Pete White, and Master Billy Quizboy are recruited by Dr. Impossible (voiced deftly, by Stephen Colbert,) and have to take a urine test. This proves problematic for Dr. Venture because he’s a known pill popper in the scientific community. Meanwhile, Hank Venture is exposed to one of Dr.Impossible’s old experimental serums which turn anyone infected by it into a living explosive. Brock must race to find Dr. Venture to cure Hank. After brushing off the urine test (mainly because he spilled all of his son’s urine that he had in a baggy on his leg,) he’s approached by Sally Impossible, presumably Dr. Impossible’s wife, and she gives him some of hers. It is then revealed that she can turn her skin invisible. Not her whole body, mind you, but her skin.

She shows Dr. Venture around and it’s revealed that Dr. Impossible, who can stretch his body to disproportionate lengths, experimented on his wife, her brother, and her mentally handicapped cousin. At this juncture I kind of nerdgasmed because I was watching a spoof of the Fantastic Four. This episode sealed the deal for me in my love for all things Team Venture. It also begged the question of what would happen if people were given superpower’s in real life? Sally’s brother Cody burst into flames when he touched oxygen and just kept screaming in godless agony. Ned was changed into a giant monster who didn’t understand why he looked the way he did and was confined to a small room.

Everyone involved got horrible powers, except for Richard. He came out ahead and Sally hates him for it. So eventually Brock and the boys arrive at the Dr. Impossible’s lab and it’s discovered that Hank isn’t going to explode after all. Sally Impossible and Dr. Venture part ways and they leave, but not without a little reminder of their trip that will take nine months to arrive (though the baby could be anyone’s, Sally Impossible seems a bit…open. Oh, god. Pun entirely intended.)

Ice Station Impossible, one of the standouts from the Venture Brothers’ Season 1 which is why I give this one a Fantastic score of

10 out of 10.

Until next time true beli…oh wait, I mean, Go Team Venture!

-Paulie Von Doom.