Venturoos, you have been patient — and your reward is finally upon you. After 20 years and only 7 seasons, Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, a feature-length film that sets out to conclude the long-running Adult Swim series Venture Bros., is about to be released. And what better moment to capitalize on that and make a listicle of the top 10 episodes of Venture Bros. than right now.
After its sudden and untimely cancellation in 2020, many fans (myself included) were terrified that so many of the dangling plot threads would remain un-concluded, hanging there, unanswered for all eternity. Shortly after its cancellation though, a revival was said to be in production via HBO Max in the form of a movie. But then the Warner Bros. Discovery merger happened, HBO Max became “Max,” and the ax came swinging down on almost every single production worth a damn.
But then, a miracle happened: a trailer dropped, and the movie was confirmed to be completed! So naturally the first thing I did upon hearing the good news was to sit my ass down and re-watch the series from the beginning, which is currently streaming in its entirety on Max. So without further ado: here are the top 10 episodes of Venture Bros. to rewatch before the movie. You know, before Max removes them from the library in like three weeks for some reason.
#10 — The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together Part 2
(season 3, episode 13)
“Why did you buckle it? Why did you do that?!” Most seasons of Venture Bros. end in highly cinematic two-parter conclusions, with this being the best of the bunch in my opinion. It feels like it truly closes off an arc of the show, with Brock Samson leaving the Venture family to work directly for O.S.I. again, Hank and Dean’s replacement clone surplus accidentally gets destroyed, and of course, the tragic death of Henchman 24. This episode was unbelievably hype, and is that perfect mix of irreverent humor and shockingly good worldbuilding that Venture Bros. is known for.
#9 — Any Which Way But Zeus
(season 4, episode 11)
“I fought an 8-year-old! And the only reason I won is because he fell on a spike!” Many of the great side characters of Venture Bros. get time to shine in this episode, as they are abducted one-by-one by a mysterious Zeus-like figure and forced to participate in a gladiatorial tournament. We see Henchman 21 start to come to terms with the death of his best friend Henchman 24, the original Captain Sunshine’s identity is revealed, and of course a lot of great Shoreleave action. Venture Bros.’ greatest strength is arguably its colorful cast of characters, and this episode gives them a whole lot of love and attention.
#8 — O.S.I. Love You
(season 5, episode 6)
“Washington wants a full report on this colossal cluster-fudge.” A lot of the best episodes of Venture Bros. have fun with switching up the show’s standard framing devices by telling a story in a completely different way from before. O.S.I. Love You begins with a rather tense cold open, but then the truth is slowly unraveled through a series of military interrogations while including a lot of hilarious interactions along the way. Creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick have an amazing talent of being able to come up with a seemingly endless amount of characters that are entire genre parodies in and of themselves, yet are confident enough to throw them away immediately if the plot requires it. Seriously: Shuttlecock, Tank Top, Bum Rush? I would watch an entire show about these guys, yet here they are used for simple joke fodder in one scene. Incredible.
#7 — ¡Viva los Muertos!
(season 2, episode 11)
“No groovy treats until you find a clue, dirtbag!” This episode is a lot of things at once, yet somehow pulls it all off graciously: Dr. Venture plays Dr. Frankenstein by reviving a dead henchman of the Monarch and forces him to become his slave, a shockingly dark parody of Scooby-Doo is portrayed in “The Groovy Gang,” and the Venture Bros. find out for the first time that they have clones of themselves, to which Dr. Venture responds by quickly fabricating a lie about those actually being their Christmas presents he was hiding. Classic doc. Apparently this is the only episode not written by Venture Bros. creators Jackson Publick or Doc Hammer, and is instead written by Ben Edlund who is the creator of The Tick, a show I loved as a young boy and shares a significant amount of DNA with Venture Bros.
#6 — Escape to the House of Mummies Part 2
(season 2, episode 4)
“Dean, stop riding the Perfect Man.” Escape to the House of Mummies Part 2 is Venture Bros. wackiness at its finest, simply in that there is no Escape to the House of Mummies Part 1. That’s the whole joke. The show really leans into its roots as a Jonny Quest parody in this episode, featuring globetrotting adventure, time travel, and H. Jon Benjamin as an arcane master of the magic arts who can’t stop licking his own crotch. Sometimes it’s just fun to break away from the main plot and have the characters goof off and do what they do best. And if story advancement happens, that’s a bonus.
#5 — All This and Gargantua-2
(season 6, episode 1)
“How do I modify the controller? This is like when I got stuck in that cart playing Red Dead Redemption.” Technically this episode aired as an hour-long special between seasons, but Max has it listed as the season 6 premiere so let’s just go with that. The complete opposite of the episode listed above, All This and Gargantua-2 is almost entirely focused on moving the show’s overarching plot forward. It almost seemed like it could be the conclusion to the entire series as a whole, if not for a few dangling threads left cleverly hanging. This episode also acts as an end of an arc of sorts, with the death of Jonas Venture Jr., and The Investors being gracefully dispatched by Dr. Henry Killinger. It’s also a wonderful reminder of how great it is to hear Toby Huss’ vibrant performance as General Treister.
#4 — Momma’s Boys
(season 5, episode 7)
“Boys, we are dealing with the type of criminal that would desecrate a child’s toy!” This episode features Venture Bros.’ accidental antihero Dr. Venture at his finest– narcissistic and completely oblivious to the world around him. The plot revolves around the boys tricking their gullible father with a talking teddy bear (a running gag from a previous episode) and then ends up turning into a full blown prison heist. We also find out that Hank and Dean’s mother isn’t who we thought it was, giving us one answer, yet leaving us with more questions yet again…
#3 — Past Tense
(season 1, episode 11)
“Oh, come on! You’re gonna kill me because I had fake sex on graph paper with a girl who barely spoke to you in real life?” Venture Bros.’ first season is incredibly strong. I must have seen the episodes on repeat endlessly while Adult Swim aired them in perpetuity before there was a second season. As such, Past Tense is an early example of the show’s hilarious use of worldbuilding, where we find out that Dr. Venture, Pete White, Baron Ünderbheit, and Brock Samson all went to the same college at the same time. The plot is told via a fun mix of flashbacks and present day scenarios, and includes a whodunit mystery that keeps us guessing all the way until the very end.
#2 — The Revenge Society
(season 4, episode 5)
“Two heads are better than one!” “What does that have to do with anything?” The Revenge Society is a nearly perfect episode of TV, remaining both thrilling and hilarious from beginning to end. It closes out the story of “the Orb,” which we come to find out was completely useless the entire time. Phantom Limb’s return after falling from grace is terrifying yet comical, and it gives us a shocking amount of background into the show’s bureaucratic organization of evil: the Guild of Calamitous Intent.
#1 — Guess Who’s Coming To State Dinner
(season 2, episode 9)
“Honestly? I’m kinda hoping to earn my wings on this deal.” Maybe it’s the goofy top hat and beard, but there’s almost always comedic gold when you put Abraham Lincoln into a cartoon, and this has got to be the best example there is. Guess Who’s Coming To State Dinner acts as a follow-up to an episode from season one. Colonel Bud Manstrong returns from space, is turned into a Manchurian Candidate set to assassinate the president by his mother, and can only be stopped by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln wrapped up in five dollar bills. The premise itself is pure gold, and the episode is wall-to-wall laughs with some of the best joke writing in the entire series.
There are so many great episodes and great characters that I didn’t even get to touch on in this list. But at the end of the day, it’s tough to truly pick the best episodes of Venture Bros. because heck, there ain’t a bad one in the bunch! Feel free to argue in the comments section or on twitter about it, though. We love engagement here.
