Getting Into Serials

How would you introduce someone to an existing TV show already in flight?  In the past, it was pretty easy.  American TV shows would reset at the end of every episode.  Each episode was a self-contained unit.  You could watch them in any order, skip as many as you wanted, and you wouldn’t be lost when you tuned in.  Two-parters were rare and longer story arcs were unheard of.

Times have changed.  Many of today’s best shows are not episodic, but serials.  To understand what is happening in many of these shows, you need to have watched them from the beginning.  Could I start with last weekend’s Game of Thrones without having seen any prior episodes and make any sense of it?  Could I pick up any random episode of Breaking Bad and watch it on its own?  What about Lost?  The Sopranos?  The Walking Dead?  Can I pick up whenever and wherever I want with any of these shows or do they require an investment in time and a commitment to the franchise?

This past weekend marked the return of the Venture Bros., the beginning of season five.  It’s been a long time coming.  The finale of season four was broadcast on November 21, 2010.  That’s not a typo.  I’ve waited a good thirty months for this.  We were given a little to tide us over.  In August of 2011 we got "From the Ladle to the Grave: The Story of Shallow Gravy": a rockumentary about Hank and Dermot’s band.  This past Halloween we were given a new Halloween episode, "A Very Venture Halloween", in which Dean learned something very important about himself and his brother.

Venture Bros. episodes are both episodic and serial.  While each episode is a self-contained story, there are plot threads which run through them, some stretching from season to season.  It might be possible to understand any one random episode you catch.  I don’t know, I’ve watched them all multiple times and am up to speed.  I would guess, though, that understanding the characters, their relationships, and their motivations would help you to make more sense of the show.  The show is deep, rich, and detailed.  The characters, a large and varied ensemble, have been developed over the fifty-five episodes which have been broadcast since 2004.  There are no throw away lines or throw away characters.  Everyone you see in the background, even a photograph in a dossier, will contribute to the story.  It may not be that episode, it may not even be that season, but that character will be back.

I’ve seen from a few of the production stills released that Brick Frog is back this season.  I have to admit: I’m a little excited.  For those who don’t watch the show, here is all of the screen time Brick Frog has had:

I had planned a couple of weeks ago to write a blog post where I summed up what had happened in the series so far.  I thought that maybe, with some back story, you’d be able to jump right into the series.  I was scooped by the show runners, though.  They produced an eight minute video where one of the characters, Twenty-one, well, I guess he’s just Gary now since he no longer is a henchman of The Monarch’s, introduced the major characters and major plotlines of the show.  Was that enough?

After watching the series five premier I can safely say, “no.”  The episode picked up right at the end of the season four finale.  The events of the Halloween episode occurred during this episode’s first commercial break.  Without having watched those two episodes there are some things you wouldn’t understand and others you’d miss.

So, for those of you who watch serials, how do you introduce someone to the show and get them up to speed?  The best I can think to do is to just make a recommendation.

The Venture Bros. started out spoofing adventure cartoons such as Johnny Quest and mystery cartoons like Scooby Doo.  It has developed its own mythology of super scientists, costumed super heroes, and super villains.  Villains are licensed to arch their rivals by their guild, the biggest of which is the Guild of Calamitous Intent, run by David Bowie.  (Let’s face it, there isn’t another show around that will give you a fist fight between Bowie and Iggy Pop atop a flying plane.)  There is a secret government organization of super agents, called the OSI, which keeps the Guild in check.  There’s also another secret organization called Sphinx (Sphinx!) which handles the villains the OSI won’t touch.  There are love triangles, coup attempts, shifting alliances, and even character deaths within the show.  The incidental characters are clever, too, with odd characters like Truckules (rhymes with Hercules), recalling the wit and whimsy of The Tick.

Of course, there is a very direct connection to The Tick.  Venture Bros. co-creator, who now writes under the pen name of Jackson Publick, is Chris McCulloch, who wrote for The Tick comic, cartoon, and live action series.  Remember those great Tick episodes like “That Moustache Feeling”?  Yeah, McCulloch wrote that.

Go Team Venture!