Review: Venture Bros. ‘Spanakopita’

This week on Venture Bros., the crew decides to take a couple of days off from the typical super-science mishaps and fighting of villains to enjoy a nice fun-in-the-sun vacation in Greece.  The title of the episode, ‘Spanakopita’ refers to a festival that’s held yearly on the island by the way, not the spinach and cheese pastry.  But even trying to have a little off-time, Doctor Venture can’t seem to get away from the drama of the super hero scene.

As it turns out, Billy and White’s nemesis, Augustus St. Cloud also turns up on the island.  While he still has designs on ruining Billy’s EBay top-seller rating, this time around he’s there to cause grief for Rusty.  The festival of Spanakopita involves several contests and St. Cloud makes a bet that he can beat out Venture for the prize.  And he does just that, though with a little help from his cheating prized albino ninja assistant.

Meanwhile, Hatred figures out that the festival isn’t quite what it seems and begins a bit of investigation.  He discovers that there’s a lot more history to the festival than is obvious, most of it involving the people of the island trying to hold Rusty Venture for ransom back when he was a kid.  Now, they bring in the dollars by having him come back each year and overcharging him for everything.

Billy and White, not wanting their nemesis to win out against the Doctor (or more like just not wanting him to win at anything in general), set their sights on foiling his plans.  A battle between albinos and clowns ensues.  The result, a gruesome death in the sun for White.  At least until the “Albino’s Code” prompts his ninja counterpart to come to the rescue.

I enjoyed seeing St. Cloud once again this week and am pleasantly surprised at the way Billy and White’s story has taken on a new measure of interesting.  I’d even go so far as to say they’re stealing the show at this point.  Whereas the struggles of Doctor Venture and even the antics of the Monarch have been much the same as always, these two having their own nemesis adds new life to the show.  Now I’m just hoping that they bring Dr. Orpheus back and do as much to develop him as they’re doing with the other characters.

For more Venture Bros. fun, check out the Adult Swim website, though if you want to see the latest episodes, you’ll either have to be a Gold member or find them on a torrent.

Spanakopita courtesy of io9.com