If Cartoons Can Do It, Why Can’t You?

Recently I have been thinking about two shows in particular, Venture Bros. and Adventure Time, and how these two TV shows, despite being “just cartoons”, have infinitely better writing than most live action shows currently on television.

Sexualized Saturdays: Hunter Gathers from The Venture Bros.

It’s always hard to find good homosexual characters in pop culture, but finding any transgender, gender fluid, or nongender characters, let alone a good one, is especially hard.

The Venture Bros. is one of those shows that seems really weird based on any previews or short clips you may have seen, but it actually has some of the best writing I have ever seen in a show, especially when it comes to minority characters. In the show, Brock Samson is a bodyguard and agent working for the OSI or Office of Secret Intelligence. He was first trained by Colonel Hunter Gathers, his mentor, and a man he says was like a father to him. Hunter also might be transgender.

(The pronouns Hunter is addressed as changes based on his biological sex in the show. Since Hunter is currently a male on the show I will refer to him with male pronouns.)

The Lucky 10,000: The Venture Bros.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these segments, but, as the recent and ongoing ‘fake geek girl’ nonsense continues to illustrate, there still seems to be some sort of ‘required reading’ list that you have to complete before you can call yourself a nerd. As a quick refresher, in this series I watch/read/participate in these things for you, and let you know if they’re actually worth your time.

So without further ado, on to The Venture Bros.!

Go Team Venture!

The Venture Bros. has been on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block on and off again since I was in high school, but it’s not something I ever thought I’d enjoy watching. The commercials seemed to appeal to the lowest common denominator of dick jokes, and although I’ve done my fair share of laughing at dick jokes, I feel like a show needs more than that to survive. Well, it turns out that The Venture Bros. does have more than that after all.