7.8/10. I'm apparently a sucker for Dr. Killinger. I love his hyper-competent, reserved yet oddly cheerful demeanor. The idea that he could come in, help Rusty get over his daddy issues, and bring Venture Industries back to being a going concern, with the twist being that in order to make it all work, Dr. Venture would have to become an Archvillain, is inspired. It's a pretty goofy show, but there's even some power (and nice structuring) to the idea that Rusty is trying incredibly hard to succeed on his own terms, fails because all he's doing is recapitulating his father's successes, but can't take the step out of his shadow because it would mean being a "bad person." The only way he can progress is to be evil, or at least admit to himself that he's evil, and that's a line he just can't cross. This failure is better than that success, and it's oddly touching.
As is the case with several episodes of this show, there's more smiles than laughs here. Seeing Dr. Orpheus get a nosebleed trying to mind meld Dr. Killinger or Brock experiencing loss of purpose is amusing, as was the attempt to fool the military representative. But for the most part, it's a lot of wondering where things are going with the whole Killinger bit, and the fact that the episode had the perfect finish with this evil Mary Poppins type priming Dr. Venture to join the guild made it all work.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2016-06-09T04:43:35Z
7.8/10. I'm apparently a sucker for Dr. Killinger. I love his hyper-competent, reserved yet oddly cheerful demeanor. The idea that he could come in, help Rusty get over his daddy issues, and bring Venture Industries back to being a going concern, with the twist being that in order to make it all work, Dr. Venture would have to become an Archvillain, is inspired. It's a pretty goofy show, but there's even some power (and nice structuring) to the idea that Rusty is trying incredibly hard to succeed on his own terms, fails because all he's doing is recapitulating his father's successes, but can't take the step out of his shadow because it would mean being a "bad person." The only way he can progress is to be evil, or at least admit to himself that he's evil, and that's a line he just can't cross. This failure is better than that success, and it's oddly touching.
As is the case with several episodes of this show, there's more smiles than laughs here. Seeing Dr. Orpheus get a nosebleed trying to mind meld Dr. Killinger or Brock experiencing loss of purpose is amusing, as was the attempt to fool the military representative. But for the most part, it's a lot of wondering where things are going with the whole Killinger bit, and the fact that the episode had the perfect finish with this evil Mary Poppins type priming Dr. Venture to join the guild made it all work.