Whether you actually find this episode enjoyable or not will squarely depend on how much you like the new character Augustus St. Cloud, who was introduced earlier this season as Billy Quizboy’s punctual and overly-prudent archrival. Personally, I find St. Cloud to be extremely annoying and lacking any sort of depth that we have come to expect from the rest of the Venture clan, and so centering an entire episode on St. Cloud’s attempts to weasel his way into winning the “Spanakopita Games” (the bizarre outdoor decathlon of sorts that Dr. Venture partakes in every year) was not only strange, but fell flat on its face as a result. The whole idea of the “Spanakopita Games” is based on old Greek mythology and epics like The Odyssey. At one point, Billy even has a dream that highlights a few of these ancient Greek tropes like Icarus flying too close to the sun, but the weird and totally strange use of claymation in this scene for Dr. Venture and St. Cloud’s Greek counterparts managed to bring the whole thing down even more. The Venture Bros. usually isn’t the type of show to experiment with drastically different art styles in this manner, besides the occasional foggy flashback or black-and-white effect here and there, so when you have a giant four-armed St. Cloud made out of clay stomping around in the water, I don’t think that I’m the only one who will tell you that something certainly felt “off.” There were very few standout moments in this week’s showing, like Sergeant Hatred discovering the truth behind how Spanakopita really came about, and the fact that Brock Sampson has allegedly fathered numerous children throughout his years accompanying Dr. Venture to the event, as alluded to by the many little tykes that run around the island while sporting Brock’s signature curly blonde mullet head of hair. But overall, the entire experience was incredibly underwhelming: not only did the episode not allow the season plotline to progress one iota, but even as a standalone diversion, “Spanakopita!” was far from something great. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
