Now the owner of his father’s company, the show follows Rusty, his two sons Hank (Christopher McCulloch) and Dean (Michael Sinterniklaas), and their bodyguard, secret agent/bulky murder machine Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton), through various adventures and schemes, flitting through various genres and story structures. Rusty Venture (James Urbaniak), a once-famous boy adventurer who fizzled out, growing up to become a failed scientist. Originally built as a parody of ‘60s adventure shows like Jonny Quest, The Venture Bros. is a hilarious, occasionally depressing exploration of failure and legacies, set in a world full of colorful characters. Thankfully, these more adult-oriented moments never feel out of place, and the experienced, talented voice cast certainly help in that regard.Adult Swim’s long-running (the series has been airing off and on since 2003) dark comedy The Venture Bros.

Whether it's lengthy musical numbers patterned after Gilbert & Sullivan plays or jokes that veer into surprisingly dark territory, the new Animaniacs can be surprisingly edgy at times. The tone may be lighthearted and silly, but the writers have mostly abandoned any pretense of Animaniacs being a show aimed at children. If anything, they have a bit more bite now than they did back in 1994. Season 2 further cements the fact that Yakko, Wakko, and Dot have lost none of their edge over the past few decades. That's what winds up driving many of the show's storylines.

If there's any sort of through-line at all in this very plot-light series, it's that the Warners are both fascinated with and mystified by 21st Century social media. That said, the series does succeed in casting a slightly wider net this time and not relying too much on political jokes that became outdated sometime between the scripting and animating phases. In case you were wondering, yes, there's still a fair amount of political humor targeted at the previous presidential administration.

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