VENTURE!! RICHTER!! TIM!! 222!! STAR WARS!! REAPER!! CONCHORDS!! CALL GIRL!! HercVault!!

I am – Hercules!!

What horrors awaited The Venture Bros. in their third season? The real Jonny Quest and Hadji turned up. Dr. Killinger blazed new life into the corpse of the Venture compound. We got first-hand glimpses of what was going on with Rusty Venture, Hunter Gathers, H.E.L.P.eR, Sheila Girlfriend and even Race Bannon when Dean and Hank were still in diapers. Rusty Venture broke in a new, pedophilic archenemy as the Monarch and Dr. Missus settled into their new gated community. Dean went postal in front of Triana Orpheus. As crew kept a lookout for fearsome local wereodiles, Dean discovered that Werner Ünderbheit and Triana may not be the only ones eager to bone him. The untidy legacy of Jonas Venture was explored as Brock and Rusty get trapped in different parts of the compound's vast and forgotten basement. Hank learned a secret about himself as Brock and Rusty slept. Billy Quizboy met The Action Man and the rest of Old Team Venture. As 21 and 24 advised a new partner, the pirate discovered there are worse things than getting subdued. We learned at last why a resource as valuable as Brock Samson was squandered on Operation Rusty’s Blanket, and that the legacy of Venture adventuring didn’t begin with Rusty’s pop. The Cleaner initiated a grotesque mop-up. The jumper cables went on HELPeR's eyes. And the clones were all wearing Sting's codpiece from "Dune." If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, know that you missed the second-funniest scripted sitcom of 2008. To anticipate the question: season four is already in production.

Kudos to the folks at Paramount Home Entertainment for issuing all 14 episodes of Andy Richter Controls The Universe (including the five that never aired on Fox) just as ABC’s “Better Off Ted” is reminding us what a sharp and original vision is possessed by “Richter” creator Victor Fresco. Both “Andy” and “Ted” center on a corporate drone with a hot boss and a crush on a co-worker, and both series feature actor Jonathan Slavin as a fellow drone. Extras include: * Commentaries by Richter and Fresco. * “How Andy Richter Controlled The Universe.” * “What if Andy Richter Controlled The Universe.”

Room 222 was the Emmy-winning series created by James L. Brooks (writer-director of Oscar-winner “Terms of Endearment” and Oscar nominees “Broadcast News” and “As Good As It Gets”) the year before he created the Emmy-winning “Mary Tyler Moore Show.” It starred Denise Nicholas and Karen Valentine as the dishiest faculty members a high school student could hope for, as well as Lloyd Haynes, who almost played Uhura on “Star Trek.” As the box points out, first-season guest stars included Bud Cort, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Rob Reiner, Kenneth Mars and Paul Winfield. The set includes the bonus feature “Forty Years On,” featuring new interviews with Brooks and Nicholas.

An animated series written by, directed by and starring Clio-winning ad exec Steve Dildarian, “The Life and Times of Tim” would be my second-favorite show on the Cartoon Network if it ran on the Cartoon Network. The opener, in which the title character is, among other things, accused of covering up his own rape by a homeless man, is so much funnier than any of the animated series airing Sunday nights on Fox it's scarcely worth making the comparison. As one watches succeeding installments, it’s hard to escape the idea that Tim’s blonde girlfriend Amy is the most forgiving woman on the planet. The series’ low-key tone will remind viewers a lot of “Dr. Katz, Family Therapist,” “Home Movies,” “Lucy, Daughter of the Devil” and probably every other project with which writer-actor Jon Benjamin has been involved. (Though Benjamin is not involved here.) The New York Times says:

… What might have happened if “Seinfeld” had been casually vulgar — and animated. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… Like "Dr. Katz," a cartoon it resembles in the conversational tone of its dialogue and the intentional crudeness of its animation, it is as dry as Melba toast. Basically, Tim is a perennial loser who gets himself into trouble by saying yes to bad requests. ("I don't like where this is going," he'll say. Then he goes there.) I didn't find much of it funny, but on a kind of purely analytical level I can see how the jokes are supposed to work, and might well work on some. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… flat-out brilliant and easily one of the funniest newcomers to television. … if it knows what's good for it, the channel will immediately order many more episodes. …

The Chicago Tribune says:

… The animation is rudimentary and the jokes aren't much better. There are two segments within each half-hour show, and it's not a good sign when a 15-minute segment feels interminable. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… The humor that flows from this is necessarily off-color and politically incorrect, and yet I found myself laughing anyway when a human resources manager uses what she calls "bum rape humor," to which Tim says, "That's not a genre of humor." …

The Hartford Courant says:

… much funnier than expected. …

The Boston Globe says:

… It's the antithesis of cartoons such as "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy," which cram every moment with visual and verbal wit. "Tim," created by Steve Dildarian, leans hard on hip understatement and winds up feeling tamped down into monotony. The simplistic, static animation style doesn't help. …

TV Guide says:

… The animation is primitive, and so is the straining-to-be-hip writing in this deadpan sitcom. …

Variety says:

… Wry, silly and politically incorrect in the extreme … in small doses the show can be pretty damn funny …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… holds some genuine promise with its dry wit and understated sensibility. … Dildarian's ultra-low-key approach hits the right notes more often than not because it's such a contrast with the insanity of the material itself. The first few installments are more hit than miss. So I'll be back for more. At least, a little more.

A nightly half-hour drama from screenwriter-director Rodrigo Garcia (“Nine Lives,” “Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her”), adapted from a hit Israeli series, “In Treatment” depicts the professional life of a psychotherapist working out of his home office. On Mondays, Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) sees Laura (Melissa George), who is growing restless with her boyfriend and hot for doctor. On Tuesdays, he sees Alex (Blair Underwood), a military man traumatized by a recent deployment. On Wednesdays, he sees Sophie (Mia Wasikowska), a teen gymnast suspected of being self-destructive. On Thursdays, he sees Jake (Josh Charles) and Amy (Embeth Davidtz), a couple contemplating an abortion. On Fridays, Paul sees his own therapist, Gina (Dianne Wiest). The series hits its share of false notes, but I’ll confess to craving the next episode every time another ended. Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B-plus” and says:

… It all makes for lots of great soapy intrigue, and Byrne makes you believe he can solve everyone's problems. Except his own.

TV Guide says:

… only a glutton for punishment would consider In Treatment appointment TV. … tediously claustrophobic though sometimes searing … The acting is impeccable, but I often nodded off before Paul declares time's up. The exception is on Fridays, when the unhappy doc unloads on his own therapist (Dianne Wiest), or in any scene involving Paul's clashes with his bitter, neglected wife (the awesome Michelle Forbes). In these moments, the show can be shattering. …

USA Today gives it two stars (out of four) and says:

… the static, talky episodes themselves feel like tiny, amateurishly written, one-act plays. …

The New York Times says:

… hypnotic, mostly because it withholds information as intelligently as it reveals it. … The half-hour episodes are addictive, and few viewers are likely to be satisfied with just one session at a time. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… Cleverly conceived, it boasts a star-studded cast (Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, Blair Underwood) who achieve, at times, theatrical transcendence. … If you've ever been in therapy, thought about going into therapy, known anyone in therapy or just really like Gabriel Byrne and/or Dianne Wiest (and I think I have covered the vast majority of Americans here), "In Treatment" is television as controlled substance -- highly addictive. … And the best part of "In Treatment" is that if, for some reason, you really can't stand one of the patients or the stories, you can just skip that night. Though I wouldn't recommend it. Even without a strike, television like this doesn't come along every day.

The Chicago Tribune says:

… if you like shrink-oriented, smartly written TV, "In Treatment" (Monday-Friday, 8:30 p.m., HBO) just might get you through the next few weeks with your sanity intact. …

The Washington Post says:

… the talent behind the cameras is smart enough to bring it all off with plausibility. Viewers who only want to watch one or two nights a week would do well to choose Mondays and Fridays, but then Underwood's character may hold the key to Weston's own undoing on Tuesdays. … It isn't high literature nor even perhaps high television, but "In Treatment" does have a welcome, and occasionally riveting, pulpy streak, perhaps inevitable with its promise of peeks behind doors that usually remain closed. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… The writing is forced and thin, some of the acting stagey, most of the characters unlikable and - the show-killer quality that HBO execs apparently failed to see - profoundly boring. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… not enjoyable unless you like your lead character insufferable or you like to watch mom and dad fight. … There's nothing entertaining about "In Treatment," but it's not designed to amuse. It's a character drama created to provoke thought, and for viewers seeking a challenge, "In Treatment" will be a fascinating affair. …

The Boston Herald says:

Your HMO does not cover boredom. Keep that in mind if you decide to check in … tries to be both captivating TV and a realistic depiction of therapy. It fails spectacularly at both because the two are inherently at odds. TV thrives on linear narratives, arcs, breakthroughs and climaxes; therapy is long, exhausting and just as often one step forward and two miles backward. …

The Boston Globe says:

… If you've been wondering about the art of series-TV writing, and how potent and resonant it truly can be, you need look no further than HBO's extraordinary new "In Treatment." …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… possesses bracing writing and direction … hits the ground with heavy doses of bathos, titillation and melodrama but somehow doesn't come across as gratuitous or manipulative. The opening episodes are instead uniquely engrossing, stripping out the bells and whistles to showcase dialogue that packs an oft-wrenching wallop. …

Variety says:

… Beyond the off-Broadway sensibility, the dialogue often sounds stilted, and you can feel the various writers pulling the strings. Similarly, the patients are almost uniformly too bizarre to be particularly relatable, indicating they were either unnecessarily exaggerated for effect or something was (literally) lost in translation. Only the bickering Jake and Amy approach a recognizable level of humanity, and even they succumb to their share of false-ringing notes. …

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