Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim bloc has produced an ever-increasing volume of original programming. When it works, it works exceedingly well, e.g. Moral Orel, or Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, or Frisky Dingo. When it fails, as it does with self-satisfied tedium fests like Perfect Hair Forever or The Brak Show, well, at least it fails in ways you don’t see on network sitcoms.

The crowning jewel in the Adult Swim line-up, for my money at least, is The Venture Bros [sic], a parody of the old Jonny Quest series and “boys adventure” tropes in general, all undercut with megadoses of post-modern humor, cynicism and the ever-popular “adult themes.” Even better, the show is properly animated, so it’s aesthetically pleasing as well, something that much of Adult Swim’s programming – good and bad -- can’t claim because they’re all done on the cheap (or at least, they look that way).

The Venture Bros. depicts the adventures of the titular fraternal duo, Hank and Dean Venture, who, despite the show’s present-day setting, seem locked in a screwy 1967 time bubble: their dress, mannerisms and vocabulary are all quirkily yet charmingly anachronistic, and their naivety and ignorance both gets them into dire situations and gets them out of same.

The boys are seemingly the bane of their father’s existence, but Hank and Dean are the least of Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture’s problems: While he bills himself as a scientific genius, many of his inventions are flawed, and he is frequently portrayed as a cowardly nitwit. Rounding out the central cast is Brock Samson, the Venture family’s government-sanctioned bodyguard. A hyper-masculine killing machine, Samson is nevertheless the show’s prime voice of reason. He is shown accepting his charges’s various physical, mental and moral shortcomings with a stoic but good-humored resignation.

Typical of the series is “Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II,” from the second season, wherein Team Venture find themselves trapped by a mysterious Egyptian cult – the absolute worst kind of Egyptian cult – who are in the possession of a time machine. After the gang are locked in a death trap, Dr. Venture manages to escape but forgets about rescuing Brock and the boys, so, with the help of Sigmund Freud and Edgar Allan Poe, they arrange their own rescue. Or do they?

“House of Mummies” is a clever send-up of the old cliffhanger serials. It opens with a recap of the non-existent Part I and concludes with a preview of the equally non-existent Part III. The script is therefore full of references to plot events that the viewers will never see, which makes for plenty of comedy, while adequtely displaying the protagonists’s personalities and idiosyncracies. Also, Dean gets decapitated.

Each episode can be enjoyed on its own, naturally, but they all contribute to an ongoing big picture, as bits and pieces of the characters’s backgrounds are revealed, often providing added dividends to faithful viewers as well as those who purchase the DVD collections (seasons one and two are available now at your favorite retail outlet!).

And yet the Adult Swim juggernaut lumbers onward: Last week, the network aired a pilot that could be another winner. The Drinky Crow Show perfectly captures the spirit of its source material, Tony Millionaire’s Maakies comic strip – it’s cartoonishly violent in the manner of classic Tom & Jerry shorts; it’s absurdist without being self-congratulatory about it; its computerized animation looks really, really good (which I didn’t think was possible), and best of all, it’s funny.

(Also: It’s not really appropriate for the kiddies, so parents beware, but then again, if your kids are up at 11:45 on a Sunday night watching cartoons, you’ve got bigger problems than animated segments about an alcoholic seafaring bird.)

It's tremendously cheesy to say cartoons aren't just for kids anymore, but it's appropriate here. Adult Swim is broadcasting some of the most witty, intelligent and subversive programming on TV today. Don't miss it.