Disenchantment (2019)
Released by: Netflix
Rating: TV-14
Created by: Matt Groening
Number of episodes: 20
Why I Chose It: I’ve been a huge Futurama fan for years. When I went into labor, my hospital bag was packed with a robe, a bag of Snickers, and a big old hard-drive filled with 150,000 hours of Futurama (my daughter decided to take all the waiting out of the process, so I didn’t get to watch any of my show, but that’s another story).
So, when I saw Matt Groening had a new series last year that seemed like the fantasy equivalent, I jumped right on that. I really enjoyed the first season, which ended on a bit of a cliff hanger, so of course I was super happy when the second season finally appeared.
Premise:
Princess Bean already has the wedding day blues when a mysterious figure arrives, claiming he’s her personal demon. When they’re joined by Elfo, who left his happy homeland looking for something a little more real, the three misfits embark on a quest to save Bean from the slow death of boring stereotypes.
Very minor spoilers.
Discussion: Just to make sure everyone’s on the same page, let’s take a minute to look at the first season. Disenchantment follows Princess Bean (who’s just looking for a good time), Luci the demon (who was sent to corrupt her), and Elfo (who was looking for an adventure and found Bean). While the first season wasn’t exactly deep, I like a show that can play with familiar tropes and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It made me laugh, and that was what I was looking for.
But in the end, if you look at the season as a whole, you realize we’ve mostly just watched Bean, Luci, and Elfo, get drunk and goof off. Compared to Futurama, the first season of Disenchantment doesn’t have a whole lot of character arc. Mostly just Bean complaining that she doesn’t have anything to do in the kingdom except avoid marriage. Now let’s be fair, this isn’t really a deal-breaker for me. Futurama took a couple seasons to really hit its stride, and besides, sometimes I enjoy watching someone like Bean screw up spectacularly. I just have to be in the right mood for it. And the kicker here was that the last couple episodes of the season had a lot more going on and a cliffhanger that promised plenty of conflict and depth in the future.
And that brings us to season two. Which totally delivered on said promise.
That cliffhanger gave us some much needed direction and tension for Bean to carry her through to some actual plot and character growth. Woohoo! Bean actually has to face the consequences of her actions from the first season, a couple of which were pretty life-changing. We now get to see her working toward something she cares about: saving Elfo and fighting for some respect within her father’s court. She’s made mistakes, but now she gets to fix them, using some hard-won agency. She’s still an awkward party-girl making some really dumb choices, but it’s been interesting to see the effects of those choices. She has a goal to work toward, and she gains some maturity alongside her personality. Almost like a real person who is growing into herself. With some more depth to Bean, the whole season felt like it had more continuity, some questions were answered, more were raised, and now there are stakes.
And it was really nice to see some side characters get a little more filled out. Less like outlines and more like characters. Luci and Elfo got more screen time, not just with Bean, but also with each other. Before we really only saw them interact as two sides of Bean’s internal arguments. In season two we actually get to see them disagree directly, and I thought it brought a lot more depth to their characters. Clearly with one being a demon of hell, and the other a candy-making elf, they are supposed to be the classic angel and demon, sitting on opposite shoulders (Bean’s in this case), but now their black-and-white moralities are looking a little more gray. Elfo is still affected by the events of the first season, and Luci feels a little more like Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time. You’re pretty sure he’s not a good guy. But he’s also clearly not entirely evil.
Even Oona and Derrick and King Zog got an overhaul in the character depth department. I already really liked Oona as the oozy step-mother queen who was supposed to be creepy and mostly managed to come off as awkward. So I was doubly happy when she dumped her role as second-hand queen and went for pirate queen instead. This left her son, Derrick, in a position where he had to connect more with Bean and King Zog. So many avenues to explore now. Although, I’m with Bean on this one. I kind of wish it hadn’t taken me a whole season to find out that her step-mother was a total badass.
In conclusion: I definitely like the second season better than the first (and I liked the first a lot). It even managed to pull off a surprisingly decent heist episode, one which included a sideways nod to Good Omens, causing a pretty epic spit-take. And holy cow, more cliffhangers!
Disenchantment is totally worth it. Very entertaining. And it seems like it’s just going to keep getting more so. Maybe one day it’ll end up on my favorites list with its older sibling Futurama.
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