X
- 2018
- TV-MA
- Netflix
- 2018
- TV-MA
- Netflix
- 2018
- TV-MA
- Netflix
- 2018
- TV-MA
- Netflix
Disenchantment
5 Seasons
Season 1 Premiere: Aug 17, 2018
56
6.7
Where to Watch
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
56
28% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
69% Mixed
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
56
28% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
69% Mixed
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
The show remains hilarious, ambitious, and binge-worthy as it carries itself to the finish line.
If The Simpsons and Futurama are PG-13 shows, Disenchantment is maybe PG-14, ever-so-slightly sexier and bloodier. Like the other shows, its jokes are more suggestive than bawdy.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 421 User Ratings
6.7
63% Positive
266 Ratings
266 Ratings
18% Mixed
76 Ratings
76 Ratings
19% Negative
79 Ratings
79 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 421 User Ratings
6.7
63% Positive
266 Ratings
266 Ratings
18% Mixed
76 Ratings
76 Ratings
19% Negative
79 Ratings
79 Ratings
This show is my comfort zone. I'm fully aware of some shortcomings and there are design choices I hate (Freckles! but they solved that greatly at the end). However, I could watch Disenchantment over and over and over again. And I hope that one day I go to hell and get my own Luci!
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The episodes work better when they focus on action and spectacle (like a slasher movie climax inside the gingerbread house from the story of Hansel and Gretel) than when they’re going directly for big laughs.
The fifth and final part of Disenchantment almost certainly won't earn the series any new fans, but Matt Groening and company manage to close out this offbeat epic with enough spunk and spirit to satisfy more forgiving viewers.
Disenchanted doesn’t seem interested in wrestling with tropes or, for that matter, anything too deep. It’s more focused on finding easy comedy in the pockets of the universe it’s invented, which, to the credit of Rough Draft, the animation studio that brings the show to life, has an impressive, cinematic quality that outshines previous Groening projects. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t match that ambition in other areas.
Wielding a satiric sword badly in need of sharpening, Disenchantment meanders along a medieval middle ground, often fun but rarely funny.
Disenchantment was billed as “an adult animated comedy fantasy series” but misses its mark, since it’s neither “adult” nor is there much comedy. The 10-episode series will appeal more to a preteen sensibility than to anyone over 14 and it’s got plenty of, well, cartoonish violence a la “Itchy and Scratchy” from “The Simpsons.” What it doesn’t have is the charm or wit of that series--either in its storyline or its characters--and mostly plods along with only the occasional throwaway line eliciting a smile.
I have so much to say about this show. It is not perfect, but I sure love the heck out of it. I started watching fairly recently and was lucky enough that Season 4 dropped just as I was finishing Season 3. I love the characters and voice cast, the art, the humor, the fact that they try to stay somewhat consistent with their world-building despite juggling so many disparate tones and elements, and that the show has kept its heart in the right place throughout its run so far. Character arcs progress organically and there is a real sense that the writers are building up to an overarching climax, even if they're taking some roundabout ways of getting there, and as the case with many Netflix/Amazon shows, certain tonal inconsistencies between adjacent episodes highlight the incongruous nature of applying the episodic TV "writer's room" format to a streaming series. King Zog and Bean are some of the best and most iconic characters Groening and Cohen have ever worked on. DiMaggio and Jacobson fill them with so much soul. Probably any burnt-out, underachieving, neurotic Millennial (I was born in '87 and happily married with a kid now, but she reminds me in so many ways of my lost, lonely college self, and my early-mid '20s coming to terms with personal responsibility) can relate to Bean and all of the stressors she's saddled with, and King Zog is my favorite take on the "burnt-out dad" archetype, a truly three-dimensional character, even if the writers tend to forget that sometimes (stealing gold and jewels from the Sea Trogs? really?). What he goes through at the asylum and monastery is masterfully written. Luci, Elfo, Oona, Pops, Jerry, Dagmar, and Ursula are all fantastic supporting players, even if they are never given enough to do and get to be a bit one-note at times.
The writing is the show's strongest suit, but also perhaps its greatest hindrance. The world as established is so rich with little details, throwbacks (the Fritz Lang Metropolis refences in Steamland? Heck yes!), and recurring jokes that at times it feels as if the writers are hemmed in by their own wit, either stuck writing between the lines so as not to diverge too much from the typical trappings of the fantasy, comedy, or sitcom genres, or perhaps their hands were tied by Netflix themselves, those killers of joy and pushers of mediocrity.
I will say this - I really dig the idea of the "episodic, but not" format where plot threads and thematic elements weave and bob in and out. Yet, despite episodes having varying runtimes, I don't so much feel that this show's unique storytelling format has been allowed to breathe and blossom in quite the way that it could have. With a little more focus and time, this show could be an absolute epic masterpiece of comedic and fantasy storytelling, but it isn't, and that's an absolute shame. It works better as a series of character studies (when it gets to developing and fleshing out its cast) with sharp quips and cool concepts. Does that make it a disappointment? I don't know. I'm just so darn glad that it exists, because just like Futurama, it warms the **** of my heart.
Anyway, if anyone who's ever worked on the show is reading this, THANK YOU!! Thank you for making such an excellent and life-affirming show!! As long as you can keep the political and social justice stuff to a minimum, focus on the characters as established, and axe any dialogue that references real-world stuff, I have absolute confidence that you will stick the landing. Bring on Season 5!! Oh, one more thing - I am amazed that the only merch available for Zog and Bean are ugly Funko Pops. I want actual figures, darn it!! HONK!
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Да, приключения семейки Симпсонов, а тем более в безбашенной Футураме были очень весёлыми. Конечно нового сериала от Грёнинга ждал. И вот Разочарование вышел на экраны.
Ну что я могу сказать. Если с Симпсонами я как зритель сроднился с детства, то история Футурамы закручивалась по нарастающей и в новых сериях становилась всё смешнее и отмороженней. Но вот в последнем сериале как то всё идёт по нисходящей. Серии всё преснее. Если первый сезон был смешным, то второй просто интересным, что касается третьего и четвёртого то тут какая то рутина началась.
Хотя новые персонажи очень понравились Бин, Эльфо, Люцик, король Зог и прочие. Вот только авторы поддались новой американской моде и зачем то в четвертом сезоне нашу зубастую Тиабини, превратили в лесбиянку. Хотя она спала не с женщиной, а с русалкой, но всё равно...зачем? Да пятый сезон завершил этот садомицкий сериал. И очень хорошо видно, что авторы просто смеются и пародируют сегодняшние соединённые штаты. Геи, лесбиянки, наркота, Бог мёртв, сатана на троне, демоны в Раю, чем не сша сегодня?
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There's nothing worse than seeing a once great artistic team that may have even been considered somewhat cheeky in it's first few seasons grow to be a neutered, pale milk toast of it's former self. Futurerama barely survives as a second offering and now Disenchanted unfortunately, lives up to its moniker. The show is so incredibly boring and blasé it can't even manage to scrounge up any enthusiasm for it's own show. All off the creativity seems to have been leached out by all of the many hands that stir the pot. Hollywood is no longer capable of being imaginative anymore because of the culture that they have created for themselves. Disenchanted is a place for talent to die a miserable and slow death. If you can't even tell good jokes or make cutting social commentary anymore then it's time to get out of the business or reinvent the production company model so that one can create like it once used to. Otherwise, we get more of this incredibly not funny waste of talent.
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Season 1: as the entry into the whole plot of the series it takes things very slowly and introduces the characters but it trips on this point. It re-uses a lot of voice actors from Matt's other shows and while it nice to hear the familiarity of these voices they are type cast so hard that they are a near parallel to their characters from the other shows. Character development is non-existent. Bean does what she wants because she is an alcoholic (a Matt staple) where she murders, destroys at whim because she just can. Nothing really stops her and she even touches on this fact negligently. She doesn't develop at all. Elfo changes slightly but even then is still bound by the chains of 'being an elf'. Luci is a demon and demons are evil, his job to corrupt Bean however could have been done by literally anything else with a half hearted malicious attempt. Definitely one of the superior characters, but entirely irrelevant as far as plot goes. One of the things this season is a true criminal for however is the wrongful usage of John DiMaggio. His character Zog (King of Dreamland and father to Bean) does nothing but yell. That I would argue is John's strong point but it's the escalation of his voice that brings real depth to the situations. But in Disenchantment all he does is yell. There is no escalation, no comedic timing its just yelling all the time and it is a waste of his efforts. The plot is barely noticeable, it bounces around until the ending of the season then wraps it all up with annoying scene changes to prevent the viewer from obtaining information which only leaves more questions, with an ending that just leaves more to be desired, and not in a good way. The 3d transition sequences are very awkward, this could just be me, but they hit the eye oddly and are to a point a bit nauseating. The first season could be just this however, the first season. An awkward first step into a new IP that will get stronger as it learns its new footing. However this is from Matt Groening. I believe he and his team are better than this. Which brings me to the final point for Season 1, the comedy (or lack thereof). The 'comedy' is so opaque its incredibly painful. I saw the jokes coming and the punchlines were so weak and obvious it was hard to enjoy them. In the entirety of this season there was one joke that actually surprised me and made me laugh. But the rest of it there was nothing to bother even mentioning. It makes blatant attempts to make jokes and its rather annoying. Perhaps if you have never watched Futurama or The Simpsons before these jokes would be enjoyable, but that doesn't help the delivery, or the impact. It was painful to watch and expect better from such a prolific series creator. Season 2: Everything that happened in towards the end of the first season gets dealt with and thrown away in the first couple episodes. So plot once more takes a back seat in this season, as they tease a new plot for a bit but never go along with it, in fact one of the new characters that starts the plot vanishes for no apparent reason, he is simply gone after starting this new adventure. The characters don't seem to change much outside of Zog who shows some actual development, albeit not very much. But some is better than none, the comedy this time around is even worse, perhaps I was not as invested going into it and paid less attention but the comedy wasn't as obvious, but it impacted just as feebly, there is not a single moment in this entire season that stands out. Elfo goes through some random developments that could be set up for something interesting, but then just resets himself as nothing ever happened. Luci gets a bar. Doesn't really impact anything just kind of happens. Its used as a staging point but it could have been used without him owning it and nothing would change. That seems to be the theme of season 2, things happening that have no purpose. Its still lackluster and could be done better in many ways, throughout the season there are multiple teases at the plot that they never touch again until the final episode, which they then leave on a cliff hanger. Which as in season 1 comes across as a desperate grab at attention to get another season, which has been already greenlit for 2020. There really isn't more to go on, the characters don't really have any growth, Bean does what Bean does. Elfo follows around as the annoying Deus Ex Machina, and Luci really sits on the sidelines this time around, more than usual, with less of a puppet master role and more of a bystander. Zog does deal with issues and grows a bit, and some of the side characters get more plot involvement, but its all teases. Some characters get even less time such as Sorcerio, I actually forgot about him in this season he was barely around. All in all Disenchantment hasn't done better going into a second season, when it didn't really have a good foothold to begin with it seems to have just stumbled even more.
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Production Company:
- Netflix
- Rough Draft Studios
- The Curiosity Company
- The ULULU Company
Initial Release Date: Aug 17, 2018
Number of seasons: 5 Seasons
Rating: TV-MA
Awards
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 1 Nomination
