A new Matt Groening series is something to celebrate, as the man has a track record in animation that few others can hold a candle to. This one's trying a couple of new things. For one, it's a ten-episode Netflix series. For another, the story is serialized. Using the sword and sorcery genre as a basic template, "Disenchantment" tells the tale of Princess Tiabeanie, or Bean (Abbi Jacobson), the daughter of King Zog (John DiMaggio) of the kingdom of Dreamland. On the eve of her arranged marriage, she meets her "personal demon" Luci (Eric Andre), and a super-naive elf named Elfo (Nat Faxon).
"Disenchantment" gets off to a bumpy start, introducing the booze-loving, rebellious Bean and her angsty existence in a fractured fairy-tale world. Like the other Groening shows, the strength of "Disenchanted" is its worldbuilding and its big cast of supporting characters, and it takes a while to introduce all of these players. Lots of familiar voices from "Futurama" are back, including Billy West as the crusty wizard Sorcerio, Tress MacNeille as Bean's amphibious stepmother Queen Oona and half-amphibious step-brother Prince Derek, Maurice LaMarche as Odval the shady Prime Minister, and Dave Herman as a herald, a prince, and a guy named Jerry. These are all fun personalities individually, but the show initially has some trouble getting them to work within the framework of its story. Luci the demon, for instance, has a great design, and I love the conceit of him constantly being mistaken for a cat, but I don't really understand how he fits into the show. His motivations are vague, except for being a bad influence - which he's totally ineffectual at because Bean is already a screw-up.
As you might expect, "Disenchantment" often feels very derivative of previous shows, especially "Futurama." You see a lot of the same kinds of gags and character types, and the visuals are all in the same style. I don't take too much of an issue with this, except where our main characters are concerned. Bean and Elfo are somehow both derivative of Fry from "Futurama." Elfo in particular immediately gets stuck in the unrequited love interest role, largely abandoning the rebellious streak he had in the premiere. And while I like that Bean is a schlubby, imperfect heroine, at times she really just seems to be a female version of Fry - a well-meaning young idealist whose best efforts tend to blow up in her face. I like Abbi Jacobson's performance, but wish Bean were a little more distinctive. Even her drinking problem feels old hat.
The storytelling is also pretty dodgy at times. There's lots of adventuring, chase sequences, fights and, and other derring do to make everything feel exciting, but the main characters' interactions can be pretty awkward. Bean's growing pains and Elfo's crush are played completely straight, and come across as awfully trite at times. The writers try very hard to get us invested in the main trio's friendships, but are only sort of successful. Still, a lot of the kinks in the comedy get worked out as the series goes along, and we get into sillier plots like Bean getting a job, or Bean throwing a party while the King is gone. I thought that the fantasy setting might be limiting at first, but this quickly proves not to be the case at all. The show's creators have a ball with puns, satire, and skewering creative analogs for plenty of modern day targets.
I also like that "Disenchantment" leans into its melodrama, ultimately delivering a terrific finale full of twists and turns. "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" had some continuity, but the story progression was very slow. It's nice to see "Disenchanted" embracing soap opera style reveals and cliffhangers. After ten episodes, a lot has happened in Dreamland, and there's clearly plenty more to learn about how this universe operates. Not all of it works, but a lot of it does. I was especially happy to find that King Zog turned out to be one of the show's most sympathetic characters, and that the fate of Bean's hapless groom from the premiere became a running joke through several episodes. There are a lot of places that "Disenchanted" could go in subsequent seasons, and it has a deep bench of characters already established.
In short, I'm very interested in seeing where "Disenchantment" goes from here. This isn't as good as "Futurama" or "The Simpsons" at their best, but those shows also needed some time to become the classics everyone loved. The first season of "Disenchanted" is only so-so, but it accomplishes a lot, and displays the potential to really be something special.
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