REVIEWED: SEASON 1 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX
Disenchantment met with a rather lacklustre reception when its first ten episodes dropped in 2018. The series was arguably a victim of its creators’ success, immediately being judged against the likes of The Simpsons and Futurama; two of the greatest pieces of television ever created.
Sitcoms – even animated ones – almost always require a little bit of time to find their feet. Who remembers when Homer Simpson was just a wonky Walter Matthau-impression whose catchphrase was telling his family to come with him to get chocolate frosty milkshakes? Disenchantment was immediately being viewed and judged by a much wider, more mainstream audience than the one that would have watched it were Matt Groening’s signature not in the corner of every promotional still. Had Disenchantment debuted as a new show from relatively unknown talent, it would have likely been granted the same grace period afforded to its peers – shows like BoJack Horseman and Bob’s Burgers that endured incredibly questionable first seasons in order to later establish themselves as heavyweights of the genre. Frankly, even in its current state, Disenchantment can easily stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Big Mouth – it’s just that people don’t expect the same level of quality from Nick Kroll.
That said, there’s no denying that, out of the door, Disenchantment was off to a very rocky start. The lack of discipline afforded by Netflix’s “the running time can be whatever the hell you feel like” policy really damaged the show’s pacing. A tight 23 minutes (as seen on The Simpsons and Futurama) has its own drawbacks, but it forces the writers to be economical and it forces the gags to be crammed together as densely as possible. Disenchantment is, at times, a truly hilarious show, but waiting for the really funny jokes often feels like panning for gold… but, then, the show doesn’t really seem too concerned with how funny it is. Unlike The Simpsons, Disenchantment prioritises plotting and character development over laughs, and that’s OK.
The show was also plagued by a strange whiff of things, perhaps, being produced somewhat on the cheap. Many of the sound effects in the early episodes seemed like placeholders and while the general aesthetic of the series is gorgeous, the animation, itself, is incredibly inconsistent, mostly looking beautiful, but frequently featuring horribly clunky movements and wonky action-direction. The show is littered with shots that, had they appeared on one of Groening’s other projects, would have been sent back to Korea to be re-drawn, only to later appear as a DVD special-feature accompanied by audio commentary from the show’s wincing animators.
As a result, many people gave up on the show after an episode or two, which was a shame because it got really, really good as its ongoing story arc began to take shape. The last two episodes of Part 1 were truly fantastic television and suggested that everything was in place for Part 2 to maintain that same quality.
Sadly, that isn’t what happened. Part 2 never quite reaches the same lows of Part 1, but it also never quite reaches the same highs. The show still feels very much like it’s finding itself – and hey, it’s still in its first season – but there’s nothing in this new batch of episodes that will likely convince people who weren’t sold on the show by the end of the first ten.
Disenchantment is spinning a wonderful, playful-yet-epic yarn, but its insistence on making pitstops along the way to indulge in low-stakes sitcom antics isn’t doing it any favours. All of the pieces to make something truly wonderful in Season 2 are here – it just feels as though showrunners Josh Weinstein and Matt Groening are trying to assemble them hastily skim-reading a set of IKEA instructions. They’ll get there eventually, but it might only be once they realise that they’ve put the door on the wrong way round.
