Disenchantment

:

Season 1
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Aug 17, 2018
Season #: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
6.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 257 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 164 out of 257
  2. Mixed: 43 out of 257
  3. Negative: 50 out of 257

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User Reviews

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  1. BeeneMachine
    Sep 6, 2018
    3
    The pace meanders, the dialogue is flat, the characters are boring, and the jokes simply don't land. The worst part is that it's not even bad enough to enjoy ironically.
  2. HannibalB
    Oct 24, 2018
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This show depends too heavily on ongoing one-joke character gags: a demon who's always saying on-the-nose evil things, a drunken Tomboy of a princess, a slob King with a Brooklyn accent. This is old. It goes back to the '40s, and it really wasn't that funny even then. There are other, more interesting ways to subvert expectations, but Disenchantment seems to go for all the easy ones. The characters are so defined by their stereotypes, that you can't really get beyond them. And even in cartoons, character matters. This is a disappointing offering from a brilliant team. Maybe they're just too tired to come up with new things.… Expand
  3. ucankabak
    Dec 20, 2018
    0
    Sorry but it was really terrible. Not funny, also that elmo guy grinds me up so hard.
  4. night4
    Aug 24, 2018
    3
    This is absolutely not funny in any way. I'm actually offended by how similar it is to Futurama. They're literally plagiarizing their own work, which is absolutely shameful. It is bad and the creators should feel bad.

    That rant aside, I haven't laughed once at it, and I'm not a difficult person to make laugh. The main characters are blatant copies of Fry, Leela, and Bender, and it's boring.
  5. ComandanteCobra
    Aug 28, 2018
    3
    It dind't amuse me. It isn't a moking of fantasy cliches or a different approach of cartoon comedy...it's just low quality sketches.
    It look dated, derivated, slow, prevedible so I stop watching after 5 episodes.
    There is much better out there, old or new, ...Gorgoth of Barbaria, Adventure Time, Futurama,
    Archer, South Park ..all are better that this one.
  6. arnav99
    Aug 19, 2018
    3
    Wow, honestly.... this show is a mess, a horrible and disappointing mess. Matt Groening has either run out of ideas or isn't even trying to make this show watchable. After creating 2 beloved series that have tugged at our heartstrings and introducing so many beloved characters, Matt Groening's third venture is a big flop and a huge slap in the face of anyone who is looking to be capturedWow, honestly.... this show is a mess, a horrible and disappointing mess. Matt Groening has either run out of ideas or isn't even trying to make this show watchable. After creating 2 beloved series that have tugged at our heartstrings and introducing so many beloved characters, Matt Groening's third venture is a big flop and a huge slap in the face of anyone who is looking to be captured by the charm and loveability that Matt Groening has imbued in his other characters.

    This show is so lifeless and derivative, the cast is so generic and the humor is pretty much non existent throughout the series. This show obviously hasn't had great care in the writing room since the jokes are horrible punchlines. I've chuckled twice and I've never been emotionally moved even once during this series. Simpsons and Futurama had characters whose relationships we were actively emotionally invested in giving us so many moving moments throughout the series.

    However, I could never connect to the cast of Disenchantment, the main character is an edgy brat, the elf is an airheaded weirdo complete with the good ol sexual tension subplot that just feels weird and unearned. The demon is fine, he's the reason I chuckled twice but he's far from redeeming the show, definitely a worse Bender.

    This show is such a disapointing excuse of a Matt Groening creation, I cannot believe that the comedy is so damn bad. It's so weird that I've never laughed out loud ONCE during this show. I hate the characters, they aren't likeable at all and honestly that's what I've loved the most from Simpsons and Futurama, those few sweet character focused moments in the absurd world that they live in, the one constant whether it be the sibling anomosity/rivalry/love or be it the romantic tension between 2 people that posess hugely different mindset in life, I've never gotten that here. .

    It just doesn't work here and I hope there's a huge changeup in the writing team because this show so far should have never even gone beyond the drawing board, it's just really bad.    … Expand
  7. EludiumQ36
    Aug 29, 2018
    3
    Wow, so many shills here. How can you tell? The shills don't go deep, don't discuss details, just shallow and vague praise. The real critics here provide details. This is NOT an 8/9/10 show, at best it's a 6 or 7. I'll give a 3 since it's poor and I wouldn't watch this season again. The artwork is good but doesn't break new ground. The voices are familiar coming largely from "Futurama".Wow, so many shills here. How can you tell? The shills don't go deep, don't discuss details, just shallow and vague praise. The real critics here provide details. This is NOT an 8/9/10 show, at best it's a 6 or 7. I'll give a 3 since it's poor and I wouldn't watch this season again. The artwork is good but doesn't break new ground. The voices are familiar coming largely from "Futurama". But annoyingly, John D ("Bender" before, "King Zog" here) largely channels Archie Bunker of 70s classic "All in the Family". "Luci" the flatly drawn demon "cat" is a much too obvious comedic foil, akin to JarJar Binks. And the writing is lazy throughout. The elf character is named "Elfo", great, thanks guys for spending the 2 minutes to determine that. The series plays out in sequential fashion so it's more like an extended movie/film than a tv series. This departs from Futurama and Family Guy where the episodes are more disconnected. That in itself doesn't make it better or worse but when you do the serialized plot then there better be a good payoff to justify the 10 episode commitment you've made, and it's not, it's just meh and disappointing overall. This is a throwaway, forgettable season. Even if this show plays out for multiple seasons, you're not going to want to watch this season again.… Expand
  8. SimonKhan
    Aug 23, 2018
    2
    I wanted to love it so bad, but most joke just fell flat, the character are either despicable or boring, the story goes nowhere. Sadly bad.
  9. Tal_Kalon
    Aug 29, 2018
    3
    Was so excited about Matt Groening tackling a fantasy cartoon, and on Netflix too! But it's so uninspired, boring, and unfunny that I barely finished the pilot episode. I don't understand how this is satisfying anyone.
  10. thisseatofmars
    Aug 19, 2018
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. There's more room for comedy and grand ideas in science fiction because SF is the art of the possible. Futurama is a genius show because it managed to be both hilarious and have clever SF plots. For example, the time travel episodes connected to other episodes while maintaining a SF logic. Look at the episode "Roswell that Ends Well," a (hilarious) story that developed into a larger plot where Fry is the chosen one to ward off the brain spawn. Or, the episode focusing on Fry's dog, which would not have been as touching if not for the internal SF logic keeping the plot together. And, thanks to the open nature of SF, Futurama was even able to have fantasy-focused plots, like "The Honking" and even "Bender's Game."

    Straight-up fantasy isn't as strong because for it to remain fantasy it has to adhere to stricter confines. Science fiction can be post-apocalyptic, set in a space station, a military setting, or even a few years from now, like Pacific Rim. SF can even be part fantasy, like Star Wars. Fantasy by itself however is almost always set in a castle. Sure enough, the opening of Disenchanted is in a pub, then castle town, then the castle. You have fairies, ogres, elves, and demons, all standard fare for fantasy. The only new or interesting element is the king's wife, who appears to be a member of a Zora-like race from the Zelda series.

    But such innovations are rare given the limitations of fantasy and Disenchantment's stubborn choice to play it safe. The show is filled with stock, boring characters. The protagonists are all the same, in that they feel like they don't "fit in." A spoiled brat princess who wants to be a warrior? Holy cheese but that is a plot as old as time. An elf who doesn't like being a happy elf? It sounds like the creators saw that crappy Will Ferrel (spelled right?) movie and just ran with that plot. The elf even remarks in episode nine, when approaching the other elves, "I smell cocoa, caramel, and conformity!" Wow, what a rebel. How about you take charge and muster up ambition instead of complaining, dude?

    It is a tactical and insulting choice of using such malcontent characters who refuse to fit into society as Disenchantment's protagonists. The creators of Disenchantment are trying to pander to a demographic, the demo being misfits, losers, basement dwellers: people who have always wondered why they don't "fit in" while stubbornly refusing to change and/or better themselves. After all, who else would watch an animated sitcom about three bores who run away from responsibility to play in a fantasy world? Sounds like the comics and video game industry to me. (By the way, the creators of the show are very wealthy people: they certainly "fit in.")

    Disenchantment tries to make you laugh with bouts of gore and violence, a cheap attempt to make you laugh with shock. (Huh, elves and gnomes blowing up giants. Clever, guys.) But in this day and age, such cartoon violence is ancient, old hat. The most famous episode of Rick and Morty (a tedious and overrated show) is the one where Rick turns himself into a pickle and slaughters a group of sewer rats: but really, the violent parts of that episode were the most forgettable. There's also a monologue in the pilot where a priest-type character proclaims skepticism in her belief in God, ending with the line, "If I talk with confidence, you dopes will believe anything I say." (Shots at people who believe in God. That's great, guys. Enjoy that false feeling of superiority, and that big empty hole in your heart.)

    I suppose the show has some potential. The colours are beautiful, many backgrounds looking like they were done with watercolours. I also like the design of the demon Luci... but not the voice. He's well designed, almost always appearing in profile form, with a long black pointed tail and tiny cute horns: I can see the design working well in a comic strip. But the voice spoils him. He would've been stronger with a voice more like Bender's from Futurama, instead of some smarmy hipster-type dude. Bender's voice is different, and it needs to be different because he is a robot. Luci the demon sounds like someone you reach when calling customer support. It's weird too, the similarities between Luci and Bender: both are misanthropes, both smoke cigars and drink hard liquor, both say "chump" like it's meant to be funny. But Luci's black sprite design is the highlight, and most original and clever part of the show.

    Is the show funny? No, not at all, it is actually very slow. You chuckle once every 25 minutes or so. If this was Groening's first effort he'd be forced out of television and into a different field (perhaps even a literal field, like landscaping or agriculture or something). It doesn't help that a lot of the season is a tease. Apart from the tired gags (rejected from Futurama?) the plot offers no closure. After this limpness of this first season, I'm not motivated to watch more.    … Expand
  11. FearlessKing
    Aug 22, 2018
    2
    I really wanted to like the show. I love the fantasy setting and have been a fan of The Simpsons and Futurama for as long as I can remember. Plus, with an all star voice lineup and a Netflix budget it seemed like an easy home run.

    However, the writing is just offensively bad. Not only are the jokes completely lazy, but so is the overall plot. It feels like Groening phoned this one in. I    I really wanted to like the show. I love the fantasy setting and have been a fan of The Simpsons and Futurama for as long as I can remember. Plus, with an all star voice lineup and a Netflix budget it seemed like an easy home run.

    However, the writing is just offensively bad. Not only are the jokes completely lazy, but so is the overall plot. It feels like Groening phoned this one in. I read online that "Things get better around episodes 8 or 9! Just stick with it!" But this excuse didn't hold up for me. There are no redeeming qualities to be found. There is no silver lining. Don't waste your time on this garbage show.

    God forbid more seasons of this crap get released. If so, I look forward to not watching them.    … Expand
  12. 19x
    Aug 20, 2018
    3
    Matt Groening laughing all the way to the bank. The rest of us not so much. Simply put another meh show in Netflixs long list of below average to terrible original programming.
  13. McGillotine
    Aug 17, 2018
    3
    I have to ask is this a Kids shows?, Adult comedy?, or is it something you watch for when your extremely baked?. I'm asking because i have no idea who the target audience for this show is. Matt Groening's most recent 'comedy' creation is lackluster beyond all belief, with dull plot lines, a weak premise and above all boring characters there is little to be invested in, in the shows shortI have to ask is this a Kids shows?, Adult comedy?, or is it something you watch for when your extremely baked?. I'm asking because i have no idea who the target audience for this show is. Matt Groening's most recent 'comedy' creation is lackluster beyond all belief, with dull plot lines, a weak premise and above all boring characters there is little to be invested in, in the shows short 10 episode run.… Expand
  14. Rednetter
    Aug 30, 2018
    1
    The same joke, over and over and over again. Had it been funny, ok maybe I could have enjoyed an episode, but the execution of the "humor" reminded me of Michael Scott in the office. It was like "Simpsons for Dummies".

    Oh what, you really loved this show and wanted to read a positive review about it? Well here's one for you... this is a negative review! hahahahaha. Ooh, you just got    The same joke, over and over and over again. Had it been funny, ok maybe I could have enjoyed an episode, but the execution of the "humor" reminded me of Michael Scott in the office. It was like "Simpsons for Dummies".

    Oh what, you really loved this show and wanted to read a positive review about it? Well here's one for you... this is a negative review! hahahahaha. Ooh, you just got burnt. [repeat x 100]    … Expand
  15. ozymandias79
    Aug 18, 2018
    3
    Certainly disenchanting. The biggest issue is how overwhelmingly unfunny this show is. Maybe one or two jokes in four episodes got a smirk out of me. Couldn't make it past episode four, it was just too boring. Nice animation, but the writing lacks any degree of humor.
  16. kaenek
    Aug 18, 2018
    2
    I was waiting for this. Hoping for the fresh approach of Futurama or something completely different with actual storytelling.

    What I got was a series of dad jokes and a Disney's Brave story. 1. This is not funny. I smiled a couple of times. This is 12 yers old comedy with an occasional sex joke or a brutal kill. This is not adult comedy. This is "I can't write scripts" comedy. 2. The    I was waiting for this. Hoping for the fresh approach of Futurama or something completely different with actual storytelling.

    What I got was a series of dad jokes and a Disney's Brave story.
    1. This is not funny. I smiled a couple of times. This is 12 yers old comedy with an occasional sex joke or a brutal kill. This is not adult comedy. This is "I can't write scripts" comedy.
    2. The characters are bland. Elfo doesn't exist. Bean has no set character and motivations. Half of the story motivation comes from Luci (who is a pretty well written character, but lazy art style makes me not care for him much) and that motivation is "let's do something wicked".
    3. This is a second show, after Final Space, to wrap up with "everything ended horribly halfway through a sentence, let's hope there's another season". I think this is because of the "whole season" release strategy.

    Don't watch lazy tv or we'll end up with mediocre characterless popculture. This is one of the laziest tv shows there.    … Expand
  17. Customer
    Aug 17, 2018
    3
    Disenchantment is certain to disappoint. Terrible jokes that fall flat every time. Music score that depresses. Characters that are boring and unrelatable. Story-lines that are weak and boring.

    Stay away from this one and watch reruns of the Simpsons or Futurama instead. Even if you've seen them 50 times, it's more entertaining than this.
  18. Donttalk2
    Aug 18, 2018
    3
    I love early SIMPSONS and FUTURAMA (and SOUTH PARK, BOJACK and dark humour), but I find this mix of sentimentality and sadism rather disturbing (not to say disgusting). We live in openly violent times, do we really need this kind of casual brutaliity in a cartoon? I miss playfullness, surprises and any kind of love for the genre. Good characters, good animation, but for me the show is tooI love early SIMPSONS and FUTURAMA (and SOUTH PARK, BOJACK and dark humour), but I find this mix of sentimentality and sadism rather disturbing (not to say disgusting). We live in openly violent times, do we really need this kind of casual brutaliity in a cartoon? I miss playfullness, surprises and any kind of love for the genre. Good characters, good animation, but for me the show is too bleak, too slow, too repetitive and too cruel.… Expand
  19. Eman0221
    Aug 18, 2018
    3
    The name of this show is quite apt as it is pretty disenchanting. It shows that Groening and his brand of humor and writing haven't really changed, grown, or matured in over thirty years, as it seems he's just riding on the coattails of Futurama and The Simpsons for a quick cash in.

    Archer, Bob's Burgers, Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty, and Venture Bros are showing how to do adult    The name of this show is quite apt as it is pretty disenchanting. It shows that Groening and his brand of humor and writing haven't really changed, grown, or matured in over thirty years, as it seems he's just riding on the coattails of Futurama and The Simpsons for a quick cash in.

    Archer, Bob's Burgers, Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty, and Venture Bros are showing how to do adult cartoon and animation right in this day and age. Groening who pioneered the genre and inspired all of those shows should be leading the charge, instead, he's just recycling the same brand of characters and humor from Futurama and The Simpsons, literally down to the same voice actors from those shows. Sure, this first season could be the same first rough start as those shows and it could get better as time goes on, but it's more disappointing as a whole to see that Groening is still the same after all these years. Perhaps its time for him to hang it up for good if he is unable to evolve and grow his brand of humor and let the new generation that he influenced take over.    … Expand
  20. Angel_Sigh
    Aug 31, 2018
    3
    I know this has already received pretty 'mixed' reviews, so most people won't be expecting too much from Disenchantment - after all, the Groening name has lost some of its lustre after the atrocity exhibition of late-period Simpsons, The Show That Wouldn't Die, as well as the slightly 'meh' quality of Futurama as it progressed. So I think people were hoping for something great but had theI know this has already received pretty 'mixed' reviews, so most people won't be expecting too much from Disenchantment - after all, the Groening name has lost some of its lustre after the atrocity exhibition of late-period Simpsons, The Show That Wouldn't Die, as well as the slightly 'meh' quality of Futurama as it progressed. So I think people were hoping for something great but had the good sense not to expect it, and like I said, the reviews bear this out.

    I'm here to tell you the reviews are wrong, or at least the Metacritic rating is wrong. There is no way this is a 55% show, as it is at the moment. It is much, much worse. It is fist-chewingly bad in places, and at times I just had to marvel at the fact that it got made at all.
    Sometimes with a show it's a combination of factors that render it unwatchable - the actin, plot holes, rubbish soundtrack, etc., they all come together to make something rubbish on a general level. That's not the case with Disenchantment, because there is plenty about it that is very good...
    - it's lovely to look at; I still like the Groening aesthetic, it still has charm, and character designs are as likable as ever, the princess with her two buck teeth in particular.
    - the soundtrack is decent enough
    - the voice acting is pretty good, with some brilliant choices in regards to British comedians. Noel Fielding, from The Mighty Boosh and The IT Crowd pops up, as does Matt Berry from The IT Crowd again, who is as dementedly brilliant as usual, and does the best he can given the quality of writing he has to work with.

    And that's what decimates the show: the writing. It is so bad, SO bad, there are moments where your mouth falls open at its awfulness. There are jokes where you spend thirty seconds trying to figure out whether it even is a joke, or just a non-sequitur that randomly found its way into the script. There are awful, obvious jokes, there are jokes that try to be smart, there are obvious jokes, there are ones that aim for subtlety but just end up unintelligible. There are all kinds of jokes, and I'd say 98% of them are either awful or depressingly obvious. The writing is staggeringly bad. Its best moments are so few and far between that you end up thinking they weren't actually intentional, and the writers just accidentally wrote something funny, much like one chimp in a thousand will accidentally manage to get onto the zookeeper's phone and start Skyping someone.

    It's baffling that something with Groening's name attached to it is so profoundly unfunny. Despite the nosedive in quality over at the Simpsons, and despite the slightly up and down quality of late Futurama, both those shows started out focused and uproariously funny, with brilliant characters embedded from the very beginning. The first series of Futurama is sublime, both in its pastichey elements and in the tightness and brilliance of its writing, and although The Simpsons' peak came, imho, around season 4, its first season was still fabulously, cynically, funny. The writing in Disenchantment is so bewilderingly bad it's impossible to understand how Groening thought it was acceptable as is. I can only assume his involvement extended no further than coming up with the setting and the three main characters, because if I thought he was satisfied with things as they stand my respect for him would go through the floor. Maybe he's bored - you certainly get the feeling from this show, that no-one involved cared that much about the quality.

    Either way, I promise you, you _will_ be disappointed. This is one of the worst things I've watched in a long time. Fans of Groening's work might want to watch it for the appearance of some of his staple voice actors and actresses(John DiMaggio as the king is relatively likable, perhaps a character that could be rescued from the mediocrity of the show if they fleshed him out a little), or the reassuring Groening art style, or they might just like watching a well animated, stylish cartoon that parodies the fantasy world.
    But if you're a Groening fan above all because of the sheer brilliance of the writing in his shows, the scrape-yourself-up-off-the-floor hilariousness of prime Simpsons, then you may find your heart broken after watching this.    … Expand
  21. KeenWatcher
    Feb 19, 2019
    3
    When I watched this all I could think of was not disenchantment as a fantasy comedy. More like disappointment.
  22. Virrus999
    Feb 15, 2022
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Season 4 of the series is the worst of all. Plotting around LGBT propaganda turned a good series into 0… Expand

Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Most Discussed TV Season of 2018
15
#15 Most Shared TV Season of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
56

Mixed or average reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 27
  3. Negative: 1 out of 27
  1. Reason.com
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    Sep 22, 2018
    70
    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.
    Read full review
  2. IndieWire
    Reviewed by: Ben Travers
    Aug 17, 2018
    58
    In the last three episodes, Disenchantment embraces its story in a way that makes for easy viewing--there’s still nothing revolutionary here, and much of the comedy is still too stagnant, but it’s a far more effective fairy tale.
    Read full review
  3. The Atlantic
    Reviewed by: Sophie Gilbert
    Aug 17, 2018
    50
    Disenchantment just feels full of potential that it hasn’t yet figured out. That’s maybe because it stays very much in safe territory.
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