Disenchantment: The Second Half of the First Season
September 20, 2019 1:01 PM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe

 
I didn't realize it was even a half-season. I really enjoyed the first half and will check this out tonight. Really my biggest issue with the show is I fear getting attached. Futurama had a shaky run, and Netflix doesn't hesitate to make something and then drop it if they don't like the numbers and they have a very direct line to the numbers.
posted by GoblinHoney at 2:39 PM on September 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


"Bite my shiny metal axe".
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 8:28 PM on September 22, 2019 [4 favorites]


There's a good overarching plot, with Dagmar and the kingdom of Maru, and I wish we got more of that. Some of the episodes felt like filler, which feels very wasteful when the season is so short. The stuff with Ursula and the octopus, for example, felt unnecessary. I kept thinking they would lead back to the main plot but they didn't. The first half had a few like that too, but it felt less wasteful since it's the beginning of the show. Once the story started rolling with Dagmar and co. it felt like they lost that momentum once Dreamland was saved and the characters didn't do more. And the Steamland plot was so interesting but then it fizzled, like I don't know why Bean didn't just start telling Zog about everything she saw and heard instead of trying to convince the council, and then it was dropped once the trial started. I'm sure they'll circle back to it since it's clear that the Steamland people were hired to take out Zog, but I wanted more with them in this season.

I still enjoyed it overall. The comedy isn't as prolific as other shows, but when it hits, it really gets me. And there's enough mystery left open everywhere that I want answers to.
posted by numaner at 9:38 AM on September 25, 2019


These bits from the linked TV Guide review pretty much sum up my feelings for the show thus far:

"The three episodes that end Season 1 and the three that begin Season 2 are as good as Disenchantment gets, with an engrossing, high-stakes storyline worthy of any fantasy series.

But, bummer — by mid-season the show has reverted as far back to status quo as continuity will allow. [. . .] The majority of the season's episodes are stand-alones, with funny gags and beautiful backgrounds, but without a strong through line that makes us immediately jump to the next episode. Any given episode may be better or worse than an analogous episode of Futurama, but it doesn't feel new, necessary, or compulsory.

The secondary and tertiary characters tend to talk and behave like characters from The Simpsons, and Dreamland and its characters are often white-coded, 20th-century based stock types.

Disenchantment works best when it is an inspired, anything-goes fantasy show, and worst when it is a sitcom set in a fantasy world.
"

I've worked my way through the whole season, but in a desultory, "Well, why not, I've still got a load of laundry in the dryer and time to kill" kind of way, not an "Ooooh, this is good, what happens next and I really like these characters" kind of way.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:03 PM on September 30, 2019


Did we ever find out what "the very thing" was that made the elves move into a ghetto in Dreamland?
posted by whuppy at 6:28 AM on October 10, 2019


I don't think we did? Maybe it's related to the weird critters at the very end of the season in the cave that the three heroes^H^H^H^H^H^H main characters fall into?

And an +1 to the general feeling that it's good but not great and that the middle dragged.
posted by miguelcervantes at 7:00 PM on December 6, 2019


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