Disenchantment

[Reply #80 on:]

Part 2 of season 1 is out now, season 2 is next year. I still think me looking like the main character on the show is really kinda spooky.

[Reply #81 on:]

That's a good point.  I hadn't considered that, but the main character does look a lot like you.

[Reply #82 on:]

Part 2 of season 1 is out now, season 2 is next year.

That's a really confusing and pointless distinction. I'm not sure why they bothered going that direction, although I suppose it isn't really much different than what Futurama did in its last two seasons.

Anyway, I liked part 2. It's not outrageously funny, but it's very consistently entertaining and definitely worth watching. I like where the overall story is going, but I kind of wish there was less filler in the middle.

Pirate Oona was my favourite sub-plot. I hope she gets more to do in the future.

Speaking of future, there's a number of Futurama references.

Show spoiler

"Bite my shiny metal axe!"
A drawer with assorted lengths of wires
Farnsworth Avenue
"Let's goooooo alreadddddy"

[Reply #83 on:]

I'm hoping this gets a DVD/bluray release soon. I like my Groening shows with audio commentaries.

[Reply #84 on:]

Just seen Part 2 as well. Must say, the first 3 episodes were pretty darn strong. Everything afterwards however..... was a big strong meh for me. Humor still sucks, maybe worse than part 1 since I don't remember a single time I laughed. I truly want to enjoy this show, but I just can't seem to find it worth going back to rewatch unlike any episode of Futurama or The Simpsons in it's first 12 seasons. Which is pretty sad because this show does have alot of potential. Still, I'm hopeful with time the quality may get better and the meta humor won't be as awful.

[Reply #85 on:]

Haven't seen anything beyond S1/Ep05 or so, and would very much like to get it on disc. For me, it started slow and really picked up. idk what other people are dying to see in the show, but for me, it's simply characters I can relate to, who I care about.

[Reply #86 on:]

I enjoyed the show for what it was, but it wasn't anything stellar. I wonder if this started on TV when I was 15 in the year 2000 if I would have liked it. I wonder if Futurama started today if I would have ever liked it as much as I did. I wonder if Matt Groening's output has actually declined in quality or if it's the same and I've changed.

[Reply #87 on:]

It's because Matt Groening's gotten old and is getting less funny. I was never a big fan of the Futurama movies or when it was on CC. It felt more like The Simpsons latter years.

[Reply #88 on:]

I'm only three episodes in but so far I'm really enjoying it. It is cool how the protagonist looks just like an animated HomerJaySimpson

[Reply #89 on:]

I'm glad to see Disenchantment is back for a third season

[Reply #90 on:]

A very confused third season that didn't seem to know precisely where it wanted to go, and introduced a couple of major contradictions with its own established continuity.

I mean, it's still good. It's still funny. It's just a little messy. Hopefully that's resolved with Season Four.

[Reply #91 on:]

Yeah, the show is still sadly very underwhelming. I've come to terms with the fact that it will likely never hold a candle to Futurama.

Don't get me wrong; I enjoy it. The animation is excellent and its got a great cast of characters. But I just don't find it very funny, and it seems to be developing a habit of introducing new plot points faster than it can resolve them.

I do appreciate the fact that Elfo is no longer an annoying shit... but Zog fills that role now (that "honking" or whatever it was got old fast).

[Reply #92 on:]

Watched the "3th Season" still nothing to write home about. This show needs a Poochie, so it can go back to it's home planet. Why did they draw someone that looks kinda like me on the show. Still creeped out.

[Reply #93 on:]

Finally watched these. It was OK. I don't like the kind of serialization TV uses as a crutch these days anyway, I just think it's kind of lazy writing. Some shows do it well, The Mandolorian for example has an overarching plot, but each episode generally exists as a self contained unit with a beginning middle and end. Then on the other side of the coin, you have something like Star Trek: Piccard, which is lazily written and doesn't resolve any conflicts at all until its very last episode.

Disenchantment this season was closer to Piccard, and it was compounded by the fact that they seem to have trouble keeping the threads of the story straight. It also doesn't help that Every season also ends exactly the same way; her mother shows up, turns everything sideways, and sets things in motion for the next season. After the first two seasons, it was super predictable this time around, and it reminds me of a daytime soap opera where characters are killed off or written out of the show only to make a surprise appearance later to set up a cliffhanger. The difference is most daytime dramas make hundreds of episodes a year, while all the Disenchantment crew had to do was come up with unique ideas for ten episodes a year.

There was a glimpse of what Disenchantment could have been in here. Episode 8, "Hey, Pig Spender" presented an episodic story with a beginning a middle and an end, a satisfying conclusion and lots of great belly laughs. In my mind it's far better than any other episode this season, and is much closer to a Simpsons/Futurama style formula I personally would want from Groening and co.

[Reply #94 on:]

Finally watched these. It was OK. I don't like the kind of serialization TV uses as a crutch these days anyway, I just think it's kind of lazy writing.

Yeah I definitely agree with that, everyone is doing this now and its getting a little tedious, I miss the more episodic shows.. Initially it was good when only a couple were doing it like the Sopranos but due to the popularity of such shows now everyone is doing it, even the likes of South Park. I think shows like South Park, Futurama, Disenchantment are best served by being mainly self contained episodes but with overarching plot such as Leels'a origin. They should be watchable out of order.

[Reply #95 on:]

Finally watched these. It was OK. I don't like the kind of serialization TV uses as a crutch these days anyway, I just think it's kind of lazy writing.

Yeah I definitely agree with that, everyone is doing this now and its getting a little tedious, I miss the more episodic shows.. Initially it was good when only a couple were doing it like the Sopranos but due to the popularity of such shows now everyone is doing it, even the likes of South Park. I think shows like South Park, Futurama, Disenchantment are best served by being mainly self contained episodes but with overarching plot such as Leels'a origin. They should be watchable out of order.

Yes, I agree. The Next Generation is a good example of how you can have continuity, but still make each episode its own little self-contained story.

[Reply #96 on:]

I like Disenchantment. Within minutes of a season (part) drop, I binge watch the whole batch. Mind you, I'm on the east coast of the United States so that means I'm typically up from 3 am trying to watch as many before I fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. It's enjoyable, I wish all the best for the series, but it is no Futurama. I'm in love with Futurama and miss it all the time (especially now with nothing going on in my life). Disenchantment just doesn't capture my adoration the same way. I love Luci and all the characters played by Eric Andre, King Zog is great, Merkimer has grown on me, Emperor Cloyd is a favorite, Oona is lovely, Skybert is sexy, Alva is to a lesser degree, Dagmar is well-acted... But there's some misses. I don't sympathize with Tiabeanie as much as the show wants me to, Elfo borders on annoying, and my least liked character is Mora. She and I wouldn't get along in real life.

I want Disenchantment to succeed, I really do, but I fear Netflix is going to not renew the series after this fourth part is released. I think the show is just too expensive and not pulling in the numbers to warrant another order. It will be a shame because I don't think the crew has plans to conclude the story within the next ten episodes and I bet the story in full is the best part of Disenchantment too.

Disenchantment was made to be serialized. It's not bad, it's just different. But the large dumps of episodes is hurting popularity. If the show dripped episodes over two months, it would have espoused more fan interest such as speculation and theories.

If Futurama were to ever return, I would prefer story arcs like Gravity Falls. Many episodes would still be self-contained adventures, but the beginning and end of seasons would focus heavily on plot development with some subplots in the middle building up to an exciting conclusion.

[Reply #97 on:]

They could bring back that dog with the shifty eyes, and make it more like Mad About You, like in my fanfic.

[Reply #98 on:]

Disenchantment part 4/second half of the second production season dropped two days ago (on a Wednesday, I don't know if that's a bad omen). I binged it in one sitting in the morning it came out, so I didn't know about the Futurama announcement for a little bit after I finished. This part was pretty much nonstop story and while I appreciate the focus on the overarching narrative, most of the events that went down were already figured out by fans a while ago (Elfo's mother, the relationship between elves and trogs, Jasper), so I wasn't shocked by anything. Actually, I felt annoyed by the end more than anything. Last post I said I didn't like Mora. Now I just straight-up hate her. She saves Bean from drowning on two separate occasions. The first time didn't need to be so because Bean and friends were already getting rescued by Oona's pirate crew. I could forgive one rescue, though coincidences generally should not work in the hero's favor. The second rescue was just ridiculous then. How are we supposed to believe that Mora was in the right part of the ocean, outside of Dreamland castle, for the two separate instances, less than five minute windows, that Bean needed rescued? I'm sorry, I can only suspend disbelief so much before you lose me. Mora was never entertaining and now the only reasons she exist are to play lifeguard at just the right moment and be Bean's obsession. And of course the last shot of the season, probably series, has to be Bean and Mora making out underwater.

It's The Legend of Korra all over again with Bean as Korra and Mora as Asami, the personality-free prize. If you're going to do a homosexual relationship, at least develop both characters as individuals as Steven Universe and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power did. In all honesty, it felt like Bean's relationship with Mora was added to attract the LGBT crowd more than to assist with Bean's character development. It's not necessary. Bean didn't need a love interest- she's got enough crap going on in her life and there's plenty to unpack with her relationship with Dagmar.

[Reply #99 on:]

I watched this the week. Each season of this show gets progressively worse and it was only kind of OK to begin with.

I'm not a fan of the mystery box format to begin with, but it really does not work for Groening's style of writing and humor. The show suffers from an identity crises and does not know what it wants to be. One moment they try to push it as a mystery box show with season long arcs and the next they just reset entire character arcs that they spend ten episodes building. In Futurama and the Simpsons where everything is self contained and everything is reset by the next episode this is OK. You get a little humor and maybe a little emotional catharsis and then after 20 minutes the story is done and that's all the show is. Here, they'll take hours of your time building up this subplot or character arc, and there won't really be any jokes or catharsis, and then they'll just throw the whole arc they just spent several episodes building out with a gag they already did on the Simpsons or Futurama 20 years ago as the only payoff and it feels like your time has been wasted.


The episodes that are little self contained stories are the best ones. If that was what the show aspired to, it would have been OK, a solid C+/B- show with post golden era Simpsons quality jokes that miss more than they hit, but when they occasionally land they are pretty good. In its current format it's not even entertaining. It just feels like someone is purposely wasting my time.

On a side note, the idea today that every scripted show seemingly has to be serialized and follow this mystery box format where the every season is this mystery the characters have to solve and each season ends by setting up a new mystery is complete fucking cancer. It's lazy writing that never delivers a payoff or a proper plot resolution.

[Reply #100 on:]

Final Season releases September 1st

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9XrFzLYi-Y

[Reply #101 on:]

I hope that end the series with they dog with shifty eyes at the end, so you knew all along who the bad guy was from the beginning, because you saw that one episode of the Simpsons with Mel Gibson's rendition of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  It'll be like Nibbler's shadow in Futurma.

[Reply #102 on:]

On a side note, the idea today that every scripted show seemingly has to be serialized and follow this mystery box format where the every season is this mystery the characters have to solve and each season ends by setting up a new mystery is complete fucking cancer. It's lazy writing that never delivers a payoff or a proper plot resolution.

Amen. Everyone took J.J. Abrams' approach and said 'Let's do that, but somehow manage to make it even less of a satisfying pay-off for the viewers because we can't be arsed to actually take notes on our own plots to connect any dots!' Episodic entertainment is valid and, well, entertaining! I hope it comes back soon. When will it come back from the war?

Also, I had no idea this show was even still airing. I legitimately thought it had died years ago on the cliffhanger about Bean's mom.

[Reply #103 on:]

I finished the season and I agree; episodes 9 and 10 are great. I can't wait for season 2.

It's a shame that part 2 immediately reset the quality to that of the start of part 1. And then part 3 was the same. And then part 4 was perhaps the most aimless, unstructured, not especially funny bunch of episodes yet. The show is a huge waste of potential.

I'm hoping part 5 picks up considerably though. Part 1 ended on such a high because it felt like they had a direction -- somewhere to go. The other parts have felt aimless. Part 5 is the show's ending so hopefully it will feel like it has a destination that it's working towards from the beginning and it'll help them tighten everything up.

[Reply #104 on:]

Since Disenchantment is definitely in the future of the Futuramaverse, this means Mora is a descendant of the Atlanteans. I wonder if that means they have managed to hang on to a rebreather or two to allow Bean to breathe underwater?

[Reply #105 on:]

So wait, the Futurama and Disenchantment universes are connected? When did this happen & how did I never hear about it?

Just kidding, but seriously speaking I found the series finale to this show to be ultimately lackluster, although it could have admittedly been much worse.

[Reply #106 on:]

The entire show was lacklustre.

The finale suffered from the main issue the entire series had which was awful, stop-start pacing.

But also that they established death has no consequences in, what? The second half of season 1? Meaning that who cares about anything that happens at the end -- particularly the stuff involving attempts to reach us, emotionally, with character sacrifices, etc.

[Reply #107 on:]

I'm not sure what was worse of Matt G this show or Life In Hell.