Disenchantment is the Groeningverse’s dark, moody answer to fantasy.
On February 9th, fans of animated sci-fi comedy got the news they’ve been waiting for since 2013. Futurama is coming back-again. After 10 years off the air, Hulu has picked up the classic animated series for 20 more episodes to begin airing in 2023. The timing of this announcement was interesting, as it dropped on the exact same day as the newest season of Disenchantment, aka the show that everyone who worked on Futurama has been doing for the last 5 or so years.
Disenchantment follows Princess Bean, a rebellious, hard-drinking princess as she struggles to figure out her destiny as she struggles with evil mothers, curses, ogres, trolls, and pretty much everything in-between, alongside her two best friends: Elfo, a half-elf and Luci, Bean’s personal demon. After The Simpsons, a brilliant satire of modern life, and Futurama, a brilliant satire of sci-fi and the future, there was really only one place to go next: the past, which is exactly what Groening and co. did. What makes this show different from its predecessors, however, is that Disenchantment abandons the quick, snappy rapid-fire of jokes that makes Simpsons and Futurama so endlessly hilarious and rewatchable and trades it in for a dark and moody atmosphere that continues to build an over-arching story. Not to say that Disenchantment isn’t funny, it’s still a comedy after all, but it’s not what comes first here. Simpsons and Futurama both succeed very well in making you care about their protagonists, whether it's the titular Simpson family or the Planet Express crew, both shows can make you die laughing one second and have you tear up the next (see: Mother Simpson and Jurassic Bark), but for both shows, they are first and foremost comedies. Futurama definitely branches out more than the Simpsons does, having a set continuity and reoccurring plot points and themes (Nibbler and the brain spawn, Leela’s origins, Fry and Leela’s romance, etc.) but Futurama MOSTLY remained static and episodic, but Disenchantment abandons this for FULL plot. Instead of the perpetual nature of the Simpsons and Futurama, Disenchantment is written with a set beginning, middle and end in mind. Instead of the never-ending seasons of the Simpsons and the countless revivals of Futurama, Disenchantment is only intended to have six parts, which is something unheard of for Groening and co., but a very interesting direction to take.
Every episode of Disenchantment leads into the next, and the series features intricate, careful plotting akin to prestige TV, and drops hints for things to come YEARS before they actually do appear. For example, at the beginning of season 3, the show introduces an elf-like subterranean fantasy race named Trogs, who live below and inside the castle’s walls. In early season 1, you can see a Trog hiding in plain sight inside the bowels of the castle. Towards the end of season 2, the show introduces Steamland, a steampunk inspired metropolis complete with higher technology like airships, and in the pilot, you can see one of these airships surveying the kingdom of Dreamland from far off in the sky. Each season of Disenchantment introduces new characters and threads, and each season the characters come closer to finding out the truth about their origins and the world around them. It’s not uncommon for the show to take long pauses in dialogue as the characters explore beautiful, shadowy locales like an undersea abandoned castle, an enchanted forest, or even the depths of Hell itself. In Disenchantment every action matters, so they can’t use the typical joke structure of its predecessors. For example, in a classic Futurama episode, Bender learns that “people will pay good money for romance”, and then declares to his friends that he “has a scheme so deviously clever that-” and BAM, mid-sentence we cut to Bender being sentenced in court for a prostitution ring, and he promptly tells Leela to pay the fine before storming off, and the episode continues as normal. Things like this can’t happen in Disenchantment, due to both the setting and the nature of the story. Similarly, the actions of characters in Disenchantment end up having long-term ramifications. In the Futurama episode Roswell That Ends Well that sees the Planet Express crew travel in time and become the Roswell aliens, Bender’s head is accidentally left behind to sit in the sands of the New Mexico desert for well over a thousand years. When the crew eventually returns to get him, he simply says “I was enjoying it until you showed up!”. On Disenchantment, Bean’s father King Zog (who shares a voice actor with Bender) is buried alive for a few hours, and the resulting trauma drives him insane for an entire season, leaving the kingdom in shambles and forcing Bean to step up. Because of this tone shift. Disenchantment is far and away the least funny Groening show, and while I do love it, it doesn’t hold a candle to the peaks of both the Simpsons and Futurama. However, the show is incredibly engaging in its own right, and has crafted an engrossing fantasy epic that (hopefully) is leading to a great conclusion.
Because of its more niche appeal, Disenchantment is also far and away the least popular Groening show. The show still has two more seasons to go to finish up its story, but with a renewal still not announced, and with the crew working on new Futurama, I fear the worst. I hope I’m wrong, however, and I hope that Bean, Elfo and Luci get to finish their journey before we jump back into the world of tomorrow.
