Disenchantment is an animated sitcom by Matt Groening, who has also brought us The Simpsons and Futurama. Taking place in a fantasy world, we follow Bean, the princess of Dreamland. Who is anything but the image of princesses made famous by Disney. She's a hard-drinking and rebellious teenager who is always getting into fights, mostly with her overbearing father, King Zog.
Bean is often accompanied by her two closest companions, Elfo and Luci. Elfo is an elf of the candy-making fairy tale variety as opposed to the Tolkein variety, who left his perpetually happy but soulless homeland to see the world. He has a kind heart, but his sheltered life often makes him come across as naive. He looks an awful lot like Bart Simpson while his personality is similar to Fry. Meanwhile, Luci is a catlike "personal demon" who was sent to Bean under the guise of a wedding present. He shamelessly serves as a sociopathic enabler (which doesn't take much effort, considering Bean), and is very similar to Bender. This does mean that there is plenty of bickering between him and Elfo, who acts as more of a moral guardian.
As this show is on Netflix, there is a lot more adult humour than what Matt could get away with if he was writing for terrestrial television. Personally, I was worried that this was going to be a fantasy version of Futurama, what with Elfo and Luci being similar to Fry and Bender, but I was surprised to be proven wrong. One of my favourite jokes involves King Zog's habit of throwing his sceptre out of the window when he's angry. He has a collection of sceptres for the occasion, and most of them are embedded in a tavern which Bean frequents. Which is called 'The Flying Sceptre'.
There are plenty of other laughs, but there are also times when the show gets really dark. One of the teasers show Elfo encountering Hansel and Gretel, who intend to eat him. They have the typical house made of confectionery, but the basement looks like something straight out of a horror film. One running plot thread involves Zog tasking his wizard and alchemist Sorcerio with obtaining elf blood to make an elixir of life. This starts out with some humour, with a switch pulled by Luci resulting in the chauvinistic Prince Merkimer being turned into a pig. Oh, and that's Matt Berry doing the voice of Merkimer, essentially reprising his role as Douglas Reynholm from The IT Crowd. However, it later takes a different turn which results in some new character depth.
That's one of the other things I love. Unlike most sitcoms, Disenchantment uses a serial format. While each episode presents their own comedic hijinks, the overarching story is a lot more dramatic, and has so far ended on a very gripping cliffhanger.
The first ten episodes are available on Netflix, and I'm waiting for the next lot already.
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