More “Disenchantment” from Groening with Season 2

If there was any Netflix original cartoon that didn’t need a second season, it was Disenchantment. 

The majority of the first season was terrible: the plot was meandering, the characters were all vastly unlikable and in my opinion, did absolutely nothing unique or interesting with its premise. And I wasn’t the only one who thought that.

But, I guess when you’re Matt Groening, you get a second season, no questions asked. I didn’t love Tuca and Bertie, and Twelve Forever had some obnoxious characters and major production issues but both were shows with a lot more potential than this piece of dreck. I, originally said that I wouldn’t watch a second season of this.

However, it’s Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It’s a time for forgiveness. For trying new things. So why not give it a second shot?

The second season, to be fair, is an improvement over the first. But the bar the first season set was so low, that’s really not saying much. Rather than being terrible and boring, the show is just…mediocre. 

The show is now watchable; the main trio finally all have tolerable personalities.Elfo’s creepy stalker tendencies have been toned down, and now he’s back to a mainly care-free go-lucky dumb elf. 

Bean gains some sympathy points with how she’s dealing with the twist regarding her mother, and she’s not constantly getting drunk. She actually has some interesting motivations, that the show doesn’t explore. And Luci is still a sarcastic demon with a much-hidden heart of gold. 

That’s not bad. But, it’s still not done well.

But the show is still pretty heavily-reliant on jokes involving sex, alcohol, violence and drugs and it’s attempts at being relevant are even worse than the first season. There’s a whole episode dedicated to Bean being upset that she, as a woman, cannot produce a play…I feel like, even in Dreamland, the fact that she’s a princess should override that.

At least, thank goodness, there isn’t any vore. People can have their kinks, but that episode was just…really weird. King Zog one-episode romance with a bear-selkie is much more tolerable.

But ultimately the show fails to make good on the promises of magical destinies, assassinations and coups. It’s all relegated to a couple of episodes. The rest? Pretty pointless and uninteresting adventures.

There’s just no payoff. Only…more mystery? And it’s much more of a ploy to get another season (which of course it will get) than an actual attempt at creative writing.

While there is certainly more meat to Season 2, due to the Season 1 finale, it’s still pretty boring. Most of it still takes place in Dreamland and I just don’t give a crap about Dreamland or any of its inhabitants. The show hasn’t given me a reason to really care.

Most importantly, I don’t really what happens to the main characters. Disenchantment already showed death can be reversed (though not easily) so I don’t have any reason to really worry about characters dying. Even if the first way is no longer possible, there are likely other ways.

I don’t care about Bean and Elfo’s relationship. And honestly, I think Elfo is a whiny ass to get mad at Bean for choosing to save her own mother; somebody she has missed for years, over some creepy dude she has known for a couple of months. I don’t care that his feelings were hurt.

Sure Bean made the wrong decision in the end…But how was she supposed to know that at the time? It pisses me off. 

So congrats, Matt Groening, you’ve managed make a barely passable second season for a satirical fantasy show. You put all the plot into fewer than half the episodes, completely ruining the pacing of the show so you can have random-ass adventures that go nowhere and answer absolutely none of the questions you set up last season.

And also, the Steamland episode, was really stupid. I get that it’s fantasy setting and you can put in whatever you want, but do try to have some kind of cohesion in your work. It’ll make it more believable.

And don’t try to do that by showing Futurama and Disenchantment  existing simultaneously or something like that. Serialization just isn’t your thing. And that’s perfectly okay. Comedies are a great genre for episodic storytelling. But stop subjecting the rest of us to it.

Just get to the goddamn point already.

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Score: 5/10

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Year of Release: 2019

Length: 10 episodes, ranging from 23 to 30 minutes

Available: Netflix

Creator: Matt Groening

Developers: Matt Groening, Josh Weinstein

Producers: Matt Groening, Josh Weinstein, Claudia Katz, Eric Horsted, Bill Oakley, Patrick M. Veronne

Voice Actors: Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, Nat Faxon, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Matt Berry, David Herman, Sharon Horgan, Maurice LaMarche, Lucy Montgomery, Billy West

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If you liked this review read: Ralph Breaks the Internet proves Disney shouldn’t try to so hard to prove they’re “woke.”