Disenchantment is a fantasy animated series built on three things: a princess who never wanted the crown, a knight who can’t stop talking, and a witch who drinks too much. It is also, mostly, a comedy about power, class and the people who have to live through both. Matt Groening created it for Netflix, and it carries his usual brand of cynical humor — but the jokes land unevenly across its three seasons.
Trailer, via Still Watching Netflix.
Bean and Elfo
The core of Disenchantment follows Princess Bean, voiced by Abbi Jacobson, a royal who inherited her kingdom by accident and spends most episodes wishing she hadn’t. She is joined by Elfo, a dim-witted knight voiced by Billy Joel Armstrong, and Luci, a demon voiced by Lucy Frain, who serves as her witch companion. The trio travel through the fictional kingdom of Dreamland, facing monsters, political rivals and their own bad decisions.
Bean is the strongest character here. Her frustration with nobility is genuine, and Jacobson sells it with a mix of exasperation and dry wit. Elfo is a walking cartoon, designed to be funny for five seconds and exhausting for twenty. Luci, meanwhile, is the series’ best-written performer — a sarcastic, selfish demon whose schemes often drive the plot forward.
Comedy That Misses
The show’s humor relies heavily on physical comedy, slapstick and sight gags. Some of it lands. Much of it does not. The pacing is loose, with episodes often wandering off into side quests that feel like filler rather than service to the main storyline. Characters repeat jokes about Bean’s height, Elfo’s stupidity and Luci’s drinking habits, sometimes multiple times within a single episode.
The satire aims at monarchy, religion and social hierarchy. At its best, it is sharp. At its worst, it is lazy. Episodes about a corrupt church or a greedy noble family can be genuinely clever, but the show leans on broad strokes rather than specific details. This is a problem when the show’s premise is built around a princess who despises her own position — the mockery of power needs precision to sting, and Disenchantment often settles for easy targets.
Animation and Voice Work
The animation is solid, with Groening’s signature clean lines and bold colors. The backgrounds are detailed, and the character designs are expressive enough to carry the humor even when the dialogue fails. The voice cast is game across the board, with Armstrong’s enthusiastic delivery giving Elfo a charm that papered over his weaker material.
Season Three and Its Problem
The third season introduces new characters and shifts the tone toward darker fantasy elements. It is a mixed bag. Some episodes lean into the show’s strengths — tense political intrigue and character-driven drama. Others feel like a forced expansion, adding villains and subplots that never quite resolve themselves.
The season also includes a notable change: the show’s creator, Matt Groening, steps down from directing duties, handing over creative control to other members of the production team. Whether this is reflected in the quality of the final product is a matter of debate.
What Works
The show’s best moments come when it stops trying to be a broad comedy and lets its characters breathe. Bean’s internal monologues, Luci’s scheming and the quiet scenes between characters carry far more weight than the loud, chaotic ones. The series also benefits from a strong musical score, which gives the fantasy world a sense of dread and wonder that the writing sometimes lacks.
Where It Falls Short
The show’s weakest episodes are those that rely entirely on slapstick and repetition. The humor grows thin when the writers lean on the same punchlines week after week. The middle episodes of each season can feel like a slog, with the payoff coming only in the final stretch.
Final Score
Disenchantment is a show with a strong premise and a talented cast, held back by inconsistent writing and a tendency to repeat itself. It has flashes of brilliance and stretches of filler, and it rarely finds a balance between the two.
The series ends with its third season, leaving open questions about its characters’ fates without fully resolving them. Whether a fourth season arrives remains to be seen.
Key Facts Box
- Creator: Matt Groening
- Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Billy Joel Armstrong, Lucy Frain
- Network: Netflix
- Seasons: 3
- Critical Score: 5.6/10
Disenchantment is a show worth watching for its best episodes, and a show worth skipping through for its worst. The princess, the knight and the demon deserve better than the material they are given.
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