Matt Groening spent three decades building worlds that could run forever. Disenchantment, his first series made only for a streaming service, ran five parts and stopped. Netflix released the first batch in August 2018 and the last on September 1, 2023. Fifty episodes in all, split into five parts of 10. The show never found the footing of The Simpsons or Futurama, and the published critical score lands at 5.6/10.
Trailer, via Still Watching Netflix.
A Drunk Princess in Dreamland
The setup is a medieval fantasy kingdom called Dreamland, a fictional take on the Middle Ages, and it arrives already in ruins. Bean is a rebellious, alcoholic princess. Elfo is her naïve elf companion. Luci is her destructive “personal demon.” The three travel Dreamland and the lands around it and uncover a mythical conspiracy.
Abbi Jacobson voices Bean. Nat Faxon voices Elfo. Eric André voices Luci. The three were cast in July 2017, when the series was announced.
The Futurama Bench
The rest of the cast is where the show’s history shows. John DiMaggio voices King Zøg. Tress MacNeille voices Queen Oona and Prince Derek. Matt Berry voices Prince Merkimer. David Herman, Maurice LaMarche and Billy West fill out the room.
DiMaggio, MacNeille, West, LaMarche and Herman all voiced main roles on Futurama. That is not a coincidence. It is Groening reaching for a crew he trusts.
The problem is what he hands them. Dreamland is a setting, not a story engine. Bean’s drinking is a trait, not a wound. Elfo is sweet and has nowhere to go. Luci gets the jokes and no arc worth the running time.
The series centers on Bean, a rebellious alcoholic princess, as well as her naïve elf companion Elfo and her destructive “personal demon” Luci.
That sentence is the whole premise, and five parts never push past it.
Five Parts, One Long Shrug
The release schedule did the show no favors. Here is how the parts arrived:
- Part 1 — August 2018
- Part 2 — September 2019
- Part 3 — January 2021
- Part 4 — February 2022
- Part 5 — September 1, 2023
Gaps of a year or more between batches. A serialized conspiracy needs momentum. Netflix gave it none.
What Groening Got Right
The voice work is not the failure. André’s Luci is the sharpest thing on screen, and DiMaggio’s King Zøg carries more weight than the scripts ask of him. MacNeille doing double duty as Queen Oona and Prince Derek is a quiet flex.
The animation is clean. The medieval city has texture. None of it solves the central issue: the show keeps introducing pieces and never commits to a payoff.
The Score
Disenchantment is a Groening series that behaves like a first draft across 50 episodes. It has the cast, the budget and the freedom of a streaming order, and it uses them to circle a conspiracy it never lands.
Fans of Futurama will hear the familiar voices and want more than the material gives. The show is watchable, occasionally funny, and never essential.
5.6 of 10.
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