[9.3/10] Hell of an episode! (No pun intended) After tweaking the show’s humor a bit in my last write-up, I have to give a tip of my cap to the great comedy in this one. The continuing schtick of Elfo trying to offend God, only to end up pleasing him more, was utterly delightful. And the kicker -- that calling Jerry a dum-dum was the last straw, was glorious. Jerry poking through the usual clichés about “I did it to make you stronger” and “works in mysterious ways” was even better. (More God/Jerry banter, please!) And as a Futurama fan, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get some glee from hearing John DiMaggio declare “bite my shiny metal axe!”
That line aside, Zog’s part of the episode was pretty minor, but a nice mini-arc. Him being incredibly lonely, finding company with Merk, and then rekindling his past warrior glory worked nicely. There were some good gags like the misplaced eyehole cut-outs and Zog being motivated by bacon, and him finding his fighting groove once more gave his part of the episode some direction.
But the piece du resistance in this episode took place in Hell. First off, just the visual sequences down there were really cool. The design of the entire realm, particularly the house containing the book of the dead, grabbed you with its low-key grotesqueness. There was some Looney Tunes-style fun in Elfo’s trip through the rube goldberg torture machine. And Bean and Elfo’s M.C. Escher-style efforts to reach the book of the dead were inventive as hell.
But storywise, it was outstanding as well. The triple (quadrupel?) swerves with Luci were good, and had me totally buying his heel/face turns. Plus, it was neat to find out that he’s only a level zero sub-demon and that, true to form for a realm run by a character voiced by Phil Lamar, the demon hierarchy is laden with bureaucratic nonsense and numbers. Luci being clever with his ploys, seeming unperturbed about how they cause Bean/Elfo to suffer, and still saving the day was great.
Still, the Bean/Elfo material really stole the show here. Mark me as someone who’s been skeptical of a lot of the stuff Disenchantment has done with these two in the past, but this episode almost single-handedly makes it all worth it. The show really plays their emotional beats well. Elfo’s noble quest to reunite with Bean and his discovery that she chose to let him stay dead when he had a chance to save him feels genuinely tragic. The same goes for Bean going to so much trouble to save him, and admitting that choosing her mom over him was the biggest mistake of her life. The fact that their own personal hells are essentially the same is a brilliant move on the show’s part, and her saving him, Sleeping Beauty soul style, at the end is the perfect and earned fake out. The show nails the emotional storytelling here, and it buoys the entire episode.
Overall, this episode has everything: great design work, ample laughs, exciting plot twists and tense rescues, and some strong character-based, emotional storytelling. If this is what Disenchantment can be on a weekly basis, or even just on a semi-regular basis, this series will be beyond worth it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-09-26T01:48:15Z
[9.3/10] Hell of an episode! (No pun intended) After tweaking the show’s humor a bit in my last write-up, I have to give a tip of my cap to the great comedy in this one. The continuing schtick of Elfo trying to offend God, only to end up pleasing him more, was utterly delightful. And the kicker -- that calling Jerry a dum-dum was the last straw, was glorious. Jerry poking through the usual clichés about “I did it to make you stronger” and “works in mysterious ways” was even better. (More God/Jerry banter, please!) And as a Futurama fan, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get some glee from hearing John DiMaggio declare “bite my shiny metal axe!”
That line aside, Zog’s part of the episode was pretty minor, but a nice mini-arc. Him being incredibly lonely, finding company with Merk, and then rekindling his past warrior glory worked nicely. There were some good gags like the misplaced eyehole cut-outs and Zog being motivated by bacon, and him finding his fighting groove once more gave his part of the episode some direction.
But the piece du resistance in this episode took place in Hell. First off, just the visual sequences down there were really cool. The design of the entire realm, particularly the house containing the book of the dead, grabbed you with its low-key grotesqueness. There was some Looney Tunes-style fun in Elfo’s trip through the rube goldberg torture machine. And Bean and Elfo’s M.C. Escher-style efforts to reach the book of the dead were inventive as hell.
But storywise, it was outstanding as well. The triple (quadrupel?) swerves with Luci were good, and had me totally buying his heel/face turns. Plus, it was neat to find out that he’s only a level zero sub-demon and that, true to form for a realm run by a character voiced by Phil Lamar, the demon hierarchy is laden with bureaucratic nonsense and numbers. Luci being clever with his ploys, seeming unperturbed about how they cause Bean/Elfo to suffer, and still saving the day was great.
Still, the Bean/Elfo material really stole the show here. Mark me as someone who’s been skeptical of a lot of the stuff Disenchantment has done with these two in the past, but this episode almost single-handedly makes it all worth it. The show really plays their emotional beats well. Elfo’s noble quest to reunite with Bean and his discovery that she chose to let him stay dead when he had a chance to save him feels genuinely tragic. The same goes for Bean going to so much trouble to save him, and admitting that choosing her mom over him was the biggest mistake of her life. The fact that their own personal hells are essentially the same is a brilliant move on the show’s part, and her saving him, Sleeping Beauty soul style, at the end is the perfect and earned fake out. The show nails the emotional storytelling here, and it buoys the entire episode.
Overall, this episode has everything: great design work, ample laughs, exciting plot twists and tense rescues, and some strong character-based, emotional storytelling. If this is what Disenchantment can be on a weekly basis, or even just on a semi-regular basis, this series will be beyond worth it.