[7.3/10] I know that Disenchantment is basically a big Game of Thrones spoof with its warring lands and “houses” and crazy twist upon crazy twist (not that Futurama didn’t indulge in the latter from time to time). But I like the dueling twists here, especially when it results in Bean and Oona teaming up against Odval and Sorcerio.
Bean returns, which makes Odval suspect she’s up to something and decide the time to act is now, which makes Bean turn to Oona and be even more suspicious, which leads them to spy on Odval’s council meeting and learn that they want to remove Zog from the throne to end the apparently alphabetical curse on his family, which leads Bean Oona to spy on Odval and Sorcerio procuring various items for an apparently murder, which leads Odval to hypnotizing Zog, which leads Bean and Oona to infiltrate Odval’s secret society meeting, which leads Odval to reveal that it’s not a murder plot but just a garden variety orgy, only to switch things up when Zog shows up at the hypnotically appointed time, sees his ex and daughter naked, and goes even deeper into craziness, thereby fulfilling Odval’s actual plan.
That is a lot, but I honestly like the convolutedness of it, especially with the flips between who seemingly has the upper hand between Bean/Oona on the one hand and Odval and Sorcerio on the other. It’s a little silly and overly intricate, but I got a kick out of it.
Likewise, there were some better laughs than usual in this one! The “Who’s on first?” routine with the guards was a chuckle. The running gag with Sorcerio’s winking was a laugh. “Welcome to Dirk’s Dirks, I’m Henry” got a guffaw out of me. On the whole, the batting average for comedy here was just higher than normal.
The one part I wasn’t crazy about was the “Luci and Elfo raise an army” subplot. It was barely there, and the vague Full Metal Jacket spoof didn’t generate much in the way of yuks. The payoff, which sees Elfo running into Trixie and being roped into a Trog butt-slapping religious ritual, was more odd than entertaining.
That said, I just like getting to see Bean and Oona hang out and work together now that they’re on the same page. It’s nice for Bean to have a mother figure who isn’t evil and trying to kill her, and we learn a little more about both characters. For Oona, it was that she was originally in love with Zog’s (presumably older) brother, Yog, which makes her all the more likely to want to kill Odval’s secret society.
For Bean, it’s recovering from her heartbreak with Mora, and discovering a reason to want to live again. That requires taking some drugs that make her run around like she’s revved up in a Looney Tunes cartoon, which is a little weird, but her epiphanies are interesting -- basically that she’s meant to be a savior, and she needs to treat Dreamland like a friend she saves. It’s nice to see her get a little drive and go through her life introspectively in a more stylized fashion.
Overall, this season remains a little all over the place, without much in the way of an episodic structure to enjoy on a single-serving basis, but also without a strong throughline for the season as a whole, which leaves each episode feeling more like a series of “And Then”s rather than chapters in a continuing story. But some of the individual installments are entertaining, even if the overall construction of the season is a little off.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-01-26T05:13:00Z
[7.3/10] I know that Disenchantment is basically a big Game of Thrones spoof with its warring lands and “houses” and crazy twist upon crazy twist (not that Futurama didn’t indulge in the latter from time to time). But I like the dueling twists here, especially when it results in Bean and Oona teaming up against Odval and Sorcerio.
Bean returns, which makes Odval suspect she’s up to something and decide the time to act is now, which makes Bean turn to Oona and be even more suspicious, which leads them to spy on Odval’s council meeting and learn that they want to remove Zog from the throne to end the apparently alphabetical curse on his family, which leads Bean Oona to spy on Odval and Sorcerio procuring various items for an apparently murder, which leads Odval to hypnotizing Zog, which leads Bean and Oona to infiltrate Odval’s secret society meeting, which leads Odval to reveal that it’s not a murder plot but just a garden variety orgy, only to switch things up when Zog shows up at the hypnotically appointed time, sees his ex and daughter naked, and goes even deeper into craziness, thereby fulfilling Odval’s actual plan.
That is a lot, but I honestly like the convolutedness of it, especially with the flips between who seemingly has the upper hand between Bean/Oona on the one hand and Odval and Sorcerio on the other. It’s a little silly and overly intricate, but I got a kick out of it.
Likewise, there were some better laughs than usual in this one! The “Who’s on first?” routine with the guards was a chuckle. The running gag with Sorcerio’s winking was a laugh. “Welcome to Dirk’s Dirks, I’m Henry” got a guffaw out of me. On the whole, the batting average for comedy here was just higher than normal.
The one part I wasn’t crazy about was the “Luci and Elfo raise an army” subplot. It was barely there, and the vague Full Metal Jacket spoof didn’t generate much in the way of yuks. The payoff, which sees Elfo running into Trixie and being roped into a Trog butt-slapping religious ritual, was more odd than entertaining.
That said, I just like getting to see Bean and Oona hang out and work together now that they’re on the same page. It’s nice for Bean to have a mother figure who isn’t evil and trying to kill her, and we learn a little more about both characters. For Oona, it was that she was originally in love with Zog’s (presumably older) brother, Yog, which makes her all the more likely to want to kill Odval’s secret society.
For Bean, it’s recovering from her heartbreak with Mora, and discovering a reason to want to live again. That requires taking some drugs that make her run around like she’s revved up in a Looney Tunes cartoon, which is a little weird, but her epiphanies are interesting -- basically that she’s meant to be a savior, and she needs to treat Dreamland like a friend she saves. It’s nice to see her get a little drive and go through her life introspectively in a more stylized fashion.
Overall, this season remains a little all over the place, without much in the way of an episodic structure to enjoy on a single-serving basis, but also without a strong throughline for the season as a whole, which leaves each episode feeling more like a series of “And Then”s rather than chapters in a continuing story. But some of the individual installments are entertaining, even if the overall construction of the season is a little off.