I don't know why. I loved The Simpsons since I was a young kid and I loved Futurama, but I didn't really look forward to Disenchantment from the beginning. The trailer explained the characters pretty straight-forwardly and I guess I just disliked the characters from the beginning. Anyway, I thought I might write a review of it since I kept obsessing it in my head after watching a couple of Youtube reviews on it, which made me understand why the show wasn't as good as The Simpsons or Futurama.
Before I start, the show is actually alright. It has some bland and over used (and reused) humour, which includes some of the same jokes and themes from either The Simpsons and Futurama, but never-the-less it's quite enjoyable. The story line is a bit boring, but it really does pick up in the last few episodes of the 1st season and it's not that bad. It fits as a mindless and relaxing after work show to watch. Also, I understand that I was not the target audience. I'm a teacher for god sake. I care about people, believe in the good of people and I also deal with bratty kids all the time haha.
So I just couldn't ignore the dislikes of the show. Like I said, from the trailer, I disliked the characters and they haven't changed much since the first episode.
The reason why I dislike the characters is purely personal. All three main characters are chaotic neutral. They're not really bad, but they're not really good either. They do stupid stuff to prank others and they get off pretty lightly. This would definitely appeal to teenagers, someone in their 20s or drunks, but for me... well... I still like 'good'. It's childish, I know, but cartoons of a similar genre that I like include Adventure time, Gravity falls, American dad etc. All of which have varied characters, but has at least one main character who is considered to be 'good' in nature. Even Simpsons and Futurama had these, simply because these were made to be family friendly, and I really liked that. Take for example Fry. He was dumb, but he was generally good in nature, not wanting to hurt others and had a certain level of empathy. Elfo on the other hand, is way too dumb to actually do anything good or right. He basically just tags along Bean and Lucy and does whatever things they do with little moral objections towards some of their questionable acts.
I can't help but also rant about Bean. As I said, I deal with bratty characters all the time. The thing I like about bratty kids from other shows that I've mentioned, is that because it's child friendly, there was always a moral compass at the end. Something that turns them around and makes them think "ah, that wasn't the right thing to do." I really like that about shows like Gravity falls, because it really does give the children a second view, a development on empathy. Because Disenchantment was a show made generally for adults and maybe teens, it lacked that. There were moments when Bean did regret her decision, but it was mostly from self-degradation and self-loathing rather than actual remorse from understanding the hurt she brought. Like, "Oh I couldn't do this thing. I suck. I'm sad." rather than "Oh I hurt a bunch of people, I feel bad because people were hurt." Most of the time she got away with little consequence anyway. Like that episode where she was supposed to play ambassador and got completely drunk. After they escaped... well things just went on like nothing happened. Bean didn't even really regret what she did and was only a little sad. Or when she had a castle party and got a bunch of people killed with a viking attack. She didn't even think once about the dead bodies, because it's a 'cool' show, that normalizes death. She just shoved it up a chimney.
One other thing I disliked was the use of drugs, alcohol and sex to make the show seem like it was for adults. The show itself has themes that mostly relate to children and teens. Growth, rebellion, young-mistakes, pranks etc. and I genuinely think that the show would've been more successful and more people would've liked it if it actually was for children, with a hint of an adult tone. But from the beginning the show seemed like it was made for adults with the alcoholic teenager Bean. Not really even for teens, because statistically, less teenagers are actually drinking less in the new age and even when they do drink, it's mainly this sneaky friday outing thing with friends and it definitely does not define their life except for some unfortunate few. So the alcoholic, sex tone was misdirected in a way and maybe it shows how Matt is out of times. In any case, I resonated when one youtuber pointed out that drunken night outs are fun for the people involved, but not necessarily for the sober outsiders. When bean stole a cart and trashed it in the river with a person inside. I cringed rather than finding it funny. The fact that no one actually tried to save the person made me cringe even more. Other more friendlier cartoons would've used that opportunity for characters like Bean to save the person in the cart, have a learning moment or make it lead on to another journey of it's own, making people involved something. But this was just... well... heartless? No in their point of view, it wasn't even heartless. As I said, the 3 main characters in the show are all chaotic neutral, which meant that they really don't care.
I kind of got off topic since I started talking about the use of drugs, alcohol and sex. For most sensible adults, we actually like topics and the use of drugs, alcohol and sex if it's meaningful. A lot of good shows do use the 3 'adult' combo in many ways to actually connect with people. But the over use of the the three makes it quite meaningless and dull. People who get drunk all the time, do so because they have problems and people who see shows with alcoholics in them are not dumb. They either get a kick out of these two things, they see the alcoholic with a problem and laugh and resonate with their problem. (playing with sympathy) Or they see an alcoholic and see how they resolve their issue and get a kick out of that. Disenchantment on the other hand has drunkenness all the time... but for some reason, Bean is not depicted as an alcoholic or having problems for drinking all the time. The alcohol, is just seen as their thing. Which really is what people in their early 20s do and when it's devoid of meaning, the show becomes less flavourful for people who grew out of that. When they do have issues with drinking, like that ambassador episode, it is rather benign and the Bean does not see that the problem lied in alcohol, rather in prank. Let's just take a moment to compare it with Bojack Horseman a cartoon show that was created for adults. Although I haven't seen the full series as it wasn't fully my type of show, I've seen where it headed in regards to alcohol. Bojack is an alcoholic. They don't play around it. They make the audience understand that it's a problem, they also show both the benefits and the total downfall of drinking. This brings in a lot of people with actual human empathy to engage with the show because even if they don't drink, they understand either the danger of it, or they're able to sympathize with it. Disenchantment on the other hand seemed like it was written by someone who has never seen the dark side of drinking or just never got out of the whole 'hey, let's drink and PARTAY!' phase of life. Peter (from family guy) and Homer (from The Simpsons) had their moments of alcoholism, but for most parts it was either an episode on its own about their problems, or only a very minor detail to a whole story. and because both shows had a clear audience (except family guy changed its narrative after the first 2 seasons) they didn't show alcohol excessively.
Similar issue with sex. It might be a surprise, but sex is actually still a heavy topic even for teens. Most teens don't just get all pouty when they can't have sex. Relationship is a different matter on its own. I still have no idea who Disenchantment was for, but for teens.... well this show depicts teen's personal interest and conflicts very poorly. The only actual relationship conflict someone has is Elfo, and... that's also done pretty weirdly. So to show a girl just wanting a hot guy to have sex with is... rather insulting in a way. My thought is that Matt might have wanted to be progressive in that we see a lot of boys just mindlessly chasing girls for sex in some shows and he wanted to do the same, just the other way round, and well... I guess I'm just old and the younger generation might like that but... from observation, the most successful cartoons actually had a build up on various meaningful relationships beyond sex... and well, if the show is for adults... then... obviously, the show is very directed towards a small group of adults because despite the portrayal of some adults just mindlessly chasing sex, most people actually want something meaningful and a connection. Both of which Bean isn't really looking for. Having Elfo on the side did not really do much because the tension they hinted at was almost non-existent.
In any case, I know this is just season one. People didn't like season one of Futurama or Adventure time. I'm sure it'll pick up and become good, but I just wanted to rant after seeing all these youtube videos.
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