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'Disenchantment', new Matt Groening series on Netflix

Started by samadriel, May 24, 2018, 09:35:46 AM

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NoSleep

Been through two episodes and it's all a bit wooden. It's reminding me of the clunkiness of those Futurama movies. Certainly isn't hitting the ground running.

Sebastian Cobb

got a poor review in vice.

noticed it had a trailer in the cinema when I was there tonight, so they're pushing it quite hard i guess. Never seen an ad for a netflix series in there before

New Jack

Middling reviews everywhere. Even AV Club gave an episode c+ and that.

Gotta say, the episode titles are fucking woeful

Swamp and Circumstance
For Whom the Pig Oinks
To Thine Own Elf Be True
Princess of Darkness

Bleak.

magval

Belfast is covered in HUGE billboards for it, you know those two-or-three-wide ones? Bus shelter posters too, and the buses, it's really everywhere. I've never seen anything like it in terms of promotion, even for the likes of a new Star Wars film or something like that. Netflix are pushing it hard.

Bhazor

Quote from: New Jack on August 17, 2018, 10:02:18 PM
Middling reviews everywhere. Even AV Club gave an episode c+ and that.

Gotta say, the episode titles are fucking woeful

Swamp and Circumstance
For Whom the Pig Oinks
To Thine Own Elf Be True
Princess of Darkness

Bleak.

I can't decide whether the titles of recent Simpsons episodes are better or worse

"Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles'"
"I'm dancing as fat as I can"
"Throw Grampa from the Dane"
"Homer Is Where the Art Isn't"


Twed

I still can't get over their iPod parody where the joke was that it's called MyPod instead. I... there's no joke there. It's so devoid of craft.

Ferris

Quote from: Twed on August 18, 2018, 01:31:02 AM
I still can't get over their iPod parody where the joke was that it's called MyPod instead. I... there's no joke there. It's so devoid of craft.

Is that not a zombie Simpsons joke from a decade ago?

NoSleep

There seems to be no reason for the series to be in a fantasy setting; no compelling flights of imagination extending the genre (as Rick & Morty does), just using cliches as a foil for stunted scripts.

3rd episode "Written by Rich Fulcher".

brat-sampson

Only watched two, but will probably keep going. The fact it's one long story and the way the episodes refuse to follow the standard A/B plot structure, combined with the lengthy episodes, makes everything feel a bit muddled and lacking focus. Like they just took whatever ideas they could think of and threw them in, rather than refining the best ones into whole 'Episodes'.

Acting's fine and the writing's not bad, just a mixed bag. I spotted a couple of jokes I'd seen before elsewhere too, which isn't a great sign (the book turning to dust when blown on stands out, but there were others).

It's an interesting experiment, but so far not up with Groening's best. In fairness, that's a fucking tough standard to try and match. I'll stick it out though, it's interesting enough for that.

magval

That stab at satire in the first episode with the King explaining exactly why ruling classes are so bad was especially embarrassing to watch.

On the other hand, the gags with the elves (Speako, Screamo) were deftly handled and like prime confident Futurama material.

Can't be bothered giving it a go after tat first one though. Life's too short.

MojoJojo

I've watched 4 of these now. It's still doesn't seem to have settled down, and there's something a bit off about the world. The rules haven't been established firmly yet.

I find the theme music really annoying for some reason.

alan nagsworth

My god this is boring. Watched the first episode and couldn't be arsed to wait for anything to happen after the end credits. It's so clunky and irritatingly slow, like, there are so many small moments with no dialogue that are completely unnecessary, and so many obvious or laboured jokes! It just makes the 35 minutes drag even more.

It got two or three decent laughs out of me and it's all fairly cute but overall I just found it completely uninteresting and I can't be arsed to watch any more of it.

Quote from: NoSleep on August 18, 2018, 07:24:40 AM
There seems to be no reason for the series to be in a fantasy setting; no compelling flights of imagination extending the genre (as Rick & Morty does), just using cliches as a foil for stunted scripts.

Completely agree with that, too.

gmoney

I think probably because I had my expectations hammered into dust, I ended up enjoying this. It's definitely not amazing, but it's got potential. Eric Andre's character is a bit too close to Bender for comfort, but he had some good lines. Didn't warm to the elf character at all, hopefully I wasn't supposed to.

New Jack

Why is it 35 minutes? Why not 30? Why the extra 5? It's Netflix only, right? No adverts...

I can't be arsed watching yet but between this thread and the reviews it doesn't seem it uses time too wisely

Hemulen

4 episodes in and I quite like it so far. Not every joke lands, and the episodes are a bit overlong, but it gets a few good laughs out of me in every episode.

Complaining about the "world" being poorly defined seems odd to me. Futurama was hardly some paragon of meticulously thought out worldbuilding - it was a world built on gags, playing every sci-fi trope they could think of for laughs. This is no different, really. There's a brilliant gag in episode 4 that lampshades this, actually. Maybe they should have worked it into episode 1 to make their intentions clear from the outset

VelourSpirit

Watched the first one and it wasn't as horrible as I thought it'd be. I didn't laugh but I like Princess Bean and her dad at least. I don't know - obviously it's only season 1 but I'm just thinking the whole time 'is this side character going to become as iconic as any in the Simpsons or Futurama?' The opening titles especially were boring as fuck considering how creative the other shows' sequences are. I want to stick with it so I suppose it's best to just try and not compare them.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Hemulen on August 18, 2018, 08:57:45 PM
Complaining about the "world" being poorly defined seems odd to me. Futurama was hardly some paragon of meticulously thought out worldbuilding - it was a world built on gags, playing every sci-fi trope they could think of for laughs. This is no different, really. There's a brilliant gag in episode 4 that lampshades this, actually. Maybe they should have worked it into episode 1 to make their intentions clear from the outset

Yes, the gag in episode 4 is what made me mention it, although I didn't mention it because I hadn't really formulated my thoughts properly and it was an aborted post.

World building was probably the wrong phrase for the main problem, which is the characters aren't quite established properly. For example, is Bean a teenager or a young adult? You can't tell by looking (especially in a cartoon). She drinks and kills people, is sexually confident*, but in one episode throws a wild party when her parents are away like a teenager**.

I realise the whole point is she doesn't know where her part in the world is, but no one seems to have any idea. Does she need to obey her dad or not? It's presented as important but she ignores him anyway, and in the audience we have no idea if this is confidence, arrogance or stupidity.

I suspect part of the issue here was the original idea was she was a young teen tearaway, but the presenting a teen drinking and wanting sex was nixed so it just ended up muddled.

Half the promo pics show Elfo holding a weapon aggressively. Then we have his origin story of leaving elfland because he's too emo and shagging the king elf's daughter (ok, I didn't pay too much attention there). In actually show, he's basically naive, with occasional lust/jealousy over Bean . It's just all over the place. Like the elf blood being the key to immortality thing, which seems to have gone nowhere but is still referenced.

One part where the world building did definitely screw up the humour is when (SPOILER) elfo ended up in an oven for 20 minutes. We don't know how long - there's a joke about everyone eating Elfo - but long enough for new people to arrive on scene and be served starters. But then it's suddenly urgent that they get him out of the oven. Which Lucy, who is fire immune does, because Bean found it too hot.

So is Elfo ... fire resistant?

This probably seems like nitpicking but it does completely undermine the dramatic tension, which in turn completely undermines the humour - is Lucy's unhurried rescue of Elfo from the oven because he's a Bender like arsehole (which is obviously what it's supposed to be), or because he knows it doesn't matter, he's been in there for 20 minutes already?

That's not really a world building problem either - it's a shit script problem. Which is probably all the explanation needed for why it isn't very good.

*it's almost directly contradictory on whether she's had sex or not. She says she has, but acts like she wants to be has always been stopped.

**and yes, from what we can tell the difference between a teenager and adult were slimmer in medieval times than they are now, but you need to build the character off relateable stereotypes in a sitcom, unless you're going into a full on character study type thing.

Twed

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on August 18, 2018, 03:55:22 AM
Is that not a zombie Simpsons joke from a decade ago?
I only read the post with those titles in it and thought I was in the Simpsons thread!

New Jack

I don't think I'll watch this, it might not be absolute fucking dogshit but what the hell do I need another mediocre animated comedy in my life for?

Tough market now, Groening.

up_the_hampipe

What a great first episode, if only it were 10 minutes shorter.

chveik


I only watched episode one but it feels unfinished. So many awkward stretches that should've been left on the cutting room floor, and a distinct lack of sound design. The animation was better than I expected, but it has no support from the soundtrack. The score sounds like license free music off the internet. I'm surprised Netflix didn't splurge on the music, because it would've made the whole thing feel much grander. This could've been excellent but it feels like they rushed it out.

NoSleep

Mark Mothersbaugh (formerly of Devo) on the music; his name comes up on loads of soundtracks. I wonder if they're simply plucking stuff from his library (doubt it)?

NoSleep

It doesn't seem like this series has been given sufficient care/budget over its launch compared to the birthing of Futurama. They gone straight to hacking out episodes as if we'll be invested in the series without anything compelling to look forward to. The fact that there's only 10 episodes, rather than 20-odd makes it look like they're skimping (or they simply haven't got the money).

Quote from: NoSleep on August 19, 2018, 01:51:41 PM
Mark Mothersbaugh (formerly of Devo) on the music; his name comes up on loads of soundtracks. I wonder if they're simply plucking stuff from his library (doubt it)?

Oh yes, that actually makes sense. Nothing wrong with quirky electronic music, but it seems like a weird fit for this.

Catalogue Trousers

Doing a comedy fantasy series seems a bit of a dumb idea full stop. We've already been swamped with Garry Botters, Soddits, Game Of Thrones BUT THEY'RE TOILETS ad nauseam and straight to the charity shops they've gone. There've even been a couple of live-action fantasy sitcoms recently and they were all shite.

Just because it's Matt Groening involved doesn't mean that it's gonna be any better, especially with central characters which sound cliched into the ground to start with.

NoSleep

Groening had a love (and some understanding) of sci-fi which comes across in Futurama. Choosing a fantasy setting for this appears to be simply a box ticked.

olliebean

Quote from: NoSleep on August 19, 2018, 01:58:35 PM
It doesn't seem like this series has been given sufficient care/budget over its launch compared to the birthing of Futurama. They gone straight to hacking out episodes as if we'll be invested in the series without anything compelling to look forward to. The fact that there's only 10 episodes, rather than 20-odd makes it look like they're skimping (or they simply haven't got the money).

10 episodes is about average for a Netflix Original series, isn't it?

MojoJojo

Isn't 12 the normal for a first season? With the slightly longer running time it's almost there.

The amount of promotion this has been getting does feel a bit weird - they must know it's mediocre. I can only guess they are showing off the names more than anything.

I want to mention Final Space, which launched last week or recently and also seemed heavily promoted. It feels a bit like Futurama - but without Matt Groening! Compared to Disenchantment's - Futurama but fantasy!

But that's bollocks, and I don't have anything worthwhile to say about it except it's mediocre.

Consignia

The first season of Futurama was only like 9 episodes, right?

But, I don't think 10 is particularly odd for Netflix. These seem almost deliberately designed not to fit into broadcast schedules.