Disenchantment review: Groening’s new Netflix toon is off to a bloody good start

Enlarge / On Disenchantment, plague happens. (credit: Netflix)

Our review of Matt Groening's new TV series went live before its formal premiere on Netflix today. We're reposting the review as a reminder: You can now watch all ten episodes of Disenchantment's first "half-season," and we're happy to confirm that the episodes we didn't see in advance are solid. In particular, they tie up the plot threads we complained about in the review below. Give it a stream and join our discussion!

"The Simpsons meets Game of Thrones" sounds like one of those Netflix ideas generated by bots (a tactic that Netflix has employed in the past). That kind of experiment, as cute as it sounds at first blush, could flop if it stitches two dissimilar series together in messy fashion. But the team behind Disenchantment, the first Matt Groening animated series since Futurama launched in 1999, seems blissfully unaware of hot TV trends-and is all the better for it.

Groening's first-ever non-network series debuts on Netflix on August 17 as a 10-episode "half-season," and we've reviewed seven of those episodes ahead of the formal launch. From what we've seen thus far, Disenchantment wins by establishing friendships between unique, likable characters-and then leading them to their basest urges.

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