Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Disenchantment - Faster, Princess! Kill! Kill!


"Faster, Princess! Kill! Kill!" marks the halfway point of Disenchantment's First Season. The episode involves the feature character, the constantly-disappointing princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson), still facing her father's wrath for the party that turned into a Viking invasion. Bean has now been sent to a nunnery (where she fails), and gets a job as an executioner's assistance (which she, wait for it, also fails). The episode's latter half involves Bean and the demon Luci (Eric André) helping save Elfo (Nat Faxon) from being eaten by Hansel and Gretel. It seems the only thing Bean doesn't fail at is the minimal requirements of a marginally interested friend.

Lacking the more intriguing setting of space, or the quaint small down troubles of everyday people, Disenchantment is the weakest of Matt Groening's animated series. Bean is as worthless a character as Homer or Fry in terms of everyday life demands, but her nobility and spoiled upbringing continue to let her get away with it (undercutting the basic joke of the other two series where the joke was often at the protagonist's expense). The joke of giving Bean a demon when her actions have long been leading her to Hell is a semi-clever inside joke, but it's a single joke that doesn't create much in terms of further humor. And while Elfo's initial arrival into the world of men offered a few laughs, by this point he's really just become a mildly retarded toddler. "Faster, Princess! Kill! Kill!" offers some fun visuals, really the show's saving grace at this point with most taking place in the candy cottage, but halfway through the First Season the show already appears to be stuck in a rut.

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