Disenchantment Part 3 Review

Disenchantment returns for a third part and doubles down on the mystery and world-building.

Part Three picks up where Part Two left off: Bean, Elfo, and Luci survive being burnt at the stake and find themselves in the underground world of the Trøgs. Odval and Arch Druidess have taken over Dreamland and plan to turn the kingdom into a theocracy, unaware that King Zøg is no longer on his death bed. There are forces conspiring against Dreamland and Bean must find out who they are and stop them.

I have been a defender of Disenchantment – I gave Parts One and Two positive reviews. Sadly, Part Three was a let-down. The first two parts found the right balance of having individual episodes and its overarching story. Part Three has focused on the continuous story which on its own would be fine – but the show keeps adding more and more mysteries.

There were unresolved plot threads from the first two parts like the prophecy revolving around Bean, Elfo’s parentage, the question about what the Elves want in Dreamland, and Bean worrying that she could become insane like her mother’s family. The series hasn’t answered any of them but Part Three adds a curse afflicting the rulers of Dreamland, Bean becoming the survivor of the Trøgs, finding out that Steamland has interests in Dreamland. Bean also developed plot convenient magical powers. It was like the writers were trying to turn Disenchantment into Lost. Or to put it another way, I felt like Hermes in Futurama when he said “that just raises more questions!”

The humour was also lacking in this season. Two of the funniest characters of the show, Luci and Zøg, were affected by this. Zøg became a tragic figure because he suffered from a mental breakdown in the third episode. He wasn’t the short-fused fella we have come to know and love. Zøg funniest joke post breakdown was when he was served the wrong breed of roast dog. Luci was sidelined for most of the season because he had to look after Zøg when Bean and Elfo went to Steamland. The show was missing his one-liners and sadism. The funniest part of Zøg and Luci’s subplot was a post on the show’s Instagram page.

Bean also suffered from weakened humour. She was given some long, drawn-out jokes that just became painful. Elfo had a subplot where he felt in romantic/sexual love with a boat – it seemed like something of Family Guy instead of the stable of Matt Groening.

The funniest episode in the season was “Hey, Pig Spender.” It was the episode that worked the best as a standalone story and it provided a double dose of Matt Berry. The actions of characters who were high throughout the part was also a delight.

Whilst the humour was weak, Disenchantment did excel with its emotional beats. The heart of the series has always been the relationship between Zøg and Bean. Zøg was an irritable, angry dad trying to control his tearaway teenage daughter, but always cared for Bean. As the series progressed, their relationship softened due to Bean seeing how much Zøg loved her and Bean going on fewer benders. The ninth episode, “The Madness of King Zøg,” had the most impactful moment when Zøg revealed all his mental suffering and pain to Bean and told her he was in no state to rule.

Zøg had a touching moment with Luci when he revealed that he’s suffering when he’s asleep and awake and the only piece of bliss he has was between sleep and consciousness. Bean had her first romantic interest and the series showed the main character was gay. Finally, in the second episode, Bean and Dagmar threw some home truths at each other, and they both caused each other emotional pain. The end of the first episode has a Game of Thrones-esque twist with one of the characters sharing the same fate as Septa Mordane.

The other winning aspect of the season was the animation. The show visits many different locations and the animation was at its best when Bean and Elfo were in Steamland. It was a bustling city filled with life and activity. The scenes where Bean was working in the factory was a homage to the classic German film Metropolis.

Part Three ended on a big cliffhanger like the previous two parts. However, the cliffhanger in this part felt too similar to the one in Part One’s finale.

The series brought in Richard Ayoade into the cast. Ayoade is always a fun presence and he was a welcomed addition to the series. If Disenchantment brings in Chris O’Dowd and Katherine Parkinson, they could have an IT Crowd reunion.

Part Three did have some great emotional moments thanks to Bean and Zøg but overall, it was a downgrade when compared to the previous two parts.