After a great introductory episode and mini-arc, the animated sitcom settles into a Futurama-like rhythm, with Dreamland serving as the base of operations for Bean, Luci, and Elfo, who set off on diplomatic missions and drunken exploits alike (usually at the same time). There’s even an anachronistic analog for Zapp Brannigan in Prince Merkemer (The Mighty Boosh’s Matt Berry). Again, all fine and good for an adventure-of-the-week format, but Disenchantment aims to spin a grander tapestry from Bean’s rebellion. And with writers like Gravity Falls Shion Takeuchi and Superstore’s Jeny Batten, the show does occasionally explore how oppressive prescribed gender roles can be, especially for teenage girls, something the producers have claimed is one of the show’s goals. There’s a great throwaway line from Zog about how Bean “failed as a princess and a nun,” which are the “only two girl things [he knows].” But despite her father’s scrutiny, Bean becomes a jewel thief, an executioner (under Noel Fielding’s surprisingly gentle tutelage), and an ambassador, proving she’s capable of so much more than being married to a dullard or the god that’s being whipped up on the fly by a druid voiced by Tress MacNeille.

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Likewise, Elfo refuses to take his place in an assembly line, questioning how happiness can be anyone’s default mode. But Disenchantment sells the elf short by replacing his ennui with a burgeoning love for Bean, because its narrative discrepancies don’t discriminate. Luci’s storyline is the most consistent—as the demonic fly in the ointment, his role is simply to disrupt. Yet the hell spawn still finds himself growing attached to the very person he’s been assigned to torment, as well as grudgingly tolerate Elfo.

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Although Disenchantment struggles to balance its episodic and serialized storytelling in the first seven episodes, it’s already found alchemy in its cast. Jacobson—who regularly flouts convention on her groundbreaking series, Broad City—imbues her performance with equal parts optimism and fatalism. As a young woman in what amounts to Europe in the Middle Ages, it’s too early in the history of the world for her to give up, and yet her fate already seems to be sealed. Faxon and Andre are also cut out for their roles as ingenue and incubus, the former veering from cheerful to vengeful when the situation warrants it, as the latter’s dulcet tones make the most heinous actions sound downright reasonable. Despite some snarls, we do find ourselves caring and rooting for this defiant teen, wayward elf, and conflicted demon, and it’s thanks in great part to the cast. Disenchantment has the potential to become as engrossing an updated fairy tale as it is a debauched one, without choosing between one-offs and longer arcs. And with such an excellent trio leading the way, it won’t even need to resort to magic.