How Matt Groening's 'Disenchantment' Makes The Middle Ages

This past weekend (Saturday July 21) at San Diego's Comic-Con, Netflix revealed a new trailer for show Disenchantment, from The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening. As the official page says, "this animated series from Matt Groening follows the misadventures of a hard-drinking princess, her feisty elf companion and her personal demon." The show will premiere in August. 

As others have noted, it seems clear that the show is Groening's take on the fantasy genre - a wink and a nod at Tolkien, Martin, and others (there's even an iron throne!). This is a world where you find fantastic beasts, yes, but take them away and what's left are castles, kings, knights, princes and princesses, taverns, and sword fights. At the heart of it all, as the trailer says, the journey of Princess Bean is "an epic tale of growing up in the Dark Ages." In other words, this is a retelling of the European Middle Ages.

But what's really so "dark" here? Why are the elements of Disenchantment so recognizably "medieval" to 21st-century American viewers?

I think you can see what's going on in this clip, the 2 brief scenes that surround "in the Dark Ages."

In the first, we see Bean near a campfire with her 2 companions - an elf and a demon. The hero on a quest. Typical fantasy elements at work. Then, after the text on screen, a (multi-ethnic!) mob of commoners menacing our heroes who stand ready to defend themselves. In other words, 3 core stereotypes of the medieval, of the "Dark Ages" - magic, ignorance, and the menace of violence.

We "know" that the world has progressed, has moved "forward" from the Middle Ages. The world is supposedly less violent, superstitious, and ignorant than it was before. We no longer have to worry about war or individual acts of violence. We no longer live in a world in which people thought supernatural beings existed. We now have trusted experts who society respects on issues of science and the cultural analysis.

Or maybe in saying that we're telling on ourselves?

From the trailer, we can tell that Bean doesn't want to be forced into marriage, wants to chart her own course in the world, and confronts family and society that stand in her way. There are of course many examples of women in medieval Europe facing those same issues, just as there are many from our own world, so there's nothing inherently "medieval" about the story Groening seems to want to tell.

But setting Disenchantment in a recognizably medieval world, even if populated with magic beings, allows him (and us as viewers) to deal with potentially uncomfortable issues at a safe distance. Culturally, we all agree that whatever we are, we're no longer "medieval." Something we call "medieval" is always a bad thing, a relic of an older time, something we haven't yet - but inevitably will - evolve beyond.

Princess Bean will inevitably grow up, will evolve as the show progresses. But as we watch, maybe we should be asking ourselves what exactly these "Dark Ages" are she's living in. Are they really hers or are they ours?