SERIES PREMIERE: Matt Groening’s The Simpsons, after appearing as interstitial cartoon shorts on Fox’s The Tracey Ullman Show, premiered as a full-length TV show of its own in 1989, and changed the history of television animation. Season 30 of The Simpsons – think of that! – begins this fall. Groening eventually rode his own wave by co-creating the loony and entertaining Futurama, and today, on Netflix, unveils only his third cartoon series in as many decades. It’s Disenchantment, set in a mythical medieval realm in which its female protagonist, a member of the royal family, rebels against an arranged marriage – and, like the heroine of The Princess Bride, roams the countryside with some loyal cohorts to evade her enemies and assert her independence. The first season of Disenchantment unspools today on Netflix, and it’s a serialized story, with cliffhangers, recurring villains and conflicts, and a novelistic structure. It’s a daunting structure, and it’ll take a few seasons to establish whether Disenchantment can support its own weight. (The other way would have been to go with stand-alone stories, much like the still-revered “Fractured Fairy Tales” from Jay Ward’s “Rocky & Bulwinkle” universe.) But one part of Disenchantment that works thoroughly and consistently is an element that reminds me of the best cartoon panels from Mad magazine: Watch closely for the background scenic elements, especially any storefront signs or other printed matter. Nothing’s there by accident, and pretty much everything is wildly clever. For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.

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