Disenchantment Gives Abbi Jacobson’s Princess Bean a Queer Happy Ending
After years spent storytelling in Springfield (The Simpsons) and space (Futurama), Matt Groening turned his satirical mastermind toward medieval times with Netflix’s Disenchantment. The animated fantasy sitcom, which ends its five season run this month, follows Abbi Jacobson‘s Princess Bean (aka Princess Tiabeanie Mariabeanie de la Rochambeau Grunkwitz) of Dreamland and her best pal Elfo and her own personal demon Luci as they go on various D&D-style adventures, chase love, and deal with Bean’s family drama. Season four ended with Bean’s biological mother, Dagmar, throwing her off a balcony and over a cliff into the ocean, to usurp her leadership of Dreamland. Luckily, Bean is rescued by her mermaid love Mora, who wants the two of them to just run away together and leave Dreamland’s elves and Dagmar’s psychotic parenting behind — but Bean can’t do it. And so the final season of Disenchantment sees Princess Bean gathering the troops to storm the castle to take back her kingdom.
First up, Bean wants to find her dad, King Zog, who lives in Steamland, to help her fight her mother. They also circle around to pick up Mora, work together with some very cool pirates, find themselves locked up in Twinkle Town Asylum, destroy Dagmar’s siblings/allies in nearby towns, and finally figure out how Princess Bean can unlock the full strength of her blue zappy magic lightning powers. But Dagmar’s got magic too, now, and also a daughter doppelgänger named Bad Bean. In fact, it’s Bad Bean who stabs Mora the Mermaid in the final battle! But don’t worry, she comes right on back to life thanks to a sacrificial wish by Luci! In the end, Bean gives back the magic of Dreamland to the elves in her Happily Ever After speech:
“Ladies and gentleman, girls and boys, Elves and Trøgs, and yes, Moleman, I’m looking at you! Today is a day of victory and celebration! Dagmar has been defeated and CRUNCHED by a big rocky cave thing! Satan has been vanquished and emasculated! All our enemies have been killed, or they ran away! And best of all, I’m in love!”
Disenchantment‘s final season is as silly and meta and gross and heart-warming as all the ones that came before it, and it spends a whole lot of time doubling down on the idea of personal choice. Yes, Bean’s a Princess of Dreamtown, but what do the people there really owe her? And what does she owe them? When are other people’s expectations a prison, and when are they the gateway to embracing your power? What parts of our parents are we destined/doomed to become, or can we really actually grow into our own people? When is it time to undermine those in power? And what is queerness if not Mommy Issues manifesting as a misplaced responsibility to save everyone around you?
In the end, Bean and Mora decide to get married, and then muss up their hair and skip out on the whole ordeal, just like Bean did in the first season when she was engaged to a dumb prince. They swim away to a secluded beach where they spend their days making out on the sand in the sunset. Not bad for a hard-drinking misadventurer whose life was ruined over and over again before her heart of gold found its mermaid home.
Abbi Jacobson Is Engaged! Happy “A League of Their Own” Week to All Who Celebrate
Feature image of Abbi Jacobson and Jodi Balfour by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images
Abbi Jacobson and Jodi Balfour made their red carpet debut as a couple for the Los Angeles premiere of Prime Video’s new A League of Their Own series last week with a special gay bonus: They’re engaged!
People reported on the news of their engagement, noting the excitement of several members of the A League of Their Own cast. Jacobson co-created and also stars in the TV remake of the classic 1992 Penny Marshall movie with Will Graham, and what better way to celebrate an engagement than at the premiere of the season’s most hotly anticipated queer reboot? The ensemble cast was thrilled for her, People reporting that Chanté Adams chanted: “Abbi’s engaged! Abbi’s engaged! Abbi’s engaged!”
Jacobson, who came out publicly as bisexual a few years ago, posted about her one-year anniversary with Balfour at the end of 2021, writing: “One year with this incredible human. Don’t know how I got so lucky ❤️”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVbWqh-r1Zf/
There’s no crying in baseball, but I’m absolutely crying. 🥺
Born and raised in South Africa, Balfour also acts and was recently cast in the upcoming season of Ted Lasso.
While Jacobson is still best known as being one-half of the chaotic Broad City duo, I can confidently say I think she’s heading in a new, thrilling direction with her career when it comes to A League of Their Own. That’s all I can really say though, because the embargo hasn’t lifted for actual takes on A League of Their Own yet. But when it does lift later this week, you’ll get a full season (spoiler free) review from me.
Then, starting Friday, our senior editor Heather Hogan and editor-in-chief Carmen Phillips will be tag-teaming DAILY RECAPS of all eight episodes of the new series. Between now and then, expect interviews with cast members and other fun tidbits, because we’re swinging for the fences, baby! All eight episodes of the show’s first season drop on Friday, August 12 on Prime Video.
Abbi Jacobson is Bisexual: Ilana Wexler Has Called Dibs Though
As Jews around the world archive their breads of affliction to mark the end of Passover, a new reason to be grateful to the Lord our G-d has presented itself: in an interview with Vanity Fair to promote Heroin Drama 6 Balloons, Broad City actress Jacobson revealed that she is single and ready to mingle with both men and women:
“I kind of go both ways; I date men and women. They have to be funny, doing something they love. I don’t know—I’ve never really been interviewed about this before.”
Jacobson’s sexual orientation has previously been of unhealthy interest to the queer community due to her perhaps (i mean) prior relationship with Portlandia actress / Sleater Kinney front-woman Carrie Brownstein. Unfortunately for their Jewish mothers, it appears that relationship no longer is in action, but I think we can all agree that the fact that it once was; dayenu.
Aforementioned not-comedy 6 Balloons premiered on Netflix streaming last night.
No Filter: We All Need This Picture Of Stephanie Beatriz Today
Welcome back to No Filter. You know the drill; every week, we round up some queer celesbian Instagram and dissect it for our viewing pleasure. It’s been a fucked up couple of weeks, but now more than ever we need vapid fluff to offset a whole lotta darkness. Let’s do this thing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNDv-pED_-j/
As of this posting this video has 1084 views and I’m at least half of them. It’s fine.
It was Jenny Owen Youngs’ birthday yesterday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY, and congratulations on your new career as an… ostrich farmer?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNF87EGh5XG/
I mean, OK, the media laughed at us for suggesting these two are dating but COME ON. These two are dating.
JIZ LEE RAN A HALF MARATHON and looks real cute. Can you win a marathon? I assume they won.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BM4VfPqj5cL/?hl=en
How bout this time Sara Ramirez shouted out our very own Gabby Rivera?
Stephanie Beatriz and a knife, I’ll be in my bunk.
Laura Jane Grace and Kate Bornstein are a shining light in this burning world.
This is actually a couple of weeks old but maybe you’ll find Ellen Page in a Peaches hoodie as healing as I do.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BM-rv8hDSGF/
This is a trifecta I can get behind.
I really miss these two together, honestly.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNCq6pRjAU7/
Gaby Dunn is full of life lessons, this is but one of them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNEhZWiBKu9/
Honestly I am finding this video therapeutic today.
Join us next week, when Jenny Owen Youngs will train her army of ostriches to TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
No Filter: Carrie Brownstein And Abbi Jacobson Are A Thing, Huh?
feature image via Getty
Hello, dear reader, and welcome back to another edition of No Filter, the most serious and academic column on all of Autostraddle dot com. Generally speaking, we are here to dissect the week in celebrity Instagram, and I bet you thought I was going to be talking about Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli’s engagement this week?! Well we will, but not yet. the biggest story of the week as far as I am concerned is Lindsay Lohan’s traumatic boating injury, in which the actress (who currently does not identify as bisexual despite having been half of the Greatest Queer Couple Of Our Time) lost part of one her fingers to a motor.
According to the Huffington Post, the end of Lindsay’s finger was recovered by friends (don’t click that, it’s awful) and later surgically reattached. She has since been making grim jokes about taking one-handed selfies and tweeting about the exact nature of her injury, so we think she’s gonna be alright. Lindsay, girl, you’ve had a rough go of it over the past couple of months and we sincerely wish you a speedy recovery.
Yeah, yeah, these two knuckleheads got engaged. Small consolation for what happened to Poussey, Morelli. We haven’t forgotten.
Abbi and Carrie are DEFINITELY DOIN’ IT, right? Right. My sources on the ground in Portland tell me that these two have been canoodling up a storm; I can’t believe I’ve become the kind of person who says things like “canoodling up a storm.” I can’t believe I have sources on the ground in Portland. Anyway, Abbi’s Instagram seems to imply she’s spending a lot of time with Carrie’s dogs and you all know what that means.
Our favorite eyebrow Cara Delevigne hung out with this tiger a couple of weeks ago and we missed it cos we were too busy trying to figure out if she’d broken up with St Vincent or not (seems like she has). Did Annie break up with Cara over those dumb braids she wore at Burning Man or what? Remember when Cara dated fellow problematic dummy Michelle Rodriguez and they met some illegal wild animals together? Seems like Cara’s really into using big cats as a coping mechanism. Anyway, love is still a lie, take that Riese!
In the meantime, Annie’s still too busy to take her calls. Between you and me, I’m into this breakup; it gives Annie the freedom to date other people, like (just a suggestion) a different Cara.
Brittani Nichols, lord and saviour of the A-Camp Midwest Dead Lesbian And Bisexual Television Character Haunted Hayride, a real thing that happened.
Breaking, Laura Jane Grace is a nerd.
Be Steadwell came to camp and taught this songwriting workshop and was a babe and everybody handled it just fine, everything’s fine.
Ellen Page has been spending a lot of time with creamed spinach enthusiast Rooney Mara’s sister Kate, who I mostly recognize from American Horror Story: Murder House but will now forever associate with this cute picture.
Join us next week, when Annie Clark answers her phone… and finds love of her life Cara Giaimo on the other end.