Good-natured but too childish

Seditious elves, Calarian and Benji, install alpine himbo cowherd, Lars, as Duke of Tournel after accidentally dispatching the old duke. As advisors to the new duke, they also develop feelings for him. This is good-natured and inoffensive and Nick J Russo narrates well, so I had think hard about why this didn’t work for me. It wants to be two incompatible things at once - children’s fairytale and adult romance with swearing and sexual references - so it ends up not being satisfying either category. The plot is so low-angst and every obstacle resolves so simply, it’s too trivial to be interesting. That wouldn’t be a problem if the jokes or banter were really funny, but they’re not witty or clever and end up feeling childish. In the midst of this childlike tone, the swearing and sex scenes feel weirdly inappropriate, so I’m not surprised they all fade to black with little description and no steam. Because this skims along the surface, there’s no real exploration of anyone’s feelings and Benji is a really annoying character so it’s hard to invest in the relationship. A swing and a big miss.

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