Just finished watching the whole of "HAZBIN HOTEL" season 1 in Amazon Prime - spoilers within!

Cafe Society
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1

I have been following the creation of “Hazbin Hotel” (and of its spin-off, “Helluva Boss”) since early 2020.

It took 4 years, but I think that the final result was worth it! Now that the 1st season is fully uploaded to Amazon Prime, what do I think of it?

*Good stuff (and I will possibly forget some things behind):

-I have always loved the character designs. Imaginative AF.

-I find the characters engaging and interesting, especially Alastor (what is with him, anyway? The mystery deepens!) and Angel Dust (I truly feel for him. He may have been a mafioso in life, but I can clearly see that he has some heart inside).

-Charlie is a doll, and I find her relationship with Vaggie charming.

-The songs have generally been great.

-The finale, KEE-RIST THE FINALE…! The action was amazing and the cliffhanger(s) were awesome.

-Sir Pentious is an absolute dork and I love him… And the way his arc ended! WHOAH.

-Episode 4. Simply harrowing, but not at all in a gratuitous way. And the songs in that episode were fantastic and very appropriate.

*Bad stuff

-I found episode 1 weak. I felt that it was a weak beginning.

-The storytelling was at breakneck speed - I think that the series would have benefited greatly of a more sedate pacing. I can understand, though, that they were granted 8 episodes for season 1 and that the production must have been done for the most part without knowing for sure whether they would have more than 1 season to tell their story. However, having 12 or 13 episodes instead of 8 would have really helped to craft a better story.

-Related to the previous point, there were several things that I felt were left rather unexplored, mostly related to overlords like Zestiel and Carmilla, and the exact nature of soul contracts.

-There are some things that smell of plot hole (angels do not know that their own weapons can kill them? is going to heaven or hell totally arbitrary here?) - however, those might be explained in the future; they in general do not look like something completely irresoluble.

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Other general random comments - there were people who complained that when it was Angel Dust being subjected to sexual exploitation and assault it was tragic, but in episode 6 Sir Pentious was literally dragged to have sex with a whole club and was treated as comedy. However, I think that there is a crucial difference: Angel Dust is being forced to do a lot of stuff that he obviously does not want to do due to Valentino having a contract that gives him essentially “ownership” of Angel Dust’s soul and allows him to force Angel Dust to do whatever; in contrast, Sir Pentious explicitly expressed consent for the whole club to go and have sex with him (oh, Pentious; dork that you are…!). Also, shortly afterwards he appears fully dressed and none for the worse for wear; it is plausible that he was able to explain the misunderstanding to the others and then they let him go (after all, they are in a club named “Consent”).

And keeping with Sir Pentious, his actually being the first sinner to have his soul redeemed…!! That was heartwarming AF (and the squeaky reaction of Emily was beyond precious!)

As to the general universe where the story takes place, is it me or do I find more than a few influences from gnosticism in the way things are depicted?

In any case, rambling over – TL;DR: I enjoyed the series A LOT, I definitely want to see the 2nd season, and I would love to discuss stuff here around the metaphorical water cooler with others that have seen it.

2

My kid is obsessed with this show at the moment, though Grandma let Prime lapse, so all they’ve seen are clips and remixes from youtube. Our house contains much Alastor inspired artwork.

3

Since you mention it, it is true that they go with a lot of swearing, sexual innuendo, whatever, but I did not think it was an “adult” show (whatever that means—I see it is described that way in the Wikipedia blurb) and it has a lot of cute characters and songs that kids might like.

4

I’ve been following Hazbin and Helluva since late January 2024. Have finished all available episodes. I like both shows, but if I had to choose, I’d say I like the characters on Helluva better.

As for kids watching, I think the show qualifies for a very solid “R” rating. Extremely not for kids.

5

Also, I have this as an ear-worm now.

6

Cutesy animation aside, the whole “religious satire” angle may make it adult fare. Kids aren’t lining up to read “Paradise Lost”, as far as I know. And it is definitely “R rated” (interestingly enough, the BBFC only classifies a couple of the episodes at “18”, though, most are “15”).

7

Seems as good of a place as any for my kid to start learning about this stuff.

8

BTW, did you catch this on the news crawler?

9

Coincidentally (or not) this article just came up on my Google News feed.

According to Deadline, in September 2023, Hazbin Hotel was announced as a new project by A24 and Amazon Prime Video. The animated series was ordered to develop two seasons. When Prime Video released the official teaser trailer in 2023, they also tagged it with, “And guess what, Season 2 is confirmed too!”

10

Hehehehehe – yes, I caught it >:)

One thing that came into my mind at the end of the series – there we see Sir Pentious finally declaring his love for Cherry, sacrificing himself and ascending to Heaven as the first example of sinner that has successfully redeemed himself (he had been bettering himself throughout the story, and the clincher was his selfless sacrifice on his friends’ behalf, possibly a reference to John 15:13 - “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”)

From here, a few things came to my mind:

(1) A sinner can ascend - and an angel can fall. I wonder if Adam (who has shown himself to be an absolute douche that was probably “coasting” on his popularity in Heaven and was assuming that Heaven and Hell “are forever” and thus he was totally safe and could do whatever he wanted) will respawn as a demon in Hell after being shanked by Niffty >:) It would have a pleasant symmetry with Sir Pentious’ ascension.

(2) This is more of a silly thing that I thought of, but imagine that news come to the Hotel that Sir Pentious has successfully ascended. That would definitely energize everybody down there…! Cherri Bomb seemed to begin to open herself to Pentious’ advances, and we know that Pentious loves Cherri. So…

Cherri works hard to become better and redeem herself, but Pentious starts feeling that Heaven without his Cherri is not worth it… and he starts making a nuisance of himself with the objective of being “kicked downstairs” so he can return to Cherri.

And then both get their goal: Cherri ascends, Pentious descends, and they cross in the middle :stuck_out_tongue: It would be frustrating, of course, but I think that it would go SO well with Pentious’ (adorable) personality as an absolute dork…!

(Also, side comment - Sir Pentious’ ascension as shown is the cutest thing, and for some reason I find Emily’s squeak tremendously funny)

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Another thought of mine - Adam’s death at the hands of Niffty could be also interpreted as direct divine punishment. What was Adam shouting at the others at that point? “You all should be worshiping me!” Ehhhh… First commandment, anyone? “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”. It could be that this was the absolute last straw that made God basically say “you know what? I have tolerated your bullshit for long enough, but this is finally too much. Enjoy being shanked like the little asshole that you are!”

There are several story threads open for season 2:

-In one hand, the V’s are plotting to take power in the aftermath of the disruption brought by the big battle between Heaven and Hell.

-In the other hand, we have Lilith being told by Lute that she should stop her own daughter from doing what she is doing.

-In the gripping hand, Alastor has been shaken to the core by his near-oblivion experience at the hands of Adam, and is desperate to free himself from whatever entity has power over him… There is also the deal he made with Charlie for a future “favor”, as well as the clear indications that he also wants to be the “power behind the power” (as hinted in chapter 7, and explicitly said in chapter 8 when he sings “guess who will be pulling all the strings”).

Who will be the main antagonist for season 2? The potential for a really interesting story is there, and I am really looking forward to see what happens (hopefully with more episodes).

11

Maybe I’ll give Helluva Boss another chance. I watched the first couple of episodes a while back and they didn’t really grab me.

12

Helluva is more somewhat more episodic than Hazbin, but it quickly starts getting into the backstories and lives of the characters, fleshing them out. Starting, actually, in the second main series episode Loo Loo Land (which was the 3rd episode counting the pilot, so it may or may not have been one you watched).

13

I liked it more than Helluva Boss, which I thought had a more contrived premise and then focused less on that premise and more on the relationships of its main characters. So I was watching carefully to see if the same thing happened with Hazbin Hotel, and it didn’t–there was a continuous focus on Charlie’s project of redemption. I did think the eight-episode run was a bit short, feeling more like a mini-series, but can understand if the animation team wanted to avoid burning themselves out.

Niffty is the best character (albeit one-note) and Alastor is the most intriguing. Maybe it’s the old-timey radio voice; maybe it’s that out of the whole cast he feels the most demonic.

14

I watched Helluva Boss and I still found it kind of underwhelming. I think I pinpointed my main complaint: I found the main character Blitzo to be pretty boring.

  • He doesn’t have much of a personality (he’s grouchy and he swears), although there are a few episodes where they try to give him a bit more depth.
  • He doesn’t seem to have much motivation or any real goals. Most of the episodes I watched involved someone asking him to do a job and then he does the job with no particular enthusiasm.

The other thing to note is that I don’t find florid swearing to be inherently hilarious, at least not since I was a young teen.

15

Have y’all seen “Just Look My Way” yet? It’s a song for Stolas that was originally fan-made, and Viv decided to animate it and have Bryce Pinkham record it and make it canon. It’s gorgeous, and it’s also the first piece of official Helluva Boss canon that has no swearing.

16

The song is fantastic. Paranoid DJ (the creator of the song) has made quite a lot of songs in the universe of Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss and in my opinion they are all simply magnificent.

17

A new Helluva Boss short (or Helluva Short) dropped today, entitled “Hell’s Belles”, starring Millie and her sister, Sally Mae. It’s about five minutes long.

YAY NEW CONTENT!

18

That short is lovely, in my opinion — and we also got a trailer for the remainder of Season 2 of Helluva Boss that looks really exciting!

Incidentally, regarding Season 2 of the main series Hazbin Hotel… I only want one thing - well, two:

(1) for Angel Dust to be the one who finally empties a can of RAID straight on Valentino’s face, and

(2) for Adam to respawn in Hell. Boy, if that happens I cannot wait to see his face… >:-)

19

I thought the same thing. I mean, if one can move from Hell to Heaven for being good, perhaps the opposite also holds true…