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

JoseB
Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:08:22 +0000
Cafe Society

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.

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