It does mean asexual in that context because she says that to him directly after implying that he might be attracted to Charlie and then calls him an "ace in the hole" to be clear she was kidding. Saying she knows he's asexual is the point, using the well known turn of phrase is the word play.
I also love that his response is, "Say what now?" as it's unlikely he had a term for that being from the 1930s. I know I didn't have a term for it and am figuring it out at nearly 50 years old.
There was an establishing scene for Angel’s pet pig (he called them Fat Nuggets I think) earlier in the season, when he went to his room. The pig was also shown to be worried about him, as his mood got worse in that part of the episode. The reaction was really cute, and quite real for a pet, who sort of understands what is happening to their owner, so I remembered
I agree that kinda needing some ouside knowledge is one of its biggest flaw. The pig was Established but only briefly. In Episode 2 when angel goes to his room. There he hugs the pig and calls him fatnugget
"The show didn't tell me any of that!" Yup, hit the nail on the head. As much as I enjoyed it, HH really needed more episodes to tell the story it wanted to tell. There needed to be more character and world building focus, especially wjen you have so much deep lore. The pilot also show not have been required viewing, and while they do mention everything from the pilot eventually in the show, if you didn't watch the pilot, the viewer is often confused (this happened to my husband who didn't see the pilot until after we finished the show). To quote my husband, regarding the pilot, "I liked that show, where was that show?" Literally, when Vaggie explained Alastor, he was like, "Wait, THAT'S who that is? That was his deal this whole time?" He also deeply disliked Alastor in the show and loved him in the pilot, whereas I loved him in the pilot and thought he was good in the show, but there are some issues that needed to be ironed out. Great video!
I worked on Hazbin and have been a fan of your channel for a couple years now, I definitely had some of your videos on in the background while drawing lol. It's great to see you covering the show now that it's out and I'm glad you're enjoying it!
This could have benefitted from more time, but it could have benefitted from pruning some of the side stories. I can't say which, I am not a writer. I think it would be cool if Alastor could be from a different patheon. It could explain the symbols and very different colour of his magic, but also his surprise at being defeated by Adam when he wasn't armed with an angelic weapon. Overall, it's imperfect, but my inner weird teen craves more. It feels like Disney, Spawn, and Deadpool blended together.
If there's one thing I'm a bit worried about, it's what the show's gonna do with Alastor. I think he works best as an anomaly. I think any big reveal they do for Alastor couldn't be as interesting as the speculation of what he is. Like, there's the information we know that was directly given to us by Vivienne (he's a radio host, he was a cannibal serial killer before he died, he's half-Creole, he's something of a father figure to Nifty), but I hope that the show will keep us guessing as to Alastor's true motives and intentions. So far, they've been good at this, only dropping hints about the truth of Alastor through short lines like Husky mentioning that Alastor is also bound by a contract, and Alastor expressing his desire to be "free" in the final episode. Especially considering that Alastor was visually inspired by characters like Bill Cipher and the Superjail Warden, I don't want all the answers to Alastor right away. The reveal of Alastor's true motive (though "sheer, absolute boredom" is already a _perfect_ motive for a demon) needs to be a slow burn. I also like how his main rival, Vox, is a television demon.
Yeah more than anything the show feels...crowded? Like two songs an episode doesn't sound like a lot, I love musicals and musical episodes, but I often found the transitions and genre changes jarring. And there are so many characters and so much lore that even with the limited explanations I was often overwhelmed with the information that was there. I mean either way I'm gonna keep watching because it's consistently pretty good and occasionally great. I wanna see where theyre going with this.
Angel is in all fairness my favorite character! His episode focusing on him and all the darkness he deals with is well written and I feel for him since I recently I ended a toxic relationship with a verbally abusive ex boyfriend whom never loved me! So I totally understand Angel and the terrible things Val did to him!! He is the kinda person that I identity with the most
The thing with the Sinners is something i learned from the fanwiki 😅 When i rewatched the series i noticed two instances were the sinners „immortality“ was hinted: First in Adams song about how sinners ‚Cook in the pot‘ til the angels kill them again and second when Val dismembered Velvs model and her being saying ‚ i can’t wait until the b*tch pulls herself together. And it would be easy to establish this (very important) point with a cutaway joke or in the conversation between Charlie and Adam
the pig did appear - for a total screen time of about a second and a half over the course of show. they were blink and you miss it moments. your point still stands. However, I have to thank you for having this show in my life. I remember watching the pilot and being of mixed feelings about it - I wanted to watch it to support the creator, but I also had a gut reaction of 'Ugh, this isn't for me.' I definitely wasn't investing time in watching the spin off when the pilot failed to impress me. Then I saw your review of Helluva Boss and thought 'what the hell. It's less runtime than a movie. Let's give it a shot.' And I was HOOKED within seconds. Helluva Boss did what the pilot failed to do - hype me for the show. To this day I love HB more than I like HH (it's the characters, and the strong writing of their arcs, I believe. I'm a character person), but neither would be in my life if it wasn't for you. Thank you so much for them!
My feeling is that the series would have benefited from a longer season. It's like there needs to 13 episodes in season 1. This will help with slowing down the pacing and fleshing out some things.
My main criticism is some of the world building requires homework. Like the Overlords weren't really explained. Wasn't sure how they differentiate from beings like the Sins in Helluva Boss. Or how the Hell's resident hierarchy works. Like where does Stolas fit in it? And apparently this type of stuff is answered through Q&A. I mean great there's answers but a chore to find them. But other than that and maybe the pacing I had a blast. Looking forward to see what happens next
Ya know, I didn't really think about Fat Nuggets (pet pig) and Angel's reunion in the finale. He was introduced and named in episode 2 but didn't show up in any other episode. Same thing happened with Razzle and Dazzle (Charlie's companion demons) their names don't get dropped till episode 5 and they're basically part of the decor the vast majority of screen time. I really hope that's something that's fixed in season 2, which is already being worked on. Like you, and most of the fandom, have agreed upon it's down to time in the episodes. Season 1 was very core focused. Not a lot of extra padding to it.
I also noticed the egg minions pretty much disappear after having a subplot about not getting rid of them, which was weird. Even just having them in the background would at least feel less like they're props that only exist when they need to be interacted with. Sir Pentious caring so much about them was really endearing.
I was watching HH with a friend and we were both in agreement that the show proper requires the pilot because without it, so much context is missing. I guess this review confirms that. The pilot doesn't establish what period the characters died in, IIRC, that must all be outside lore.
My husband hadn't seen the pilot before watching the show and wasn't much of a show fan. After I showed him the pilot (I saw it when it came out), he was like, "I liked that! I wish the show had been more like that!"
I saw the pig for like a some frames a couple of episodes before the finale. Came and went and I just accepted it. Then I saw the pig in the finale and said “OH the piggy!”
I really had a lot of fun. I also came into this without the extra knowledge, but I went into this show with a mindset that it was musical theater, so I wasn't expecting every aspect to be shared. (That's also the same reason I'm able to give Centaurworld more leeway than a lot of others seemed to)
As a fan who already knew most of the background information, I didn't find it a problem. But, i do completely understand your point of view. They do kind of gloss over most things. I definitely think they should've had more time to flesh things out. Here are some notes for you though. 1. Season 2 was announced in the teaser trailer for season 1. And Viv did confirm in a recent live stream with some of the cast, that recording has started for season 2. 2. The pig was briefly introduced in episode 2 when Angel Dust goes to his room. When he's upset and listening to his voicemails from Valentino, the pig goes to comfort Angel. And Angel says "Not now Fat Nuggets." 3. They do kind of establish that sinners do come back after they die in Hell in episode 3. Velvette is talking to Vox about about how Valentino tore her best model apart and she says something about how the show "can't wait for that unlucky bitch to pull herself together." I hope i got that quote correct. I definitely understand how you could've missed those things though. Especially in just 1 watch through. I really think they needed more time. But hopefully they can make the pacing better in season 2. Maybe they'll even allow more episodes since season 1 did so good. That's just speculation on my part though. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
As much as I *loved* this series, I think it very much falls into the trap of, as you say, lots of information on characters only existing in the extended material. This is especially a problem when it comes to the creators saying things in interviews about the characters that are just plainly contradictory to what’s in the show proper; one said Charlie and Vaggie had “known each other for a very long time”, and it’s canonically something like three years, as a small example. A bigger example would be how Charlie’s broken family dynamic kinda falls apart when she’s suddenly supposed to be over 200 years old according to a creator interview, but her mother has been missing for only seven years (given this is a big part of why she’s got a strained relationship with her father). Like, it can all make sense if we fill in the gaps and warp the facts ourselves, but that’s not good storytelling. The biggest writing issue though is the world building. Fortunately, I love the characters all so much it doesn’t really matter, but OH WOW the whole angelic weapons thing is as hole ridden as Swiss cheese. They have confirmed a season two is definitely happening though, so hopefully the show can learn from its mistakes and improve, because they get so much right!
speaking of adult animation, i’d love to hear your thoughts on blue eye samurai! it’s really flown under the radar and deserves so much better. edit: i love your rats!! they’re so precious 😭💕
I enjoyed the show quite a bit, even as a filthy casual. I really miss this kind of adult animation, and the animation itself in the last episode and the Poison song made me so, so happy to see as someone who loves and dearly misses hand-drawn animation. That alone is enough to get me excited about more of this and hopeful about its success in getting more things like it green-lit. I agree on the critique you had, too. They had basically four hours of screentime to tell a season-long story and overall, while it felt very fast, and I would have really liked to have more time, it usually wasn't so bad that it prevented me from enjoying it. There were times when I felt like I needed more information about the worldbuilding and how things worked there, or times when I felt like I was supposed to have more knowledge about something than I actually did-- I think it was episode 5 when the two little dragon characters were suddenly there and I was wondering where they'd come from and what they were doing, and consequently some later moments that didn't hit as much as they could have. But overall, I had a really good time, I got invested in all the characters, I want to see what happens next, and I'm impressed with what they managed to do in the time they had.
I have a hard time gauging what people mean with the critique of "it feels like lore is missing," because some folk are saying it to mean that they prefer how characters were established in the pilot, some use it to refer to the pacing of the show going too fast for them, and others use to express frustation about extended lore that (frankly) is not relevant to the arc of the story but could have gone a long way to help with investment. All of these are interesting points in it of themselves and worth discussing, but they aren't the same critiques and so it makes it harder to have more indepth discussion about the show.
I feel like if the show had 12 episodes, it could fix a fair number of the criticisms. It can establish lore and worldbuilding, and build character relationships. An example is the relationship drama between the main couple. There's some smaller pieces if drama between the 2 that doesn't really go anywhere, but the big one pretty much has the same issues. They're both separated and get some relationship advice and suddenly thing are better without them having to talk and communicate with each other once they're back. The plot needed them to make up without the time necessary to do so effectively. While I'm sure for some shows it's a great fit, I'm not a fan of the 6 or 8 episode series and I believe this show would help with 12 eps. I do think the show does a decent job at conveying a character is from an "old-timey" time. Sometimes from shorthand stuff like Angel Dusts weapon of choice giving off old-timey mafia vibes, or more obvious like how Alastor is probably from before Television.
A24 picked it up for 8 episodes, and that really wasn't enough IMO. They really needed so that they wouldn't NEED to rely so heavily on the pilot and Addict. Though I do think things like the pre-death backstories were always going to be left to season 2 (at least I assume they're going to come up more in season 2 given that we've gotten background extras that look like characters from backstories). ETA: They also have already announced that season 2 is for-sure. The trailer announcing the premier month included the announcement of season 2, and they recently announced that recording has started for season 2.
I watched the pilot once ages ago. And it is very hazy. I haven't really interracted with surrounding media or anything else since. And I followed it fine. I agree, I think it could have benefitted from up to an extra 5 minutes per episode to fit in more organic world building. But not to an extent that I found it hard to follow. I don’t think it needed multiple extra episodes or too long a run time though. I am genuinely interested in season 2.
All of the pets really don't get any focus at all besides bg cute eye candy. Fat Nuggets is ironically the most developed of all the pets. Charlie's pets: Kiki, Razzle and Dazzle are especially frustrating to me because i think the only time ANY character even mentions them by name EVER is LUCIFER. Kiki is the cat and also the key, why does the hotel even need a key? Why does it need to be a cat?? No idea. Razzle and Dazzle are supposed to be like?? Servants? Body gaurds/protectors? But they have even less to do than Kiki, only ever fluttering around OCCASIONALLY in the bg. Besides the few instances when the show remembers to acknowledge them at all: Lucifer greeting them, them giving Charlie tissues while she's crying after her meeting with heaven/growling at Alastor, and giving Charlie a hell girl transformation [and giving themselves one too]. And then one of them FUCKING DIES BY THE END. You'd probably wouldn't even register that it died bc it doesn't even get a chance to do anything of substance, gets slashed in the throat in one shot, and crashes into the hotel and then we just never see or even acknowledge that it happened. The most we get is the briefest glimpse at a memorial statue. I love the pet designs they're cute i want to care about them. But i feel nothing seeing them onscreen bc the show wants you to care about them but also doesnt want to bother giving any explanation as to why you should think they're important besides the fact that they're cute, and even then they hardly even use that. The pets are hardly even there at all.
Ok i forgot Charlie calls Razzle and Dazzle by name to help her with her anime girl transformation and also when they're flying into battle. But i think Lucifer is the only one that even says Kiki's name as far as I'm remembering.
I watched the pilot years ago for Hazbin Hotel, thought it was fine and didn't think about it again until this show came out. I don't remember much about the pilot anymore. I should rewatch it. I started the show on Amazon and enjoyed it, but after episode 4 I was so invested!!! Poison is my favorite song by far from season 1, but there are many great songs throughout the season! I found out lots of the extra info from the official music videos, fan wiki and various places. I love the Addict music video! Season 2 was confirmed and the voice actors are currently recording dialogue for it. I do wish they could have established some stuff a bit better if they had been given more time, but I enjoyed this show so much I was willing to do the work to learn more myself. I haven't watched Helluva Boss yet, but plan to. I adore Angel Dust and Fat Nuggets so much! I just want a happy ending for the spider and their pig! The creator said Fat Nuggets was a gift to Angel Dust from Valentino. This is a fascinating bit of info that I wish was in the show! There's sooo much info that is canon that hasn't been shown in the show yet. I'm very excited for season 2!!!
I feel like if they’d been given more than eight 24 minute episodes there would’ve been more time for background and world building. I honestly wish that we get an expanded version at some point with all that missing lore.
Having listened to the soundtrack a few times since watching the show, the one that grew on me the most (not that I didnt like it but it was overshadowed by the more energetic bangers) was 'More Than Anything' which has wormed its way into my heart. As a parent who notoriously responds to parent-daughter relationships what did you think of this song?
I did enjoy it but the nature of the Lucifer/Charlie dynamic didn’t hit me as hard as it hit others. I suppose it might when my kid is old enough to have moved out and I can’t protect them anymore.
The whole thing of I don’t get that or what that is but I’m still enjoying it and I’m rolling with it is how I feel about delicious in dungeon so watching this I’m like ahhh okay I understand this video and the commentary
What bugs me about the show's flaws is that some of the writing problems feel like they're not just because of the small episode count but other fans tend to brush off my criticisms about the things harming my enjoyment of the show like it's all because of that. I get that they only have so much time to do stuff and I'm willing to accept some details having to be left as trivia shared among fans. The thing is, the show lampshaded plotholes it clearly had time to prevent and a bunch of the plotlines felt underdeveloped and confusing. There were some payoff moments that just didn't have the setup to really feel as invested in them as I should have been even if those moments looked nice on their own. A lot of the plot could've been put off for a later season to give the rest more room to breathe. Because of how they rushed the plot, I can't help but feel this lingering disappointment around getting teased all these ideas and plotlines that were "resolved" so quickly they'll likely never get a satisfying conclusion even with more seasons. I'm worried that this is going to continue to be a problem even with at least one more season happening while also not feeling like I'm allowed to talk to other fans about it. It's really frustrating. Angel Dust, Husk and Alastor are the only characters that feel like they really got enough development this season. Nifty is the type of character that can just stay as she is indefinitely but this is a big issue for Charlie and Vaggie. It doesn't really feel like they got the room to properly develop their character arcs and relationship. Vaggie in particular feels a bit all over the place like the show couldn't decide what her arc should be and how to resolve it. Trying to support Charlie? Tries one thing and declares herself a failure. Who is she without Charlie? Doesn't matter because her role is to protect Charlie. Fighting for love? Ok but wasn't she doing that already? Big relationship straining reveal? Everyone's going to have to get ok with it real fast because there's only enough time left to prep the finale. Charlie gets some moments through other characters but it doesn't really feel like she got a proper arc. There was some potential to do something with her getting better at understanding how to effectively help people with her early stumbles with the summer camp activities and accidentally making Angel Dust's situation worse. That doesn't really get explored though because her time needed to be spent on talking to heaven. The stuff with her dad needed more time too, since it didn't really feel like it addressed the problems it first raised with their estrangement. I really feel like they got too attached to ending the season with stopping the extermination when that could've been saved for later. ATLA sets up Sozin's comet in the first season and it's the series finale. We could've gotten a first season focusing more on the characters and it wouldn't have stopped them from making a different but still good finale. The large jumps in time between episodes and how much important stuff seemed to be left off screen was really jarring. It feels like most of the characters barely got introduced but the story acts like we've seen them bond and get to know eachother a lot more than we actually have. Getting that far so fast also feels like the show missed its chance to get deeper into some of its themes about redemption.
Omg, it’s true that Alastor and Alucard have the same vibe, so that’s why I like Alastor so much xD And yeah, needing so much outside info can be overwhelming, at least for me, I’m always feeling as if I missed something 😓
Well, if Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can crossover in a PG-13 animated movie, I'm sure Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss can meet up. Provided there's a good story reason behind it. 9:54 it Primed you? Nice pun there.
I'm so glad you like it! It isn't to my wife's tastes, though she admits the production is very good, so I haven't had many people to talk about it with. I loved this first season, and am so excited to see what happens in season 2! I can see your point on the lore being assumed. When my high school students recommended the pilot to me and I eventually watched it (2020 rec, 2022 watch), I did what I tend to do with one-offs like this was - I dive into videos about the lore. And there were a ton over the last few years to consume. And I devoured Helluva Boss (which I actually prefer, story-wise, because I've spent more time with IMP than with Charlie's band), and its analysis and lore videos. So I knew a lot of the background for Hazbin going into the show, and I learned about it long enough ago that I'd forgotten why I knew that. I had to sit here and think about how I knew Val was from the 70s, etc. I think that is something that should be addressed - maybe it was in the Q&A with the cast/crew? I haven't watched that yet. Characters... Alastor fits the Alucard/Sebastian Michaelis type, and that's a character I love. I loved his voice as well, always sounding a little tinny and muffled. Perfect sound effect. I want to snuggle Nifty. She's an adorable psychopathic little demon, and is my favorite of the supporting cast. Charlie and Vaggie are a good balance for each other, and I enjoyed learning Vaggie's backstory over the course of the series. Husk is great. He is absolutely the one you want to bring people down to earth, metaphorically speaking. Angel is complicated, and I loved seeing that complexity - especially how much the others at the hotel have affected him, and how much he looks out for Nifty. Ser Pentious surprised me in the best way.
It's great to hear someone who hasn't followed the fandoms view. I want to say I am certain they did not expect anyone to know things going in and at most there are easter eggs, there is a lot of contradiction in the fandom due to info having been changed. As someone who has listened to all the live streams and read both the comics I agree the episodes were too short. I'm guessing that A24 didn't have a distributor at the time and it was their first animation project so resources were probably a bit tight. Given it's huge success I'm hoping they make the episodes more like 30 to 40 minutes. The pacing was the only issue I had with it the songs are incredible.
I didn't knew that sinners could recover slowly from any injury, but angel weapons could permanently erase them. However, while it does change a little why is particularly worse that the angels come down, I don't think that addition is needed at all. As a Mexican, I know I don't live in the safest country of all and at any moment another Mexican that is part of a criminal group could do anything. Yet, I still don't want the army of a country in the north frontier to walk in to bring us "liberty and democracy." I don't need the angel weapons to be any more special than the regular hell weapons when we are talking about one powerful potency coming down to an unstable country to erase half of the population.
I kinda would like for them to come back through and release a season 1.5 where they add in all the filler where you actually get to see the characters breathe and play off each other and not have to worry about the main plot beats that they clearly had to cram in a short amount of time. A few other greivances I have with story structure or logic can't really be fixed, but the show is still fun regardless.
@rarazalproductions519 Just more episodes where we can actually have the characters play off each other and introduce background without having it be necessary to the narrative. If they want to cut up the existing show to make extended edits, that would be fine, too. But just adding episodes would be easier.
I just love that you said “spider demon porn star and pig let reunion” totally normal sounding sentence you hear from every show 😆 Also did you like the music? Fave song?
The weird lore stuff is a biiiiiiig hangup for me. Like if something is an important part of the world why is it in exceedingly ancillary content and not in the main text? After watching I had a look at the Wiki out of curiosity and a good half of the citations for the wiki content is tweets and authorial opinion from livestreams. Maybe its just me and my weird obsession with TARDIS wiki's bizarre culture but authorial opinion in ancillary stuff that doesn't make it into the text itself feels like its at the detriment of the text.
I LOVE this show!!! HAZBIN HOTEL is awesome. The best queer show I've seen in months. This is how you do queer characters right. Great review ❤ btw I came into this knowing nothing about anything about the background of the show and I still love ❤️ it. I went back and watched hellva boss the very first episode and lots of reviews. Looking forward to seeing season two
Alastor was also explicitly labeled as ace by the cannibal queen and that... that made me feel warm and fuzzy.
Rosie called him an "ace in the hole", which doesn't mean "asexual". It just happened to also work as a play on that word
It does mean asexual in that context because she says that to him directly after implying that he might be attracted to Charlie and then calls him an "ace in the hole" to be clear she was kidding. Saying she knows he's asexual is the point, using the well known turn of phrase is the word play.
I also love that his response is, "Say what now?" as it's unlikely he had a term for that being from the 1930s.
I know I didn't have a term for it and am figuring it out at nearly 50 years old.
@@insomnaholic I loved that, too! I was in my late 20s when I learned ace and my mid-30s for aro. Loved that little detail.
Only shame is alastor is a psychopath, not the best ace representation
There was an establishing scene for Angel’s pet pig (he called them Fat Nuggets I think) earlier in the season, when he went to his room. The pig was also shown to be worried about him, as his mood got worse in that part of the episode. The reaction was really cute, and quite real for a pet, who sort of understands what is happening to their owner, so I remembered
Came here to say this honestly he got more establishment than kee kee aside from kee kee being in the intro
The only way Nuggets I learn about the pig was from random bundle of pins.
Nuggets is in a lot of older art and is featured in the Addict music video iirc
I agree that kinda needing some ouside knowledge is one of its biggest flaw.
The pig was Established but only briefly. In Episode 2 when angel goes to his room. There he hugs the pig and calls him fatnugget
"The show didn't tell me any of that!" Yup, hit the nail on the head. As much as I enjoyed it, HH really needed more episodes to tell the story it wanted to tell. There needed to be more character and world building focus, especially wjen you have so much deep lore. The pilot also show not have been required viewing, and while they do mention everything from the pilot eventually in the show, if you didn't watch the pilot, the viewer is often confused (this happened to my husband who didn't see the pilot until after we finished the show). To quote my husband, regarding the pilot, "I liked that show, where was that show?" Literally, when Vaggie explained Alastor, he was like, "Wait, THAT'S who that is? That was his deal this whole time?" He also deeply disliked Alastor in the show and loved him in the pilot, whereas I loved him in the pilot and thought he was good in the show, but there are some issues that needed to be ironed out.
Great video!
This Hazbin a Helluva Good time.
I'm not sorry. 😈
This feels like an adaptation where you need to have read the book is a perfect way of describing this show.
Husk and Sir Pentious are my favorite characters
I worked on Hazbin and have been a fan of your channel for a couple years now, I definitely had some of your videos on in the background while drawing lol. It's great to see you covering the show now that it's out and I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Great work, whatever you worked on. Heh. The show's been amazing, with looks and story, and handled very well with the topics being brought up.
That's awesome!
I've become a big fan after watching season 1! I adore Angel Dust!
I love your work.
This could have benefitted from more time, but it could have benefitted from pruning some of the side stories. I can't say which, I am not a writer.
I think it would be cool if Alastor could be from a different patheon. It could explain the symbols and very different colour of his magic, but also his surprise at being defeated by Adam when he wasn't armed with an angelic weapon.
Overall, it's imperfect, but my inner weird teen craves more. It feels like Disney, Spawn, and Deadpool blended together.
If there's one thing I'm a bit worried about, it's what the show's gonna do with Alastor. I think he works best as an anomaly. I think any big reveal they do for Alastor couldn't be as interesting as the speculation of what he is. Like, there's the information we know that was directly given to us by Vivienne (he's a radio host, he was a cannibal serial killer before he died, he's half-Creole, he's something of a father figure to Nifty), but I hope that the show will keep us guessing as to Alastor's true motives and intentions. So far, they've been good at this, only dropping hints about the truth of Alastor through short lines like Husky mentioning that Alastor is also bound by a contract, and Alastor expressing his desire to be "free" in the final episode. Especially considering that Alastor was visually inspired by characters like Bill Cipher and the Superjail Warden, I don't want all the answers to Alastor right away. The reveal of Alastor's true motive (though "sheer, absolute boredom" is already a _perfect_ motive for a demon) needs to be a slow burn. I also like how his main rival, Vox, is a television demon.
Yeah more than anything the show feels...crowded? Like two songs an episode doesn't sound like a lot, I love musicals and musical episodes, but I often found the transitions and genre changes jarring. And there are so many characters and so much lore that even with the limited explanations I was often overwhelmed with the information that was there.
I mean either way I'm gonna keep watching because it's consistently pretty good and occasionally great. I wanna see where theyre going with this.
Angel is in all fairness my favorite character! His episode focusing on him and all the darkness he deals with is well written and I feel for him since I recently I ended a toxic relationship with a verbally abusive ex boyfriend whom never loved me! So I totally understand Angel and the terrible things Val did to him!! He is the kinda person that I identity with the most
The thing with the Sinners is something i learned from the fanwiki 😅
When i rewatched the series i noticed two instances were the sinners „immortality“ was hinted: First in Adams song about how sinners ‚Cook in the pot‘ til the angels kill them again and second when Val dismembered Velvs model and her being saying ‚ i can’t wait until the b*tch pulls herself together.
And it would be easy to establish this (very important) point with a cutaway joke or in the conversation between Charlie and Adam
the pig did appear - for a total screen time of about a second and a half over the course of show. they were blink and you miss it moments. your point still stands. However, I have to thank you for having this show in my life. I remember watching the pilot and being of mixed feelings about it - I wanted to watch it to support the creator, but I also had a gut reaction of 'Ugh, this isn't for me.' I definitely wasn't investing time in watching the spin off when the pilot failed to impress me. Then I saw your review of Helluva Boss and thought 'what the hell. It's less runtime than a movie. Let's give it a shot.' And I was HOOKED within seconds. Helluva Boss did what the pilot failed to do - hype me for the show. To this day I love HB more than I like HH (it's the characters, and the strong writing of their arcs, I believe. I'm a character person), but neither would be in my life if it wasn't for you. Thank you so much for them!
My feeling is that the series would have benefited from a longer season. It's like there needs to 13 episodes in season 1. This will help with slowing down the pacing and fleshing out some things.
My main criticism is some of the world building requires homework. Like the Overlords weren't really explained. Wasn't sure how they differentiate from beings like the Sins in Helluva Boss. Or how the Hell's resident hierarchy works. Like where does Stolas fit in it? And apparently this type of stuff is answered through Q&A. I mean great there's answers but a chore to find them. But other than that and maybe the pacing I had a blast. Looking forward to see what happens next
Ya know, I didn't really think about Fat Nuggets (pet pig) and Angel's reunion in the finale. He was introduced and named in episode 2 but didn't show up in any other episode. Same thing happened with Razzle and Dazzle (Charlie's companion demons) their names don't get dropped till episode 5 and they're basically part of the decor the vast majority of screen time. I really hope that's something that's fixed in season 2, which is already being worked on.
Like you, and most of the fandom, have agreed upon it's down to time in the episodes. Season 1 was very core focused. Not a lot of extra padding to it.
I also noticed the egg minions pretty much disappear after having a subplot about not getting rid of them, which was weird. Even just having them in the background would at least feel less like they're props that only exist when they need to be interacted with. Sir Pentious caring so much about them was really endearing.
I was watching HH with a friend and we were both in agreement that the show proper requires the pilot because without it, so much context is missing. I guess this review confirms that. The pilot doesn't establish what period the characters died in, IIRC, that must all be outside lore.
My husband hadn't seen the pilot before watching the show and wasn't much of a show fan. After I showed him the pilot (I saw it when it came out), he was like, "I liked that! I wish the show had been more like that!"
I saw the pig for like a some frames a couple of episodes before the finale. Came and went and I just accepted it. Then I saw the pig in the finale and said “OH the piggy!”
I really had a lot of fun. I also came into this without the extra knowledge, but I went into this show with a mindset that it was musical theater, so I wasn't expecting every aspect to be shared. (That's also the same reason I'm able to give Centaurworld more leeway than a lot of others seemed to)
It does have a similar, but much more adult vibe to Centaurworld. I really love both shows.
As a fan who already knew most of the background information, I didn't find it a problem. But, i do completely understand your point of view. They do kind of gloss over most things. I definitely think they should've had more time to flesh things out. Here are some notes for you though.
1. Season 2 was announced in the teaser trailer for season 1. And Viv did confirm in a recent live stream with some of the cast, that recording has started for season 2.
2. The pig was briefly introduced in episode 2 when Angel Dust goes to his room. When he's upset and listening to his voicemails from Valentino, the pig goes to comfort Angel. And Angel says "Not now Fat Nuggets."
3. They do kind of establish that sinners do come back after they die in Hell in episode 3. Velvette is talking to Vox about about how Valentino tore her best model apart and she says something about how the show "can't wait for that unlucky bitch to pull herself together." I hope i got that quote correct.
I definitely understand how you could've missed those things though. Especially in just 1 watch through. I really think they needed more time. But hopefully they can make the pacing better in season 2. Maybe they'll even allow more episodes since season 1 did so good. That's just speculation on my part though. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
I really hope Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss encourages more adult animation with a good heart to be made.
It will but all the haters may discourage them, some people dumb and love to hate things
Season 2 has been announced to be in production.
As much as I *loved* this series, I think it very much falls into the trap of, as you say, lots of information on characters only existing in the extended material. This is especially a problem when it comes to the creators saying things in interviews about the characters that are just plainly contradictory to what’s in the show proper; one said Charlie and Vaggie had “known each other for a very long time”, and it’s canonically something like three years, as a small example. A bigger example would be how Charlie’s broken family dynamic kinda falls apart when she’s suddenly supposed to be over 200 years old according to a creator interview, but her mother has been missing for only seven years (given this is a big part of why she’s got a strained relationship with her father). Like, it can all make sense if we fill in the gaps and warp the facts ourselves, but that’s not good storytelling.
The biggest writing issue though is the world building. Fortunately, I love the characters all so much it doesn’t really matter, but OH WOW the whole angelic weapons thing is as hole ridden as Swiss cheese.
They have confirmed a season two is definitely happening though, so hopefully the show can learn from its mistakes and improve, because they get so much right!
speaking of adult animation, i’d love to hear your thoughts on blue eye samurai! it’s really flown under the radar and deserves so much better.
edit: i love your rats!! they’re so precious 😭💕
Such a phenomenal show, and surprisingly underrated.
@@chibiktsn3 hope she gets around to it or someone commissions it! i can’t afford to haha
I enjoyed the show quite a bit, even as a filthy casual. I really miss this kind of adult animation, and the animation itself in the last episode and the Poison song made me so, so happy to see as someone who loves and dearly misses hand-drawn animation. That alone is enough to get me excited about more of this and hopeful about its success in getting more things like it green-lit. I agree on the critique you had, too. They had basically four hours of screentime to tell a season-long story and overall, while it felt very fast, and I would have really liked to have more time, it usually wasn't so bad that it prevented me from enjoying it. There were times when I felt like I needed more information about the worldbuilding and how things worked there, or times when I felt like I was supposed to have more knowledge about something than I actually did-- I think it was episode 5 when the two little dragon characters were suddenly there and I was wondering where they'd come from and what they were doing, and consequently some later moments that didn't hit as much as they could have. But overall, I had a really good time, I got invested in all the characters, I want to see what happens next, and I'm impressed with what they managed to do in the time they had.
2nd season was announced in the trailer for first season! So there's more to come :)
I have to agree that one of this shows biggest flaws is that the pilot is required watching. There's a lot of info in the pilot that is important.
I have a hard time gauging what people mean with the critique of "it feels like lore is missing," because some folk are saying it to mean that they prefer how characters were established in the pilot, some use it to refer to the pacing of the show going too fast for them, and others use to express frustation about extended lore that (frankly) is not relevant to the arc of the story but could have gone a long way to help with investment. All of these are interesting points in it of themselves and worth discussing, but they aren't the same critiques and so it makes it harder to have more indepth discussion about the show.
I feel like if the show had 12 episodes, it could fix a fair number of the criticisms. It can establish lore and worldbuilding, and build character relationships. An example is the relationship drama between the main couple. There's some smaller pieces if drama between the 2 that doesn't really go anywhere, but the big one pretty much has the same issues. They're both separated and get some relationship advice and suddenly thing are better without them having to talk and communicate with each other once they're back. The plot needed them to make up without the time necessary to do so effectively. While I'm sure for some shows it's a great fit, I'm not a fan of the 6 or 8 episode series and I believe this show would help with 12 eps.
I do think the show does a decent job at conveying a character is from an "old-timey" time. Sometimes from shorthand stuff like Angel Dusts weapon of choice giving off old-timey mafia vibes, or more obvious like how Alastor is probably from before Television.
A24 picked it up for 8 episodes, and that really wasn't enough IMO. They really needed so that they wouldn't NEED to rely so heavily on the pilot and Addict.
Though I do think things like the pre-death backstories were always going to be left to season 2 (at least I assume they're going to come up more in season 2 given that we've gotten background extras that look like characters from backstories).
ETA: They also have already announced that season 2 is for-sure. The trailer announcing the premier month included the announcement of season 2, and they recently announced that recording has started for season 2.
I watched the pilot once ages ago. And it is very hazy. I haven't really interracted with surrounding media or anything else since. And I followed it fine.
I agree, I think it could have benefitted from up to an extra 5 minutes per episode to fit in more organic world building. But not to an extent that I found it hard to follow. I don’t think it needed multiple extra episodes or too long a run time though.
I am genuinely interested in season 2.
All of the pets really don't get any focus at all besides bg cute eye candy. Fat Nuggets is ironically the most developed of all the pets. Charlie's pets: Kiki, Razzle and Dazzle are especially frustrating to me because i think the only time ANY character even mentions them by name EVER is LUCIFER. Kiki is the cat and also the key, why does the hotel even need a key? Why does it need to be a cat?? No idea. Razzle and Dazzle are supposed to be like?? Servants? Body gaurds/protectors? But they have even less to do than Kiki, only ever fluttering around OCCASIONALLY in the bg. Besides the few instances when the show remembers to acknowledge them at all: Lucifer greeting them, them giving Charlie tissues while she's crying after her meeting with heaven/growling at Alastor, and giving Charlie a hell girl transformation [and giving themselves one too]. And then one of them FUCKING DIES BY THE END. You'd probably wouldn't even register that it died bc it doesn't even get a chance to do anything of substance, gets slashed in the throat in one shot, and crashes into the hotel and then we just never see or even acknowledge that it happened. The most we get is the briefest glimpse at a memorial statue. I love the pet designs they're cute i want to care about them. But i feel nothing seeing them onscreen bc the show wants you to care about them but also doesnt want to bother giving any explanation as to why you should think they're important besides the fact that they're cute, and even then they hardly even use that. The pets are hardly even there at all.
Ok i forgot Charlie calls Razzle and Dazzle by name to help her with her anime girl transformation and also when they're flying into battle. But i think Lucifer is the only one that even says Kiki's name as far as I'm remembering.
I watched the pilot years ago for Hazbin Hotel, thought it was fine and didn't think about it again until this show came out. I don't remember much about the pilot anymore. I should rewatch it.
I started the show on Amazon and enjoyed it, but after episode 4 I was so invested!!! Poison is my favorite song by far from season 1, but there are many great songs throughout the season!
I found out lots of the extra info from the official music videos, fan wiki and various places. I love the Addict music video!
Season 2 was confirmed and the voice actors are currently recording dialogue for it.
I do wish they could have established some stuff a bit better if they had been given more time, but I enjoyed this show so much I was willing to do the work to learn more myself.
I haven't watched Helluva Boss yet, but plan to.
I adore Angel Dust and Fat Nuggets so much! I just want a happy ending for the spider and their pig!
The creator said Fat Nuggets was a gift to Angel Dust from Valentino. This is a fascinating bit of info that I wish was in the show!
There's sooo much info that is canon that hasn't been shown in the show yet. I'm very excited for season 2!!!
I feel like if they’d been given more than eight 24 minute episodes there would’ve been more time for background and world building. I honestly wish that we get an expanded version at some point with all that missing lore.
Alastor is like if Hannibal (tv show) and Bill Cipher merged lol
Having listened to the soundtrack a few times since watching the show, the one that grew on me the most (not that I didnt like it but it was overshadowed by the more energetic bangers) was 'More Than Anything' which has wormed its way into my heart.
As a parent who notoriously responds to parent-daughter relationships what did you think of this song?
I did enjoy it but the nature of the Lucifer/Charlie dynamic didn’t hit me as hard as it hit others. I suppose it might when my kid is old enough to have moved out and I can’t protect them anymore.
The whole thing of I don’t get that or what that is but I’m still enjoying it and I’m rolling with it is how I feel about delicious in dungeon so watching this I’m like ahhh okay I understand this video and the commentary
What bugs me about the show's flaws is that some of the writing problems feel like they're not just because of the small episode count but other fans tend to brush off my criticisms about the things harming my enjoyment of the show like it's all because of that. I get that they only have so much time to do stuff and I'm willing to accept some details having to be left as trivia shared among fans. The thing is, the show lampshaded plotholes it clearly had time to prevent and a bunch of the plotlines felt underdeveloped and confusing. There were some payoff moments that just didn't have the setup to really feel as invested in them as I should have been even if those moments looked nice on their own.
A lot of the plot could've been put off for a later season to give the rest more room to breathe. Because of how they rushed the plot, I can't help but feel this lingering disappointment around getting teased all these ideas and plotlines that were "resolved" so quickly they'll likely never get a satisfying conclusion even with more seasons. I'm worried that this is going to continue to be a problem even with at least one more season happening while also not feeling like I'm allowed to talk to other fans about it. It's really frustrating.
Angel Dust, Husk and Alastor are the only characters that feel like they really got enough development this season. Nifty is the type of character that can just stay as she is indefinitely but this is a big issue for Charlie and Vaggie. It doesn't really feel like they got the room to properly develop their character arcs and relationship. Vaggie in particular feels a bit all over the place like the show couldn't decide what her arc should be and how to resolve it. Trying to support Charlie? Tries one thing and declares herself a failure. Who is she without Charlie? Doesn't matter because her role is to protect Charlie. Fighting for love? Ok but wasn't she doing that already? Big relationship straining reveal? Everyone's going to have to get ok with it real fast because there's only enough time left to prep the finale.
Charlie gets some moments through other characters but it doesn't really feel like she got a proper arc. There was some potential to do something with her getting better at understanding how to effectively help people with her early stumbles with the summer camp activities and accidentally making Angel Dust's situation worse. That doesn't really get explored though because her time needed to be spent on talking to heaven. The stuff with her dad needed more time too, since it didn't really feel like it addressed the problems it first raised with their estrangement.
I really feel like they got too attached to ending the season with stopping the extermination when that could've been saved for later. ATLA sets up Sozin's comet in the first season and it's the series finale. We could've gotten a first season focusing more on the characters and it wouldn't have stopped them from making a different but still good finale. The large jumps in time between episodes and how much important stuff seemed to be left off screen was really jarring. It feels like most of the characters barely got introduced but the story acts like we've seen them bond and get to know eachother a lot more than we actually have. Getting that far so fast also feels like the show missed its chance to get deeper into some of its themes about redemption.
Omg, it’s true that Alastor and Alucard have the same vibe, so that’s why I like Alastor so much xD And yeah, needing so much outside info can be overwhelming, at least for me, I’m always feeling as if I missed something 😓
Well, if Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can crossover in a PG-13 animated movie, I'm sure Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss can meet up. Provided there's a good story reason behind it.
9:54 it Primed you? Nice pun there.
I heard there could be legal issues with something like that since HH is a Amazon Prime series
@@connorwood9211 Biggest one I can think of is Amazon wanting the crossover to be only on their platform.
I'm so glad you like it! It isn't to my wife's tastes, though she admits the production is very good, so I haven't had many people to talk about it with. I loved this first season, and am so excited to see what happens in season 2! I can see your point on the lore being assumed. When my high school students recommended the pilot to me and I eventually watched it (2020 rec, 2022 watch), I did what I tend to do with one-offs like this was - I dive into videos about the lore. And there were a ton over the last few years to consume. And I devoured Helluva Boss (which I actually prefer, story-wise, because I've spent more time with IMP than with Charlie's band), and its analysis and lore videos. So I knew a lot of the background for Hazbin going into the show, and I learned about it long enough ago that I'd forgotten why I knew that. I had to sit here and think about how I knew Val was from the 70s, etc. I think that is something that should be addressed - maybe it was in the Q&A with the cast/crew? I haven't watched that yet.
Characters... Alastor fits the Alucard/Sebastian Michaelis type, and that's a character I love. I loved his voice as well, always sounding a little tinny and muffled. Perfect sound effect. I want to snuggle Nifty. She's an adorable psychopathic little demon, and is my favorite of the supporting cast. Charlie and Vaggie are a good balance for each other, and I enjoyed learning Vaggie's backstory over the course of the series. Husk is great. He is absolutely the one you want to bring people down to earth, metaphorically speaking. Angel is complicated, and I loved seeing that complexity - especially how much the others at the hotel have affected him, and how much he looks out for Nifty. Ser Pentious surprised me in the best way.
It's great to hear someone who hasn't followed the fandoms view. I want to say I am certain they did not expect anyone to know things going in and at most there are easter eggs, there is a lot of contradiction in the fandom due to info having been changed. As someone who has listened to all the live streams and read both the comics I agree the episodes were too short. I'm guessing that A24 didn't have a distributor at the time and it was their first animation project so resources were probably a bit tight. Given it's huge success I'm hoping they make the episodes more like 30 to 40 minutes. The pacing was the only issue I had with it the songs are incredible.
I didn't knew that sinners could recover slowly from any injury, but angel weapons could permanently erase them. However, while it does change a little why is particularly worse that the angels come down, I don't think that addition is needed at all.
As a Mexican, I know I don't live in the safest country of all and at any moment another Mexican that is part of a criminal group could do anything. Yet, I still don't want the army of a country in the north frontier to walk in to bring us "liberty and democracy."
I don't need the angel weapons to be any more special than the regular hell weapons when we are talking about one powerful potency coming down to an unstable country to erase half of the population.
I kinda would like for them to come back through and release a season 1.5 where they add in all the filler where you actually get to see the characters breathe and play off each other and not have to worry about the main plot beats that they clearly had to cram in a short amount of time. A few other greivances I have with story structure or logic can't really be fixed, but the show is still fun regardless.
So you want the Vivziecut? XD
@rarazalproductions519 Just more episodes where we can actually have the characters play off each other and introduce background without having it be necessary to the narrative. If they want to cut up the existing show to make extended edits, that would be fine, too. But just adding episodes would be easier.
If hell is forever heaven is a lie :P
And lucifer
I just love that you said “spider demon porn star and pig let reunion” totally normal sounding sentence you hear from every show 😆
Also did you like the music? Fave song?
Love your reviews!
The weird lore stuff is a biiiiiiig hangup for me. Like if something is an important part of the world why is it in exceedingly ancillary content and not in the main text? After watching I had a look at the Wiki out of curiosity and a good half of the citations for the wiki content is tweets and authorial opinion from livestreams. Maybe its just me and my weird obsession with TARDIS wiki's bizarre culture but authorial opinion in ancillary stuff that doesn't make it into the text itself feels like its at the detriment of the text.
Honestly i didnt even think about the pig being introduced or not, i was too annoyed by the lazy fat joke
Niffty is my spirit animal. And she’s up for pancakes. 😄
It’s more like extra stuff that you can find out if you want? I get the feeling i was also not aware of all the lore.
Lovely for the lovely god!
I liked it it was fun thank you for the video
Hazbin hotel is being boycotted because vivzie the show runner is an extremely questionable person
Care to expand on that statement, preferably with some evidence?
I LOVE this show!!! HAZBIN HOTEL is awesome. The best queer show I've seen in months. This is how you do queer characters right. Great review ❤ btw I came into this knowing nothing about anything about the background of the show and I still love ❤️ it. I went back and watched hellva boss the very first episode and lots of reviews. Looking forward to seeing season two