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The new, highly anticipated, animated musical series “Hazbin Hotel” is streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Hell is overpopulated. Heaven annually sends an army to cut back the number of sinners.
“Hazbin Hotel” follows Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, as she pursues the farfetched aim of rehabilitating demons to reduce overpopulation in Hell peacefully. According to Charlie, everyone deserves a second chance.
The first episode involves Charlie meeting an upper-level angel about her plan to redeem sinners… It doesn’t go well.
Initially created as a passion project, “Hazbin Hotel’s” pilot episode was uploaded to YouTube in late 2019. The project then stalled until Amazon Prime Video picked it up and has recently released its first season on streaming. The second season has been confirmed and is currently in production.
The characters are distinctive and cohesive, retaining their individuality while inhabiting the same world. With unique character designs, exceptional visual storytelling and catchy musical numbers sung by legends such as Stephanie Beatriz, Keith David and Alex Brightman, the animated musical series “Hazbin Hotel” is a delightfully entertaining experience. I cannot get the songs out of my head.
However, I felt the entire first season was rushed. It skipped significant character development (which happened off-screen) and refrained from explaining why characters reside at the hotel, premised on the assumption that any audience would’ve watched the YouTube pilot (which is still canon). The show needed more episodes; it needed time to breathe.
The pacing was also wonky. It felt like two seasons amalgamated into one. The redemption of sinners, ostensibly the show’s premise, often took a backseat to more action-focused plot points featuring an ideological antagonist, Heaven and the personally antagonistic Vees.
The Vees consist of Valentino, Angel Dust’s abusive boss, Velvette and Vox, CEO of VoxTech, who holds a significant grudge against Alastor. Everything would’ve worked better if season one had focused more on the main characters, with the Vees as antagonists, and season two had started on the Heaven plotline.
Despite its shortcomings, “Hazbin Hotel” is a marvelous and enjoyable show with great potential.
The first and pilot episodes of the show are available on YouTube. The rest of the season is only available on Prime Video. The spinoff series, “Helluva Boss,” can also be found on YouTube in its entirety.
Warning: “Hazbin Hotel” and “Helluva Boss” are both set in Hell, with demons composing the main cast and contain gratuitous violence, swearing and graphic references to sex, absolutely not for minors or sensitive audiences.
Reviews of the first two episodes (containing spoilers) will be released soon.
Rating: 4.5/5 Spinnaker sails
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