I don’t think it’s a big exaggeration to say the original Hazbin Hotel pilot on YouTube started the current crop of indie animated projects we see today. Now Hazbin Hotel is a big phenomenon, but the full series is on Amazon Prime rather than on YouTube. However, being the first massively popular indie animated project on YouTube has given it a huge fan base. This has served this show well, allowing it to become popular on Amazon Prime.
Here’s the trailer for Season 2:
The second season picks up after the first season, being set a month later. After the death of Adam and his angel army being driven off by the Hazbin Hotel crew last season, the sinners of Hell see that angels can be killed. This leads to the Vees, a trio of powerful Overlords of Hell, led by the sinister Vox, deciding to make a power grab and start an uprising of sinners against Heaven.
In terms of positives, I think Vox is a great villain. He is not that deep; the closest thing he has to a redeeming quality was an attempt to make an alliance (possibly start a romantic relationship) with Alastor the Radio Demon, and was rejected in a rather harsh manner. But Vox is a fun, evil, charismatic villain; he is fun to watch. Another great aspect of the show is the songs. Hazbin Hotel is a musical and has several great songs in it. Vox has several great villain songs.
Hazbin Hotel features more Broadway stars rather than regular voice actors, and it shows in the performance of the songs; all the songs were performed well, with several different song genres. In an era when Disney movies like Wish have terrible songs, it’s refreshing to see a great animated musical. Another plus is the animation, which looks great and is better than the animation in season 1. There are some great character designs, and the last episode of the season had some great action scenes. There are also a lot of interesting plot twists that I will not give away.
In terms of negative qualities, I think the pacing is too quick. There are only 8 episodes this season, so it seems the season is rushing to complete its plot points. There are very few slow moments that allow the characters to breathe. I think if this season lasted 12 episodes, rather than 8, it would have more balanced pacing. I don’t think some of the humor works either. There are some jokes I chuckled at, but a lot of the jokes didn’t work for me. I also think the swearing is a bit over the top sometimes. I have no problem with swearing in a show aimed at adults, but dialling it back a bit would have been better.
I also think that Charlie becomes a little too stupid in the middle of the season. She is excited that she learned that sinners can be redeemed and go to Heaven, and wants to share the news with all of Hell. This allows her to be manipulated by the bad-faith tactics used by Vox. She endangers Husk and doesn’t respect Angel Dust’s boundaries in order to redeem Angel Dust in front of Vox. After that didn’t work, she went on a news program controlled by Vox’s corporation and allowed her words to be taken out of context. This obviously doesn’t work and results in her reputation being dragged through the mud.
Charlie eventually learns her lesson and allows Vaggie to take over running the hotel, while she becomes the head councillor for the hotel, but I feel like she should have learned some lessons from season 1. Sure, she is arrogant and naïve, she is the daughter of Lucifer, the embodiment of the sin of Pride and a demented version of a Disney princess, but I think they could have made it, so she didn’t fall into obvious traps. However, I will say, they didn’t drag out this character flaw too long; Charlie is able to apologize to Vaggie and stop her foolish behavior within a few episodes. She doesn’t act this way the whole season.
If you like musicals, good animation and some fun villains, you may like Hazbin Hotel season 2, despite some of its flaws. Season 2 of Hazbin Hotel is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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