I was lucky enough to have somehow avoided watching the pilot episode on Youtube until like a month ago, so I got to basically skip the four years of anticipation most fans went through leading up to the production of a full season. But now it's airing, and I'm curious if anyone else here has been watching as well.
Just got through watching the latest two episodes, and I've really been enjoying Hazbin Hotel overall. The songs have all been bangers so far, and the characters are interesting and developed with care. The writers have managed to do some great exploration of the main premise concerning the afterlives of sinners in hell without falling into the traps of making a show that is either excessively upsetting and grimdark nor excessively offensive and raunchy.
My only real problem with these new episodes is the same problem most other people seem to have online regarding the pacing. I think it's clear Hazbin Hotel's short episode runtimes and season lengths are probably too claustrophobic for the kind of story the writers are trying to tell. There's a bit of an ensemble cast thing going on, and there are a ton of less important recurring side characters. Seasons comprised of just eight episodes that are each only 24 minutes long will inevitably mean the main hotel crew will receive heavy prioritization over other characters. And despite that, the short seasons still mean even the main character arcs need to happen on shorter timelines, introducing a real risk they'll feel unearned. So the pacing can feel far too quick at times. I think they should have at minimum stuck with the 30 minute runtime the pilot had. Plus had they done that, it would have opened up the possibility of songs longer than three or so minutes.
But overall I think it looks like the show is doing very well, at least according to Amazon's stats (I pirated it lol), so it's my hope that longer seasons and longer episodes are on the table for season two now that it's clear the show won't flop.
I haven’t seen it, but every time I hear about it I think of this:
Show
I am sorry, but this is far too pedestrian for my tastes. I can only enjoy YTPs based on Link: The faces of evil and Skibidi toilet
As someone who hates musical theater, I gave it a try, and I do not enjoy it for the same reasons I don't like most musical theater. It seems by and for theater kids, though, so if that's you, I imagine you'll enjoy it.
I actually feel the same way as you do about musical theater for the most part, I've always struggled to understand the appeal. For some reason Hazbin Hotel has been somewhat of an exception for me, no idea why.
It probably has less to do with being or not being a theater kid and more to do with whether or not someone finds musical scores to emphasize or detract from emotional moments
It's a fun ride, for sure. I would love to see slower pacing like many others, but then again, a lot of the world exploration has been handed over to its sister show so I'm not sure how much slower pace they can actually do. Helluva Boss still has more of my heart due to its wonderful cast of characters (My SO and I even did our own sort of 'his-and-hers' Moxxie and Millie t-shirts), but the character cast of Hazbin is growing on me pretty quickly.
The politics of it so far seem great after watching the first episode, so far it’s basically about a high ranking member of a political underclass attempting to put together a peaceful reform of “the system”, but being shot down because higher classes have no interest in reform whatsoever. I get the impression that despite their idealistic outlook, Charlie might turn to genuinely revolutionary attitudes soon. Hopefully Vivziepop or whoever is writing it at this point has the courage to push the point home instead of using tried and true revolutionary-averse tropes.
I've considered watching this but I am so sick of stories about so-called revolutionaries fighting oppression doing a liberalism at the end and denouncing liberatory violence against genocidal imperialists (cough cough Avatar the Last Airbender). A month on, what did you think about it?
Also, I checked on Unconsenting Media and it seems pretty heavy on SA themes so I'd be curious what you thought of its handling of that too.
If I'm going to risk watching theater-kid-targeted media it needs to be exceptionally good.
I've been looking forward to this project's realization since seeing the pilot several years ago. I love the potential for world building and lore you can get from the story. I feel this is especially true for designing characters like the sinners, who come from different periods of human history and can each potentially have back stories tied to a different era.
I have to agree with the others here that the story is moving a bit too fast. I wish there was more time to explore each character and come to a point where they find some resolution as a part of the whole redemption theme.
I feel the musical numbers might be a bit tarnished by the pacing too, since some of them seem to start rather quickly/abruptly. Still, they are quite enjoyable and have gotten a few of them stuck in my head so far.
Overall, I feel it has been enjoyable to watch. One part I laughed at recently was the part with Lucifer's rubber duck collection. It was funny because I used to have an adult cousin who collected rubber ducks just like that.
Nice, it's a fun watch. Keep in mind that the Youtube pilot has different voice actors, is a lot less polished than the professionally produced episodes, and it's now considered to be of dubious canon to the rest of the show since a lot of changes had been made in the four years it took to produce season one. Still, I'd recommend you watch that first because there's a good chance a bunch of it still applies.
The first six episodes of season one are already released, and the remaining two will be dropping on Friday at 12AM GMT.
I was too, but I ended up searching for Helluva Boss and started watching that instead haha. I hadn't heard of either of these shows.
ohhh I got it confused with helluva boss ngl and forgot it was a separate thing
Yeah I better pirate it, the pilot was enjoyable iirc. honestly I'd pay for it but not giving money to Jeffy B if that's the only option
I watched the pilot years ago, and it made me replay Grim Fandango. I'm pretty sure that if i watched anymore, i'd be repeating myself again.
I've been watching it. Despite enjoying helluva boss a lot (despite its musical nature), I'm kind of underwhelmed. It isn't bad, but it just isn't really doing it for me.
As other commenters have said, it caters very hard to the theater kid crowd, and I think all that pandering is what takes me out of the story. I also just haven't found the jokes land.
Either way, I'll watch the rest of the season, but I probably won't bother with season 2 unless it comes out in a serious content drought.
I like it. I "think" I prefer helluva boss slightly more since it got more time to breath due to more episodes. I do really dig Hazbin Hotel though and the cast is really growing on me. Also I really dig the song numbers...wish some of them could be longer. Hope and expect there is going to be a 2nd season.
I loved the pilot. I don’t have a Netflix subscription and to sign up you need a real phone number (not a VoIP number, i.e. TextNow) and I’m sad.
It's not on Netflix, it's on Amazon Prime which is arguably even worse I guess. I can get you a direct download link if you promise not to post it publicly (I'm not allowed to share it, I would be banned from the place I got it from if they were to find out I did)
