The doors are finally open and now it’s time for you to make a reservation at the Hazbin Hotel!
When this peculiar little show by Vivienne (Vivziepop) Medrano dropped its pilot episode on YouTube around four years ago, a fandom was born that clamoured for more episodes. We were later treated to two seasons of its sister show, Helluva Boss, both taking place in hell but following two different sets of characters and motivations.
Helluva Boss (Yes, I’m going to gush about Helluva Boss for a spell) follows a group of hell imps who are assassins for hire that will take on jobs to exact revenge upon the living, but we see far more about them over the show, going into their personal lives too. Many swears and violence are to be found within this show, with hilarious, heart-warming and also quite deep emotional times to be found within. Hazbin Hotel, on the other hand, takes an entirely different approach.
Charlie Morningstar the princess of hell and daughter of (yep you guessed it) Lucifer Morningstar, creates a place for wayward sinners to come and try their hand at redemption to get into heaven and leave hell. Unfortunately, the angels of heaven enter hell once a year with an extermination squad to lay waste to the denizens and purge the sinners.
For those who are also fans of the pilot, you will be saddened to know that the voice actors have been swapped out, however, the new cast absolutely slay the roles and the voice work is done so well that it feels almost like the same voice actors. While characters are fully brought to life within these eight episodes, I do advise watching the pilot on YouTube. Despite episode one taking a few key notes from the pilot, I personally consider the actual pilot to be a pivotal part of the set-up of the show.
The music! My word the music to this show is so, so good! Every song is a gem with most of the songs being plot relevant (which makes sense as the show at its core is a musical comedy) and with the cast mostly being from musical or Broadway backgrounds, you can really feel the emotions behind the songs. The art style for the show is striking with dark contrasting colours, yet also bright and punchy, almost feeling like a Saturday morning cartoon but with more swearing and adult content within.
This was certainly a show that I’ve been highly anticipating ever since they announced a few years ago that it would be picked up for a streaming service, and whilst it did see some delays relative to events that happened in the world, it was well worth the wait. I already have every song saved to my playlists and find myself singing them to myself, just as any good musical will have you doing.
Hazbin Hotel is a fantastic show with striking art and a beautiful story filled with songs. I cannot recommend this more to people.
Platform: Amazon prime
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