by Austen Terry, Contributing Writer
I have been a fan of adult animation for years now, basically since Futurama was still airing (the first time). Over the years, we have seen several adult animated shows come and go, and others stay well past their prime. Recently, a trend has been to to complain about these adult animated shows for being too mature for kids. That was the case with Amazon Prime’s newest show, Hazbin Hotel. You would think people would eventually realize that something being animated doesn’t inherently make it for kids. So what has caused outrage over this show is that it takes place in hell and mocks religion.
Hazbin Hotel tells the story of Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), the daughter of Lucifer (Jeremy Jordan) and Lilith, who decides to open a hotel to try and rehabilitate the mortal souls sent down to hell so maybe they can get into heaven. Helping her is her best friend, Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), Alastor (Amir Talai), hotel guest, Angel Dust (Blake Roman), and hotel bartender, Husk (Keith David). After one of heaven’s annual extermination days, where angels exterminate the souls and demons of hell, an angel is found killed, and they go on a quest to find out how.
The show’s animation is unique in that each character has a distinctive, memorable design. Hazbin Hotel was created by Vivienne Medrano, who also wrote on it. She helps create the tone, in which there are a few clever jokes in the short 30 minutes of each of the 10 episodes. Going into the show, I didn’t know a whole lot, but the idea had me intrigued. It reminded my of the show Lucifer,which I liked, but Hazbin Hotel falls flat. It falls in the recent category of not describing your show/movie as a musical. Even though I like musicals, the songs fall flat and are dull.
The voice acting is what truly brought me in, with Jordan, Beatriz, and David. They were obviously the pull for the show in the first place, and their characters are fun. Honestly, David’s bartender and Roman’s Angel Dust are the best characters. I have loved many of Beatriz prior roles, but here she feels better suited for the lead role than friend of the lead. Jordan was another draw for me, but he is only in a couple episodes.
The show just really didn’t resonate with me as with others. There was never really any reason for people to be upset over this show, as it is for adults, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
Hazbin Hotel is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video
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