Lucky fans got to view the first three episodes of Hazbin Hotel before the official release on Prime Video. Made as a collaborative project between A24 (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Bento Box, and SpindlehorseToons, Hazbin Hotel tells the story of sinners in Hell on the (questionable) path to redemption.
If the style looks familiar, then you’ve probably watched the YouTube animated series Helluva Boss. Both shows were created by Vivienne Medrano and both share the Spindlehorse production staff. Much like Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel mixes mature jokes and themes with Broadway.
About Hazbin Hotel
Hazbin Hotel is a half-hour musical comedy and is definitely for adults. It takes place in Hell. Enough said.
Though the pilot exists on Medrano’s YouTube channel, you do not need to watch the pilot in order to understand the show. But even better, if you have watched the pilot, the show stays consistent with what happened in the pilot. Officially, the Hazbin Hotel series takes place one week after the pilot.
The story follows Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningson) – daughter of Lucifer (you know, the devil) and Lilith – trying to solve Hell’s overcrowding problem by reforming wayward sinners for admission into Heaven. To do this, she and her girlfriend, Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), run a hotel to place sinners in a positive, reformative environment. Pilot program volunteer Angel Dust (Blake Roman) and malevolent benefactor Alastor (Amir Talai) quickly return to the main cast.
Interestingly enough, Sir Pentious (Alex Brightman) becomes a mainstay of the core hotel cast. He joins the side character ranks with bartender Husk (Keith David) and maid Nifty (Kimiko Glenn6). Oh, and his eggs steal the show. You will love the eggs.
From here, we’ll go into some details about the first three episodes. To avoid spoilers, just scroll down to the Q&A section.
Episode 1 – Overture
If you liked Netflix’s Lucifer, you’ll like this show. It all starts with a little bit of backstory. Lucifer was an angel who fell in love with the first woman, Lilith. Together, they gave Eve the forbidden fruit and damned humanity. As punishment, Lucifer and Lilith were banished to Hell, unable to see the good that came from giving Eve the fruit.
Take this all with a grain of salt, we’re not sure what we can trust yet. Charlie frames this as a bedtime story, something she reads for inspiration. However, we’re inclined to believe in the story since Adam (also Alex Brightman) is indeed a misogynistic jerk.
This episode is a fantastic setup for the rest of the series, upping the stakes as we learn that not only will Heaven begin enacting a bi-annual extermination, but that an angel was killed during the previous one.
Episode 2 – Radio Killed the Video Star
Alastor sings. It’s awesome. Also, Alastor has a nemesis introduced that isn’t Sir Pentious. Also also, Sir Pentious makes his series debut. Speaking of Alex Brightman, the RoboFizzs make a cameo appearance!
Vox, Velvette, and Valentino get introduced to the series as primary antagonists for the hotel crew. Vox and Alastor have a great rivalry going on, made so much more satisfying with Alastor coming out on top, representing that oldies can still be goodies.
Episode 3 – Scrambled Eggs
Well, that escalated quickly.
We get a glimpse into the hierarchy of Hell among the demons. James Monroe Iglehart (Asmodeus in Helluva Boss) pops up in this episode! As for lore implications, we find out that Alastor went missing for 7 years (the same amount of time as Lilith). Also, Sir Pentious loves his egg boys.
Final First Thoughts
Hazbin Hotel has a strong start and good pacing for its main conflict. However, it’s not entirely apparent why the hotel project still exists without anyone from Heaven agreeing to it. Though part of the point is facing the unknown and taking action instead of doing nothing, it restricts the conflict resolution into predictable success or soul-crushingly depressing failure. With a confirmed second season, the failing the first time would make for a better story – or having Adam fall like Lucifer did and desperately try to get back to Heaven after living through the second extermination that year.
All of the above should come second to the overall themes of the show: just because something has never happened before doesn’t mean it can’t. We’re all fundamentally flawed, what matters is what we do next. If we mess up, we sincerely apologize and change our behavior. That kind of work should be the measure of redemption. And that’s what the show is about: soft boi Sir Pentious and second chances.
Hazbin Hotel Q&A Session
This Q&A was moderated by Joseph Deckelmeier (Screen Rant), with panelists consisting of Vivienne Medrano (creator & showrunner), Erika Henningson, Stephanie Beatriz, and Amir Talai.
During the session, we learned that all the actors recorded separately for Season 1. Their amazing chemistry and natural performances come from voice director Richard Horvitz. Currently, he also voice directs for Helluva Boss. After working with Medrano for years, Horvitz knows what she wants out of the performance. As a seasoned voice actor, Horvitz can act out all the characters. However, he also remembers and retains everyone’s performances during the read back. Apparently, his Angel Dust is amazing. Despite this, hopefully everyone will be able to record together for Season 2.
Much like Helluva Boss, actors are encouraged to play around and improv while recording background dialogue. Medrano said to listen for Valentino during a club scene, that conversation is entirely improv’d and it was so funny that they kept it in.
With the songs being such a big part of the show, Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg tailored the music to fit the character. The music covers everything from old Broadway to EDM. Charlie’s first song of the series, “A Happy Day in Hell,” combines the traditional opening number with the I Want song. For the Beetlejuice fans out there, this is like combining “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing” with “Dead Mom.” On another note, the sound mixing in this show is pretty darn good. Sometimes, you do get an awkward quality fluctuation between spoken word and singing. Think of when you’re watching a show that doesn’t usually do musical numbers and it’s a musical episode and suddenly, all the singing comes out of the TV speakers and all of the dialogue keeps coming out of the sound bar. Hazbin Hotel won’t have that problem.
The overall aesthetic of this part of Hell draws inspiration from New York City and Las Vegas. Medrano drew inspiration from Batman the Animated Series for the red sky. Art Director Sam Miller pulled these ideas together into what we see in the show. Despite having so much red, all of the buildings are easily distinguishable from the sky.
Finally, Beatriz had some amazing insight into how she approached Vaggie and her relationship with Charlie. Beatriz explained that for some people, when you’re in love and are loved, you sometimes don’t understand why you deserve that love or how someone can love you so much. You’ll either figure out that you deserve love…or you don’t. Charlie and Vaggie don’t want to change each other, but they support each other. But Vaggie places so much of her worth on making Charlie succeed. If she fails, then what does that mean for her? Vaggie conditions love on her ability to help Charlie, not yet at the point of understanding that she can deserve something good just because. You’ll see this dynamic begin in Episode 3.
Hazbin Hotel will premiere on Prime Video on January 19, 2024. Season 1 will have 8 half-hour episodes. The series has already been renewed for Season 2.
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