*Warning* Rated TV-MA due to Violence, drug use, language, abuse, and sexual content.
Four years ago, the world was introduced to the bloody, tear-jerking, laugh-out-loud musical phenomenon “Hazbin Hotel”. Now the beloved, fandom-loving masterpiece has finally found its mark as a television series on Prime Video.
In 2017, Vivenne “VivziePop” Medrano began developing what would become the pilot of Hazbin Hotel. It took six months to write, and almost two years to animate. It was a gamble, a big gamble, but it paid off.
The pilot follows Charlie Morningstar (voiced by Jill Harris), a resident of hell who tries to open a hotel she hopes will help “rehabilitate sinners” so they can be accepted into heaven. She is joined by her girlfriend Vaggie (voiced by Monica Franco), and hell’s resident gay Adult film actor Angel Dust (voiced by Michael Kovach), who only supports the hotel because he gets to stay there rent-free, so long as he behaves himself.
The pilot was so popular that, a year later, Vive released a music video titled “Addict”, which added another layer to Angel’s life, showcasing his depression stemmed from his abusive boss, and his friendship with punk-esque gangster Cherri Bomb (voiced by Krystal LaPorte).
The pilot and music video received so much praise that it gathered a cult following, with fans posting different music and comics, specifically about the fan-favorite character Alastor, an eccentric asexual overlord, who describes himself as the “radio demon”, (voiced by Edward Bosco), who, in the pilot, joins up with Charlie in running the hotel for the “sheer entertainment” it will bring him.
A24, an independent entertainment industry, most notable for its Academy-award winning film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” picked up the show after the release of “Addict”, however they did not ask the original cast to reprise their roles due to many of them not being registered as part of the SAG-AFTRA union. The main cast was announced after the official trailer hit YouTube, with Charlie being now voiced by Erika Henningsen, Alastor voiced by Amir Talai, Angel Dust voiced by Blake Roman, Vaggie voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, Cherri Bomb voiced by Krystina Alabado, serpentine inventor and hotel resident Sir Pentious voiced by Alex Brightman, and gambling hotel bartender Husk voiced by Keith David.
“Hazbin Hotel” is a fast-paced mishmash of both humor and humility, with enough topics that are eye-openers on how our, more human society, treats people who are different from us. It includes topics that nowadays, many entertainment companies such as Disney are too afraid to put in their content, such as LGBTQ-representation, addiction, and abuse, and that’s what makes it great.
The writers and directors and fans aren’t afraid of making something that some people might enjoy, some who will get ticked off by it, and they just want to be themselves when they make a series. These amazing people aren’t tied down by the corporate fear of backlash or critique, and the company is brave enough to put out something like this, knowing that their will be a lot of people who will riot on social media about how it promotes “the devil” and “satanism”, and say to them, “screw it, the real fans have been waiting four years to see this, and we’re not going to stop them”.
Rating: 9/10
