The animated comedy “Hazbin Hotel” has a heartwarming backstory despite its dark premise: a group of demons facing eternal damnation in Hell, with their numbers reduced periodically by mass exterminations led by Heaven’s armies. Creator Vivienne Medrano, founder of YouTube channel VivziePop, used money from her Patreon to independently produce the pilot, which she then posted on the streaming site in 2019. With over 90 million views, the concept was picked up by the prestigious studio A24 and expanded into an eight-episode season, set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video. The musical series is an original idea and a grassroots success story, both of which are increasingly rare in today’s TV landscape.
However, while “Hazbin Hotel” showcases the visual talent one would expect from a seasoned animator realizing her vision, it struggles to translate the pilot’s complex ideas into a coherent world with a clear tone. As a prologue, protagonist Charlotte Morningstar (Erika Henningsen) introduces us to the story: she is the Princess of Hell, a realm inadvertently unleashed by her parents Lilith and Lucifer (Jeremy Jordan) when they introduced free will to mankind through the tree of knowledge. Both Lilith and Lucifer are now missing, but Hell still faces annual assaults from Heaven to keep its potential power in check.
This exposition is delivered through a striking montage featuring cutout silhouettes in a stripped-down color palette. Medrano, a veteran of DeviantArt, brings the influence of the virtual community to the series, with its Gothic maximalism. Charlotte’s girlfriend, Vaggy (Stephanie Beatriz), wears a massive hair bow and a bright red X over one eye, and most characters have a ghostly pallor that stands out against the lush maroon backdrop. “Hazbin Hotel” has a distinct mix of the macabre and the twee— the hotel’s bartender is a winged, talking cat voiced by Keith David—but it is applied with creativity and commitment.
“Hazbin Hotel” pays less attention to the details of its cosmology or the motivations of its main characters. To help the citizens of Hell, Charlie has established the titular establishment, a kind of halfway house for rehabilitating wayward souls who can earn entry into Heaven. Given what we know about Heaven and its adversarial attitude toward Hell, this solution seems to ignore the real problem. If “Hazbin Hotel” intends to critique Charlie’s plan, there is no hint of it in the five episodes screened for critics.
This haziness extends to even basic aspects of how the “Hazbin Hotel” world works. Terms like “demon” and “sinner” are used interchangeably, though they seem to connote different things. When Lucifer finally shows up, his dynamic with Charlie looks nothing like what’s previously been described. And though “Hazbin Hotel” bills itself as a comedy, its musical numbers are disarmingly straightforward anthems, leaving the viewer confused about how they’re meant to feel about the series’ events.
The most baffling aspect of “Hazbin Hotel” is the conventional, slightly retrograde morality of a show set in Hell. One of Charlie’s charges, Angel Dust, is a porn star in the thrall of an abusive pimp. The wayward sex worker shown the light by a moral crusader is a trope straight out of a Victorian serial, but “Hazbin Hotel” simply recycles it without commentary. More broadly, “Hazbin Hotel” may position Heaven as cruel oppressors, but the show seems to share its view of Hell’s inhabitants.
Perhaps “Hazbin Hotel” wants to build on a sitcom set in Hades to create a philosophical critique of how human lives are judged, similar to “The Good Place.” However, “The Good Place” signaled early on that something was amiss with its binary system, while “Hazbin Hotel” fails to provide any clear breadcrumbs in its chaotic, contradictory atmosphere. The show has come a long way from its beginnings, but not far enough to function as a full season of TV.
The first four episodes of “Hazbin Hotel” will stream on Amazon Prime Video on Jan. 19, with remaining episodes released in pairs on Fridays.