Overture

Overture is definitely a setup episode that covers similar ground to the pilot, reintroducing us to the characters and setting the stakes for the season to come. It is a little heavy on the exposition and a little constrained in its runtime, but still does what it needs to do well.

And oh, the gorgeously polished animation and the musical numbers more than make up for any shortcomings; as do the characters voices. Erika Henningsen shines as Charlie in this episode; especially singing 'Happy Day In Hell' - it is very clear from the outset that these are still the same characters we loved from the pilot, the same story, the same tone. Hazbin is in good hands, and this episode lays a solid foundation for the season to come.

I like the series premiere, but it wasn't really that great. It was all right. The songs were cool, but everything else was just all right. The subplot about the rest of the Hazbin Hotel crew helping to make a commercial about the Hazbin Hotel was pointless because it got interrupted by a news report about Extermination Day being escalated. Adam wasted Charlie's time about supposedly wanting to make peace, but actually wanted to let her know that he finds exterminations to be entertaining and that the next Extermination will happen in six months from now. Adam himself is heavily underdeveloped.

I've been watching Helluva Boss and waiting for Hazbin but it was just... Not a great opening episode. Speaking of, the literal opening of the episode was very generic (maybe they figured it didn't need effort because people would skip it).

The new voices are... Acceptable. They're fine. I was distracted by Vaggie because I was hearing Rosa (Brooklyn 99); and both Alastor and Vaggie felt toned down- less personality in the performances. Meanwhile, Angel Dust was turned up to 11- which was a mistake.

Also, with the exception of the musical numbers and Alastor's shadows, the animation was really stilted and choppy at times. I'm not sure why so many people are saying it was amazing. It feels like 90% of the money was put towards the voices/music.

Personal preference alert- I hate musicals. The music was fine- the second song was ok- but they did not add to the episode at all. We just groaned and watched for anything interesting in the animation.

*Spoiler section (maybe?)* I knew, from the moment CHERUB was introduced in Helluva Boss, that I was going to have a problem with how Vivzie would do the executioner angels. Somehow, that was worse than I expected- the angels are just as sex obsessed and vulgar as the demons. And I get it "what if angels were the bad guys?" Is a popular trope right now, but there is a REASON they're typically depicted as pompous, stuck up, repressed, purists- that's what makes sense to distinguish them from the demons that are all about sex, drugs, and rock n roll. "Oh but maybe there IS no difference between angels and demons" yeah sure, cool. Maybe like... Foreshadow it instead of making the first angel awful? Ffs.

The addition of the "ticking time bomb" element is wholy unnecessary for the premise. But "monster of the week" stuff isn't popular anymore so guess we're doing that now.

*Spoiler end*

Anyway, I'm willing to watch the next episode, but I'm not optimistic. I gotta keep watching to figure out if I should finish or scrap my Sir Pentious cosplay.

After all of the waiting, I was worried that the show would miss my certainly overhyped expectations by a mile. Never have I been more wrong!

After Nearly five years since the pilot dropped, the show is out, and it was worth every second of the wait! While I was a little hesitant about new Voice Actors coming into the episode, they all absolutely blew me away. In addition to two of my new favorite songs to come out of the Helluverse, the episode had way more instore than I ever expected. While it does rush a tiny bit through the character introductions (the other episodes fix this problem very quickly), it was honestly an absolute blast.

Its amazing to see how much better the team over at Spindel Horse has gotten over the years and I can't wait to see what is in store next.