Created by Vivienne Medrano, Hazbin Hotel Season 2 follows Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen) and the rest of the group after their victory against Heaven’s army, which has led the Hotel to be packed with new residents. Though, to Charlie’s dismay, many of her new guests seek revenge not redemption. Meanwhile, the Vees try to capitalise on Hell’s instability and use the growing tensions with Heaven to their own advantage.
The first season of Hazbin Hotel was a massive surprise that hooked me right away with its unhinged yet compelling characters, wild yet layered narrative, hellish yet unique animation and absolutely addictive music. So of course I was very excited for a second season of the series to see where things would go next for these characters and their story that clearly had more to offer. I can happily confirm that Hazbin Hotel’s second outing is a phenomenal continuation of the series that improves all the elements of the first season as well as evolves this delightfully crazy world further in its own unique ways.
This season brings back beloved characters and gives them new arcs in a bigger narrative thread full of surprising revelations, relevant themes and epic animation that takes this series soaring to new heights. I loved this season from start to end and couldn’t help but feel so absorbed into everything that was going on, from it’s emotional drama, boundary pushing humor and intense musical sequences that stay with you long after watching it.
This season introduces some new faces but it mostly focuses on the core characters of the series and expands upon several others that didn’t have as much screen time before in the first season. The voice cast brings their all to their respective roles, both in their voice performances and singing performances, going bigger and better with them. Erika Henningsen wonderfully returns as Charlie Morningstar in this season with a different yet still investing arc that highlights her flaws as a hero in a more expansive way. I’ve seen a lot of people expressing their frustrations with Charlie as a character this season, given some of her radical actions and toxic positivity she expresses in this story, but in my view this was just a classic flawed hero arc that starts off as negative and frustrating but develops into something positive and satisfying by the end. She is an optimistic, naive, and determined individual that means well in her intentions but doesn’t have a full grasp of reality, given how she was raised as the princess of Hell.
Her most important trait is her blind faith in people and success, which can be considered a positive quality that helps her maintain her composure in extreme circumstances but can easily turn into selfishness, making her ignore others’ feelings, because the line between them is extremely thin for her. Due to her naivety, Charlie often struggles to read the room and understand how serious the situation is, which ends up getting her into trouble with Vox and his manipulative tactics, as well as put her at odds with her friends and to some extent the audience. But at the same time you can’t exactly blame for being this way as she is acting out of guilt and trauma that stems from her past that has left a long lasting affect on her.
She makes a lot of mistakes with grave consequences but she also begins to learn from them by admitting her faults and showing she can be better by the end of the season. It is a bold but excellent arc for a protagonist to have as not many shows these days dare to show the ugly sides of their main character because of the fear of making them unlikeable but it does all end up paying off hugely when executed well and given a fair chance to be explored in detail.
Charlie isn’t the only one to get a major arc this season as we get the return of the TV demon Vox, reprised phenomenally by Christian Borle, who cements himself in this season as one of the best animated villains I’ve seen in years. Vox may have started out as a petty as hell villain in season 1 but in season 2 he proves himself to be much more than that as he turns out to be a layered master manipulator driven by egomaniacal hyper fixation and lust for power that makes him a legitimate threat to our beloved characters, the citizens of Hell, and the kingdom of Heaven. He’s a terrifying monster manipulating the media that accurately represents real monsters manipulating the media in our world today, yet at the same time manages to be an extremely compelling villain you get to be invested in as you see every layer of him being stripped back to show the true man behind the TV head.
Christian Borle got to do so much more with the voice of this character in so many ways, fully committed to the unfiltered madness of this character and delivering an animated antagonist that puts a majority of the animated villains of the past decade to shame. The other Vees are just as evil and dastardly as Vox but there is no doubt that Vox steals the entire show with his arc.
Other main characters like Vaggie, Angel Dust, Husk, Nifty, Lucifer and Sir Pentious may not have as large or detailed arcs as Charlie and Vox but their arcs still leave a large impact on the story and audiences, especially in the emotional department. Vaggie, reprised fiercely by Stephanie Beatriz, remains as Charlie’s solid rock of support through her struggles but finds herself needing to step up to set Charlie on a better path when her faults begin to harm the hotel and the inhabitants within.
Blake Roman’s Angel and Keith David’s Husk have a much more evolved relationship that has gone from two relatable losers as friends to two relatable losers as potential lovers. These two get a lot closer together this season and it’s made abundantly clear they do have feelings for each other that are genuine and sweet, making you root for both of them. Unfortunately for them they both have their own set of problems and demons to face that prevent them from ever being fully together, making for some truly heartbreaking moments that are brought to life beautifully through their respective voice actors.
Jeremy Jordan as Lucifer and Kimiko Glenn as Niffty remain as pure comedic gems in the series. Both get to shine respectfully and deliver tons of laughs despite being in a more mature-themed season. Sir Pentious, now redeemed in Heaven, gets to have a lot of heartfelt and wonderful moments of his own this season that show just how much he has grown as a character since season 1.
As for Amir Talai’s Alastor, he has quite the interesting journey in this season as major revelations about his past and current problems he has are brought to light that force him to make unusual decisions that sacrifice his dignity and make him seem weaker compared to how he was in season 1. But the reality is that his true strength doesn’t come from his demonic powers but his own cunning and manipulative tactics that further cement him as one of the most dangerous and terrifying demons of Hell, capable of getting himself out of any situation he finds himself stuck in. He’s a character that can never be trusted and yet still be so compelling to watch with everything he does.
Another character that gets further expanded upon is the angel Sera, voiced beautifully by Patina Miller, who is facing the moral dilemma and consequences of her actions in season 1 after realizing sinners can actually redeem themselves and that their ruthless executions of them have been wrong from the start. Miller does an incredible job giving so much emotion to the character through her voice and singing, making us feel the many pressures she is dealing with as she tries to decide what is best for Heaven next after tensions begin to grow between the two realms. This expansion of her made the characters of Heaven feel just as compelling as the ones in Hell, including Emily and Lute, who also get more prominent roles in this season.
That being said, there is one issue I feel this season had, which was its handling of Lute. Despite having some awesome scenes of her own and being voiced amazingly by Jessica Vosk, she seemed to be set up to have a much larger role this season in the beginning but then ends up getting largely sidelined for the rest of the season. Perhaps this is similar to how Vox was established in season 1 where Lute could be a possible future antagonist, but if that was the case there are much better ways of doing that than the way it was done here.
Aside from continuing the ongoing story threads of season 1 and giving further awesome development to a majority of the characters, season 2’s narrative also manages to dedicate itself to exploring a lot of mature and relevant themes that I didn’t expect it to deliver in such brilliant fashion. With the Vees being set as the main antagonists of our heroes we get a very interesting conflict involving sincerity vs falsehood and a highlight of the great dangers manipulators of the media can have by taking a few words out of context from something wholesome and weaponizing it into something horrible. Just like with the recent adaptation of The Running Man, this show’s take on media manipulation and censorship is done in a satirical fashion yet is an accurate and timely depiction of current events that I feel is important to listen to, especially when the signs are so obvious and the aim is meant to ignite conflict.
This season may still have its hilarious dark humor that never fails to make me laugh but it does also manage to get me hooked in with its mature takes on relevant topics that I feel most people may ignore, given its being told in animation and not live action.
The finale of this season does a fantastic job in concluding the arcs and story threads of this season while also managing to deliver significant payoffs from both this season and the previous season in truly satisfying ways that make the slow burn wait worth it. Additionally, there are some major setups for the upcoming third season that I can’t wait to see come to fruition, including the crazy cliffhanger ending that makes us ponder what’s about to happen next.
The animation of this season is a vast improvement over the first season in terms of visual style, action, cinematography, editing and movement. It is clear from every frame of this season that a lot more time and budget was given to make something grandly exciting and epic without losing the unique essence that made the series visually stand out from other animated shows in recent years. The musical sequences have also been vastly enhanced visually and narratively as we once again get a long list of truly addictive songs of various genres that are given their all by the voice cast. There are so many songs this season I can list off as my favorites but there is no doubt that the songs “Gravity” and “VOX DEI” stood out the most to me for their stunning visuals and hardcore lyrics.
Hazbin Hotel continues to cement itself as one of the best adult animated shows of recent years and I truly can’t wait to see where things end up going from here with these characters and the new paths that lay ahead of them. I’m going to give Hazbin Hotel Season 2 an A+ = 99.
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