FWIW I appreciate this perspective, 'cuz like, I feel like I only know that corner of cartoons as "that one aesthetic" and/or "the one with the kinda shitty creators" and never actually heard someone just directly talk about the story. Gives me some more perspective on like, how someone gets deep into it as a product ('cuz it sounds like it's not through deep critical analysis, at least).

the whole thing has been a bit of a disappointment to me because i really love the pilot (which actually does set things up well and has way more coherent and snappy pacing) and then the a24 money made ..... this??

it's really sad because their indie produced stuff (i'm a big fan of helluva boss) has so much love put into it.

I watched the pilot ages ago and it struck me as the sort of thing that a fresh-faced creator wants to make as their big animation passion project, but through working under industry veterans in smaller roles and gaining valuable experience, they learn the do's and don'ts of showrunning and use that to hone their original vision into a more focused story

but vivziepop mario 64 backwards long-jumped into a production lead role through cultivating a fanbase of young people who haven't yet (or just never did) develop deeper media literacy. so all of the worst aspects of the pilot are carried forward into a full length show

take some solace in that most TV reviewers are honestly not that much wiser than your average viewer. I'm more annoyed that established animation industry pros have likely had a lot of trouble getting funding for new projects, while insipid dreck like this gets bankrolled by a major studio

(that lackadaisy pilot recently also had the same sort of onceler-ass adorkable primary character, and it's like nails on chalkboard to me

i'm resisting the urge to write a longer piece critiquing this show because vivziepop's fans (and viv herself) are infamously hostile to any and all criticism,

funny thing. i saw an image earlier today of a twitter post with like, 30 likes making a very simple statement about hazbin hotel, not even as a reply nor tagging anyone, and then a response from vivziepop. i think that's a bit weird to just do that? like, she clearly has a lot of stuff she could focus her time on but she just responds to criticism like that. it's gross.

i decided to learn what hazbin hotel even is literally just earlier this month (by coincidence right before the series proper began); i was surprised to find that a pilot was all that existed for something this popular. No wonder the fandom is so insane if that was all they had to gnaw on for years (unless there’s some side material I’m missing). Anyway, thanks for putting into words exactly how i feel about this show.

(I ended up enjoying helluva boss a lot though)

I've also watched a few of the episodes because one of my girlfriends is really into it. It strikes me as the kind of show that isn't sure it's going to get more than its initial run, so they're trying to speedrun to as many of the big moments they're imagining as possible. I can see how it all works for folks who immediately find the characters appealing or are invested for fandom reasons, but in a show with a premise that should be character driven, it's frustrating that they more often take a backseat to the big metaplot.

I watched the pilot and when I saw it, i thought it had a decent idea. but the amount of sex [jokes] absolutely slaughtered it. same for helluva boss

I believe this wholeheartedly because Helluva Boss has the exact same writing issues where they are simply unable to keep from focusing on the author's favorite character in any given situation. A real problem of having nobody to reign them in.