Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) is just short of redemption
Photo courtesy of John E. Manard/Flickr
Vivienne Medrano, better known as Vivziepop, is the creator of the Hellaverse, a unique and cartoony version of Hell made up of Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) and its sister series, Helluva Boss (2019- ).
Recently, on Oct. 29, 2025, the second season of Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) was released, consisting of eight new episodes featuring a multitude of new characters, songs, and some pretty shocking reveals.
Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) is a musical show that centers around Princess of Hell Charlie Morningstar, starting a hotel where the sinners of Hell can learn to better themselves and eventually rise up to Heaven. The show is known for its cast made up of Broadway stars, or at least actors known for their singing ability, along with incorporating quite a lot of LGBT+ representation. This, along with an interesting premise and unique world-building that challenges standard depictions of Hell, has given the show a large fanbase. However, the show itself has its fair share of criticism.
In season one, many criticized the show’s sense of humor, complaining that it was too raunchy or swore too much. This is a personal preference, but an excessive amount of profanity is definitely one of the defining features of Hazbin Hotel (2019- ). A larger complaint was the fast-paced and occasionally incoherent writing style, which tended to rush storylines, making some development seem forced and sometimes unbelievable. One of the worst examples of this during the first season was when a large fight between the main character, Charlie, and her girlfriend, Vaggie, was resolved without the two even talking to each other due to the time constraints of the episode. Even worse, this created the issue of the fanbase not feeling invested in the leading romance. So, was season two of Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) any better?
In many ways, yes, season two of Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) is a genuine improvement, especially the first two episodes, which both take their time in setting up what seemed like a glorious season. When only the first two episodes were released, season two of Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) sat at an impressive 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes according to Screenrant, and for good reason. The first episode sets up the coming story flawlessly, establishing the motivations of the villains, the Vees, and setting up the conflict of Charlie struggling to keep Hell on her side with the Vees attempting to use their control over Hell’s media to tarnish her reputation. It is a very topical theme, especially in modern times, where the places we in the real world get our news often have their own agendas.
The second episode was a beautiful story that seemed to be setting up a much bigger arc. On top of getting to see the human life of former sinner Sir Pentious—the first of an exciting trend throughout the season—this episode focused entirely on how Heaven reacted to finding out sinners could earn redemption. It introduced Sera’s guilt on allowing the extermination of the souls of sinners who could have possibly be redeemed, a guilt shown in a powerful and gorgeous ballad called “Sera’s Confession,” which would drive Sera’s actions throughout the rest of the season, until finally being put to rest in the stunning song “Live to Live.” Sera has a wonderful and complete arc throughout the season that is made clear immediately. Unfortunately, that is not true for every character in this episode.
The second episode also deals with Heaven reacting to the death of Adam, who was killed by the residents of the Hazbin Hotel in an act of self-defense. Adam’s son, Abel, is introduced here, who apparently was meant to have an arc focused on his lack of self-confidence, but this conflict is not introduced until the finale of the season, where it is immediately resolved. Abel’s character feels forced into the plot, adding nothing, and the audience has no reason to care for him.
Then, there is Lute, who was a well-established character during the first season as Adam’s right-hand woman. She is presented in the second episode of season two as being driven mad with grief over Adam’s death, and delivers the absolutely jaw-dropping song, “Gravity.” Through this powerful song filled to the brim with emotion and stunning lyrics, instrumentals, and visuals, Lute swears revenge against those who killed Adam, particularly Charlie. And this promise goes nowhere through the whole season, beyond an abrupt minute-long sequence in the finale that quickly pivots to a focus on Abel, making what seemed like a powerful, defining moment seem hollow. Unsatisfying storylines like those of Lute and Abel are proof that the show is still struggling with time constraints.
Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) did make an effort to fix some of its criticisms, though. Notably, Charlie and Vaggie were brought into a fight once again, but it was given proper development this time, and we saw the pair resolve it together. Charlie admitted her tendency to hyperfocus and ignore the people trying to reason with her, which was a complaint of their dynamic last season. Unfortunately, this ended up being a double-edged sword; that same tendency of Charlie ended up getting exaggerated this season, making her come off as unreasonable and even annoying in the eyes of some of the audience, which is not great for the main character of the series.
All in all, season two of Hazbin Hotel (2019- ) is not perfect, but still makes some genuine improvements.