I finished watching Hazbin Hotel's second season last week. Much like the first season, I found it less interesting than the sister show Helluva Boss.

It felt rushed. Not in the sense that they rushed to get it out the door, but in the sense of the pacing feeling very rapid. Some plotlines (such as Lute's revenge) feel as though they were cut but only as much as to not affect the songs they wanted to add.

Also, many of the characters felt like they lacked depth. It's likely a combination of the rushed plot and the number of characters they're trying to fit in.

When I think about the characters in Helluva Boss, I consider Blitzo and Stolas to be the two most central characters with their relationship being the most important part of the story, followed by Moxxie and Millie (who have less ongoing plot but still feel very central in each episode). Loona and Octavia feel like major but not central characters. They greatly influence Blitzo and Stolas, but their relationship with their fathers is secondary to the relationship between their fathers. Everyone else feels like a returning guest. They can be important to an episode or a few plot points, but they aren't a focus.

Hazbin (or at least S2 since I remember that better) feels as though it is dividing the centermost role four ways between Charlie, Alastor, Vox, and Lucifer. I could see an argument for any of them to be considered the main character. Yet rather than have just one or two major-but-not-main characters, I'd argue there's about ten. Everyone feels important but only a few get enough screentime for it to pay off.

It's odd that it seems more care was given to the show that is being shared freely on YouTube rather than locked behind an Amazon Prime subscription. Is it that they already had a plan in place for the series and were given less time than they expected, but couldn't rewrite it? Or something to do with the different writing teams? I can't tell and I don't know enough to speculate.

In some ways, I feel like the series would seriously benefit from being adapted to be a live theater performance. It's clear there was already some intention there: several of the voice actors have Broadway experience. But being constrained by scene transitions while also not losing momentum from splitting the story into episodes would go a long way (if the script was modified a bit).

I'll at least give them this: Vox is a very fun character and I enjoyed each of his major musical numbers. Especially Vox Populi.