After years of anticipation, fan speculation, and internet mythology, Hazbin Hotel finally arrived as a full-fledged television series, and against long odds, it mostly lives up to the hype. Season 1 is loud, chaotic, profane, emotionally sincere, and unapologetically weird. It is also surprisingly thoughtful beneath the neon filth and musical mayhem. Creator Vivienne Medrano’s vision, once confined to a viral pilot and spin-off shorts, expands into a fully realized version of Hell that feels both satirical and strangely heartfelt. At its core, Hazbin Hotel is about redemption, an idea that sounds almost quaint until you place it in a setting where redemption is considered laughable at best and heretical at worst. Charlie Morningstar, Hell’s relentlessly optimistic princess, believes damned souls deserve a chance to rehabilitate themselves rather than face eternal extermination. This belief places her in direct conflict with Hell’s entrenched systems of power, violence, and apathy. Wha...