Hazbin Hotel S1 E2 “Radio Killed The Video Star”: Review

Previous Review: https://medium.com/@roryaphunter/hazbin-hotel-s1-e1-overture-review-53a06ef4031f

Score — 7/10

Note: By the time I started writing this, I’d already watched all 8 episodes of Season One.

Well, I can say one thing about Hazbin Hotel: it’s got style. “Radio Killed The Video Star” is an unapologetically fast-moving and busy second episode with tons of snazzy, memorable moments. It’s funny, flows well and manages to tell a self-contained story that has big implications going forward.

The plot goeth thusly: After the news of Heaven bumping up the extermination date to six months from now, Charlie (Erika Hennignsen) is desperate to start recruiting and saving sinners, despite Angel Dust (Blake Roman) pointing out the unlikeliness of the plan. Meanwhile, we are formally introduced to the Vees, a trio of younger, hungrier Overlords who control new media. There’s the slick and smarmy Vox (Christian Borle) whose domain is the television and who has a burning rivalry with our favourite Radio Demon, Alastor (Amir Talai), Velvette (Lilli Cooper) the queen of social media and a bitchy selfie-fiend, and Angel’s boss, Valentino (Joel Perez), head of Porn Studios and a stroppy, impulsive whiner who is also an abusive monster. They seek to sabotage the Hotel due to Alastor’s involvement and so get the serpentine Sir Pentious (Alex Brightman), a pathetic Overlord who has attacked the Hotel before, to go undercover and pretend to be seeking redemption.

Before I go any further, I just have to say I love the Vees. I love everything about them. I love their motif of media and how it contrasts with Alastor’s radio theme, I love all how distinct their designs are and how well they’re animated and I love how all of them have really memorable personalities.

Vox is the perfect foil to Alastor, with his flashy and overwhelming style contrasting Alastor’s more restrained and ultimately more sinister methods. “Stayed Gone”, the first of this episode’s two songs, shows the two taking shots at each other in the public sphere, and it’s an absolute cracker both musically and visually, as Vox tries to crowd Alastor out of frame and keep attention off his arch-rival, but Alastor slowly gets under his skin until Vox overloads and loses his signal, allowing Alastor to deliver a chilling final verse that sends the screen-head into a frustrated panic. Vox’s interactions with the other characters also shine, especially his fellow Vees: his tense but respectful dynamic with Velvette, and his twisted romance with Valentino that sees the former at one point try to dissuade the latter from going to the Hotel and causing havoc. Also, the screen-as-head design is just marvellous. Finally, Christian Borle’s snarky and barely-holding-it-all-together vocal performance is the cherry on top of Vox.

Valentino, meanwhile, is probably tied with Adam from last episode as the most hateable character in the series so far. He’s jealous, possessive and violent, he sends Angel Dust abusive voice messages and has canonically molested him. He is funny, but in a pathetic way that emphasises he’s a little bitch, and his pimp-moth design and Joel Perez’s excellent performance both help sell that image further. Valentino is simultaneously laughable and terrifying, and that’s a hard combo to pull off.

But my favourite of the three Vees is actually the one that has the least screen time here, and that’s Velvette, voiced by Lilli Cooper. Velvette is absolutely fantastic from the moment she appears, confident, intimidating, whip-smart and full of venomous quips delivered at every single person. Her look and animation is also great to watch, and compliments her spiky, screw-you but elegant persona very well. Cooper’s delivery is perfect on every line, and Velvette is the only one in this episode who is shown to keep, or at least regain, control of her surroundings, even after Valentino tears up her studio.

Alastor himself can’t be left out of this discussion, as he is a vital part of “Stayed Gone”, and that final verse once again sells him as a truly mysterious and unpredictable figure in the Hazbin universe. Amir Talai’s bravura vocal work combined with the creepy-as-hell voice effects make that final verse one of the best moments in the series

However, the Vees and Alastor are only one part of the episode. Sir Pentious’ introduction in the series proper (he was part of the pilot) is strong as well, as we see him bumble his way through getting into the Hotel by playing on Charlie’s desperation, get caught within the first day by Angel Dust, and then get given a second chance anyway, because that’s the whole point of the Hotel. Sir Pentious’ role in this episode feels like the deepest look yet at the idea behind the Hotel. I mean, Angel Dust is the first guest, but Sir Pentious is the guest who actually appears to engage with Charlie’s proposed process. This detail is actually part of the story: Charlie’s excitement and praise of Pentious as the Hotel’s “first guest” hurts Angel a little bit, and his visible sadness could be the first hint that he cares more about his hotel-mates than he lets on. This would be a good point to mention that Angel Dust is a fantastic, funny and multi-layered character, and Blake Roman does a great job voicing him. He gets some great comedic mileage here (the scenes where he unenthusiastically drones his way through Charlie’s poorly-written morality play had me in stitches), but this episode also shows Angel’s more vulnerable side, as he grapples with his insecurity at Charlie seemingly not viewing him as a serious guest, and also Valentino’s stranglehold. The scene where he goes through Val’s voice messages which swing from coaxing to violent and threatening and back again is really quite unsettling, mirroring real-life abuse.

I should also point out that Sir Pentious is another awesome character. His design is elaborate and memorable, his combination of a pathetic nature and high energy is fun to watch, and Alex Brightman has a ton of fun voicing him. By episode’s end he is found out by Angel, mocked by Vox for having been rumbled on the first day and is ready to be killed for his misdeeds, but Charlie decides to offer him a proper chance. That’s how we get our second song, “It Starts With Sorry”, a heartwarming little number that really showcases Charlie’s core beliefs and suggests that Pentious could really change.Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz) and Angel have their doubts, asking “Can’t we just kill him/shoot him and spill his blood” and also exchanging a sceptical look mid-song that made me chuckle, but Sir Pentious is ultimately allowed to stay. I will say, Hazbin Hotel has so far looked at the ethical and moral nuances and specifics of the Hotel’s guiding ideals with a slightly unfocused lens, and I’m glad this episode looked at them a little closer, satirising some of Charlie’s more old-fashioned ideas (the premarital sex line is clearly treated as a joke), but at the same time seeming to come down on the side of hope, that it’s at least worth a try. The ideas presented in this episode could have seen a little more exploration, but what we got seems to show Vivzie and her team are interested in mining the thematic heft of the premise, and that’s promising.

Overall, “Radio Killed The Video Star” is fun, interesting, with two very different songs and with a lot of promise for what’s down the line.