My other brain half reminding me of show's issues... help
Any thoughts on Season 1 and how is the show for Viv's first?
These are mine:
Positives
- The official Helluva Boss show is a step up from the pilot, which is my opinion... wasn't all that great. Even rewatching it, it suffers from broken pacing (an unfortunate fatal flaw in this show), some lackluster jokes and character moments. Sometimes the "It's Hell" excuse won't be enough...
- So a lot of people weren't fond of Loo Loo Land being episode 2 when actually it's much better being... well Episode 2. I really REALLY hate the whole "Loo Loo Land should be later in the series" critique because it's better to establish the show's strongest moments early than later. It also helps define Stolas' redeeming qualities earlier in the series and flesh him out before jumping into the big bits.
- I love both the racial and LGBT representation.
- The characters' struggles are shockingly realistic and relatable. Idgaf, I'll defend Blitzo till the day I die.
- Show Stolas is better than Pilot Stolas.
- Millie's charming. Tbh, I'm not bothered by her lack of character development in S1 because... it's S1. It's like that nonsensical critique that the characters lack development in the HH pilot, which is mind you THIRTY MINUTES and pilots are proof of concepts. And no, I don't find Millie as that "strong female character with no character" or "female character that only revolves around love" (I absolutely despise how nowadays female characters loving a man somehow makes them bad... #JusticefortheOldDisneyPrincesses) . In short, I don't think Millie's that bad in S1. She's okay but seeing her in action makes her fun to watch. As long as she gets development later, then I'm perfectly okay with her being a flat character in the first season.
- I love some of the songs. Once the official version of Vacay to Bonetown release... yeah.
- The pacing gets better in Truth Seekers
- Millie and Moxxie are oddly a refreshing couple, like Emily and Josh in Close Enough.
- Good fight scenes
- The ending of Ozzie's is the perfect season finale. 11/10
- Idc what anyone says, I love Viv's character designing
- I like the variety of music styles. From pop music to broadway sounding. I do hope HH will have that too
- One of my biggest issues with the HH pilot is the red color palette. So, I appreciate HB having diverse color palettes, especially when we visit other rings. That's nice
Negatives... sadly there's a lot
- At the beginning of the season, the pacing was too fast. This really shone in episodes like Spring Broken (Spring's not broken, the pacing is)
- Harvest Moon Festival has weird frame rate. Like yikes. I think they blew the budget on Norman Reedus and that ending shot of Striker
- I feel like Viv is more stronger in the character development than she is in story. Like this was sorta one of my other issues with the HH pilot. I love the characters but the story is handled kinda eh.
- Some of the songs are either forgettable (Teacher Song) or weirdly shoehorned in (Sweet Victory). The worst a song can be is boring and that's the greatest crime against musicals
- Not a fan of the excessive cussing. Don't get me wrong, if a character cussing is in character for them, I'm fine with it. But it always takes me aback whenever a character like Moxxie cusses. One or two slip ups, fine but a lot feels a bit out of nowhere. Then again, I could be wrong considering where he lives but go off I guess.
- Moon Bunnies pointed this out and yeah I agree. Truth Seekers feels like it should've been released in S2. As good as the episode is in developing Blitzo and Moxxie, the whole DHORKS stuff feels too early. I feel like Viv really needs to properly map out plot points instead of trying to cram in so many in only seven episodes and hope the next season will properly spread it out.
- Still confusing why in the beginning of Truth Seekers, they already have recycled footage of IMP. Personally, it would've been better if they had sighting pictures, Verosika's flask, reports of missing/dead people, and the dead sea monster corpse.
- Spring Broken and CHERUBS are the weakest episodes when compared to the others. At least with Murder Family, it held some substance for planting seeds for future plot points like Stolas/Blitzo and Blitzo's conflict with Moxxie.
- CHERUBS is a fine episode, no more no less. Yes, I know the CHERUBS are fated to return in Season 2 but other than Collin, I just can't really find myself to care about them. The CHERUBS themselves don't really have character beyond 'spouting angelic shit' and 'being assholes' (except Collin). Which is a shame too because this is our first actual look into Heaven's residents and it feels super underwhelming. I don't hate this episode because it's not story or character driven, I just find it okay for a breather episode. However, I'll give CHERUBS this.. it's is better than The Great Divide from ATLA
- Spring Broken is a mess. Again, I don't hate or straight up dislike any of the episodes, even the weakest episodes I find charming in their own right. I found the whole human disguises plot point interesting, Verosika is one of my favorite characters, I like the whole Chekhov's Gun with Verosika's flask, good to see some insight on Loona, drunk Moxxie's nice and Tex's nice. But the pacing in this episode is ALL over the place to the point there's no real time to process. It just feels like they threw spaghetti at the wall and see what stuck. Loona blowing up at Blitzo is a good scene... but it gets completely ignored and is not brought up again. Even in CHERUBS and Truth Seeker, it feels like the reset button was pressed and Loona and Blitzo's relationship went back to 'normal'. Not to mention the whole 'they can get in trouble for being seen by humanity' felt out of nowhere.
- Weak worldbuilding. So there is a Hellborn species that live differently and more normally than sinners. Okay, so far so good. I get HB is supposed to be revolving around the 'politics' of Hell and places we won't visit in HH and that's interesting. However, I'm still confused on how the size of Hell works. For a place suffering an overpopulation problem, it seems rather big? I dunno if the Extermination applies to only sinners so they only strike at the Pride ring? How big is the Pride Ring if it's suffering overpopulation? Do the Exterminations go to Imp City? Are there any set of rules? Does rules only apply to Hellborn and sinners live a more anarchy lifestyle?
And that's all I got. So far, I think HB season 1 is solid but lacking in certain areas. Hopefully, S2 will be the case where it's better than S1 and properly iron out these issues. I also hope that HH won't face these problems seeing there's more resources.
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