If you liked Hazbin Hotel, here’s what you should watch next

Hazbin Lodge’s frenetic first season completed up on Friday, with a dozen reveals and dangling plot threads, all primed for a second season. The devilish comedy comes from creator Vivienne Medrano, who first posted the pilot episode on her YouTube channel, and follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, who opens a lodge in hopes that demons will rehabilitate and get to heaven. Oh, and it’s additionally a musical!

The primary season completed with a bang, nevertheless it is perhaps a while earlier than we see the second season of Hazbin Lodge. So if you want one thing to sate your devilish needs for now, Medrano handpicked a few of the present’s largest influences.

Invader Zim

The place to watch: Paramount Plus

Merdano calls this one a “huge one” and it’s not exhausting to see why: Each exhibits share an identical form of feverish sensibility, together with a robust, vibrant shade palette. The spindly fashion of Invader Zim feels clearly at play in Hazbin, with characters like Alastor and Angel Mud feeling like they might pretty comfortably roll between exhibits.

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

Picture: Cartoon Community Studios

The place to watch: Max

The opposite childhood present Merdano cites is about two children (one a clueless happy-go-lucky oaf, the opposite a cynical and smart-ass tomboy) who summon the Grim Reaper and beat him at a sport of limbo, thus making him their everlasting servant finest pal. They get wrapped up within the paranormal world of demons, gods, and different supernatural creatures, nevertheless it’s all achieved with a goofy spin. The infernal through-line from Grim Adventures to Hazbin Lodge is fairly apparent.

BoJack Horseman

Picture: Netflix

The place to watch: Netflix

Whereas there have been different exhibits she watched when she was youthful, Medrano says Netflix’s BoJack Horseman — about an anthropomorphic, depressed washed-up sitcom actor (who can be a horse) — is the one which got here on the “perfect time” to point out her that she may inform an advanced emotional story in grownup animation.

“[It’s] actually one of my favorites of all time; phenomenal show,” Medrano says. “It form of confirmed me that grownup animation cannot solely simply be raunchy comedy, however it may be a narrative that has intense improvement of its characters. It may possibly have extremely flawed characters. It may possibly make you cry. It may possibly actually get deep and darkish.

“It had just started around the time that I was like, really making the pilot and they kind of made me go, Oh, wow, adult animation is starting to change. And it’s starting to evolve.”

South Park

The place to watch: Paramount Plus

Medrano calls South Park a “huge turning point” for her with grownup animation — an expertise lots of people had round Comedy Central’s basic. The present tackled topical concepts and occasions, all with a gleeful, jaded humor that has saved it operating since 1997. “From that point on,” Medrano says, “I kind of just kept watching [adult animation].”

Rick and Morty

Picture: Grownup Swim

The place to watch: Max

Much like BoJack, Medrano cites this ever-popular Grownup Swim comedy as a proponent of the depth and humor she tries to steadiness together with her work. As anybody who has watched Rick and Morty can attest, there’s extra to the present and extra to Pickle Rick than the popularity it provides. “Something like Rick and Morty that is still very raunchy, and vulgar, and shocking in a lot of ways — it went this direction of like, Yeah, but let’s go a little deeper, let’s get a little darker. I think that also helped shift the space kind of more towards Oh, that works! That has an audience that did really well.”