Review: Helluva Boss “MISSION: ZERO”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Blitzo talks with his team at IMP about how to drum up business and…wait a minute, haven’t I seen this before?

OUR TAKE

Well, the answer to that is yes, you have! For the most part. Helluva Boss first released its first pilot nearly six years ago, and like the pilot for Hazbin Hotel (which itself came out a month prior to Helluva’s pilot), the first go around with these characters felt very rough compared to the series proper when things had been more polished and fleshed out. In fact, the fact that Hazbin’s pilot is not on the show’s Prime Video page is an irksome bit of homework for a lot of people, such as myself, who try getting into the show. With Helluva, it’s a bit different, as that first pilot has apparently long since been considered no longer part of continuity, so while it is free to watch on Youtube like the entirety of the first two seasons, and it introduces the base concept of lower ranked demons working to assassinate living humans for cash, it’s no longer required viewing. And when Helluva was able to finally start airing on Prime Video like its sister show, they decided to not make the same mistake of having new viewers not be able to find the pilot right away and made…a whole new version of that original pilot, just more in line with how the show looks and is written now.

So, how is it? Well, if you like that first pilot and the show so far, it’s still the crass, irreverent, profane, and whimsical world that you already enjoy, just even more violent and more fluidly animated. Personally, I’ve only seen the first season and beginning of the second, and what I can say is that this show is…a lot, like right off the bat. They waste no time jumping into the dirty language and sexual descriptions, and gory violence not long after that. This is a Viziepop show after all, so they gotta keep it on brand. In terms of it being an intro for prospective new fans, only time will tell. As for whether this will be considered the new true pilot also remains to be seen, since I’ve known fans to get very picky about these things based on which one they watched first. But what’s important is that this is meant to be the intro for the show, and I can at least say it is effective at that. Hopefully the third season will continue to do so from there.