Proof that you can make a Broadway-style musical about just about anything and that cartoons have been the salvation of the antiquated artform, “Hazbin Hotel” begins streaming on Prime Video. Set in hell, it sports a peculiar and utterly confusing backstory/mythology.
In this animated variation on biblical folklore by way of Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Lucifer was just too creative for heaven, and he fell in love with the primordial woman, Lilith, and then tempted Lilith’s substitute, Eve, making way for a sense of sin. But in the logic of “Hazbin,” it’s tough to tell the bad guys from the so-called angels. To punish the denizens of hell, every year, heaven sends an exterminating army under the leadership of Adam, now an angel and a something of a frat boy/tech bro from hell — except that he’s from heaven.
Back in hell, Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen) a descendent of Lilith and Lucifer, decides to create the titular hotel as a kind of halfway house to help redeem hell-bound souls and return them to heaven. It’s got something to do with overpopulation.
She’s aided in her efforts by her eager assistant, Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), and any number of foul-mouthed characters, from a radio-obsessed TV producer to a porn star.
“Hazbin” uses the relative freedom of streaming to fill the dialog with a strenuous and often jarring use of profanity. It all sounds more adolescent than shocking. Reminiscent of a young boy just learning his curse words, using them more with enthusiasm than wit, or even accuracy.
It doesn’t pay to think too much here, but none of this makes very much sense. Why does heaven send exterminators to “kill” souls in hell who are already dead? And wouldn’t killing them involve a cessation of suffering? Which is supposed to be the whole point of damnation? Compared to this, Charlie’s halfway house purgatory almost seems logical.
Like entirely too many cartoons, the action is frantic, and the dialogue shouted for emphasis. And then characters break into song.
Based on a YouTube video seen by more than 90 million viewers, this is a headache of a show, a great deal of crude noise without a discernible point. You don’t have to believe in fire and brimstone to find “Hazbin” annoying. Perhaps watching it is as close as you’ll get.
— Now streaming on Netflix, the mystical Turkish series “Kubra” follows Gokhan (Cagatay Ulusoy). Just a regular guy from Istanbul trying to work up the nerve to pop the question to his girlfriend, his life changes utterly when he begins receiving mysterious messages on a social media site telling him that he is somehow different and “chosen” for some unnamed destiny, which involves both disciples and enemies, in a war between for forces of darkness and light.
Netflix has also imported the Saudi film “From the Ashes,” based on a real-life tragedy, a fire at an all-girls academy.
The Netflix series “Love on the Spectrum U.S.,” following relationships between men and women on the autism spectrum, enters its second season.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHT
— A tech snafu plunges the emergency room into darkness on “Transplant” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— Only when a single young woman finds herself abandoned by her parents for the holidays does she get into the spirit of things in the 2022 romance “Haul Out the Holly” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron star in the 2015 action sequel “Mad Max: Fury Road” (7:50 p.m., HBO).
— Frank vows to stop the harassment of the Reagan family on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
A Philadelphia dog competition attracts canines and their high-strung owners in the 2000 documentary-style comedy “Best in Show” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-14), written and directed by Christopher Guest and starring members of his “mockumentary” troupe including Michael McKean, Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara.
SERIES NOTES
In partnership with the DEA, the squad launches a major drug sweep on “S.W.A.T.” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Getting a new handle on the umbrella on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
A wellness retreat becomes an inferno on “Fire Country” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC) … “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Natasha Lyonne, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Dusty Slay on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Amy Poehler, Jack Antonoff, Bleachers and Fred Armisen visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
