king15
Since: Mar, 2024
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Fantastic
I was a huge fan of the pilot and I'm very pleased that Vivienne Medrano managed to both meet and exceed the standards set by it.
The animation is incredible. I especially love the character designs, from the protagonists to the background characters (all of whom look unique).The characters themselves are fantastic. There wasn't a character I disliked (except in a Love to Hate sort of way), from the main characters to the villains to the one-shots. Charlie is so much fun to watch: her idealism is really infectious. Alastor is as scene-stealing as everyone says, and I'm glad that Medrano managed to find the perfect balance, avoiding making him too villainous or too heroic, too sympathetic or too unlikeable, too powerful or too weak. He is such an amazing character to watch, a hilarious and terrifying enigma. All the other characters are fun and given surprising depths (with Sir Pentious, the Plot-Irrelevant Villain from the pilot, being especially surprising in this regard).
The songs are absolutely fantastic. They're catchy, varied, move the plot forward and are accompanied by gorgeous visuals. The singing is as fantastic as you might expect from a Musical-trained cast.
The acting is superb. Everyone is the The Other Darrin from the pilot and the performances vary from great but a slight downgrade, on a similar level or, in many cases, far exceeding the standard set by the pilot actors. Regardless, all give fantastic performances. The best would probably have to be Erika Henningsen as Charlie (who really imbues her with a wonderful naivety without going over-the-top), Keith David as Husk (who sings beautifully and performs the character's complexities well), Amir Talai as Alastor (Bosco and Brown were fantastic but I think I might well prefer Talai, though it is very close) and Blake Roman as Angel (especially during 'Poison').
The plot is fun and has surprising depth: I like, for example, how Heaven isn't shown to be pure evil and that some angels are Well-Intentioned Extremist (Sera) or even genuinely good (Emily). Angel's plotline was especially well-done, helping to contextualise his character and tying nicely into the main narrative in episode 6. The dialogue is fun and at times genuinely funny (Nifty and Pentious are probably the funniest characters). I understand why some people are put off by the swearing but I barely noticed it and, for most characters, felt it was appropriate. The one criticism I would agree with is the pacing. I didn't find it too much of a problem: most of the characters had a decent amount of time on screen and enough development was shown that it certainly didn't ruin the show. Still, 10 episodes would have been nice. Hopefully season 2 will be longer.
Overall, this show is absolutely fantastic, and one of my favourites. If you're a fan of Medrano's previous works, I would definitely recommend. Even if you're not, I'd still recommend giving it a shot, there's a lot of good here enjoy.