After a year and a half of airing season 2 of the hit indie show, Helluva Boss, on YouTube, it has concluded with the finale of “Sinsmas” in late December 2024. It has been quite the season, with some highs and lows that I wanted to highlight in this overarching review of the season. Spoilers for Helluva Boss ahead!
I became a fan very early on when I discovered the pilot in 2019 and had been eagerly awaiting releases of the show since. I love indie animation and I’m always looking for more to watch, but with the conclusion of season 2, I definitely have a lot of thoughts.
The Good
So I had a lot of fun with some of the episodes this season. I think some of my favorites have to do with the clown character, Fizzaroli. He was established as Blitzo’s childhood friend but they had a falling out there Fizz hated him since, and we discover the truth of what happened in episode 6, “OOPS”. An accident at their childhood circus jobs results in a large fire that leaves Fizz deformed. He was always under the impression that Blitzo did it on purpose because he was jealous of his popularity. The reality was it was a complete freak accident and Blitzo was trying to get him help.
I enjoyed this episode, aside from the distraction song that went on just a little too long to be funny. But it was the first time we really see Blitzo reconcile with someone from his past and they become friends again. It was refreshing for Blitzo to finally make a friend again instead of constantly creating more enemies for himself.
I also enjoyed the following episode 7, “Mammon’s Magnificent Musical” a mid-season special following Fizz’s struggle with keeping up with the embodiment of the sin Greed. He performs for Mammon as his top performer and every year he enters a competition to maintain his spot. However, Fizz doesn’t like Mammon or his treatment of him, but feels the pressure to keep up appearances. With the help of his partner Asmodeus, the sin of Lust, and Blitzo, he realizes he can simply quit and stop putting up with Mammon. In a fantastic last show, he resigns from his role and frees himself.
Both episodes brought us a satisfying look into who Fizz is as a character, as we’ve seen a lot of him in episodes prior and his distaste of Blitzo, but we finally explore this dynamic and things change for the better between them.
I also think episode 9, “Apology Tour” was a good look into the failings of Stolas and Blitzo’s relationship and the struggle Blitzo has to actually make amends with people from his past and present. To prove to Stolas he can apologize, he goes on a sort of apology tour to make amends, but you can tell he’s not taking most of it seriously. It comes to a head when he crashes a party full of people that Blitzo has wronged and is confronted by Stolas hooking up with someone and seemingly moving on. He sees the effects he has on people and feels genuine remorse for his past actions. In a funny twist, there’s an inkling of forgiveness from his ex Verosika where they have a civil conversation and she sees that he’s changed. This was a good episode for Blitzo as he has to confront what he did to people and actually see the consequences of those actions. After so long of Blitzo not taking accountability, he begins to.
The Bad
“Unhappy Campers” was easily the worst episode.
The only engaging event in that episode was the very end where Blitzo sees his twin sister, Barbie, after years of no contact, and it’s not a happy reunion. This was the first time we actually see the two interact, and hopefully we see her later in future seasons to get the full idea of what happened between them.
But the choice in “Unhappy Campers” to make Moxxie the most insufferable person possible to his wife, Millie, that he usually adores was such a jarring decision. I can understand that perhaps he was jealous of Millie getting more praise and attention than him but to make him act that obnoxious was such a turn-off for me.
Speaking of Millie, good lord does this woman need development. In general, she is often jokingly described as an assassin that loves her husband, but it’s true. She gets little development beyond that. It got better this season, we get a glimpse of backstory in “Ghostfuckers” where we find out how she and Blitzo met.
However, what is perhaps my biggest complaint of the season is the reveal that Millie is pregnant at the end of the season finale. Anytime a show adds a baby to the plot, it immediately gets worse. Shows are hardly improved by the addition of an infant that cannot do anything, and it cheapens any story progression Millie could get. Now, it’s shown that she’s shocked by this revelation and opts to hide it from Moxxie. We don’t actually know yet what Millie is going to do with this child.
My personal fear is that if Millie keeps the baby, it’s a death sentence for any development we can get from her and she’ll be reduced to a mom character. I inherently dislike this trope because a woman should be more than a mother and the character often falls flat after.
I can see it working if it goes in the way of Princess Carolyn from Bojack Horseman. When she finally adopts a child as a single mother after struggling with miscarriages and infertility, she comes to realize how difficult it is to do and also balance her career. She desperately wants both to work and we see an entire episode based around this idea. However, PC herself is already a well established character by the time she adopts Ruthie. She goes through hardships and development before this arc. The only thing Millie has had to contend with this entire show so far was her husband being an asshole for a day. To give her a pregnancy arc after barely any development feels like a slap to the face.
There’s a lot more to be said about this show, in both directions, but I wanted to highlight some of my biggest praises and lowest remarks. This show can be rough around the edges with how it handles some characters, namely women, and it is probably my biggest criticism of the show. Even so, I thought it was a decent season and I’m curious of the direction it’s going after this.
