Sir Patrick Stevens

approaches.

Like, Angel tells us (not shows us) in S2E1 that he's been doing therapy with Charlie. But it takes until S2E3 for her to even learn why Angel was damned to hell so... Charlie, hun, what are you even talking about in therapy if you haven't so much as *considered* this???

Again- I know that's kinda the joke here, but we're not *talking* about it.

It kinda makes Charlie feel like a bit of a moralistic prude and not someone I'd want to really hang out with. I don't feel like she's really interested in treating the problem if she's going through such surface level-

Like... are we really going to position Angel's choice of dress as a "moral failing"? Or that, well, if you do enough charity work or donate money to the poor, you'll transitionally counter balance your sins like it's currency? Do enough good deeds to buy your way out of a sin deficit?

This is all pretty... puritanical and conservative moralism.

Like, I get part of the humor here is "Charlie has no idea what the fuck she's doing and is throwing everything at the wall", but nothing really actually confronts her logic here.

To jump back to S2E3, let's see what Charlie concocts for Angel's redemption-

-No Drinking
-Dignity = Dress modestly
-Feed the poor
-Change babies
-Help old ladies
-Dimes for Hobos

I'll also point out that the show then has no problem with him drinking a Harder Daddy in S2E1. So... is alcohol an extension of his redemption and moral character or not?

Granted, the hotel having a bar raises that question, but whatever.

I just don't quite like the implication of Angel having or rejecting a drink as a *moral* failing. That, if he did have a drink with Cherri, he'd have let Charlie down and a backslide on progress ruins things for her.

Granted, yes, once we've crossed into sobriety, you really shouldn't be around with or engage with the addictive behavior. It's why, when my mother sobered up, I don't drink around her. I don't bring up alcohol. It's not great.

Addiction is complicated. Generally, most recognize it for what it is- it's an illness. And the road to recovery is very long and very complicated and not a linear path.

A LOT of addiction programs- like DARE or a few others, fail specifically because they push a zero tolerance stance.

of "moral/redemptive win" for him. There's an implication of, if he had taken a single drink with his friends, it would have been a moral failing.

It's kinda a conservative temperance stance the show is taking there I'm a bit unsure of. Engagement with vice at all is thus "sinful".

Like, the show highlights Angel's drug and alcohol addictions as part of his sinful behavior and, by extension, his redemption.

And like, yes, these are addictions and unhealthy and a problem he should resolve. But I'm not quite sure I agree with how the show praises sobriety in S1E6 as some kind-

It came up again in Ep. 3 when Charlie tries to bullrush Angel's redemption and it's been nagging me since S1.

Can we talk about how puritanical Charlie's perspective on redemption is?

How how rather conservative the implications are?

It's not even just Charlie, but the show has this undercurrent to it. Which seems at odds with the aesthetics a bit.

Hazbin Hotel S2 E3-4 hit a lot of snags for folks and I think they're correct about them. I'll post some of my own thoughts, but there's one that's bugged me since S1 that I don't think we talk about much and I'm not sure the show is going to address really-

If we weren’t on other sides of the country… ;)

This movie had no marketing. It felt like it had a small budget. But I enjoyed it.

I had the pleasure of seeing Good Fortune tonight. Went on a whim.

Oh my god, best decision to start the weekend. I haven’t enjoyed and had a good time at a comedy so much in a long time.

It’s not perfect- but damn is it way above my expectations of a class commentary comedy in 2025.

There is only 1 correct response to this

People do not understand how much Mexican culture is the perfect breeding ground for goths and horror fanatics.

NYT Magazine headline “‘I'm on Fire': Testosterone Is Giving Women Back Their Sex Drive - and Then Some There is no F.D.A.-approved testosterone product for women. Insurance won't cover it. Many doctors won't prescribe it. It's become a cultural phenomenon.”

when trans people take HRT to feel normal: “look at these depraved sex freaks performing their sick fetish in public, we should bully them out of existence”

when cis ppl take HRT so they can fuck real good:

A sin that I so easily dismissed as a child as kinda uninteresting and flat has been revealed to be the worst of the bunch.

Own.

I think I’ve come to find Sloth to be the worst. In education, it was always kinda pitched as laziness which feels wrong.

Sloth is apathy. Sloth is the bystander. Sloth is indifference in the presence of evil deeds. Sloth does nothing as systems fail because doing right would break the system

I’ve been on a bit of a plotting binge lately and researching Hell and sin and damnation. I’m not a religious person, but I think concepts and ideas have value.

I think I disagree with the assessment that pride is the worst. It’s loud and brash and brazen, sure. But I find it’s not powerful on its-

The Haunting of Bly Manor.

I hope it lives up to my memories of it. I hope a ghost story might warm the cold in my heart lately.

To anyone know who knows me, they know my love of horror movies and supernatural tales.

Every year in October, I try to rewatch a Mike Flannigan show. Every one of them is fascinating and well told.

Tonight I start on what I considered at the time I watched it to be his best work-

we've had decades of media about evil genius serial killers that are impossible to catch, when in reality they're usually dumb assholes who would have been caught in a second if the police were halfway competent and not so lazy

VtM: Bloodlines 2 looked promising to maybe get my fix. But then it hit massive production issues and the studio that picked it up- while I don’t envy their woes picking up the project, it just became something else and not really what originally sold me.

The closest has been Cyberpunk but that’s a very different and depressing beast than the fun action adventures I liked of BioWare.