Rating: 3.7/5
Even as a person who despises sitcoms due to my hatred of the lack of stakes in most of them, I enjoyed season 1 of Haunted Hotel quite a bit (even though, personally, I think HH is a blend of sitcoms and Gravity Falls–style storytelling), as I am a sucker for weird, ominous mystery adventures, despite its frequent gags that I didn’t find that funny. I went into season 2 with slightly higher expectations because of that enjoyment, and I am not sure how to feel about this season as a whole. This is because season 2 did have multiple great episodes, including my all-time favorite, “Ghost Day Out,” but there were also just as many episodes that were weaker in their attempts to be interesting. This is especially detrimental sometimes because if the entire series is set in the same place with the same characters, keeping it fresh is extremely important so the audience doesn’t get bored. For the most part, season 1 managed to pull this off by constantly introducing new, shiny things for the audience to fathom, such as the Forbidden Wing, the Rollyfluffs, and the Acolytes, which managed to keep me entertained. Season 2 replicates this formula, but I’m not sure if it’s because of overuse or just a lack of creativity; it just doesn’t feel as interesting. This is also not helped by the fact that season 2 only has 8 episodes compared to season 1’s 10 episodes, which gave the writers fewer opportunities to try and demonstrate their ingenuity.
I do appreciate the writers trying to tie more emotional themes into this season, such as divorce, regrets, and embracing one’s identity, but I often felt that these themes were frequently interrupted by arbitrary gags that sometimes felt off and ruined the atmosphere. For example, my favorite episode of the entire series, Ghost Day Out, tells the story of how, once every 20 years, ghosts are allowed to leave their haunting grounds and roam free for one night only. Here, Nathan goes out and meets the love of his ghost life, Bridget, and they spend the night together knowing that their time together will be over soon and they’ll need to wait another 20 years to meet again. This simple gimmick allowed for one of the most emotionally powerful stories of love, transience, and eternity, and, combined with the beautiful final scene of the two leaving each other like falling meteors, it really made me believe that the writers of HH are indeed capable of telling a meaningful story. However, this is immediately followed by a dumb gag of Nathan hitting the ground and making a comedic sound. However, this is then immediately followed by a scene of Nathan and Bridget looking toward each other from their haunting grounds a hundred miles apart, which again tries to build up emotion. The point is, this would’ve been perfect if they hadn’t put in the gag, so sometimes I really question if the writers understand comedic timing or not. In short, season 2 of Haunted Hotel didn’t reinvent the wheel or anything, and it’s still a mediocre, cool mystery sitcom, but the overplayed formula really made it stale to me. I also am really disappointed that they weren’t able to do more with the concept of a horror hotel because, think about it: it’s such a great setting for a TV series like Gravity Falls. But it refuses to dig deeper into its single-use concepts or take itself too seriously, so I really think there is a lot of wasted potential. The ending is also nowhere near as good as season 1’s ending, and while I understand it’s supposed to be a reflection of the journey that the family has been through, it’s just neither cool enough nor deep enough to make a compelling ending. Though I do see its attempt at the very, very end to make it more than just another adventurous episode, it just didn’t work for me.
It’s okay—not good, but not too bad either. Season 3 better be a redemption for this series.
(There also better be a season 3 since we got a cliffhanger about how Crowe will be back.)