Content warning: This article includes mentions of suicide, and spoilers for “Haunted Hotel.”
When surfing through Netflix for something to watch I came across a show called “Haunted Hotel,” which follows a single mother, Katherine (Eliza Coupe), as she tries to raise her family and keep her haunted and failing hotel afloat alongside her now-deceased brother, Nathan (Will Forte), who has turned into a ghost.
The series has received moderately good reception with 7.7 on IMdB and 77% on rotten tomatoes, as well as a second season announcement from Netflix themselves. Adult animated sitcoms, especially family or workplace sitcoms, have a history of not being well-received. For example, shows like “Chicago Aunt,” “Hoops,” “Farzar,” or the “Good Times” reboot received poor reviews and, with exception to “Chicago Aunt”, didn’t get a second season. This is despite sharing similar qualities to “Haunted Hotel,” such as art style, extreme violence, and set up. But, where those shows failed, “Haunted Hotel” conquered, and I know why.
To understand why this matters, you have to understand where animated family sitcoms have been. When you say animated family sitcoms, many people’s first thought could be “The Simpsons,” which makes sense, it’s America’s longest running scripted television series and, unlike its animated predecessors “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons,” it was widely seen as relatable. It wasn’t a pitch perfect family, but a dysfunctional one trying their best, one audiences could relate to.
With the rise of “The Simpsons,” another sitcom called “Family Guy” would arrive. “Family Guy” would be widely criticized for being a copy of “The Simpsons.” It’s a criticism the show has used to make fun of itself, making a 44 minute crossover with the two shows called “The Simpsons guy.” However, even this criticism and its cancellation (then subsequent renewal), didn’t stop audiences from loving its adult, crass, and meta humor. Satirizing not only the family sitcom genre, but celebrities and marginalized groups with a mean spirit that would have been too much a show like “The Simpsons.”
These graphic sitcoms would become a trend for modern day adult animated shows, with shows like “South Park”, “Rick and Morty”, and “Archer.” Yet, “Family Guy” began an entirely new subgenre of “Family Guy Rip-offs” directed towards shows that share a similar art style; setting and dry, meta humor that attempts relatability, but they have noticeably lower budgets and are more poorly animated.
When I accidentally clicked on the trailer for season one, I was sure this Haunted Hotel was just going to be another “Family Guy” rip off like “Brickleberry,” or “The Prince,” given the similar artstyle. Surprisingly, I was wrong.
Haunted Hotel has a compelling premise and a setting for people to be engaged in. I stayed because I was intrigued by the idea of the occult and supernatural. The ghosts and the supernatural blend well into the lives of the family. It adds conflict and stakes to the show — the family could die from the supernatural encounters they experience. In shows like “Duncanville,” the setting and premise center around mundane places like the suburbs or workplaces. Their plots can run stale because they don’t utilize their setting to enhance the humor or interactions between characters. They’re restricted by the very real places they take their inspiration from. There’s only so much a character can do in a soul sucking environment like a suburb. Although mundanity can work with successes like “Bob Burgers,” “Family guy,” and “The Simpsons,” it didn’t work for Fox’s “Duncanville,” which was cancelled after the 3rd Season due to low ratings.
The show also highlights the characters’s arcs and feelings. You’ve seen the personalities before on other sitcoms — for example, Esther (Natalie Palamides), the mischievous youngest child of Katherine, is very similar to Louis Belcher from “Bob Burgers;” constantly getting into schemes, pulling pranks, and resorting to violence. What sets “Haunted Hotel’s” characters apart is the emotional conflict and complex dynamics between each character. Unlike a show like “Family Guy,” where any emotional resolution or character growth is immediately rebooted by the next episode, the character growth and emotional moments have weight.
Ben (Skylar Gisondo), Katherine’s son, struggles with self confidence in the episode “The Seven Deadly Bens.” Although it’s not my favorite episode, he does somewhat overcome this issue, as we see him stand up for himself in episode nine, where he yells at the Vatican. He still is the butt of the joke, but standing his ground shows he’s trying to grow.
It also helps that TikTok has decided to make this show popular, especially the fan favorite character Abbadon (Jimmi Simpson), who is a demon trapped in a victorian child’s body. He’s the quintessential sitcom sidekick character, like Roger from “American Dad” or Uncle Fester from “The Addams family.” It’s a character that may not be a part of the close family but is added into the main cast in order. TikTok has formed a community around the show; creating cosplays, memes, artwork, and even romantic pairings of characters we haven’t seen. With a lot of these videos getting tens of thousands of likes, it boosts “Haunted Hotel”to new viewers.
“Haunted Hotel”has the potential to be so much more interesting and heartfelt than what the initial ten episodes gave us. The truth of Nathan’s death, one of the most heartwrenching plotlines, is given during the climax of episode nine, “Esthercist.” The reason why Katherine lies to Nathan about his death, initially, is because he took his own life. I think if handled well, the show can have insightful conversations of how it feels to go through a death like this with someone who is still able to talk about it. It’s only possible with the reality-breaking ability of fantasy.
This is what adult animation should have the freedom to do — have insightful and meaningful commentaries on adult topics. This is impossible with Hollywood’s low-risk-high-reward business strategy where big media companies like Netflix or Disney stick to franchises that have been proven to be financially successful, or replicate media that already has audience interest. This is why we continue to get shows like “Duncanville” or “Chicago Party Aunt” with the same premise, characters and art style.
However, “Haunted Hotel” was able to do the impossible by breathing new life into these common tropes through an intriguing premise, heartwarming characters and character dilemmas that simply make us care about what we’re watching. Something that I fear was hard to do in the genre of recent. We can only hope that it won’t be killed with a cancellation.
