Matt Roller worked as a producer and writer in different shows like Agent Elvis, Archer, Community, Krapopolis, and more. All of those have different aesthetics, maybe just like his new show Haunted Hotel, which Katherine (Eliza Coupe) runs. She has help, including her children, Ben (Skyler Gisondo’s voice), Esther (Natalie Palamides), and her brother Nathan. Will Forte plays Nathan, a ghost among many haunting the titular Nightvale Hotel, and ghosts aren’t the only magical creatures lurking about in this hotel. There’s also Abbadon (Jimmi Simpson), a demon in a boy’s body, a ghost speakesy, a haunted book, and a magic wardrobe. The guests are strange too, like a man who may be a werewolf and Katherine and Nathan’s Aunt Rose.

An episodic animation show, Haunted Hotel has enough on its hands juggling its five main characters. Kathertine is dealing with raising two children on her own while hiding secrets about how Nathan actually died. Esther and Abbadon’s dynamic is more fun because they’re both young(ish) in a place that’s supernatural. I don’t know why though, but I like the Ben episodes better, but maybe that’s because of Skyler Gisondo’s work. After all, this shjow isn’t the first time that he’s playing a ‘normal’ character in very out there situations (eg. Fairfax and Santa Clarita Diet). Animation is still a kid’s genre and younger viewers can probably relate to how he deals with teen stuff.

Animation in streaming is very precarious in that a lot of them have one season and pretty much that. I hope for the best for Haunted Hotel, especially with how it deals with its some subject matter. But I feel like one season is all this show is going to get mostly because of its animation, seemingly boring for 2D. The character designs for the creatures haunting the titular hotel are great but the focus is on them. It feels like, then, that it doesn’t seem to care about how to draw some of the protagonists interestingly. Pardon the reductiveness, but the style here seems to be ‘Bob’s Burgers but the human characters look way too normal.

Thankfully, the only episode in Haunted Hotel that’s a dud is the one about Aunt Rose with its ageism. That and the episode about the haunted book, but otherwise, I can’t bring myself to dislike this little show. Outside of Ben, its saving grace is the different kinds of how it approaches horror, mixing genres around. For example, there’s the wacky Esther going Pepe Silva on that man whom he suspects to be a werewolf. There’s the action-y aspects of horror – this show reminds us that fighting monsters requires, um, fighting. And yes, maybe I was too heavy on fangirling Gisondo while Jimmi Simpson’s voice is perfect for Abbadon.