Doesn't Viv have people to help her with the written portion of these episodes? Or they just yes men and let Viv do whatever she wants?
Honestly, the Helluva Boss concept of new mission every episode had a better premise. I'm not happy they barely throw that in unless it's within a short.
I don't know if it's specifically a case of yes men or more a case of writing among friends. I imagine it as a group of highschoolers who decide they're going to write a story together. Both in terms of the quality of the show and the writing process. It works for them because it isn't designed for a general audience. They all know the characters and the world, or at least the elements that are important to them, because they've talked about it. But the general audience has no idea about a lot of those details. Or if the audience is interested in something they didn't think to cover, they have to scramble to explain it.
That last bit is particularly troublesome for the team because I think Viv and co. are more interested in the sad gay boys, while a lot of people are more interested in either the world building or character motivation. There's a reason the shows are described as things like "hitmen from hell take out sinners" or "The devil's daughter tries to rehabilitate souls in hell."
The emphasis tends to be on the hellish aspects. Hell is a very unique setting for a show. Off the bat, it implies a strong supernatural setting with lots of dark elements and really fleshed out characters. You don't get thrown into hell for being a nobody. Backstory is also a key detail for a hell setting. Especially if the whole entire point is to redeem the characters. You need to know *why* they need redemption. But as far as I know, almost all the backstory of the characters in Hazbin comes from Viv and co. sharing details. And then sometimes changing those details when there's fan backlash.
Even the relationship side of things, which you think Viv and co. would excel at, is really, really weak. Viv's female characters are awful. Not to say her male characters are examples of great writing, but they at least tend to do things and sometimes have agency. But because Viv wants them to be in a constant state of gay angst, there's not really anything you can do with them. Honestly, the best way to describe it is if someone took a softcore porn and told you to make a drama series out of it. Actually, not just a drama series, but an epic drama series with multiple worlds and incredibly high stakes.
Viv is very much a coffeshop style of writer. More specifically, a teen coffeshop style of writer. I think if Viv initially leaned into that/marketed her shows as such, they'd do a lot better. I mean, that's basically the audience she has right now to begin with. But I think a lot of people tuned in for what was being advertised, a hellish hitmen agency or soul rehabiliation. I'd say it's the marketing teams fault if anything, but it feels like Viv herself was always pushing that narrative, and still makes vague attempts at having these bigger premises but they just always fall short because nobody on the writing team really seems to care about telling those stories.