Season Review: Death Hacks Season One

Overview:

“You’re dead!”

Thankfully, social media is alive and well. Recently deceased Adam and Molly are here to help you navigate the afterlife while avoiding social faux pas like going to boring old heaven or having your skin look healthy.

Ten short episodes go over all the important things impacting youth in the afterlife. From dating the dead to attending Cohella, all your morbid plans are covered. Meanwhile, you can learn all the deathstyle tips like battery acid face masks and cooking up a vegan for dinner.

Death Hacks is your guide to the millennial afterlife.

 

Our Take:

Honestly, out of all the social media platforms available, one would not expect to source quality adult animated content out of Snapchat.

Heck, I thought it was mostly a source for teenagers to get away with shit that they didn’t want their parents to find in their history.

However, with Death Hacks, Snapchat has managed to develop a mini-series that is uniquely appropriate for their channel. In fact, the main characters are the same type of ‘influencers’ that you would find if you scrolled through the app.

Additionally, the theme of the show is on-point with the demographic of users to Snapchat. The creepy and ugly direction is very much Halloween. A holiday that has become one of, if not, the most popular of the year with young adults. The grotesque and deranged is a theme that many of them strive for in their personal styles.

The perfect ingredient to bring this show together would be a couple of talented comedians. Enter Solar Opposites voice actor, Thomas Middleditch, and Kristen Schaal of Bob’s Burgers fame. A comedy pairing that instantly makes sense, deliver smooth dialogue and are both recognizable enough to be an enticing draw for potential fans on their own. Give us these two actors in anything and it is sure to be hilarious.

Each three-minute episode of Death Hacks has a different focus. Much like how real-life influencers would approach their own shows. 

The hosts focus on a certain topic, have guest stars, and even go live on location to the year’s biggest music festival. The only difference being that these influencers happen to be dead and enjoying the party that is the endless afterlife.

Not only do Adam and Molly teach their viewers about the afterlife they give tips on how to stay beautiful and popular, or more like grotesque and miserable. Meanwhile, the series is packed with jokes about dead serial killers, presidents, and whatever other deceased celebrities.

Among all of this, there are still two great characters with arcs and dynamics. Within the first ten-episode season we have already learned how the influencers died, their romantic tendencies, and what makes them tick.

For a total of thirty-ish-minutes of content, they managed to cram it full. The world that they live in and the rules of their universe are directly explained to us. While the dark and morbid humour gets to sit front and centre.

Death Hacks is a surprisingly well-produced hidden gem. Surprising because it offers something unique and appropriate. Hidden because who would think to look for this kind of content on Snapchat. And a gem thanks to being well thought out and executed with the talents necessary to make it great.