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Cartoon comedies targeting adults should serve as a limitless canvas for creative minds, yet frequently they end up as bland, hollow entertainment—unnecessary programming forgotten playing in the backdrop while viewers doomscroll or putter around.

As you weigh if to include the series to your queue, forget the giants of adult animation: despite creator Matt Roller’s experience on a major animated hit, The Undervale lacks the sparkling creativity of that series, the honed humor of a classic, the lewd bite of another hit, or the profound substance of BoJack Horseman.

Rather, it is, on a good day, moderately amusing. Some lines follow the familiar pattern of punchlines. Certain synapses associated with laughter may undergo slight stimulation. If one joke doesn’t work, one more comes along soon, and even if it might not succeed, it will not irritate either.

The setting is the haunted inn, which struggles with a poor location, terrible decor, and inexperienced staff—yet that’s not why guests avoid it. It’s haunted! Ghosts, monsters, fiends, and paranormal occurrences are everywhere.

Initially, it seems like a copy of the BBC series, with spirits providing a blend of help and trouble, pleading for small perks like leaving the TV on—an obvious reference to endless tedium.

The main cast features Natalie Palamides as Esther, another talent as Ben, Will Forte as Nathan, an accomplished performer as the demon, and a skilled actress as Katherine.

Managing the undead inhabitants is a fairly standard comedy household: smart, stressed single mother Katherine, her hopeless brother Nathan—itself a ghost that acts like a regular human—and her two children: awkward adolescent Ben and little sister Esther, who has a dark, power-hungry streak.

Completing the cast is Abaddon, stuck in the form of a young boy from the 1700s—essentially a carbon copy of a famous animated villain from a popular show.

Maybe the first episode was considered too unoriginal, because later installments branch out into parodies and homages: an episode references horror movies, another involves a sci-fi situation, and yet another tells the classic sitcom story of a romantic evening ruined by chaos back home.

None of this stops Haunted Hotel from occasionally delivering reasonable one-liners, but the dialogue often feels unpolished, like it wasn’t refined sufficiently.

Sight jokes are plentiful due to the supernatural setting, but they seldom land. Even, when a group of creatures run through a hallway, the reason given—Falling—it was foggy!”—doesn’t work.

In the end, The Undervale feels like it isn’t trying hard enough. As one character remarks to a prospective guest: “We’re aware about the smell, and we’re working on it.” A similar could be said for the series as a whole.