Broken Base: The Halfway Plot Switch. 50% of viewers hate the sudden Genre Shift from a heist thriller to schlocky action movie, and the other 50% argue that's the main appeal.
He Really Can Act: George Clooney shows impressive range as Seth, making him sympathetic, honorable and charismatic while still making it clear just how dangerous he is. Quentin Tarantino also does great work as Richie, excelling at making him unnerving and believably dangerous yet oddly pitiable.
Because of the Halfway Plot Switch and the fact that pre-Mexico was all talk, talk, talk while Mexico was action, action, action; film-buffs everywhere instantly declared that it was obvious that the first part was directed by Quentin Tarantino and the second part by Robert Rodriguez. The duo would end up doing exactly that in their later film Grindhouse. And even though Planet Terror is shown before Death Proof, the latter takes place first chronologically.
In the Japanese dub of the film, Nobuyuki Hiyama voices Scott Fuller, who was one of his first roles as a voice actor. A decade later, he ends voicing Kouta Hirano. The hilarity came with the fact Hirano hunts zombies and Scott is turned into a vampire and later killed off. Extra hilarity he also voiced vampire lord Demitri Maximoff in Darkstalkers few years later.
Pete Bottoms, the ill-fated store clerk in the beginning of the movie, says to Seth that he's acting natural and quips "I should win a fucking Academy Award for acting natural". John Hawkes would later get nominated for Winter's Bone, though.
Memetic Mutation: The pussy monologue and Salma Hayek's snake dance are both extremely memorable scenes, and as such, they've both taken on a life of their own beyond the movie.
Moral Event Horizon: Richie's rape and murder of his and Seth's hostage. According to Quentin Tarantino, he had already crossed it with his first rape (in every movie he's directed and/or written, he kills off every character who's a rapist, particularly if the rapist is his character).
Nausea Fuel: Among the different types of pussy at Titty Twister are "bloody, horse, and chicken." This is the reason why the Mexican Spanish dub changed this line to women instead, which ironically makes the original line even more disturbing.
Salma Hayek has all of ten minutes screentime half way through the movie and is one of the most memorable things in it. Her face is prominently on the cover of the box, for God's sake.
John Hawkes as a store clerk who is held hostage by the Geckos in the opening scene.
The Scrappy: Scott isn't a very popular character, since although part of the sympathetic Fuller family, he lacks the charisma of Jacob and the wit of Kate. He's also the one making idiotic suggestions to his father that would get them killed and never proves himself indispensable like the others did, making him rather forgettable compared to everyone else. Especially since he dies but doesn't get to come back as a vampire.
Signature Scene: Salma Hayek appears on stage at the Bad Guy Bar to perform a sexy dance with a snake draped around her neck. It's famous both for the Fanservice (see above) and how it marks the transition point between the movie's two genres.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Santanico Pandemonium, Chet Pussy, Razor Charlie and the bouncer are all vampires with distinct personalities and have a considerable leadership presence in the vampire swarm living at the Titty Twister. However, they're all killed within minutes of showing their true colors and most of the vampires fought from that point forward are just interchangeable mooks.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: For the rare first-time viewer who didn't know about the Halfway Plot Switch, the first half of the film sets up a premise and conflict that, had it been truly followed up on, could have been a lot more interesting than the mindless gorefest that the film turns into.
Does the fact that Santanico has being tampering with Richie’s mind make him less of psycho monster than his movie counterpart? Or does it make him worse?
In the episode "Opening Night", Seth stakes a culebra that has been showing a great amount of interest in Kate. Does he do this out of Big Brother Instinct or out of jealousy? Or does he just want to kill somebody to vent his frustrations?
Richie and Kisa's relationship was undoubtedly toxic, but whether or not Kisa (known as Santanico when she was a sex slave) actually had any feelings for Richie is up for debate. For her part, Eiza Gonzálezbelieves that Kisawasgenuinely in love with Richie.
Anti-Climax Boss: The Nine Lords of Night are built as the Greater Scope Villains of the show and a bigger threat than Santanico, yet their leader Amancio Malvado is killed off before Season 2's climax and the remaining Lords are all murdered by a couple of mind-controlled minor vampires.
Santanico. Some fans are constantly clamouring for her return; others say, arguing that her arc ended as of season two, that she has no real reason to be hanging around anymore.
Broken Base: Whether the show should have a Season Four. Some fans are clamoring for more, while others think Season Three's ending was perfect for the series.
Season 2: Lord Amancio Malvado is the eldest and most power-hungry of the Nine Lords of the vampiric Culebras. In the past, Malvado murdered the family of young girl Kisa and rechristened her "Santánico Pandemonium" to become his immortal Culebra Sex Slave, also having her lure in and devour countless people over the centuries, while killing and enslaving thousands at his leisure. In present, Malvado runs the biggest criminal empire from Texas to Mexico, overseeing everything from drugs and weapons to human trafficking. When Kisa escapes his clutches, Malvado summons the Regulator to kill anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts, skinning minions who disappoint him and ultimately hoping to spend an eternity in El Rey with Kisa his broken mistress.
Season 3:
Amaru, Queen of Xibalba, who once enslaved the entire Culebra race, takes the chance to jump into the dying body of Kate Fuller when her seal is weakened. Slaughtering the remaining Culebra Lords save one survivor, Amaru proceeds to torture and kill multiple culebras and humans, even murdering the human lover of Kisa just to hurt her out of belief that Kisa has no right to call herself a queen. Amaru spends the remainder of the season sending horrible demons after her enemies that cause incredible amounts of pain and suffering, and tries to kill Kate's loved ones to force her to watch as a prisoner in her own body. Causing several more massacres, Amaru regains her own original body, her influence driving an entire nearby town mad with the inhabitants of a hospital slaughtering one another. Amaru soon reveals her intent is to drag the entire human and culebra races into hell so she can torture their souls forever in revenge for her sealing.
Brasa is the Sun God of Xibalba and chief servant to Amaru. To bring about his Queen's desired apocalypse, Brasa leads the Xibalban demons to murder and manipulate thousands of innocents, as he has done in countless wars past. Poisoning the water supply of a town to reduce the citizens to mindless cannibals, Brasa cheerfully mocks the few who seek to stop him and delights in telling Seth Gecko how he looks forward to taking Seth's body as his latest vessel to celebrate the end of days.
Draco in Leather Pants: While not as villainous as they first appear, the Gecko brothers certainly qualify all the same. Richie in particular has gotten a lot of leeway since Season One. Again, while he does have his moments of empathy (along with the fact that most of his more villainous actions were directly caused by Santanico messing with his head), those moments should not cloud the fact that he's still a hardened career criminal who's more than willing to spill blood if he has to.
Uncle Eddie and the Regulator from season two. Uncle Eddie, for being a wise-cracking Cool Old Guy, and the Regulator, for being a gun slinging badass (that and he's played by Danny Trejo}.
From season three, it's definitely Burt, although Ximena gave him a run for his money.
Growing the Beard: The second season in general has better pacing, better action, more lovable characters (Uncle Eddie, anyone?), a story that's exciting and unpredictable and a hell of a cliffhanger.
Harsher in Hindsight: All those vampire strippers you see in the movie? The TV series reveals that they used to be innocent young women who were kidnapped and sold to the Greater Scope Villains to create a vampire army. Yes, even Santanico Pandemonium.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Kate's been paired with pretty much everyone by the fandom. Her actress (Madison Davenport) ships Seth/Kate - amusingly, she seems to flirt with DJ Cotrona (Seth) quite often on Twitter, causing fan speculation to go wild about their relationship. Cotrona's penchant for Romance on the Set only adds fuel to the fire.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Scott was dangerously close to being a Scrappy, but has definitely been rescued in season three, thanks to Brandon Soo Hoo proving his acting chops were better than the melodramatic fluff he was given in season two. His getting to show off his martial arts skills definitely helped.
Rooting for the Empire: The Gecko brothers are certainly not good people, but nearly everyone still roots for them. Freddie Gonzalez is working against them, but it's easy to support him as well.
The Scrappy: As of season three, it's Dakota. Her appearance in the show seems a little unnecessary, and she did almost nothing of value while being played by an actress who was very stiff, awkward and had next to no chemistry with the rest of the cast.
Ship Mates: Seth/Kate and Richie/Kisa, or its inverse Richie/Kate and Seth/Kisa. On the outside there's also Seth/Richie and Kate/Kisa.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The show has a pretty bad habit of creating very likable characters and extremely cool monsters... only to kill them off before the season's over. While you could argue that the deaths of Earl Mgraw and Uncle Eddie were necessary to the plots of their respective season, there was absolutely no reason to kill off characters like The Regulator and Burt.
