I might be overrating this Pilot episode of the Chucky series DEATH BY MISADVENTURE a bit, but I have my reasons. First, I've never been a fan of the Child's Play franchise. I can barely remember anything about the first 1988 film only maybe seeing it once and never really watched in full any of the sequels, only seeing most of them in parts. Second, I know that the sequels diverged into the campy, silly, comic territory and like I said have seen scenes from them here and there and I think I've actually seen the full movies as part of riff watching platforms. Third, I actually did watch the recent 2019 reboot and hated that movie. The main kid in the reboot was obnoxious and there was too much cringe dialogue in it that took me out of the horror element. Fourth, I honestly didn't like the last movie Cult of Chucky from 2017 that will directly connect to this series at some point. In my EXTREMELY unpopular opinion, the best film of the entire franchise is the incredibly underrated Curse of Chucky from 2013 and until I re-watch the original '88 film to gauge my feelings, the 2013 movie is really the ONLY thing I like about the Chucky franchise. And FINALLY (lol), since I'm really not a fan of the Child's Play universe, I was blown away by how good the Pilot of this continuation TV series was to the point that I'm giving it a 10. It doesn't matter to me that I can't recall much about the old movies or that I haven't liked most of the recent ones, good TV is just good TV, and this new series is promising.
The new series is set in Hackensack, NJ, and focuses on 14-year old teen Jake Wheeler (persuasively played by Zackary Arthur), a lonely and shy middle-schooler who lives with his widowed father Luke (underrated veteran actor Devon Sawa in a welcome return to the screen after his memorable turn in the groundbreaking Final Destination franchise from almost 20 years ago). Jake's mother died in a car accident and he inherited her artistic inclination as he collects dolls and dreams of eventually being a sculptor. Jake is also openly gay and gets bullied by several classmates, the main one being Lexy Cross (expertly played by teen phenom Alyvia Alyn Lind). Lexy is the cliche mean girl and most popular girl in school and the daughter of the town mayor (played by Lind's real life mother Barbara Alyn Woods of One Tree Hill fame). Jake also has a bad relationship with his cousin Junior (the talented Teo Briones from Season 1 of Ratched). Junior is the son of Jake's uncle Logan (also played by Devon Sawa). Jake's aunt, Logan's wife and Junior's mother is Bree (played by Lexa Doig of Jason X fame).
Most of the characters in the Pilot are not very nice to Jake. However, there a couple of bright spot characters. One is Jake's supportive yet stern biology teacher Miss Fairchild (winningly played by newcomer Annie Briggs), who defends him from his teen bullies. The other is Jake's friend Devon (well played by Bjorgvin Arnarson), who is also gay and who Jake has a crush on. Devon is an intrepid reporter-in-the-making and has a podcast that focuses on both current events as well as the town's history. One particular historical figure in Hackensack history is notorious serial killer Charles Lee Ray, introduced in the 1988 film and played by the iconic Brad Dourif, who also voiced the Chucky doll in that film, several of the sequels, as well as in this series. You know the story, as he was nearing death, Ray managed to transfer his soul into a Good Guy doll and thus Chucky was born.
The Pilot jumpstarts the story with Jake buying Chucky at a yard sale for $20 as he plans to tear off his head to use for one of his doll sculptures. But Chucky has other plans! Unlike a lot of TV drama Pilots, instead of just being an hour of pure and awkward exposition, the writing actually seamlessly tells a story with characters and a world that feel lived in. This episode on it's own can be re-watched as a standalone and feel like a complete story. But thankfully, the story will continue because it sets up future plots for the season and hopefully future seasons. There's a particular clever and entertaining scene, the school talent show, that really hooked me into the episode and made me realize these writers aren't going to go full on cliche with nothing but gruesome killing. Also, for a low-budget series on USA network, it does a great job of capturing a big screen horror movie atmosphere with a creepy vibe and avoids the cheesy "jump scare" moments that so many horror filmmakers have become obsessed with in the last decade. For an episode with a lot of cliche TV/movie plot points, it somehow came across as pleasantly non-cliche. Expertly mixing horror with family melodrama and school bullying, this new series CHUCKY looks like it will be a winner!
The new series is set in Hackensack, NJ, and focuses on 14-year old teen Jake Wheeler (persuasively played by Zackary Arthur), a lonely and shy middle-schooler who lives with his widowed father Luke (underrated veteran actor Devon Sawa in a welcome return to the screen after his memorable turn in the groundbreaking Final Destination franchise from almost 20 years ago). Jake's mother died in a car accident and he inherited her artistic inclination as he collects dolls and dreams of eventually being a sculptor. Jake is also openly gay and gets bullied by several classmates, the main one being Lexy Cross (expertly played by teen phenom Alyvia Alyn Lind). Lexy is the cliche mean girl and most popular girl in school and the daughter of the town mayor (played by Lind's real life mother Barbara Alyn Woods of One Tree Hill fame). Jake also has a bad relationship with his cousin Junior (the talented Teo Briones from Season 1 of Ratched). Junior is the son of Jake's uncle Logan (also played by Devon Sawa). Jake's aunt, Logan's wife and Junior's mother is Bree (played by Lexa Doig of Jason X fame).
Most of the characters in the Pilot are not very nice to Jake. However, there a couple of bright spot characters. One is Jake's supportive yet stern biology teacher Miss Fairchild (winningly played by newcomer Annie Briggs), who defends him from his teen bullies. The other is Jake's friend Devon (well played by Bjorgvin Arnarson), who is also gay and who Jake has a crush on. Devon is an intrepid reporter-in-the-making and has a podcast that focuses on both current events as well as the town's history. One particular historical figure in Hackensack history is notorious serial killer Charles Lee Ray, introduced in the 1988 film and played by the iconic Brad Dourif, who also voiced the Chucky doll in that film, several of the sequels, as well as in this series. You know the story, as he was nearing death, Ray managed to transfer his soul into a Good Guy doll and thus Chucky was born.
The Pilot jumpstarts the story with Jake buying Chucky at a yard sale for $20 as he plans to tear off his head to use for one of his doll sculptures. But Chucky has other plans! Unlike a lot of TV drama Pilots, instead of just being an hour of pure and awkward exposition, the writing actually seamlessly tells a story with characters and a world that feel lived in. This episode on it's own can be re-watched as a standalone and feel like a complete story. But thankfully, the story will continue because it sets up future plots for the season and hopefully future seasons. There's a particular clever and entertaining scene, the school talent show, that really hooked me into the episode and made me realize these writers aren't going to go full on cliche with nothing but gruesome killing. Also, for a low-budget series on USA network, it does a great job of capturing a big screen horror movie atmosphere with a creepy vibe and avoids the cheesy "jump scare" moments that so many horror filmmakers have become obsessed with in the last decade. For an episode with a lot of cliche TV/movie plot points, it somehow came across as pleasantly non-cliche. Expertly mixing horror with family melodrama and school bullying, this new series CHUCKY looks like it will be a winner!