Chucky – Season 1 Review

After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begins to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets. Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies and allies from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins.

I’ve sadly been turned off from the Chucky franchise for the past few years. I know a lot of people love Cult of Chucky but I found it to be a gigantic missed opportunity. Instead of being a bold reinvention of the franchise that took it in a new direction, it was just more of the same albeit in an admittedly creepy location. 2019’s Child’s Play – which served as a reboot to the film series – was entertaining (thanks, in part, to Mark Hamill‘s amazing vocal performance) but was quite forgettable in the long run.

It’s a shame because I genuinely love this franchise and I go way back with it. I remember I was sitting down on my couch at the age of about seven or eight watching television with my parents when suddenly I saw an advertisement for Child’s Play on AMC Fear Fest. Simply put, I was terrified and never wanted to watch it as a kid. After all, what kid loves a movie about a killer doll? Kids are supposed to love dolls. Let’s just say I didn’t look at a doll the same way again for years.

I have been wanting a seriously good Chucky property for years. This is why I’m so ecstatic to say that I genuinely loved Don Mancini‘s brand new Chucky television series which thankfully does take the franchise in exciting new directions while also delivering the bloody goods that we’ve all come to expect at this point.

If you have never been a fan of the franchise at all, then chances are that this new show isn’t going to impress you too much because, at its core, it has the exact same DNA as the beloved films that came before it – mostly the original film, though. The same sense of humor in the films is present here and it’s glorious. All of the jokes feel so fresh and hilarious and I also loved how a lot of these jokes are a bit more modernized such as Chucky poking fun at Instagram influencers. Sometimes these kinds of jokes can come across as cringe-worthy but the writing here feels smart. Plus, who doesn’t like to hear Chucky talking about, well, anything?

Brad Dourif is seriously such a delight once again as the voice of Chucky. He puts everything he has in him into this role and it shows in every single scene. As I said earlier, I loved Mark Hamill’s performance in the 2019 film reboot, but let’s face it, nobody is ever going to be able to top Dourif in the role of Chucky – he’s just perfect for it. Also terrific here is his daughter Fiona Dourif who delivers two one of the best performances I’ve seen all year surprisingly.

Yes, you read that right – two performances. In this show, she portrays a younger version of Charles Lee Ray and also Nica Pierce – a paraplegic woman who, since the events of Cult of Chucky, has been possessed by Chucky. The scripts ask her to do a lot and yet she pulls it off with so much ease. She feels totally unhinged as Nica, like she could snap and become crazy in seconds. As Charles Lee Ray, she’s genuinely horrifying.

But the real standouts for the human characters are the main group of kids this season focuses on. Zackary Arthur is seriously great in this show as Jake Wheeler and makes for a perfect lead character. His character gets a ton of depth throughout the season, and by the end, it’s nearly impossible not to root for him. Plus, it’s just so awesome to see some LGBT representation in this show.

Interestingly enough, my least favorite character at the start of this show was Lexy Cross, portrayed by Alyvia Alyn Lind. At the start of the show, simply put, she’s dreadfully annoying. Not only is she a jerk to Jake for a while, but she came across as the spoiled brat character which I hated. That’s why I was so shocked to see that she became my favorite character in the entire season by the time it ended.

That happened because of truly excellent writing that fleshed her out immensely that actually gave her a meaningful arc. It’s kind of similar to how I felt about Happy Death Day‘s Tree Gelbman when I first saw that film. She starts off as a jerk and you kind of don’t like her for a while, but it doesn’t take long for you to just straight-up love her.

Since this is a Chucky show, you’re probably wondering how the kills are in this show – well, they’re amazing. There are a total of twenty-one kills in Chucky and each one gets more insanely violent than the last, making for some of the bloodiest television I’ve seen all year. I loved it.

And I just loved Chucky overall. There are some episodes that most certainly drag and not every plot point landed for me, but most of the time, I was on board for nearly everything. It feels so good to be able to watch something truly great in the Chucky franchise after years of emptiness.