For the love of all that is holy, watch Chucky!

November 21, 2022 1:12 PM

DirtyOldTown is flying the flag for this one, and I have been absolutely in love with it after crushing the first season in a couple of days and am now week-to-week with the second season. I am mystified as to why it's not a Fanfare mainstay: it's 2SLGBTQIA+ positive, hilarious, gory, weird as hell, has Devon Sawa in multiple roles getting killed various ways, pushes the franchise beyond the bounds of credulity and possibly sanity, and is just an absolute gem in terms of being exactly what it is in a way that very little TV gets to be any more.
posted by Shepherd (3 comments total)

I think it's a combination of things, including:

-the show isn't getting much hype in general
-people are conditioned to treat the old school slasher characters as garbage
-beyond that, they are inclined to see Chucky as silly garbage, despite the fact that those films probably have the highest overall quality of any slasher series, and in fact, blow the formula up to go meta, full-on comedy, then back to horror, haunted house, cults, etc.
-no one really takes *anything* on USA/SyFy seriously
-LGBTQIA stuff doesn't always get the hype it deserves... and since this show's main ensemble doesn't even have a straight white male, it is probably highly susceptible to that

It's a damned shame too, because this show is DELIGHTFUL.

It is, all at once:
-a satirical comedy that is laugh-out-loud funny
-an actual horror show with scares and gore
-one of the most commitedly LGBTQIA+ shows on the air, with two of three leads (including the #1 primary hero) being a gay male teen couple
-a sharply observed modern teen comedy
-a meta piece riffing on all kinds of genres, not just horror
-a fun place for good actors to riff and get campy
-a nervy bonkers headfuck, going in all kinds of weird directions
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:30 PM on November 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

I absolutely love this show, and am baffled that something of this caliber was even made, let alone released on USA/SyFy! The Bound reunion?! Come on! That said, I used to brush off the Child's Play series because I don't love slashers and am generally not dolls or kids in my horror movies. When my husband and I marathoned the whole series of movies (pre-remake), I was shocked by how fun and campy it was, and how Brad Dourif-y Brad Dourif managed to be through a doll.

When the series premiered, we were tentatively excited but not getting our hopes up because what TV series based on an existing long-running franchise with a recent underwhelming remake could be that good? But it IS that good! So good that we're putting off watching the last episode of this season because we don't want it to be over!
posted by quatsch at 8:41 AM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I love Chucky (and the Children's Play in general) and I wanted to watch it from the beginning, but I could never figure out when and where it was on. I've been thinking about how I've been missing this and recently found out that it's available on Peacock streaming, so I'll use this post as motivation!
posted by rhizome at 11:04 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]