Unlike pretty much every other modern horror franchise, the Chucky series, which began with the 1988 movie Child's Play, has been guided for its entirety by one person, creator Don Mancini. He wasn't involved in the 2019 Child's Play remake, but Mancini has written all seven movies in the main series about a possessed, murderous doll and directed three of them. He's also the creator and showrunner behind the new Chucky TV series on Syfy and USA, which continues his vision for the character and fits in with the films' continuity.
Fans of Mancini's films will find plenty to like about Chucky, although the four episodes available for review -- out of eight total -- are also accessible for new viewers. Brad Dourif is back as the voice of Chucky and the series' promotional materials promise to bring back a slew of fan-favorite characters. Plot elements from other movies are mentioned, but Chucky doesn't directly follow 2017's Cult of Chucky, which found Chucky imbued with greater powers.
Instead, the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray is back to being trapped inside a single Good Guys doll, which teenager Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) discovers at a yard sale. An aspiring artist who makes sculptures out of repurposed doll parts, Jake buys Chucky for 10 bucks and takes him home. It doesn't take long before Chucky returns to his murderous ways, although Mancini keeps Chucky's presence subdued in the first episode, playing on what the audience knows about Chucky that the characters haven't yet realized.
The show doesn't play coy about Chucky for long, though, and of course no one is tuning in to see Jake and his eighth-grade classmates. Fans want to see Chucky go on a killing spree, and the show delivers those gory moments, without being held back in any way by its basic-cable platform. There's plenty of swearing, too, even in the "previously on" introductions in later episodes, so no one can claim that Chucky has been toned down. The films have shifted from gruesome horror to campy comedy and back again, and Chucky the TV series attempts to encompass both of those tones, with mixed success.
As Chucky gets to cut loose in the later episodes, and Dourif gets to dig into more sardonic quips, the show comes to life and feels more like an extension of the films. It's tough to make a slasher movie an ongoing TV show since most of the main characters need to stick around for the long-term, so there's a slight lack of urgency to the danger that Jake and the central cast face. Mancini partially solves this problem by making Chucky genuinely interested in being Jake's "friend to the end," regarding the teenage outcast as a kindred spirit. Chucky wants to be Jake's murder mentor, and one of the most interesting aspects of the show is that for the first time, the seemingly upstanding protagonist might want to join forces with Chucky, too.
It's hard to blame Jake for wanting to lash out at the people around him. His drunk, abusive dad (Devon Sawa) berates him for being gay and wanting to become an artist. His rich uncle (also Sawa) and his jock cousin Junior (Teo Briones) mock and belittle him. The worst treatment comes from Junior's girlfriend, middle school mean girl Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind), who bullies Jake relentlessly and takes seemingly sadistic pleasure in making him miserable. Still, the show only hints at the idea that Jake could embrace Chucky's murderous ways, and it might be more fun to see the sympathetic main character completely break bad.
The teen drama is pretty weak overall, with some clunky dialogue and shaky performances. It often feels like a placeholder in between scenes of Chucky mayhem. The same goes for the periodic flashbacks to a young Charles Lee Ray, giving the killer a superfluous origin story. Chucky is fun to watch because he's a cute little doll who kills people, not because he's a run-of-the-mill human murderer.
The new series is set in Charles Lee Ray's hometown of Hackensack, New Jersey, but the show doesn't make much of Chucky's connection to the town. Jake's friend -- and obvious crush object -- Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) hosts a podcast about local true-crime stories, and he seems far more interested in Chucky's Hackensack roots than Chucky himself does.
By the end of the fourth episode, Chucky is well-positioned for the second half of the season, with more killing and quipping from the title character, plus the upcoming appearances from movie veterans Jennifer Tilly (as Tiffany Valentine), Alex Vincent (as Andy Barclay), Christine Elise (as Kyle) and Fiona Dourif (as Nica Pierce). It's a bit lumbering at the start, but Mancini has proved over 30-plus years and seven movies that he knows what he's doing when it comes to Chucky.
Chucky airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT starting Oct. 12 on Syfy and USA.
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