#Chucky Episode 2 Review (TV Series, 2021)
content warning: flashing lights, blood, grief, violence against women, foul language
The new episode of Chucky opens with a flashback to Halloween 1965. We see young Charles Lee Ray dressed as a clown and investing his candy on Halloween. He finds a razor blade shoved in an apple and intentionally chews on it. Our second look at Charles’ childhood reveals a deeply troubled child who isn’t afraid of blood or pain.
Back in the present, it’s Halloween night and Devon is covering the long history of violent crimes surrounding Halloween on his podcast. Jake is getting used to living with his aunt, uncle, and cousin Junior. It’s been a week since his father’s untimely death and he’s just returning to school.
Naturally, these middle schoolers are obsessed with gossip and make Jake the hushed topic of conversation: his father’s death, the talent show performance, and that talking doll he’s attached to. Lexy and Junior are still mad about what Jake and Chucky said at the talent show, but other students are a bit more sympathetic. Jake even gets invited to the big Halloween party at Oliver’s house.
Chucky is doing a great job capturing the middle school setting of the series. These young teenagers actually act like teenagers. They can be rude to each other, but they’re largely driven by a sense of trying to fit in. These kids are putting up a tough front for each other, trying to say what they think everyone else wants them to say. If they get the slightest bit of pushback, they back down and agree with whatever the popular opinion is. Just look at Junior and Lexy discussing Jake’s return to school for the embodiment of the middle school social structure.
The series is progressing on certain fronts much faster than I anticipated. The first death in the episode reveals the police are already treating Jake as a suspect in his father’s death. His aunt and uncle are already worried that they do not have the skills necessary to actually take care of Jake at this time. Chucky is already telling Jake that he will murder again to help Jake with his problems, and Lexy has declared her intentions to take revenge on Jake every chance she gets.
There is a great counterbalance to the homophobia Jake faces in how the show handles Devon. He’s another out gay student at the same middle school who just happens to be one of the popular kids. No one at school bothers him about it. His mother is totally supportive of him and they have a strong relationship built on trust and love. Devon is also being raised in a single parent household after his father passed away, just like Jake was after his mother’s death. The two characters are meant to contrast each other and their circumstances, showing two sides of the same life experiences in the same town.
The other big factor in the tone and perspective of the series is the growing relationship with Chucky. The show teased episode two with a scene where Chucky talks with Jake about his genderfluid child. In Glen/Glenda’s first appearance in the films, Chucky did not understand what their child was going through. Over time, he learned to accept them for who they are. Chucky even says, “I’m not a monster, Jake.”
Now, this is part of Chucky’s manipulation tactics to earn Jake’s trust and get him on board with being the new accomplice, but it’s setting up the conflict of Jake versus the world. Devon and Chucky are both trying to earn his trust, and he’s struggling to find a balance between the two. Devon is approaching Jake with love and understanding; Chucky, vengeance.
Chucky is moving much faster than I expected it to and that’s a good thing for horror. Don Mancini is not afraid to push his works to the extreme. His horror snowballs until you struggle to keep up with all the elements suddenly colliding together.
You can thank Jennifer Tilly for that analogy. During the Chucky premiere panel at New York Comic Con, she described this series as flurries turning into a snowfall turning into a blizzard turning into a full blown avalanche that no one can control. I hadn’t thought of Mancini’s work that way before, but now I can’t get the analogy out of my head.
New episodes of Chucky premiere on Syfy and USA Network at 10PM on Tuesday nights.
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