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Chucky Review 1.02 – ‘Give Me Something Good to Eat’

October 19, 2021 | Posted by Joseph Lee
Chucky Image Credit: Universal
6.5
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Chucky Review 1.02 – ‘Give Me Something Good to Eat’  

Warning: This review contains spoilers for tonight’s episode. Don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet.

One episode of Chucky is out of the way and we’ve already established a pretty clear direction of where this show is going to go. Or where we think it’s going to go. Either way, the first episode was a good, easy watch. Some fun moments, some surprisingly serious subject matter and Devon Sawa being a grade-A jerk. This week promises more so let’s get right into it.

Last time on Chucky: A teenager named Jake found our favorite Good Guy doll at a yard sale. Jake, who’s gay and constantly bullied, initially wanted to take the doll apart for an art project but decided not to. That paid off to his advantage, as Chucky helped him verbally take down some bullies. Of course, things escalated as the killer doll went onto kill Jake’s homophobic father in the basement by electrocuting him. Now Jake knows Chucky is alive, but what’s he going to do about it?

Season 1, Episode 2: Give Me Something Good to Eat

Directed By: Dermott Downs

Written By: Harley Peyton & Don Mancini

Wow, there has never been anything Chucky-related happening on Halloween. That’s crazy that Don Mancini never thought to do that before now. I think the closest the series ever came was that unsafe haunted house ride form Child’s Play 3.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t do as much with the idea as you’d think, but we do get a pretty cool scene of Chucky walking out among people because he’s able to pose as a child trick or treating. And then of course, he someone still manages to hurt somebody in his disguise. The old razor blade in the apple trick after using his ruse on an unsuspecting adult. That was honestly the best scene in what was a somewhat middling episode. I say that, but I do understand that an episode like this has to exist to carry the story forward.

We pick up a week after last week’s romp (clever), with Jake living with his rich uncle and Junior, his jerk cousin. Jake’s dealing with a lot, including trying to prevent Chucky from killing. This isn’t helped by the fact he has to go to school and Chucky decides to kill the maid for the hell of it. We then get some interesting moments of Chucky attempting to convince Jake he did not, in fact, kill someone, a rare moment of him denying doing what he loves. This got a big laugh out of me, as he noted that “being killed by a supernaturally-possessed doll” is statistically not as likely as an accident in the home. And hey, the show also remembered that Glen/Glenda existed. I can’t put my finger on why Chucky saying his kid is ‘genderfluid’ is strange. Maybe it’s because he’s older than the term. An older character talking in modern terms is odd to me. Either way, it’s refreshing how casual and nonchalant he is about it.

It certainly makes Chucky, the supernaturally-possessed killer doll, more likeable than Alyvia Alyn Lind as Lexy. Now, I want to say right off, I don’t think the 14-year-old Lind’s performance is bad. In fact, she manages to nail some subtle acting here that suggests there is more to her story than we’re getting. But the script doesn’t do her any favors. Lexy is cartoonishly evil here. Outside of a brief moment in which her parents treat her poorly, we are given no indication that she’s anything other than a bully. Plus she decides to dress as Jake’s dead dad for fun at a Halloween party, which just puts it over the top. This isn’t how a real person would act. And the entire party wouldn’t laugh at it with Jake right there. Kids are cruel, but this was a clear indication that Mancini is perhaps not keyed into how that age group behaves in 2021.

The script is honestly the weakest part. There are moments that seem to only exist to get our characters from one point to another. Basically, when the show isn’t focused on Chucky, it falters. That’s fine if you’re doing a 90 minute sequel where Chucky is taking up most of the screen time and we know all the characters. It’s less interesting if we have to follow Jake around and his group of friends are bland (like Devon or Oliver) or two-dimensional (like Junior or Lexy). Once again, I’m giving this show time to develop them more, and we do get glimpses, but they’re currently still one note. At least Jake is getting developed, I do appreciate that. We want our heroes to be more like Andy and Nica and less like Jesse, Jade or Tyler.

Chucky does get a lot of fun moments and lines, so if that’s all you’re interested in, you may rate this higher. He gets a kill (I’m guessing a death per episode will be the norm), an attempted kill and some fun banter. Another notable scene involves him trying to corrupt the younger sister of Lexy (“Killing is fun for the whole family”) while they play video games together. I just enjoy how relaxed Chucky is during this whole thing. Maybe it’s the age in Brad Dourif’s voice, but he seems like he’s kind of just settled into how weird his situation is and is going with it.

We’ve also got a flashback involving the childhood of Charles Lee Ray but it’s so quick it didn’t really do anything. I guess it shows that he was always crazy and set up the apple gag, but otherwise it felt pointless.

Overall, yeah, the script had some problems but Chucky got to do some fun stuff. The death we got was solid and there were some good lines. The bit with Lexy dressing as Jake’s dad irritated me in the wrong way though, as I just felt it was over-the-top. I know, realism isn’t something I should expect out of this show, but there’s something to be said for tone and this series is usually consistent with that.

6.5
The final score: review Average
The 411
Episode two wasn't as good as last week, but not by much, as we're still setting up for the future. And really, outside of the cartoonishly evil Lexy, there's still nothing really huge to complain about. It's an easy hour, with some fun lines and more to do from Chucky than last time. Still a thumbs up.
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Chucky, Joseph Lee