Chucky continues his desires for a killer family in a brand new series. Following the events of Cult of Chucky, the killer doll returns to his childhood home of Hackensack, New Jersey. There he meets a young man named Jake Wheeler who he plans on inducted into his killer family cult as it’s first member. 

Chucky is a 2021 horror series, it is produced by Universal Production Contents. It originally airs on USA & Syfy and is available for streaming on Peacock.

Editor’s Note: Screener access for Chucky was provided by NBC Universal in support of this review. Medium to complete spoilers for Chucky season one may be present within this review. 

Set sometime following the events of Cult of Chucky, Charles Lee Ray returns home to Hackensack, New Jersey. There he meets Jake Wheeler; a troubled youth dealing with bullying and his sexuality as well as issues with his father following the death of his mother. As Chucky sinks his claws into Jake’s killer instincts the latter tries everything he can to keep his bottled up emotions and blood lust in check.

THE GOOD: Continuing from Cult of Chucky, Hackensack native Jack Wheeler is going through a tough time. He has social issues, his dad is getting worse following the passing of his mother, and he’s dealing with his issues coming out as gay as well as his crush on classmate Devon. In addition to all of this, Jake also has to contends with the bullying he’s suffered from by cousin Junior’s girlfriend Lexy. One day at a yard sale Jake finds and purchases Chucky thinking he’d make a great addition to his doll art. After Chucky witnesses Jake being abused by his father Lucas, he reveals himself to Jake and later kills his father. Jake is sent to live with his rich uncle, aunt, and cousin Junior who goes to the same school as him. Jake is often the victim of bullying at the hands of Junior’s girlfriend Lexy who torments him regularly. 

As Jake is dealing with the fallout of his dad’s death Chucky acts as a surrogate father figure to him and even informs him of his gender-fluid child Glenn/Glenda. This is of course a ruse to gain Jake’s trust so he can join Chucky’s planned cult of killers. One night at a talent show Chucky helps Jake get revenge with a fake ventriloquist act that publicly embarrasses Lexy. As Lexy’s torment escalates Chucky continues to goad Jake into killing her which he actually attempts a couple of times ultimately failing due to lack of nerve. Chucky meanwhile has killed several people including a student from Jake’s school at a party, Junior’s maid, as well as Junior’s mother. Lexy’s little sister Caroline becomes obsessed with Chucky following the talent show and Chucky tells Jake to lend him to Lexy so he can kill her on Jake’s behalf.

While hosting a party, Lexy gets Junior jealous when she interacts with another male student. Chucky has revealed himself to Caroline & has tried to get her to kill Lexy but she refuses. During the party Lexy’s home catches fire and many of the guests don’t notice due to the music being played. Chucky catches Lexy alone, revealing himself to her and nearly killing her. Junior and Caroline are injured in the fire and end up in the hospital. Thinking Devon who was at the party also got hurt, Jake heads there where he’s confronted by Lexy & ultimately apologizes to her for sending Chucky after her. While at the hospital Chucky causes chaos, feeling betrayed by Jake he kills an officer who had been investigating and flips the bird to Jake, Lexy, and Devon. Lexy & Jake details everything that’s happened to Devon who’s mom; Detective Kim Evans has been investigating Jake for the murders. Chucky later kills Detective Evans back at Lexy’s house after attempting to goad her into killing Jake unsuccessfully.

Junior who had been feeling jealously & animosity towards Jake and Lexy for their sudden budding friendship kills his father Logan during an argument & aligns with Chucky. Meanwhile, Chucky’s on again/off again wife Tiffany has been with Nica who is possessed by Chucky. Due some missed steps into the ritual of mass possession Nica frequently breaks her possession & Tiffany claims to be in love with her. We get glimpses into Chucky’s past including his first meeting of Tiffany & his former ally Eddie Caputo. Chucky’s first victim is also revealed to have been his own mother. Old enemy Andy Barkley has been trailing Chucky & Tiffany along with his adoptive older sister Kyle from Child’s Play 2. Andy &Kyle have been working together to stop the early stages of Chucky’s plans to have multiple possessed Good Guy dolls sent to homes across the country. They eventually met up with Jake, Lexy, and Devon sharing intel.

Devon is captured by Tiffany after trying to save Nica who was possessed by Chucky at the time. Andy, Kyle, and Jake work together to save Devon from a house rigged to explode (being forced to leave Kyle behind). Thanks to Junior having killed his dad and officially joining the cult Chucky’s powers grow giving him the ability to possess an army of dolls. During a monster movie event Chucky, Junior, and Tiffany plan to kill their enemies. Chucky kills Lexy’s father and Junior tries to convince Lexy to join them. She instead turns him against Chucky and he kills Junior. As bodies pile up the audience at the theater leave and Chucky & Jake face off. With help from Devon, Jake kills Chucky and the former officially date. Andy having escaped the house steals Tiffany’s truck full of possessed Chucky dolls but he’s intercepted by the Tiffany possessed doll at gun point. Sometime later, Jake, Devon, and Lexy visit Junior’s grave & someone wearing black gloves appears. 

 Chucky somehow, someone way breaks the curse often associated with TV spinoffs, especially horror related ones. Not only is a prequel which feels all too typical of TV spinoffs these days it also serves as a perfect sequel to the films with many call backs and thread closing to past stories. You wouldn’t really expect so much fan service from a Chucky series, but Mancini and co. really go the extra mile to please long time fans all while never making things too difficult for newer fans to get lost in. Fan favorites like Andy Barkley & Kyle returning will always be a good time, Alex Vincent especially felt like he never left the franchise behind. 

I honestly gotta say I’m so happy the production team choice to (mostly) stick with traditional puppetry for the Chucky moments. Yes, there is CG used in the series but it’s hardly noticeable and when it is they really don’t have much choice in the matter. Take Cult of Chucky for example, that film had a chunk of CG in it. While the CG there wasn’t bad it certainly wasn’t great, which probably lead to them making the decision to keep puppetry in tact. The CG here isn’t an insult on the eyes and never takes away from the immersion of getting behind whatever actions Chucky does when it’s required. 

The newer characters despite the change in format feel right at home within the franchise. There were some direction they took that was a bit predictable. However, some characters had some direction I thought was going a different way which was nice. I totally expected Junior’s arc to eventually go to Jake, but I didn’t mind at all what we got.

THE BAD: The only thing bad about Chucky is that the limited episode count leaves you begging for more. Well, that and I wasn’t a particular fan of the series’ choice of music.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Child’s Play has a very long & bright future ahead of itself with the release of Chucky. In addition to future films including the eight installment currently being in development, the TV series bring about a great way to continue multiple threads from the past and present while also providing an opportunity to close them. Otaku Dome gives Chucky Season 1 a 95 out of 100.