Goosebumps (2023) - Season 1 Review
What do you get when you make another remake of the seminal 1990’s kids show Goosebumps made for modern audiences featuring a who’s who of fairly unknown teens in the leading roles?
A surprisingly engaging, witty, and enjoyable horror ride through the R.L. Stein Mythos.
Let’s discuss.
Goosebumps is a 2023 teen/horror series brought to us by creators Rob Letterman and Nicholas Stoller. It’s an interesting mix as Letterman is most known for his recent success writing the smash hit, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (2019) and Stoller is coming off the massive failure of 2023’s Bros, which he wrote. Somehow, the unification of these two writers covered up their flaws and produced a fun show.
The show focuses on the small Washington town of Port Lawerence as a group of teens navigate the complicated emotional landscape of the later years of high school. If things weren’t tough enough with jealous girlfriends, clashing social groups, and the stresses of class and extracurricular actives, an ancient curse decides to rear its ugly head. When a new teacher inherits the town’s haunted house and starts renovating it, he stirs a vengeful spirit that unleashes monsters throughout the town. A haunted mask, sentient works, and a camera that kills—oh my. Will they be able to unravel the mystery from generations past in time to save the town or will they merely say cheese and die. Find out in tonight’s feature, Goosebumps.
Each episode is based on the original run of the television show / book series. It’s so fun to watch it as a binge and realize what book the episode is based on.
This show is so much better than I expected. I expected a hot mess of woke preaching and watered down scares. What I got was a diverse cast of characters that actually fit the reality of the setting, and they are all surprisingly fleshed out. All of the characters get a chance to not only shine, but develop. Children begin to truly mature in the latter years of high school as the pressure builds towards graduation. As such, our heroes go through an accelerated version of this before our eyes. The catty gay sidekick to the jock goes from shallow douchebag to a caring, dedicated friend. The angry nerd who trolls the popular kids because she’s so very lonely decides to come out of her shell and becomes the rock for her new friends to lean on.
It’s refreshing to see characters actually be three dimensional, especially for a product made for Disney+.
After the rash of terrible Marvel and Star Wars television shows with writing that is so terse and emotionless, it feels more like AI than AI.
If you know, you know.
The actors in this show have palpable chemistry and make the most of every line. It helps that the scripts are tightly written with fantastic one liners and an almost constant movement of speech and character. There is rarely any down time. Something is always happening. It’s a show you need to pay attention to, as you might miss something going on in the background.
Really, the entire cast is stellar, but the real standouts for me were Miles McKenna and Ana Yi Puig.
I fell in love with Miles McKenna’s James. He’s such a catty bastard to begin things, but as the show goes on you’re shown that his bitchy attitude is all in good fun and that he’s actually a really great person. He’s just insecure and kind of clueless, but in the most endearing way. Lately, gay characters have just been a stereotype or a point of emphasis to beat you over the head with someone else’s politics. It’s a breath of fresh air to have a likable, fully fleshed out gay character that you can root for.
Ana Yi Puig is a similar case. She took the angry nerd character which could easily be an intellectually caustic to the viewer and gave her this underlying rage and power. You feel her unbearable loneliness, but you also feel the warmth within her once she finds a way out of her shell. It makes you feel warm inside. Also, the fact that she becomes a badass with a knockout right cross.
The younger actors were great, but they had the immense boon of an out of this world supporting cast of characters actors. Look at this lineup of heavy, “That Guy/Gal” actors: Justin Long, Leonard Roberts, Rob Huebel, Franciose Yip, Lexa Doig, Laura Mennell, and the always smoking hot Rachael Harris. That’s just a brief list, as all of the supporting actors did admirable work. Even the smaller characters feel like real people.
The musical score and licensed soundtrack are an incredible backdrop. Praise goes to The Newton Brothers for their work in that respect.
The special effects are 10 times better than anything else Disney+ has put out. The CGI and the practical effects were all top notch. While some of the explosions may have looked a bit cheesy, overall the SFX was stellar for a modern television show. I loved the modern takes on the Haunted Mask and the Slappy Dummy.
Bottom Line: This show is a homerun.
It’s not perfect, but it’s better than it should be.
Please support this show, I’d love to see a season 2.
Or a James / Isabella spin-off series.
Thank goodness this got put on Hulu, because I cancelled my Disney+ account months ago.
If you want to enjoy a new take on Goosebumps, check this out streaming on Hulu (because I refuse to drive traffic to Disney+)
