Season 1 - 10 episodes
Watch Goosebumps on Hulu // Buy the books (paid link)
Created by: Rob Letterman & Nicholas Stoller
Based on: Goosebumps by R. L. Stine
Starring: Zack Morris, Isa Briones, Miles McKenna, Ana Yi Puig, Will Price, Rachael Harris, Justin Long, Robe Huebel
Rated: TV-PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
A group of five high schoolers unleash supernatural forces upon their town and now must work together in order to save it.
Verdict
This takes the Goosebumps name from the books, but it isn't the same. The book series provided compact stories that always had a twist ending. This series opts for a serialized story that just doesn't end. This includes certain aspects from the book, mainly titles and monsters, but it completely misses the spirit of the books. Even when this season feels like it's over, it finds a way to add two more episodes. It's two sides to a coin. By invoking the Goosebumps name I gave this a chance where I wouldn't otherwise, but because of that I had expectations that weren't, and were never intended to be met. The only reason I watched this through was to warn anyone else.
Skip it.
Review
I remember the books, at least the general format. This isn't the books. It's a name grab.
The first episode jumps right into trying to be weird without establishing anything like a plot or who this kid is. We get a lot of book references. The characters are stereotypical and not all that interesting. It's cheesy, but the books were never great, they were entertaining for kids. The first episode is disjointed because we don't know what's going on and this is headed in so many different directions. Based on the title of the episode I expected a plot that followed the book. It doesn't. None of the episodes have a proper introduction or opening. I expected each episode would be based on the respective book, the books are used as Easter eggs. Even if I didn't know the books, the first episode would be disappointing. I hoped for just okay and this is worse.
This series would be better if it were episodic. The overarching story exists only to tie the books loosely together. I expected episodic until the first episode had no conclusion whatsoever. Each episode feels incomplete as they don't end, they just lead into the next episode. We get the promise of a payoff down the line for each episode.
While this season touches upon the most famous monsters from the books, what made the Goosebumps books so popular were the short digestible stories and the twist endings. This is an overarching Freddy Krueger type story with a shout out to the books. The overarching narrative hurts this because that story is flimsy. Putting all of the supernatural elements from the books into not just one world, but in one house stretches credibility.
Episode eight seemingly resolves the season as we finally get a bit of a twist ending, and yet this has two more episodes. Even this season can't provide a satisfactory conclusion as it drags us along for two additional and completely unnecessary episodes
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