'Chucky' - Season 2 Review

All play and no work

The first season of Chucky was underlaid by a peculiar mystery: why is Chucky, the possessed doll who's done nothing but murder for the past 33 years, keeping these kids alive? In stark contrast to his previous MOs, he was being manipulative, gaslighting, and to what end? Season 2's mystery, on the other hand, is what the hell might happen in the next episode. If Season 1 was a wire pulled taut, Season 2 is that same wire now frayed and sparking: more visually captivating, at least in a rubbernecking sense, but lacking a firm direction to uphold a proper intrigue.

It wasn't just the mystery, it was the foundation: a group of preteens in their formative years find a surprising set of tiny plastic hands trying to take the wheel, forcing unlikely alliances and introspection amongst said group, braided alongside flashbacks and old story threads to further the past and present of our titular Not-So-Good Guy; the characters were allowed to be the primary concern. In Season 2, however, characters come off as secondary, with our new primary being out-crazying ourselves. Season 2 sure does love to create situations which seem to raise the stakes by means of escalating insanity, only to promptly resolve them for the next spin of the cycle, and the rapid pace leads to significantly less emotion than last year's saga. One particular figure shows this off well: a buildup of multiple episodes abruptly capped with an exorbitant reference, and for what? It's upsetting, as there are plenty of threads and sentiments espoused in Season 2 which offer good ideas on evolving the rich material of last year; hopefully, if we get another season, Mancini and co. will have time to expand beyond having characters bluntly reciting them.