*This is a spoiler-free review so feel free to read on!*

“Have you seen anything strange happening there?”

Goosebumps premiered on Disney+ and Hulu on October 13th 2023 with the first five episodes available now. The remaining five episodes will air weekly. Based on the popular book series, the series stars Justin Long, Rachael Harris, Zack Morris, Isa Briones, and Miles McKenna. Each episode is approximately 38-45 minutes.

A group of high school students stumble across a mystery involving the death of Harold Biddle, which may connect directly to a secret involving several parents in town.

Here is the trailer:

Goosebumps (2023) leaves the comedy of the films behind and attempts to deliver more teen drama instead, but does this get in the way of R.L. Stine’s classic stories? Let’s find out…

The Pros:

Justin Long is the best part of the series…

He’s what got me to tune in and he delivered with his role so far. I think that he always elevates whatever he’s in and he’s definitely one of our kings of horror so I was happy to see him in this.

There are plenty of other familiar faces as well and some newcomers with potential.

Does draw inspiration from some of the original books.

After a 1990’s television series and the films starring Jack Black (2015, 2018), I didn’t know what to really expect with this show, but I was excited to see a few familiar titles surface within the episodes, giving fans of the book series something to be excited about. The actual depictions of those stories were done in a solid way, but unfortunately some unnecessary fluff took over the majority of the episodes.

The Cons:

Too focused on trying to be relevant for its teen audience.

This was really disappointing because I actually liked the horror/story aspect of this series. I didn’t need it to be an anthology because it is different from the 1990’s series, but there is too much unnecessary teen drama. It took up way too much time, making this a bland and exhausting watch.

The acting really wasn’t great (except for a few stand-out performances) and the characters were based off of tropes, leaving little room for actual layers and development.

I also think that this series is very unsure of who its audience is supposed to be. Is it trying to bring in a new audience or is it attempting to reel in fans of the original book series? Either way, it’s failing on both accounts and its uncertainty is overpowering the glimmers of potential.

This series isn’t bad, but it will very easily get lost in the shuffle, which is frustrating.

I think that the new Are You Afraid of the Dark? reboot did a much better job with this type of material…

So am I in or out?

I’m 50/50 on this one…

Goosebumps (2023) focuses too much on the wrong things instead of allowing the stories to speak for themselves, but if it changes its direction a little bit, there may be some creepy potential here.

I’m hopeful we’ll get there!

I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on Goosebumps in the comments section below. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!

Best,

Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl

DON’T TAKE THE JOB…

It was only supposed to be temporary…but when Olivia Crewe accepts a new position that seems too good to be true, she soon discovers that twelve other girls previously had the same job as her. Only none of them lasted for more than thirty days. No notice. Nothing…right before they mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

My supernatural thriller Girl Number Thirteen is out now! I hope you enjoy!

Girl Number Thirteen is available here!

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