YMMV / Chucky

• Alternative Character Interpretation: In episode 2, Chucky claims he's totally alright with his child being genderfluid... although, in that film, he was decidedly not alright with it and tried to force Glen/Glenda to identify as a boy. Is this a sign of character development on Chucky's part (indeed, it has been several years since then), or is it Self-Serving Memory leading to Hypocritical Humor? Another common interpretation is that he was just saying that to try and get on Jake's good side by contrasting himself with Jake's homophobic Abusive Dad; reinforced by the fact that after Jake makes it clear that he won't work with him, Chucky no longer has any problem taking homophobic shots at him and Devon.
• Ass Pull: The reveal in the second season finale that Chucky had Caroline brainwashed ever since they first met and she was only faking her fear of dolls, which is at no point hinted at in the first season, nor the second season premiere.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After all the misery he placed on him and his friends, Jake not only killing Chucky but opting to use his status of the Lakeshore Strangler against him by strangling him is immensely satisfying.
  • Nica's The Dog Bites Back moment in the ending of Season 2: after the show has revealed that Tiffany is the one who doomed Charles back in '88 starting this whole thing, trapped Jennifer Tilly in her doll body since 2004 and killed her sister Meg in front of her, it's incredibly satisfying when Nica calls her swearing revenge for everything she did to her before, with Tiffany clearly scared out of her mind. The Wedding Belle doll that Tiffany intended to transfer her soul into turning out to be a disguised Good Guy doll already occupied by Chucky that proceeds to attack her as she helplessly screams in terror is only icing on the cake.
  • After murdering the President himself, stealing the nuclear codes and planning to start World War III, Chucky's omnicidal plan is averted at the last second, and he is finally killed by the Secret Service, seemingly for good this time.
• Complete Monster: Charles Lee Ray, as a boy, killed his own mother to impress an active Serial Killer. Returning to Hackensack, Chucky falsely befriends Jake Wheeler and tries to corrupt him into murdering Lexi Cross, ultimately taking the matter into his own hands at the cost of inadvertently starting a house fire with several partygoers inside. Chucky murders Junior's mother and successfully perfects his Voodoo spell when he drove Junior to kill his father. He reveals his plan to massacre an audience at a charity event before distributing 72 possessed Good Guy Dolls nationwide with more bloodshed in mind, all to immortalize his depraved legacy as the worst serial killer in US history.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Chucky throwing out the decapitated head of Principal McVey in the middle of the auditorium stage as Michelle tries to tell everyone things are fine? Messed up. Him raising the curtain to show her headless body posed in a chair giving two thumbs up? Hilarious!
  • Junior killing his father in the penultimate episode of season 1 is terrible. Him and Chucky singing "We Got The Beat" afterwards? Funny.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Caroline seems to have some sort of neurodivergent disorder (possibly autism), but it's never made explicitly clear.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Bree Wheeler is well-liked for her character seemingly being built up to become a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing (with many Genre Savvy fans assuming this would be the case), only to subvert expectations when she's actually revealed to be a terminal cancer patient who loves her son and nephew (with her seeming hostility towards the latter instead being uncertainty on how to care for him given her diagnosis). It helps that she's played by Lexa Doig, who played the Final Girl in Jason X and who turns out a good performance in this show.
  • Ms. Fairchild has fans for being a Cool Teacher and a Reasonable Authority Figure, probably since past adult figures in the series (particularly teachers) are often shown to be sadist or apathetic. Her popularity rose when she came Back for the Finale of Season 2 (after sitting the majority of the season out) and, in a franchise-first, instantly believes the kids when they tell her about Chucky, when most adults refuse to accept it until he's right in front of and/or killing them. Too bad she bites it only two episodes into Season 3.
  • Nadine is adored for her delightful personality as a Bespectacled Cutie and a Nice Girl, while her relationship with Lexy provides significant Character Development for the latter. Her interactions with "Good Chucky" after the group brainwashes him are also sweet as she plays the role of his godmother. Many fans widely consider her death one of the saddest, most undeserved in the entire franchise.
• Epileptic Trees: Some fans theorized Ms. Fairchild is Glen or Glenda. Season 2 thoroughly Jossed this, though.
• He Really Can Act:
  • After playing sympathetic roles ranging from Alex Browning to Casper, Former Child Star Devon Sawa believably and accurately played Luke as a scary and violent homophobic drunk to the hilt and a completely different character next to his other role as the kinder Logan that it threw some viewers off-guard. Then in the penultimate episode of season one, he does a 180 degree turn on his character Logan; he portrays him as nearly as wrong as his late brother (though not quite as) despite initially appearing upstanding and sympathetic as his past aforementioned roles. It was also in a more differently subtle way without ever attacking his son unlike Luke during his drunken stupor just before his death and simply says his wife (who he thought committed suicide) was a quitter.
  • Many people have applauded Fiona Dourif's acting as Nica and Flashback!Charles Lee Ray.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Two years prior, Sanrio made Hello Kitty X Child's Play merch exclusively for Universal Studios Japan, where Hello Kitty cosplayed as Chucky's family. In "Give Me Something Good to Eat", Chucky dons a Hello Kitty mask and essentially inverts this.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Guess who's more disliked amongst the community; the sadistic Serial Killer/Complete Monster (Chucky) or the snobby Alpha Bitch (Lexy), her Sleazy Politician mother (Michelle), and the Abusive Dads Lucas and Logan? It's the latter four, although Lexy and Michelle do become better individuals.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Junior, despite his contempt for Jake, is revealed to be just as much of a tragic figure as his cousin.
  • Lexy starts out as solely a Jerkass Alpha Bitch; but the more she tries to be a better person, the shittier her life becomes to the point by season 2, pretty much any snarky outbursts on her part are basically justified.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Genda flooid"^ExplanationChucky's odd pronunciation of "genderfluid" has basically replaced the original term in the series' discourse.
  • Starting with season one, Devon Sawa created a trend by setting up a fake beef between him and Chucky, which soon followed in joke behind the scenes and regular bickering on Twitter. This beef was soon joined in Season 2 with similar Universal killer doll, M3GAN
  • Buff Chucky ^Explanation The sheer ABSURDITY of Strong Chucky caused the character to quickly become the subject of many a meme and fancam.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • While he has many candidates throughout the franchise, Chucky is revealed to have already crossed it by the time of the series by killing his own mother.
  • Before the family dinner in "Death by Misadventure," Lucas could be considered a stressed, overworked victim of circumstance who cares about his son's future but is abrasive about it. After destroying Jake's art and later threatening to kill him after Jake calls him out for having a problem with him being gay, it's abundantly clear that Lucas hates his son, will do anything to change him, and is remorseless about his actions.
  • Logan loses whatever sympathy he had left when he bad-mouths his recently deceased wife, for (allegedly) taking her own life in retaliation for his son's (and Chucky's) attempt to call him out.
  • While sometimes coming across as the more sympathetic of the murderous duo, Tiffany slowly starts to cross over the horizon when she kidnaps Nica with the intention of keeping her around due to favoring her over Chucky. She's definitely way past the horizon after she dismembers Nica just to make sure Chucky won't kill her if he regains control of her body.
• Narm: Yea, Bree's death is undoubtedly tragic. But, one of the pictures of her in her funeral is her making a Fascinating Eyebrow-like expression.
• Nightmare Retardant: While it's clearly intended to be horrifying, it's quite difficult to take Chucky killing some people in "An Affair to Dismember" by shoving a knife up their asses seriously.
• One-Scene Wonder: Kenan Thompson makes a brief cameo in the opening scene of episode 3 of season 3, as a cab driver who meets a grisly end at Chucky's hands.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Fans have embraced the series' return to creator Don Mancini's hands, following the mixed reception of the 2019 reboot.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Jake/Devon is "Jevon."
• Special Effects Failure: When Chucky is walking among the trick-o-treaters wearing a Hello Kitty mask, it's pretty blatant that it's just a small actor dressed like him.
• Spiritual Successor: Much like the second and fourth films being reminiscent of films by Wes Craven, this show can feel like a television series adaptation by Ryan Murphy of Craven's My Soul to Take with the Killer Doll in place of the Riverton Ripper due to the plot similarities, the autumn atmospheric small-town settings plagued by a reputation of a serial killer, the aesthetically thematic tones, featuring actual teenage actors in the leads and the dynamics between them (including one of the teens having an alcoholic Lower-Class Lout gas station attendant for an Abusive Dad who dies) and some stylistic direction reminiscent of Murphy's like the home movies- e.g. flashbacks revolving around Chucky's childhood.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • In season 2, the kids capture and brainwash a Chucky doll into temporarily joining their side. The switch appears to be genuine on the doll's part, and seems set up as a way for Jake to work out his own guilt over Gary, and as a way for him to find a way to forgive Chucky, and potentially sets up a question of "nature vs nurture", even more so when Doctor Mixter reveals that she saw good and innocence in a young Charles Lee Ray and stamped it out. But none of that is really explored in depth, and soon after, the brainwashing appears to wear off, if he was ever really brainwashed in the first place, and the doll goes back to being evil.
  • Ms. Fairchild, upon her return in the Season 2 finale, is initially set up to be a new potential adult ally that Jake, Devon, and Lexy can rely on, especially once she immediately believes them when they tell her about Chucky. She sticks around for only the first two episodes of Season 3 before being killed off by Chucky.
• The Woobie:
  • Jake is bullied at school and abused by his father, wearing him down so much that he can't trust anyone.
  • Nica, by the end of the first season, is somehow left off worse than she was in Cult of Chucky, because not only does she still have a piece of Chucky's soul inside her, but her limbs are amputated by Tiffany, who keeps her imprisoned out of warped love for her.

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