No show is having more fun than Chucky

TV has gotten off to a strong start in 2024. Shōgun is legitimately fantastic, and the kind of weekly watercooler show we’ve been missing as a culture in a post-Game of Thrones world. Delicious in Dungeon has stolen my heart and my stomach. TV adaptations of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Gentlemen, and The Three-Body Problem were all considerably better than I expected. And in the world of cape fiction, Invincible has continued its strong run, and the X-Men are back! Even with all that, the year in television is just starting. There are tons of exciting shows around the corner, like Park Chan-wook’s The Sympathizer, Prime Video’s Fallout show, and new seasons of Evil, Taskmaster, Interview with the Vampire, and Doctor Who.

But reader, I’d be lying to you if I said there was any show I was more excited for than the return of Chucky. The show, created by Child’s Play franchise mastermind Don Mancini, has carried the mantle of the killer doll movies in the best way possible. It is deliriously funny, cartoonishly gory, winkingly over-the-top (Jennifer Tilly deserves many, many Emmys), and not afraid to delve into the deep recesses of its own canon. And despite its full commitment to campy excellence, Chucky remains criminally underwatched by my friends and peers. I implore you to rectify this and join me in the cult of Chucky.

Image: Syfy

After a completely deranged (complimentary) first half of the third season that saw Chucky in the freakin’ White House, the show returns for part two starting April 10 on USA Network and Syfy, with episodes streaming the next day on Peacock. The best way to sell you on Chucky is to let Chucky sell you on itself. So here is a real list of real things that have happened on the real television program Chucky.

• A nun, believing Chucky to be Jesus, washed his tiny little doll feet
• Devon Sawa has played four different characters, almost all of whom have been killed by Chucky
• Chucky killed WWE superstar Liv Morgan on live TV, after she said on a podcast that it was her “dream” to be killed by him
• Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Tilly, whose body was swapped with a doll, was charged with 103 counts of murder
• Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon confirmed their Bound relationship is basically text for their real life
• While consoling a queer kid bullied by his father, Chucky said he loves his “gendaflooid” child — he’s a killer, not a monster, after all
• A super-yoked Chucky punched a literal hole through a bully

Image: Syfy

• Episode titles have included: “Little Little Lies,” “Cape Queer,” “An Affair to Dismember,” “Death on Denial,” “Jennifer’s Body”
• An intervention for Jennifer Tilly turned into a murder mystery party with real murder
• The three seasons have been set, respectively, in a small New Jersey town, a Catholic reform school, and the White House (because, canonically, it is the most evil house in America)
• Each season ends with a fireside chat where Chucky recaps all the kills of that season. Season 2’s is a rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
• There have been multiple holiday specials, including a Christmas episode called “Chucky Actually”
• Fiona Dourif, daughter of Chucky voice actor Brad Dourif, plays Brad’s character Charles Lee Ray in flashbacks, with Brad’s voice dubbed over her
• Chucky started to age rapidly, so he wore a Phantom of the Opera mask to protect his ego
• A housekeeper died via dishwasher
• SNL cast members Kenan Thompson and Sarah Sherman guest-starred and died in ridiculously gory ways; you will never look at an umbrella the same way

I swear all of these things are real, and really happened in Chucky. The back half of the season promises even more gory antics, with a blood-soaked White House, John Waters with a gun, what looks to be a nuclear bomb detonation (Oppen-who???), and surely yet another Devon Sawa murder on the way. My sincere hope is that it has likewise converted you into the Chucky faithful.

Chucky season 3 returns for part two starting April 10 on USA Network and Syfy, with episodes streaming the next day on Peacock.