David Schwimmer is going to give you Goosebumps
Disney+ recently revealed the Goosebumps series is being converted into an anthology show, with a different cast and story each season
Aux News David Schwimmer
We can now add a new name to the grand pantheon of horror icons, right up there with Wes Craven, Stephen King, David Cronenberg, the Cryptkeeper, etc.. Whisper his name with the respect it deserves, mortals, for he’s all too willing to let you know that he was on a break—a break of your bones!!! Ah ha ha ha ha!
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Uh, sorry about that, folks; joke got away from us. David Schwimmer’s joining the Disney+ Goosebumps show.
This news comes via THR, and not long after Disney made it clear that it’d be treating its adaptation of R.L. Stine’s kid-horror classics, now heading into its second season, as an anthology series with season-long stories. (And with most of its episodes serving as fairly episodic installments in their own right as a season-long narrative gets woven.) Schwimmer joins the cast in what might be thought of as the “Justin Long role,” i.e., the recognizable adult star working on the fringes of the teenaged stars whose characters do most of the “getting Goosebumps” work. In this case, it means he’ll be playing Anthony, “a former botany professor and divorced parent of teenage twins is juggling the responsibilities of overseeing an aging parent while having his kids for the summer.” Which does sound pretty genuinely horrific, honestly, even before the cameras that turn you into slime or wooden dummies with a knife fetish get added into the mix.
And while Schwimmer is the big marquee name, he isn’t the only cast member being added to the show today: He’ll be joined in Goosebumps’ second season by Ana Ortiz, Sam McCarthy, Jayden Bartels, Elijah Cooper, Galilea La Salvia, and Francesca Noel. Here’s the logline for the new season:
Teenage siblings discover a threat stirring, triggering a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery. As they delve into the unknown, the duo find themselves entangled in the chilling tale of four teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994.
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Goosebumps? Is that what he told you? Christ, girl, you’re an idiot. That’s herpes. Go check if the free clinic’s open on Saturday mornings.
That dad sweater is as effective as any prophylactic.
joke got away from usThe A.V. Club
They’d better…PIVOT
I was mildly interested when I thought this meant “anthology show” in the traditional sense, i.e. like Twilight Zone or Outer Limits or Tales From the Crypt, but I guess it’s in the newer post-True Detective sense of the term. I feel what made Goosebumps stand out was not the writing, which I don’t think was ever particularly great, but that they were horror books for kids that then became an anthology show for kids, both fairly unique in the modern day or at least rare. That the new show is neither an anthology show (in the traditional sense) nor apparently really for kids is odd to me.(I should note I’m no Goosebumps expert though, maybe the writing really was great and this new show is the perfect adaptation, just how I feel)
It’s like American Horror Story, but… you know… for kids (i.e., less latex).
I hate to say it, but I have zero confidence that the second season will be any good after how badly they handled the first season. Nonsensical character dialogue and behaviors, pointless soap opera romance sub-plots (most of which went nowhere), and perhaps worst of all (very minor spoilers) the first season ended on a cliffhanger which…I guess they’re just not gonna resolve now?As someone who grew up reading Goosebumps, I was admittedly a bit excited way back when they first announced the Disney+ show. Not so anymore. Unless the second season somehow winds up getting rave reviews I will be steering well clear.
I liked most of season 1, until the ending drove off a cliff by repeating the ending of Hocus Pocus 2 (teenage girl claims the irredeemably evil spellbook for herself & we’re expected to think this is a good thing). At first I thought “maybe if there’s a season 2, Margot will face some consequences for this”, but nope, not anymore.