When Jake is mulling over murder, it’s presented as the logical response to a world that wants him dead. Jake is already calling himself a “fag” his queerness is not the problem so much as the ostracism and violence he experiences because of it.
#COMING OUT ON TOP JAKE SERIES#
The series links Jake exploring his sexual identity with Jake exploring his killer instincts, but in a 2021 twist, it depicts both without any of the shame that traditionally colors metaphors like this. These exchanges bring to the surface the themes at the heart of Chucky: The show is both literally and subtextually about coming out, with Jake working hard to suppress his inner urges. “I’m not a monster,” he answers, plastic tongue firmly in cheek. When Jake asks him if he’s cool with that, Chucky appears almost offended.
“You know, I have a queer kid,” Chucky tells him, referencing his gender-fluid offspring Glen/Glenda for the first time since 2004’s Seed of Chucky. Until now, Chucky has never seemed all that concerned with being on the right side of history, but in aligning himself with Jake, the latest iteration makes it clear that there’s nothing wrong with Jake’s sexuality. If that queer signifier wasn’t direct enough, Jake puts it plainly when he tells his dad, “You don’t care that they think I’m weird. Before Chucky kills Jake’s father, Lucas is harassing Jake for playing with dolls.
#COMING OUT ON TOP JAKE TV#
But the Chucky TV show is the first installment of the Child’s Play series with a gay lead, and the bullying that Chucky is encouraging Jake to stab his way out of is explicitly about Jake’s sexuality. Mancini has infused his work with queer representation, from characters who - like himself - are gay to stories about the spectrum of gender identity. That’s not a total surprise given that the show was created by Mancini, who has written every entry in the franchise aside from the 2019 reboot. Jake’s burgeoning queerness is central to this story. “You and me, we only kill people who have it coming,” he tells Jake in the second episode. Almost immediately, Chucky starts referring to Jake and himself as “we.” They’re just friends, he emphasizes (“not that there’s anything wrong with that”), but anything Chucky does, they’re doing together. The story was revised to the doll being possessed by “Lakeshore Stranger” Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif, who has voiced Chucky ever since), but Chucky still behaved as an avenging angel, fighting back against the authority figures looming over Andy through the first three Child’s Play movies: his babysitter, his foster parents, his teacher, and the bullies at his military school.Įven so, the killer doll’s bond with his new owner on Chucky still feels distinctive, as he pushes Jake to pick up a butcher knife himself and fight back against the kids who are making his life hell. In creator Don Mancini’s original script for 1988’s Child’s Play, Chucky was literally the manifestation of 6-year-old Andy Barclay’s (Alex Vincent) repressed rage. This isn’t the first time that Chucky has functioned as something of a murderous id for the kid he befriends (for lack of a better term). On some level, Jake wanted his dad dead, and his new doll was simply following through in a way that Jake wasn’t able to. “I know an asshole when I see one.” (He’s actually talking about Jake’s cat, but the point stands.) “He got what he deserved,” Chucky says after Jake confronts him. By the end of the first episode, Chucky has revealed himself to Jake with a nasty comedy routine at the school talent show and, more significantly, the murder of Jake’s father. On the show, now airing Tuesdays on Syfy and USA, Chucky has fallen into the hands of 14-year-old Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur), a bullied loner struggling with his crush on classmate Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) and the abuse he faces from his single dad, Lucas (Devon Sawa). Now on Chucky, his first TV series, the titular good guy gone bad is something Chucky has never been before: an LGBTQ+ ally.
#COMING OUT ON TOP JAKE SERIAL#
Beyond the obvious - serial killer turned evil doll - he’s been a romantic antihero in Bride of Chucky, a reluctant father in Seed of Chucky, and a wisecracking shock jock as a mainstay at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. Chucky explicitly links Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) exploring his sexual identity with him exploring his killer instincts, but without any of the shame that traditionally colors such metaphors.Ĭharles Lee “Chucky” Ray has taken on many different roles in the 30-plus years since his debut in Child’s Play.