Review: Goosebumps “The Vanishing”

I didn’t have very many expectations when I began watching the series “Goosebumps: The Vanishing” which premiered at the beginning of this month on Netflix. I wasn’t a fan when the series was on TV, didn’t read the books, but I thought I could check it out. I didn’t recognize the other actors, but David Schimmer played the dad so I thought he might at least make it interesting.
As I watched the series, I noticed a lot of flaws. The plot was convoluted, the rules of the mystery were inconsistent, the humor fell flat, and the dialogue was stilted. In just the first episode alone, I noticed several scenes where depended heavily on dialogue to share exposition and back stories for characters.
The mystery of the series evolve around the mystery of what happened to Anthony Brewer’s brother, Matty, when they snuck into an old army research base back in the 1990’s. Anthony has been living with this for the last 30 years. Meanwhile, his daughter CeCe and son Devin are staying with him at his mother’s house in New York for the summer. From what I gather, they had been staying with their aunt, but she is undergoing brain surgery for reasons that were never made clear.
Things really kick off as Cece and Devin get reacquainted with other kids who they grew up with in school. The group begins talking about what happened at the research base years ago, and as a dare they all go over there. They trigger the same weird event which occurred in 1994, and Devin falls under the effects.
The show’s central mystery is very intriguing as it’s set up in the first couple of episodes. The problem is that a lot of the storyline depends on the characters doing things just to do move the plot along. As the series goes along, it introduces a monster, gory body human effects, and lots more, but there is often little payoff or a clear logic driving events.
Watching the series, I’m not sure who this was made for. It is too nonsensical for the older, original fans of Goosebumps, so maybe they wanted it to be more of a comedy so that it would appeal to a younger audience. Aspects of the show reminded me of other series including “Stranger Things,” but it never achieves the same level of writing, action, or characterization.
In the end, ‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing” is a series that could have been a fun watch but falls flat.