Goosebumps is a series of horror-comedy novels written for tweens that became a pop culture phenomenon in the 90s. The beloved book series has been adapted to TV and movies a couple of times with the TV series that ran in the mid to late 90s and the 2015 film and its sequel which both starred Jack Black. Goosebumps will be heading back to television screens in October of 2023 with a brand new adaptation. This time, though, it will not be an anthology series like the 90s show, but perhaps it should be.

For the 90s TV series, each episode adapted a different Goosebumps book. That probably makes the most sense for properly and accurately adapting the books. That old show, which aired on Fox Kids among other networks, was absolutely iconic and has plenty of fans as it rightfully deserves. However, it was clearly made on a rather low budget and each episode only had a 22-minute runtime. Now that it’s being adapted to television all these years later, now’s the time to give each story more screen time and a larger budget. Unfortunately, though, the new series won’t be an anthology.

Instead of being an anthology that adapts a book per episode or two, it’ll tell a brand new story that will use elements from some of the biggest Goosebumps stories like The Haunted Mask and Night of the Living Dummy. The trailer certainly makes it look like a great show, but it potentially could have been better as an anthology. 

Not only would it be exciting to see how a modern take with better effects and longer episode runtimes would compare to the classic series, but the horror genre has been proven to be done well in episodic anthologies. Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is the perfect example of how fantastic it can be. A new Goosebumps show has the potential to reach that same potential for younger audiences.

Besides, the films starring Jack Black as R.L. Stine already tell new stories using monsters and storytelling elements from the many books. The unfortunate downside of the movies, despite them being fun family adventures, is that they don’t give enough focus to the fan-favorite monsters who aren’t Slappy. With this new show doing something similar, there’s reason to be concerned that the same issue will be present there as well. 

As fun and memorable as the 90s TV series was, it didn’t adapt every Goosebumps book that was out at the time. Stine has also released more Goosebumps novels and spin-offs since then. This new series could have actually adapted them all, but that will sadly not be the case. This new series had the perfect opportunity to become the perfect adaptation of the Goosebumps books if it were an anthology, but we might as well enjoy the one we’re getting as long as it’s still good.

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