nightwishouge

Episodes like this are why I will always prefer Are You Afraid of the Dark? To Goosebumps. Don't get me wrong, the latter could be silly fun, but D. J. MacHale was great at expressing mature themes in ways that were accessible to kids.

This is the only episode of AYAOTD? That doesn't have child protagonists (at least, as far as I remember). I mean, I'm sure there have been other episodes where twentysomethings played high school kids, but Dangerous Soup is about young adults trying to make their way in the world. The main character, Reed, is a guy who doesn't seem to have a home or any family to rely upon; in fact, the only authority figure we glimpse in his life (his uncle) is both abusive and now dead. Growing up, in the metaphor of this episode, means not only moving on from your past but also dealing with all the toxic conditions you will encounter as you enter the work force; Dr. Vink literally drains his employees to make his restaurant successful. Neve Campbell gives probably the most naturalistic performance in the show's history as a waitress and possible love interest who shows Reed how to trust.

The supernatural conceit of this episode--that the titular soup is flavored by fear, which is extracted from unwilling participants with the aid of a gargoyle demon--is one of the show's more abstract concepts. With a gorier execution, it could be one of Clive Barker's stories from the Books of Blood.

I loved Goosebumps books from the moment I started stealing them off my sister's dresser, but by the time the series debuted, I had just started to outgrow them a bit. (Camp Jellyjam, which came out the same year of the series, was the first book I read where I thought, "This is kind of silly.") I was only eight, so I don't need anybody to tell me that the series was meant for kids; I WAS a kid. I had been spoiled by Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which had genuinely frightening episodes and dealt with more mature themes, like loss, mixed families, self esteem, responsibility, etc. Goosebumps, by comparison, just has a bunch of twelve year olds acting frightened of their own shadows. I remember wanting the protagonists to be more capable and less scaredy-cat. AYAOTD also had better production value and (usually) better acting.

Still, there is some goofy fun to be had with Goosebumps, especially when the episodes involve monsters. Some of them are so over-the-top and ridiculous that they fall into "so bad it's good" territory. I will forever remember Slappy getting struck by a bolt of lightning and exploding.