Skip to content It’s hard to say whether the tumultuous production is to blame, but something was very wrong, as a group of seemingly talented people made Peacock’s ‘Crystal Lake’ a disastrous reboot in almost every way. Sean S. Cunningham, director of the hugely influential original films, has been talking about bringing the franchise to TV for over 20 years, but it really came back to life in 2022 when A24 and the incredible Brian Fuller (“Hannibal”) announced a new series would be in production.
The excitement in the horror world was palpable. Would you like to see Jason Voorhees as one of the craziest things to ever appear on network television through the lens of the man who redefined Hannibal Lecter? We couldn’t get here fast enough. And the strike halted production in 2023. When the strike ended, Fuller and one-time collaborator Kevin Williamson (“Scream”) also disappeared. Did their departure make this a disaster, or did they leave because they were already one?
“Tokyo Vice” and “IT: Welcome to Derry” writer Brad Caleb Kane took over his first creator credit, and the plot of “Crystal Lake” jumped to the early ‘70s and announced that Jason would not be the lead role. That would be Pamela Voorhees, the true villain of the first film. How Pamela went crazy and murdered a bunch of camp counselors after her son’s death sounds like a promising setup, but to say “Crystal Lake” is just that show would be an understatement. It’s never too long, and the tone and character motivations jump around so wildly that it’s more like an old writing class or theater game where one person starts the story and then the other continues it.
As a season, it’s one of the most confusing and inconsistent outings in a long time, constantly hampered by a lack of direction and motivation until the episode’s final sequence turns into something entirely different. Characters disappear, the meaning of subplots changes, and it ultimately rewrites the canon of Jason’s origin story in a way that’s just as ridiculous as “Jason X.”
It opens with a familiar and promising beat. “DTF St. Louis” Emmy winner Linda Cardellini plays Pamela Voorhees, a cook at Camp Crystal Lake in the early ’70s. She is protecting her deformed son Jason (Callum Vinson), who is ridiculed and bullied by other children at camp. In one of the show’s early interesting choices, Jason dies in the first episode, having been drowned by an out-of-work counselor. But instead of wallowing in the guilt that would make Pam a movie icon, Kane and company start to get weird when two tough guys from out of town show up looking for Pam before the first episode ends.
It turns out that Pam and Jason were running from someone and hiding in Crystal Lake. If I were to give you a hundred guesses, you wouldn’t be able to guess how this subplot completely reframes Jason and Pamela’s legacy in a way that is completely antithetical to the entire appeal of “Friday the 13th.”Day” series. We don’t need a plot, we just need an unkillable monster in the woods.
“Crystal Lake” also makes the mistake of trying to be more than a simple prequel or homage to the first film. Perhaps they thought this series of shows couldn’t miss Jason himself. Without spoilers, the show picks up a year after Jason’s drowning, but they haven’t found the boy’s body and there are signs he may still be alive. And maybe even bigger? And murder? Again, the new origin story attempts to explain some of this, but it only makes for a show that often feels completely incoherent, with a middle section where you’re not sure who the heroes and villains are.
For example, in this version of the universe, no one has ever decided who Pamela truly is. Without spoilers, she becomes Pam in the first movie for a while, but the show pretty much forgets about her. She also becomes the mother of a potentially new troubled child, but the show ignores that in favor of an ending that definitely feels like the product of a rewrite, although it includes a fun, villainous performance from Hamish Linklater. The “Widow’s Bay” nominee is one of the few whose performances are notable.
Cardellini gets lost in the constant rewriting of the character, and poor William Catlett (so good in “Color Book”) takes on a thankless role as the town sheriff, a love interest for Pamela but more of a plot device to move things from one death to the next. Shows like “Widow’s Bay” and “Below” reminded us of the need to fill shows like this with interesting ensembles, but the creators of “Crystal Lake” fundamentally failed to do so. Because I spent so much time with counselors and even a group of local hippie/victims who had as many personalities as the hapless souls of “Friday the 13th.”Day Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.”
If you come to “Crystal Lake” looking for some damn food, this camp kitchen has plenty to offer. The showrunners clearly prioritized practical effects in what horror fanatics call “Quality Kills,” and they give viewers that almost every episode. Faces are cut off, body parts are peeled off, and red things ooze out. At least “Crystal Lake” comes alive a little during its intense scenes of violence. Even if many of the scenes lack emotional weight or permanence.
It could easily be argued that no death in the “Friday the 13th” legacy had any real emotional weight or permanence, and while the disposable nature of “Crystal Lake” is a feature, not a bug, it could just as easily be argued that the show needed a bit more escapist fun to pull it off. It’s not funny or creative enough to be a true slasher. In part, that’s because a season of hour-long episodes demands something deeper than a 90-minute gorefest. “Crystal Lake” finally becomes tonally consistent in its final run. Even though it gets there thanks to a silly plot (and some aesthetic/directorial choices in the second episode that literally had me shaking my head), the finale makes for a fascinating showdown.
That said, I was surprised to find that the six episodes between the premiere and finale weren’t actually all that important. You can literally watch the first and last episode and hardly miss the story. Again, the creators of “Crystal Lake” felt they had to intentionally include Jason Voorhees in a B-movie, but instead of pretending to profile grief, culture clashes and government conspiracies, they had to resort to POV murders and a haunting soundtrack. The result is a show that is neither serious nor funny. Jason Voorhees deserves better.
Entire seasons have been selected for review. Released on October 15, 2026.