Goosebumps: Episode 11 My Hairiest Adventure

Wow, this episode is bad. At least with most Goosebumps episodes I have some idea what the makers were going for. Here, though, I’m clueless. The acting is horrendous, the twist defies logic, and most of the set-up isn’t particularly scary.

Our protagonist, Larry (Aaron Bartkiw), is a member of a terrible rock band with his friends, is constantly chased by dogs, suffers from allergies that require regular shots, and begins to suffer unexpected body hair growth when he tries a bottle of expired instant tan his friends found in a garage. He becomes desperate to hide the hair from his parents, because he doesn’t want to reveal his use of the instant tan.

Let’s break down the problems with this premise: first of all, the dogs just follow Larry. They never behave in a remotely aggressive manner, and when he’s sitting still in front of him they don’t even jump on him. Why is he afraid of these dogs?

Secondly, while never telling adults about your problems is a staple of both this series and children’s entertainment in general, this episode really strains my suspension of disbelief. A child covering up behavior from his parents when he thinks they might view it as irresponsible is one thing, however there’s no particular reason Larry can’t tell his parents about the hair growth without mentioning the instant tan. If he’s already going to the doctor for allergy shots on such a regular basis it’s not like he’d be afraid of a medical professional seeing hair on his arms and legs.

The final problem is a really annoying plot hole in the final twist. Over halfway through the episode Larry suddenly runs into a dog with a gold coin and different color eyes, exactly like his friend and bandmate Lily (Courtney Greig). He finds that Lily has disappeared. He finds in short succession that all of his bandmates have turned into dogs.

The twist: Larry’s doctor (Dan MacDonald) was experimenting with a formula to turn dogs into babies, which he’d been giving Larry in the guise of his allergy shots, but after many years the dogs were reverting to their original states. The episode ends with Larry turning into a dog, and being perfectly happy as one.

The problem, however, is actually in the set-up: The episode uses the dogs and “allergies” as it’s foreshadowing, but somehow fails to make any reference to Larry’s closest friends having the same problem. Why were these issues exclusive to Larry? It’s implied that Lily, at least, is covering up the hair growth, but we see her standing in front of the same dogs who were chasing Larry without any interest in her, and you’d think “we all get regular allergy shots” would be the kind of thing that would come up among childhood friends.

The episode ends with the good doctor making a decision to give up on dogs, and turning Larry’s pet cat into a baby. However, this baby apparently kept cat eyes. I would love to see the episode she goes through.

Seriously, there is no reason to watch this episode except to facepalm. Not a single thing in it makes sense, nothing is scary, and the parents’ acceptance of the boy they raised for twelve years becoming a dog is just absurd! This is a strong contender for the single worst episode of the first season.