Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome back to another bewildering Goosebumps video.
Today I’m going to be discussing the episode titled Strained Peas, which features one of the
most horrifying concepts I’ve seen in this series: Having a baby. Babies are frightening enough,
who knows what demonic plans they harbor in that tiny noggin of theirs, but this isn’t
just any baby; it’s a poorly animated baby. Baby: “Soon I’ll be the only one.” Wooooow.
I was intrigued by the idea of a devil child, especially as a story for kids.
Initially I did not find this concept terribly frightening; it just didn’t seem to hit on a
fear a lot of children have, but what I do think it was successful at is telling
a story of an older brother feeling neglected and frustrated after his baby sister was born.
This was originally a short story included in the anthology “Tales to give you Goosebumps'',
which I thought was a good idea because these episodes are not very long, and sometimes I think
the longer Goosebumps books don’t translate well into a visual medium. Now, let’s take a closer
look at this episode and see what R.L. Stine was trying to say. Is there something more profound
to unpack here, or is this simply a gross baby who eats math books? Nicholas: “She ate my math book!”
The episode focuses on a preteen named Nick - He explains to his
best friend Sam that his parents are bringing home his new baby sister,
to which she expresses some disgust. Sam: “Baby sister, that’s the worst! She’s all
pink and cute and cuddly!” They really do internalize that misogyny at a young age.
Nick’s parents come home and introduce him to his new baby sister,
Grace. Nick: “Amazing.” It looks like a tiny human!
As mom brings the new baby upstairs,
she looks at Nicholas and makes this guttural growling noise. (Baby growls)
I mean, I’ve made that noise when constipated so it could be completely normal. Gas is a bitch.
Despite wearing his best Commander Keen helmet, Nicholas can’t sleep through the
baby’s wailing. He tries to soothe her, but she ends up vomiting this lavender
colored drool. Nick: “Oh, gross.” Well that explains why the walls are purple.
Nick: “She’s a baby barf factory.” Better than an adult barf factory.
Sam visits Nick the next day and she keeps antagonizing him about Grace,
I have no idea why. She’s not a particularly supportive friend. Nick tries to tell her
that he feels something is off about the new baby. Oh wow that art is terrifying.
….and awesome. They start playing heavy metal, a song they plan on using at a science fair to
prove how rodents are affected by music while navigating a maze. Mom gets angry at the volume
because she just put Grace to sleep. Mom: “Can you try to settle down please?” Nicholas: “I’ll try”,
but I AM a wild man. Okay, this art is fucked up, what is this?
The baby starts playing with her blocks and proves herself to be
a huge NIN fan. Nick: “Only me?” There is no YOU there is only me!
Nicholas tries to show Sam but accidentally bumps the blocks away when he picks her up.
Sam is understandably incredulous. Sam:
“Gotta blast, later.” Gotta BLAST? I do not remember talking like this in the 90s.
Grace escapes her crib and starts lumbering around,
it’s giving me some Pet Sematary vibes. She decided to do some late night snacking.
When Nicholas finds her, she is watching car racing.
MA, GRACE IS WATCHING NASCAR AGAIN. Nicholas asks her what she is doing. They start to
fight over the remote. Grace: “You’re history big brother.” Oh god, that lip sync… that IS scary.
His parents find him and scold him for messing up the kitchen. Dad demands
he clean it up using few words. Dad: “Kitchen, bed.” Yep, those are nouns.
Nick tries to tell Sam what happened, and she thinks he’s just going bonkers.
He finds Grace’s binky in the cookies and claims it’s proof. Sam: “nick, you need help.”
Nick coaxes Grace into talking, secretly recording her so he can show his parents.
He insists to his Dad that she is NOT the right baby. Nick: “she doesn’t even look like
anyone in our family.” Uh oh, Mom cheated.” Nick: “Her eyes glow like headlights.” Oh,
she cheated with a car. Probably why Grace likes Nascar so much.
He tries to play the recording for his parents, but it is all warped. (clip)
This baby is hungry… FOR KNOWLEDGE. Nick: “She ate my math book!”
When Nicholas confronts Grace, she bits his finger. His mom doesn’t believe this
has happened because she doesn’t have any teeth. His Dad expresses wanting to find
Nick some help. Nick: “Dad, I don’t need some head doctor.” I need a BRAIN doctor.
At dinner, his parents tell him they are going to send him away to live
at his grandparents for a while, believing he needs to sort through his frustrations.
The phone rings and it’s the hospital. Nick had called the doctor, saying he thought there was an
error and they were given the wrong child. The doctor wants to see the parents right
away. Making a strange decision, Dad insists that Nick babysit Grace while they are gone.
Nick: “You’re not gonna leave me along with that thing?” Dad: “I knowI can count on you.” Yeah
sure, you can trust me even though you just told me I was crazy 5 seconds ago.
Nick invites Sam over to keep him company and they work on their science project. She finds her CD
all chewed apart and blames the rat. Sam: “Your stupid gerbil is supposed to listen to my CD,
not eat it.” Gerbil? Is that a gerbil? It looks like a rat to me. Come on Stanley,
you can escape, despite all your rage.
Nick blames Grace for the ruined CD; she gets angry and leaves.
Well that’s a nightmare fuel coat rack.
Grace is back on her shit, cuts the lights, and makes a complete mess all over the house.
Using his weird Tim Burton inspired flashlight, he searches the kitchen since she loves to eat.
He runs up to his room and finds that Stanley has escaped. ...Oh no. Oh NO.
Nick: “she ate my gerbil!’ Yep, she eats the gerbil rat, and clad like Chuckie,
power walks out of the room. Well at least he escaped the maze?
She then locks herself in the parents room and eats Mom’s lipstick.
Nick tries to coddle her by singing her praises. Nick: “What a good girl. So smart,
so strong.” So creepy…”
Oh hey, the Hamster’s okay!
Before anything more happens, the parents come home. They tell him he was right,
and that there WAS a mistake at the hospital. Someone comes over to switch the babies, though
in reality I feel like they would be done through a 3rd party. Chauffeur: “Baby.” Nick: “Cool car,
who’s in the back?” Chauffeur: “Parents.” We also love nouns.
The demon parents show up in some kind of weird rolls royce limo,
because beings of the dark like to travel in style.
The correct baby is returned to Nick and his family, however, there’s a twist. Baby: “Cut
that baby talk and give me some food. None of that mushy junk.” (Ta da sound)
Okay, let’s discuss. This episode is not too different from the short story it was based on,
but there is one very important change I wanted to mention; in the story, Nicholas learns about
the mark of evil from an Iron Man comic book, and when the baby comes home he notices the same mark
on her. Other than that, it’s very similar, even the twist at the end. The story doesn’t work as
well in television format, and that is mostly due to the unconvincing special effects. It’s
not frightening as much as it is comical, at least in adulthood it is. But despite those limitations,
it was actually shot very well, the pacing was good, the lead child performed the roll nicely,
and there were some disturbing ideas presented - consumption of the rat-mouse being the most
unsettling. As a side note, perhaps the lead actor played his role well because the mom and dad
were played by his actual parents. I suppose that could either be a great comfort or an
embarrassment for the kid. What I appreciate the most about this story is that it really taps into
the frustrations of an adolescent that fears they will lose the attention of their parents
when a new baby is brought into the family. The conversations between Nick and Sam aren’t too far
off from real life resentment and anger, and Stine also puts young adults in situations where their
parents don’t take them seriously, leaving them to feel ignored, demeaned, and alone.
Though Stine wasn’t keen on writing children’s books with obvious morals, he did write his young
adult characters realistically and I think that’s why the series was so popular with kids - they
could easily see themselves in situations like this, sans the supernatural elements of
course. In fact, right before watching Strained Peas, I watched Night of the Living Dummy II,
which has a similar theme of parents not believing their child, and suggesting they need to talk to
someone. I do think horror for any age should be able to convey a more human message, no matter how
many gross out moments there are. Horror has always been an outlet for many, young adults
included, and because I think Strained Peas did a decent job using the demon baby as a symbol of
frustration, I can honestly call this a successful story. It’s still full of cheesy elements;
honestly it gets outright silly when I think it’s supposed to be suspenseful, but I still enjoyed it
and found it to be one of the more interesting episodes from the series. I would love to see
it redone with better special effects and a less goofy tone, similar to Stine’s more recent work.
Though I am guessing a Goosebumps reboot series is not exactly on anyone’s radar at the moment.
If there is an episode of Goosebumps you are dying to hear me talk about,
please leave a suggestion in the comments. And until then… stay spooky.
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my breakdown on
Strained Peas - If you enjoyed it I have more Goosebumps content to share with you,
but first I want to thank my generous patrons who not only support my channel,
but give me amazing suggestions for videos. If you have way too much money, consider throwing
a few bucks my way, and if not, it’s totally free to leave a comment or give a thumbs up.
If you are interested in more Goosebumps commentary, I have some recommendations:
On the left is the very first episode I covered called an Old Story,
and on the right I have what I considered to be the worst story in the Goosebumps series.
Thanks again for watching and as always, I’ll see you in the next one.