“Crystal Lake,” Peacock’s prequel series to “Friday the 13th,” is the No. 1 show on the streamer in the U.S. one day after its release.
All eight episodes came out on Thursday, Oct. 15. By Friday, the series sat at the top of Peacock’s U.S. TV chart, ahead of “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Chicago Med,” according to FlixPatrol.
The Story Behind Jason’s Mother
The series is set before the events of the 1980 film and follows Pamela Voorhees, played by Linda Cardellini. After her son, Jason, apparently drowns at the camp on Crystal Lake, Pam’s grief turns into a string of killings as the town tries to figure out who is behind the deaths, TV Guide wrote in its review.
Callum Vinson plays young Jason. William Catlett plays police chief Levon Brooks, and Devin Kessler plays his sister, Briana, a reporter looking into the deaths. Danielle Kotch and Phoenix Parnevik return as camp counselors Claudette and Barry.
Brad Caleb Kane is the showrunner. He replaced Bryan Fuller, who was originally set to lead the series before A24 parted ways with him in May 2024 over “creative differences,” TheWrap reported at the time. Fuller still co-wrote the first episode, according to TV Guide.
Victor Miller, who wrote the screenplay for the original “Friday the 13th,” is one of the show’s executive producers.
What Critics Think
When reviews first came in on Oct. 13, the series had an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 28 reviews, the best in the franchise’s history, Dark Horizons reported. It has since settled at 74%, with an 82% audience score, on Rotten Tomatoes. The original 1980 film sits at 48%.
Most of the praise goes to Cardellini. “Crystal Lake works in large part thanks to Linda Cardellini’s turn as Pamela Voorhees,” IGN’s Scott Collura wrote. The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager called it a return to Camp Crystal Lake whose “gleeful, self-conscious absurdity fits a franchise defined by daffiness.”
TV Guide was more mixed, calling the series a “by-the-book tribute to classic slasher cinema.”
All eight episodes of “Crystal Lake” are streaming now on Peacock. For more on the release and how to watch, see our guide to the series.
