Scream Queens Season 1

7/10 When 2022’s “Scream” AKA Scream 5 came out last year, I decided to check out all three season of the “Scream” TV show. Since I finished that and had nothing officially “Scream” related to watch in preparation for the recent release of “Scream VI”, I figured I would check out “Scream Queens”, which ran for two seasons back in 2015 and ending in 2016. Before the hardest working man on television Ryan Murphy (“American Horror Story”, “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”, “The Watcher”) signed his $300 million exclusive Netflix deal back in 2018, he used to work for Fox on shows like “Glee” and this one. I’ll admit that this is the first show created or co-created (in this case with Ian Brennan and Brad Falchuk) by Murphy that I have watched, although plenty of his works are on my list of shows/movies to watch. I had low expectations in watching a show about what is essentially a spoof of college life, sororities, fraternities and classic films from the horror genre such as “Scream”, “The Silence of the Lambs”, “The Shining”, etc. Since this show is a comedy, there is absolutely no realism as everything is over the top, ridiculously cheesy and dialed up to 11. Another amusing aspect is that several cast members who have now blown up got their start on or around the time of this show including Keke Palmer (“NOPE”, “Hustlers”) and Glen Powell (“Top Gun: Maverick”, “Devotion”). Powell is one of the highlights of the season in his over the top portrayal of a frat boy douche bag, made all the more entertaining in the fact that the vast majority of his roles have been far more serious ever since. Almost all of the cast is solid with Lea Michele acting wonderfully unhinged and coming over from Murphy’s “Glee” and perhaps the best of all, Emma Roberts as Chanel Oberlin, a horribly bitchy sorority girl who treats everyone like garbage and is as shallow but hilarious as they come. This debut season was surprisingly funny as we struggle to unearth the mysteries surrounding the show and figure out who the killer(s) are. With episodes running roughly 45 minutes long, the pacing works well, the soundtrack is catchy and moments where classic horror films are spoofed were some of the best scenes of the season. I even found myself laughing when my own political party was poked fun at and appreciated that the writers admitted their bias (along with college campus bias) in the season finale. You have to be able to laugh at yourself as this show and the characters do at their own expense so I didn’t mind some of my political beliefs getting poked fun at. The only exception being a cringe moment taking on Antonin Scalia that completely failed at trying to comedically take on some of his rulings/views and being way off base. As for what else didn’t work, 13 episodes ran a little long and seeing as how the second and final season dropped the episode count to 10 episodes, I think season one would have been wise to keep the episode count at 10 as well. Despite the fantastic cast, Abigail Breslin, who is a solid dramatic actress and has put in some solid comedic work in both “Zombieland” films, is totally miscast here. She isn’t believable as a rich, bitchy sorority girl and doesn’t quite have the look of her Kappa House sisters either. She is the odd woman out in an otherwise great cast. Despite the show being able to get away with how silly it is due to being a comedy, there were certainly moments that went a little bit too far and had me rolling my eyes. For a show called “Scream Queens”, undeserving Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis is the only real scream queen from Hollywood horror films in the cast so I would have enjoyed some cameos from some other legendary “final girl” actresses. That being said, the show is surprisingly funny and well written with some great pop culture references, an overall fantastic cast, solid music and great pacing. Since the second season fixes the issue of a few too many episodes while changing the setting from a college campus to a hospital, I look forward to season two’s next set of murders while I continue to build hype for “Scream VI”.

#BustAKappa / #KillingGlee / #MsBeanDeanScreamQueen / #LocoChanel / #FreakyDieDay / #WereTheKillers