Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan created Glee together; Murphy and Falchuk followed up with American Horror Story. That's two significant and successful series, one an uplifting story of underdog high schoolers and the other one of television's most grotesque, original, and truly terrifying series. So what happened with Scream Queens? The "horror/comedy" (airing Tuesdays at 9 pm Eastern on Fox) falls flat on all fronts; it isn't funny, and it isn't scary.
Set in a fictional sorority called Kappa House, the series hews closely to the formulas established by horror franchises like Scream and Friday The 13th (as well as their numerous parodies.) Back in 1995, a co-ed dies after giving birth in the Kappa House bathtub; her callow, vapid sorority sisters were too busy dancing to "Waterfalls" to call an ambulance for her.
Twenty years later, Kappa House remains the most prestigious and snobby sorority on campus, ruled by a cabal of snooty, privileged girls named not Heather but Chanel: Chanel No. 1 (AHS regular Emma Roberts,) Chanel No. 2 (Ariana Grande,) Chanel No. 3 (Billie Lourd,), and Chanel No. 5 (Abigail Breslin.) (Chanel No. 4 had the poor taste to catch meningitis and die.)
Chanel No. 1 rules the house with an iron fist, invoking all those "mean girls" comedies of the Nineties, down to forcing the obese housemother to scrub floors with a toothbrush and repeat racist cliches from Gone With The Wind. These girls' idea of fun is to throw a "White Party" where everyone wears white - and is white.
But that all comes to an end when the new dean (Jamie Lee Curtis, playing a role that could easily have gone to Jane Lynch,) decrees that after several scandals, Kappa House will be forced to admit any student who wants to join. Without the allure of exclusivity, all the cool pledges leave, saddling Kappa House with a collection of geeks and losers, including a totally wasted Michele Lea in a neck brace; a tattooed mannish girl the Chanels dub "Predatory Lez;" a deaf girl who endlessly hums Taylor Swift tunes totally out of key; a vapid vlogger who reviews candles on her YouTube channel; and the sorority's first black pledge (former Disney star Keke Palmer.) The pledges also include Grace (Skyler Samuels,) whose dead mom belonged to Kappa; she wants to join the sorority to establish a connection with the mother she never knew.
Glee made its underdogs lovable, talented, plucky and brave; in the case of Chris Colfer's Kurt Hummel, the show probably saved the lives of gay teens with its "It Gets Better" message. But Scream Queens has a mean streak a mile long, as if all of Murphy and Balchuk's pent-up contempt for the Glee kids has finally found an outlet. Instead of brave Artie in his wheelchair, there's Michele Lea in a neck brace; instead of proudly gay Kurt, there's "Predatory Lez." And if that's not enough, there's "Deaf Taylor Swift" too.
It's not long before a serial killer dressed in a red devil costume starts killing the girls of Kappa House, starting with Ariana Grande's Chanel No. 2. Grace soon discovers the secret about the girl who died giving birth at the sorority and realizes the baby would now be college age and could be anyone on campus. In fact, it could be her. Or the serial killer.
The Devil killer strikes four or five times in the pilot, including a scene in which the maid has her face shoved into hot fryer oil and another in which "Deaf Taylor Swift" gets decapitated by a lawn mower during a hazing ritual. But Scream Queens can't decide whether to play the murders for laughs (ala Scary Movie) or for shock value (as on the truly terrifying American Horror Story.) It feels like Murphy, Falchuk and Brennan have no idea what they want this series to be, except offensive. In that regard, they've succeeded admirably.
Beyond failing to capture the strengths of their earlier work, Murphy and Falchuk don't shy away from indulging their worst impulses, like hiring 28 year olds to play teenagers or wallowing in gratuitous homoeroticism. (All three male leads, including Nick Jonas as a gay frat bro, wind up stripped down to their underwear at least once in the pilot. Shades of those embarrassing Glee shower scenes!)
Best case scenario, Murphy and Falchuk needed something for Fox to replace Glee and threw this mess together without much thought, reserving their best efforts for American Horror Story: Hotel, which debuts later this season. Or maybe they've just run out of ideas, and this is the best they can do.
That would be very scary indeed.
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