Kappa House, the most sought-after sorority for pledges, is ruled with an iron fist by Chanel Oberlin. But when anti-Kappa Dean Cathy Munsch decrees that sorority pledging must be open to all students, and not just the school's silver-spooned elite, all hell is about to break loose, as a devil-clad killer begins wreaking havoc across the campus.
Ryan Murphy is one of the few show creators who can pitch a series and have it made somewhere. The success he has had with Glee and American Horror Story is something every network wants right now. So it's not surprising that FOX is collaborating with him again (plus, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan). Most Ryan Murphy start strong too. He always has fun and inventive ideas. He is also able to give some high-caliber talent a lot of great material to play with. It's impressive looking at the kind of names he gets to star in his shows. Jamie Lee Curtis is in Scream Queens! And she's really good too. Despite all of that though, Ryan Murphy shows always take a turn off a cliff. It's just a matter of when. Scream Queens is very captivating in its first two hours. But there's still plenty of very irksome and problematic narrative and character beats that will probably only get worse as the season progresses.Ryan Murphy loves writing mean girl characters where the audience can't believe what came out of her mouth. It's an archetype he has incorporated in so many of his shows. Emma Roberts does personify that bitchy, elitist quality well. And yet, it's incredibly tiresome because that's all she does here. She says racist, sexist and homophobic things and the audience is suppose to be okay with it because the line is delivered comedically. She is a horrible human being. And yet, she's almost certain to last this entire season because Murphy loves the character type and because she's such a prominent part of these first two episodes. If she dies in Episode 3, who could realistically fill her void? It could theoretically happen. So many of the supporting characters could rise to the occasion if given more to do. But that seems so unlikely to happen. Chanel doesn't have purpose. Nor does she have any redeeming qualities. The show can't make her this bitchy and racist person only to have a one minute scene where she's just emotionally misunderstood. That doesn't make her endearing. It just makes her a drag. The same can be said for her boyfriend, Chad, who is way too much a "dude-bro" stereotype to be taken seriously. They break up and get back together for no reason. Whenever the two of them are onscreen together, the show is an unwatchable mess with no purpose.
That's a huge problem especially if the show wants to pull back the layers of the fraternity and sorority system. It's very realistic for pledge week hazing to involve very dangerous activities that can injure people - or ever worse. The system has gotten to ridiculous proportions in real life which makes it ripe to be satirized. The management of Kappa Kappa Tau has created a system where pledges think they have to do whatever the president says or risk being ostracized from all of society. There is such an undercurrent of immaturity on display amongst the characters. Most do care about their futures. But they are also very narcissistic people who only care about outer appearances and popularity. It also appears to be a very white privileged society. The people in charge of Kappa and the Dollar Scholars are white, straight, popular and skinny. Not only are the presidents that way but so are many of the other sisters and brothers. Chanel's minions have even willingly forgotten their names just in order to fit in. It's no wonder a serial killer is targeting these two sororities. Of course, that probably has to due to personal reasons.
The premiere opens 20 years prior to the present-day stuff to show that the sisters of Kappa have always been horrible people. They let a girl die after surprisingly giving birth just because they'd rather go back downstairs to the massive party they were throwing. That creates a mystery of what happened to that baby and how they were able to cover up that crime. A mystery that will surely give little reveals and teases in each episode. For example, Chanel reveals that Dean Munsch had something to do with the cover-up. But that's all the audience learns about that. It's also heavily implied that one of these characters is the baby that was born that day and he/she is the Red Devil targeting these people for exemplifying the same values that got his/her mother killed all those years ago. It would be easy to assume that baby is Grace given that she's the audience's point of view character. But even she has a line saying that she's a year or two too young to be that baby. Unless a massive twist is coming it's probably not her - though that's not out of the realm of possibility on a Murphy show.
Grace is an interesting and compelling character too. She seems like a really sensible woman - practically the only one amongst the group. She is willing to stand up to the way that Kappa is being run. She fully believes that a sorority should be about sisterhood and doing one's best to support each other in order to reach the goals they each have for life. Right now, it's not about being equal. Chanel is at the top and everyone else has to serve her. Grace is motivated to learn Kappa's deepest, darkest secrets in the hopes of exposing the organization for what it is and hopeful help change it to what it should be. That's a very lofty and idealist goal. Her one partner in this endeavor is Pete, the school's investigative journalist. But even she is scared away from him after awhile. They do have chemistry with each other. But he also has the Red Devil costume that the serial killer wears. Grace knows enough to run as soon as she spots a warning sign - even though it's unlikely Pete is the killer (unless someone else knocked him unconscious when he was snooping around the Dean's office).
Dean Cathy Munsch has the possibility to be nothing more than this show's version of Sue Sylvester from Glee. At least in the early going, she's not. She's simply a woman during her best to keep some semblance of power in a position where that's increasingly shrinking by the day. Kappa is no stranger to acts of violence and police investigations. Munsch is right to want to shut down the sorority completely. But she can't do that because it's a national organization. She can impose new rules that require Kappa to accept everyone who pledges. But that can't stop Chanel and her minions from torturing the new pledges with the worst hell week possible. Munsch is doing her best to keep some amount of dignity in the wake of her husband leaving her for a younger woman. She wants to rule this campus the way her predecessors did. A rampaging serial killer destroys the image of safety for the school. Despite everything that she does for this campus, multiple people get murdered in this premiere. Some from the psychopath who wears the Red Devil costume and some from Chanel who is so vain that she'll kill if she doesn't get her way. Actually, Chanel could sneakily be the one in the Red Devil costume.
The mystery of who is behind the mask is compelling. The show does a strong job of creating a universe filled with characters and personalities. Some of those characters are only briefly glimpsed. Sometimes the imagery is very misconstrued - liked the Red Devil running over the only deaf girl with a lawn mower. That moment was played seriously and horrifically. But the only thing the audience knew about her was that she was deaf and loved Taylor Swift obsessively. It's fine if the show wants to kill off the pretty, white girls in charge of the sorority. But to have one of the first kills be one of the "socially outcast" pledges felt weird. There is also going to be a ton of whiplash with how the murders are suppose to play. The Red Devil killing Ariana Grande is outrageous humor. She's texting with a person right in front of her! She is stabbed multiple times but still has a very pointed moment of breathing after each one. But then, the show is just as comfortable with Chanel sticking Mrs. Bean's face in the fryer and her skin then peeling off. And then, there's the ritualistic presenting of Boone's body where the fraternity discovers what has happened to him. Tonal issues have always been a problem on Ryan Murphy shows. This show does have a good sense of what it's trying to be. It manages to keep things together in its first two episodes. But it still has the potential to go wrong very quickly.
Some more thoughts:
- "Pilot" was written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk & Ian Brennan and directed by Ryan Murphy.
- "Hell Week" was written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk & Ian Brennan and directed by Brad Falchuk.
- I love the show's soundtrack. As horrifying as the opening sequence is, TLC's "Waterfalls" is a great song. And then, watching Boone work out while Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night" was playing was so great.
- Lea Michele's Hester also has the strong possibility to be such a stereotype in the long run with her strong and peculiar fascination with death. Or she could be nothing more than the ugly duckling who becomes a swan. Both are serious options.
- Emma Roberts plays these kinds of mean girls a lot. Do you think she ever gets tired of it and wants to do something different? That would be such a hard writing challenge for Ryan Murphy though.
- Nasim Pedrad's Gigi is perpetually stuck in the '90s due to some unknown emotional trauma while Oliver Hudson's Wes is really into power ballads from '90s. Cute pairing or a disaster waiting to happen?
- Also why is everyone so attracted to Oliver Hudson? Yes, he's a good looking man but it does feel more like a plot point to drive an even further wedge between Munsch and Gigi.
- It wasn't that surprising that Ariana Grande and Nick Jonas were the first people to be killed by the Red Devil. They are Special Guest Stars meant to pop up in order to be killed. That's the nature of a show like this.
- However, it was surprising that Boone was revealed not to be dead at all but actually partnered with the Red Devil. I guess they couldn't kill him since he's a surprisingly good actor. Also, it must be on purpose that he's playing gay characters both here and on DirecTV's Kingdom.
- Okay, time to speculate. Who do you think is the Red Devil serial killer? I'm gonna guess it's Abigail Breslin. She's too big a name to just being playing a minion to Chanel. Though it would be weird for her to be in cahoots with Boone after she openly threatened him. Or that could be a strong case of misdirection.
