*Caution: Spoilers Ahead!*
The highly-anticipated horror sitcom, Scream Queens, premiered on Fox this past Tuesday, September 22, with a 2-hour back-to-back showing of the first two episodes. From the creators of Glee and American Horror Story, the show proved to be somewhat of a combination of the two popular shows. #ScreamQueens was a trending topic on Twitter for most of the night and viewers everywhere gave mixed reviews.
The episode started off in the year 1995, when a sorority-pledge gone wrong leads to a dead girl in a bathtub, a newborn baby and tons of questions unanswered. Flash forward to the present, when the same sorority and its president (Emma Roberts) are under the watchful eye of the Dean of Students (Jamie Lee Curtis). The Kappa Kappa Tau house is forced to welcome any interested pledges, which is where Grace (Skyler Samuels), our seemingly girl-next-door main character, comes in.
It all goes downhill fast as the misfit group of pledges are suddenly part of an ongoing investigation of a serial killer on the loose. The serial killer is dressed in the school’s mascot costume and not-so cleverly named “The Red Devil.” Among the all-star cast (Nick Jonas, Keke Palmer, Nasim Pedrad, Lea Michelle), the first to go is Ariana Grande, who is barely present in the pilot and killed near the end (yet despite the upset over that, everyone thought live-tweeting her murder was seriously laugh-out-loud funny).
It’s obvious what Ryan Murphy, creator of the show, is going for here: a cast full of popular celebrities and suspense-ridden scenes with the classic horror move music. It draws fans in and we want to learn more. Now, I’m not saying the show was bad, but it’s pretty clear that Murphy knows what he’s doing. After the success of Glee and AHS, he has the sitcom formula down pat.
Many viewers who live-blogged or live-tweeted shared similar opinions. They were shocked that Grande’s character was killed off so fast and how some of the jokes were sometimes uncalled for. TV Critics called the show a “package for maximum media impact.” Regardless, the show ended up pulling in over 1.5 million views for both episodes even after premiering in such a tough timeslot. Many people, like myself, were hooked.
I’m interested to see where the show leads us with Nick Jonas possibly being in cohorts with The Red Devil and Grace’s love interest, Pete Martinez (played by Diego Boneta of Rock of Ages), conveniently owning the same Red Devil costume as the serial killer. Some even believe there is more than one Red Devil, which may be a little too similar to Pretty Little Liars. But, no matter how many Red Devils there are or the identity of the serial killer, how does the series go on from there? With practically every character having a motive, yet a different character being killed off every episode, where exactly is this show going? I’m a sucker for suspenseful, cliffhanger stories like this one and I’m eager to find out.
Add Scream Queens to your list of shows to obsess over! Watch it on Fox every Tuesday at 9pm.