If Glee and American Horror Story had a baby, it would be Scream Queens. FOX producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, who also teamed up on those other shows, combined the suspense and gruesomeness of American Horror Story with the hilarity of Glee to create season one of this clever, slapstick murder mystery. The two cast popular comedians and singers in serious roles and make light of problems including murder, eating disorders and bullying. Joking about these issues feels wrong, but the one-liners are spot on and the characters offer comic relief at all the right times. The show’s humor highlights the intense pressures college students face and the writers gear the language toward a young-adult audience. The finale aired in December and Scream Queens won a People’s Choice Award for favorite new television comedy on January 6th.
In the first few episodes of Scream Queens, one character tweets while being killed, the campus heartthrob cheats on his girlfriend every chance he gets, the college women only eat cotton balls and the sorority president verbally abuses the pledges. The actors use a lot of slang and often text each other when they’re in the same room, mocking the millennial generation’s addiction to technology. For dinner, the sorority sisters gather in a stately dining hall with silver platters and dip cotton balls into sauces to eat. Anorexia is a prevalent, life-threatening illness on university campuses, but Scream Queens makes the issue laughable.
The biggest scare for these college students is a murderer dressed in a latex red devil costume. The devil manages to kill Greek life members on the university’s campus, but other characters, often unknowingly, foil his or her plans. The murderer almost chops up fraternity brother Chad Radwell with a chainsaw, but Radwell trips and ducks. The devil swings his weapon and chops off Radwell’s friend’s arms instead. Each murder gets bloodier, but the characters offer amusing reactions afterward. Radwell’s fellow frat brother Boone Clemens is killed, but Radwell doesn’t grieve and moves on immediately.
Niecy Nash plays the role of the incompetent campus security officer hired by the university president to protect the students. Nash hosted the Style network’s show Clean House for seven years and has won Emmy awards for her roles on Comedy Central shows including Reno 911! She could never actually save a student from the red devil. She has no weapons, since she’s not a real police officer, adding more ridiculousness to the criminal investigation. Murphy and Falchuck cast Nasim Pedrad as a campus assistant and overseer of Kappa house. Pedrad is best known for impersonating Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, and Arianna Huffington on Saturday Night Live. She tries to comfort the sorority sisters, but her rationalization of the murders makes no sense and serves as a good laugh.
Scream Queens pokes fun at a lot of different issues and groups of people but doesn’t target any one more than the others. The characters’ language is so ridiculous they can’t be taken seriously. Scream Queens is extremely over the top, but in its extremity, the show cleverly highlights flaws in society through the characters’ mishandling of the murder investigation. Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lea Michele, the three stars of the show, were all nominated for favorite actress in a new television series at the People’s Choice Awards. Viewers eagerly await season two in 2016.
