Fox’s Scream Queens ran for two seasons and 23 episodes, from September 22, 2015, to December 20, 2016, and it never figured out what it wanted to be. Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan built a satirical dark comedy slasher around a sorority, a mascot costume and a body count, then moved the whole thing to a hospital for year two. The parts are loud. The whole is a mess.
Trailer, via Andry Malinin.
Kappa Kappa Tau and the Red Devil
Season one takes place at the fictional Wallace University, filmed at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Kappa Kappa Tau sorority is led by Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) and her fellow Chanels — #2 (Ariana Grande), #3 (Billie Lourd) and #5 (Abigail Breslin). Dean Cathy Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) is out to break them.
A serial killer in the university’s Red Devil mascot disguise targets the sorority. The killings reignite a 20-year-old murder mystery. That is the engine, and it is a good one: a whodunit with a killer cast, as the show’s own synopsis puts it.
The casting is the season’s real achievement. Curtis gets a dean with a grudge. Roberts gets the meanest girl on campus. Grande, Lourd and Breslin fill out the Chanel ranks. Niecy Nash and Nick Jonas appear in supporting roles. The ensemble is deep, and Murphy knows it.
A Hospital, a Green Meanie, and a Reset
Fox renewed the series on January 15, 2016. Season two premiered on September 20, 2016, and threw out the campus. Cathy Munsch has left the university business and opened a hospital. She has taken an acquitted Chanel, Libby (Chanel #5) and Sadie (Chanel #3) under her wing after the real Red Devil killer came clean.
The new killer is the Green Meanie. Roberts, Michele, Powell, Breslin, Palmer, Hudson, Lourd, Nash and Curtis all returned. John Stamos, Taylor Lautner, James Earl III and Kirstie Alley joined. The season was produced in Los Angeles, California, instead of New Orleans.
The reset is where Scream Queens loses its footing. A sorority house gives the show a closed world, a pecking order and a reason for everyone to stay in the building while a killer works. A hospital gives it patients, doctors and a much weaker excuse for the same jokes. The Green Meanie is a costume, not a character.
The Casting Churn Behind the Camera
The show’s production history reads like a warning. In December 2014, Emma Roberts and Jamie Lee Curtis were reported as series regulars. Lea Michele, Joe Manganiello, Keke Palmer and Abigail Breslin joined the main cast in January 2015, with Ariana Grande recurring. Nick Jonas was confirmed as a recurring player that month.
In February 2015, Billie Lourd and Skyler Samuels joined the main cast, Niecy Nash came aboard as Denise, and Lucien Laviscount, Diego Boneta and Glen Powell were confirmed as regulars. Nasim Pedrad was cast in March.
Then the churn: on March 13, Joe Manganiello was forced to depart because of publicity obligations for his film Magic Mike XXL. Oliver Hudson replaced him. Charisma Carpenter and Roger Bart were announced in June as Chanel #2’s parents. Philip Casnoff was cast in August as Cathy’s husband. Patrick Schwarzenegger joined in September as Chad’s younger brother, Thad, with Chad Michael Murray as older brother Brad and Alan Thicke and Julia Duffy as Mr. and Mrs. Radwell.
That is a lot of names for 23 episodes. A show that keeps adding and swapping players is usually a show that has not settled on its own story.
What the Score Says
Scream Queens holds a 5.9/10 — a Metacritic score of 59/100. That number is fair. The first season has a real idea: the horror-comedy whodunit, the mascot as monster, the sorority as a killing field with rules. The second season has a premise swap and a new mask, and it never builds the same pressure.
Fox canceled the show on May 15, 2017, after two seasons. In May 2020, Murphy said he was working on a third season. Nothing came of it, and the show’s ending is not the problem — its middle is.
The performances are the reason to watch. Curtis plays Munsch with a straight face while the show around her goes broad. Roberts makes Chanel genuinely funny and genuinely awful at the same time. Lourd and Breslin get the best of the Chanel supporting bits. The cast deserved a tighter show.
What actually matters here is the first season’s structure, not its jokes. The 20-year-old murder mystery gives the Red Devil a reason to exist, and the sorority gives every suspect a motive. Season two has neither. It has Stamos, Lautner, Earl and Alley, and it spends them on medical cases that do not connect to the killer.
The show’s reputation as a cult favorite is real, and it is earned by the cast and by Murphy’s willingness to go ugly. But a 5.9 is not a knock on the ambition. It is a measurement of how much of that ambition made it to the screen. Two seasons, 23 episodes, one great premise, and a second year that traded a house for a hospital and lost the thread. Scream Queens is worth the first season. It is not worth pretending the second one works.
KEY FACTS
– Network: FOX
– First aired: September 22, 2015
– Last aired: December 20, 2016
– Seasons: 2
– Episodes: 23
– Created by: Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan
– Season 2 premiere: September 20, 2016
– Canceled: May 15, 2017
– Score: 5.9/10 (Metacritic 59/100)
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