TV Talk – Scream: The TV Series (Seasons 1-2)

“Do you like scary movies?” What about TV shows based off them?

In 2015, MTV released a TV show in the name and premise of Scream. There are benefits to a longer-form drama based off a slasher flick, like deeper character development for sure, and the ability to allot time to grieve for each individual character lost. The TV series’ nerdy meta-counterpart, gives us the rules of a horror series, and suggests that maybe Scream: The TV series will not be about trying to guess who the killer/s are, so much as caring about the lives of our characters – nah, don’t tell me how to do my Scream; it’s always about the killers and discovering why they have been so manipulative. Come to the final episode of the first season, my anticipation had never been higher, with nine episodes of television behind me boiling down to these final moments. Unveiling the most excellent killer is the equivalent of landing a plane – it ain’t a successful journey until it’s done. It’s not like the desire to know who the killer/s were ever diminished because I now cared about these characters. From my perspective, at the end of season one there were only two characters that I was sure weren’t the killer; Everyone was a suspect, as Randy would say.

I got really excited when the show first started, seeing how clever and gruesome the first death scene was, and remembering that I’d heard that the series would adopt a different mask; I liked to ponder that maybe this Scream series might have the idea of being the original killing spree, suggesting Sidney Prescott’s Scream cannon, and movies, are the interpretations based off this original crime. It would account for these millennial teens never being able to mention Scream as a respectable horror franchise (when they name every other one) and add another exciting layer to the Scream mythology. So Stab, depicting the events of Scream within the Scream movies, would become the movie, within a movie, within a movie (well, a TV series actually, more accurately). It wouldn’t have bothered me that this is set in the modern day while the original Scream movie has the setting of 1996; you could’ve had some smart-ass point out that if they ever made a movie out of this killing spree, I bet they’d have to change everyone’s name, and dumb down the sex and gore. Is that insulting to the original Scream? I don’t think so. I thought it would have been a way to make a show with personality, connecting to the source material in a very original way. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thought this, as I’ve seen fan theories out there that are very similar. But I don’t think this is what the show did – with Scream: The TV Series, they have created a completely separate storyline, existing on a parallel plane. Without the original iconic mask, this TV series is essentially Scream in name only, with the killer also wearing black, brandishing a knife, and making phone calls. And Scream: The TV Series doesn’t sustain the blunt ruthlessness of the first two kills, so it doesn’t stand out for elevating the gore of the Scream franchise either. It’s also like the series started out wanting to include the meta-commentary on TV series’ in general, coming especially from the character Noah, but that peters out and becomes less prominent as the series goes on as well – actually, Stavo mentions horror comic book lore in season two, which is interesting, but a diversion. To sum it up, there’s a complex opportunity missed in my book, and the desire to create a safe slasher series won out.

Truly though, you do have to connect with the characters in a show like this, and I like these kids – I like these actors a lot. The actor who plays Jake is Tom Maden, and he has the charming ass-holiness of a young Matt Dillon; when I looked him up, I half-expected the two actors to be related. John Karna is a find and a half as the loveable geek Noah, whilst Willa Fitzgerald and Bex Taylor-Klaus as Emma and Audrey respectively, are set apart at times as dual heroines, and fulfill their roles really well too. I assumed Carlson Young, as Brooke, would play this conceited popular bimbo I’d love to hate, but Brooke becomes hard not to admire, and was probably my favourite character. The second season isn’t as enjoyable as the first, for a few reasons, and one of the reasons is a lack of Brooke – is that saying she dies? Or separated more from the killer’s antics? Or is she the season two killer? I’ll never tell. I don’t like what season two did with Audrey either; she holds onto a secret for a little too long, and after the secret’s out, she keeps getting more and more alarmed dialogue, similar to Lucas in Stranger Things, who I call ‘the negative one’. Kieran (Amadeus Serafini), Emma’s boyfriend, also has less to do in season two, now that he is established in the friend’s circle; his mysterious outsider disposition has passed, and apart from getting stroppy at his cousin Eli (Sean Grandillo) he doesn’t do much – I would have liked him to speak up more when faced with challenges from the killer. But as a whole, by the time the Halloween special comes around, it seems a lot of character development with this cast has played out. Stavo (Santiago Segura) seemed an addition to forge common interests between the group again but it’s too little too late. The series teases a third season, but the series actually moved to VH1 for a new start with a fresh cast, called Scream: Resurrection. That season is not currently on Netflix ☹

I would recommend this series to you if you were a completionist. It’s good to gain an understanding of the franchise’s potential as a TV show. That being said, it’s not essential viewing. It’s detached from Sidney Prescott and the entire Scream legacy. The cast talk and compare horror movies without mentioning Scream, and it is exactly frustrating like how Fear the Walking Dead tried to articulate a zombie outbreak in the real world, in a world without any preconceived ideas of zombies; there’s a gaping hole in knowledge that we possess as an audience, that they don’t, and it’s obvious. At least the Scream movies have the Stab franchise if they want to reference their own murders in a similar cinematic setting. Like I said, a bit of extra thought and creativity could have linked the two Scream stories in fun and meaningful ways; even referencing Woodsboro or Gale Weathers, or something, to let us know that we are in a shared universe would have been cool. I would have liked the idea if this series was the original murders, like I said before, but that doesn’t mean you have to, or that it would have been great. But I don’t know, it’s not important; this series does its own thing and it’s fine. The show still holds its fair share of tense and intrinsic scenes – episodes in a bowling alley, or when someone who will remain nameless getting buried alive, stand out in my mind. As far as turn-your-brain-off entertainment goes, Scream: The TV Series doesn’t disappoint. But I think the show is cashing in on the Scream name above all else, creating another trendy teenage melodrama with a mystery, like Pretty Little Liars or Riverdale.

Ok, it’d kill me to talk about Scream and not talk about who the killers were, so if you haven’t seen the TV series, and you want to maintain the surprise element when you do get around to watching it, now’s the time to check out of this conversation… Now… Okay, read on under your own accord.

The first season sets itself up pretty well – there were only two characters, excluding Emma, that I was pretty confident weren’t the killer, and that was Noah and Brooke. On first thought, I didn’t imagine how Piper would make for the most interesting reveal, but hearing her monologue, and particularly seeing the fallout, how it affected Emma in season two, changed my mind to get around it. The only nitpick I perceive is that Piper was torturing Emma out of jealousy, because she had this great life whilst Piper was tossed away, but Piper ran a pretty successful blog, which had the ear of at least Audrey and Noah in Lakewood, so it’s not like her life turned out too terrible; not a glass-half-full girl, was our troubled Piper. I do like how the show gives itself room to create further intrigue by giving Emma’s Mum a mysterious past with town-legend Brandon James. And I thought teacher Seth Branson was a good fake-out as the potential knife-wielding maniac.

For Season 2, I did the stupidest thing and looked up something that happened in the first season, thinking I’d missed an explanation because I didn’t see it on Noah’s bloody murder board; I accidentally found out who the second killer was going to be by Episode 2. Having confessed this, it’d be bias of me to say it was obvious who the killer was in season two… but it was obvious who the killer was in season two. Who didn’t figure out it was Kieran? I’d love to know. There isn’t another genuine candidate, who stays suspicious for the entire season. The series illudes to other options, like creepy Stavo, or Eli, who was in Lakewood for Will’s funeral, or Brandon James, who may still be alive, but those options all seem farfetched. I like that the killer was Kieran, but as I mentioned before, poor Kieran wasn’t hidden in plain sight very well – especially considering the six teenaged survivors of the first season all seem to have become close friends now, but Kieran can’t get tortured by the killer in the same way as the others, and he’s clearly the odd one out. He is found in the fun house with tape over his mouth, but we never see him get abducted, like we certainly would have if he was anyone else. Kieran runs around the school with Noah in one episode and they get separated, but apart from that, Kieran is never really made to stress. I noticed that the fan ratings for season two went down a fair way, and I’m wondering if ‘obvious killer’ was one of the main reasons why. On the positive side, usually we’d say a Scream killer is one or two steps ahead of the victims; Kieran was three or four steps ahead. I do admire the creativity in which this season is written; the events that led to Zoe’s death makes for one of the best episodes, and I love how Emma and Audrey were framed.

Ah, that’s better. I had to get that off my chest. If you’ve read this far, I’m assuming you’ve seen Scream: The TV Series – what did you think about it? Would you like to see any of these characters pop up in Scream 5? Leave a reply in the box below!