It’s amazing that Scream Queens can produce an episode as smart and enjoyable as “Beware of Young Girls” while ignoring its strongest assets: that is, the Red Devil himself, Denise Hemphill, and Chad Radwell, who gets a criminally small amount of screen time. But hey, here we are. “Beware of Young Girls” isn’t perfect, but it’s well-acted, engaging, and shows that sometimes this show actually gives a shit about its plot.
Honestly, though, I’m still impressed that the show was able to move on from that bleak opening. It’s Chanel No. 2’s funeral, and – hold on a sec, I need to digress, as is my wont. For two weeks now Fox has been teasing footage of this funeral, making us wonder who dies, only to reveal that it’s someone who died in the fucking pilot episode. It’s no secret that Ryan Murphy doesn’t actually like killing off his cast, but this is a bridge too far. For a show that prides itself on how bloody it is, Scream Queens is only willing to kill off characters the audience doesn’t care about. Everyone else just exists to praise/try to murder Chanel, who is in rare form at the funeral. First she tells us that after No. 2’s death, her parents went on a cruise to celebrate. Jesus Christ, there’s cynical and then there’s just plain ridiculous. To say nothing of Chanel’s ghastly eulogy. She might be the most hate-able character on TV right now.
Speaking of not wanting to kill anyone off: No. 2 returns tonight, first via Ouija board, then actually appearing in Chanel’s room. So I guess the supernatural element is canonical now? Gotta say, it’s not a great fit for this show; keep that shit on American Horror Story, Murphy’s other show where no one ever truly dies.
The rest of “Beware of Young Girls” wasn’t bad, though. Dean Munsch is arrested for killing her ex-husband – leading to a funny image of a man in a white suit brandishing an olde-tyme straitjacket – only to be acquitted when her frame job works perfectly. I worry that Scream Queens is showing its hand too much with Munsch. She’s gone from “maybe being involved” to “full-fledged murderer” a little quickly.
Here’s the thing, though, which might save this: Munsch is fucked up and shady, but I don’t think she’s involved with the Kappa killings. I say this because she and Gigi seem at odds with each other, and Gigi is shown to definitely be calling the shots with the Red Devil(s). Sadly, much of “Beware of Young Girls” served as an exposition dump. I have the sinking feeling that the answer to this mystery is going to be resolutely underwhelming, because I get the distinct sense that Murphy and Co. don’t care about. It seems as though they’re having more fun with the Chanels, who are far and away the worst part of this show (3, 5, and 6 plan to kill Chanel! There’s no way they’ll actually do it!). I mean, No. 2 actually apologizing to Chanel? Gimme a break. This show is too enamored of its main character, and at times – particularly with “Beware of Young Girls” – it can hamstring an otherwise strong episode.
A Few Thoughts
- “It’s too bad you had to die, before we found out what ethnicity you are”
- “Didn’t you see the movie?” “The movie Ouija? No, no one did!”
- “That guy deserves a girl who doesn’t dress like Brenda Walsh”
- That French cover of “Norwegian Wood” was very pretty, no?
- “Feather had a website called ILoveBologna.org”
- “News flash, felchers!”
- As you can see, there were a lot of good lines this week. But the show is undermining itself at every turn. Re-reading my review I can actually see myself turning against the episode, which, again, I didn’t actually hate. This show engenders the weirdest reactions
- On a personal note, sorry my reviews have been scattered. I try to keep up with Arrow and The Bastard Executioner, etc, but I’m in the last few weeks of my semester and in the process of applying to MFA programs, so my mind is all over the place. My bad
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