“I saw that movie 50 times!”
Late review this week because a set visit kept me away from our weekly wait to learn about the conspiracy behind the Red Devil Killers. Full review, complete with spoilers, continues below.
This is the first week I’ve found myself asking, “Wait, how many episodes is Scream Queens supposed to be?” “Mommie Dearest” is still only at the midpoint of this season — episode 8 out of 13 — and boy things are beginning to drag. This episode actually delivered some decent revelations, but mostly retread information we already knew or assumed.
It was clear from pretty early on that Grace was the daughter of the “Waterfalls” KKT sister, and that Wes was the DJ. With it already apparent that Gigi and Boone are two of the Red Devil Killers in the conspiracy, it was already evident that there’s a third person. Then, once again, someone — in this case Dean Munsch — was confronted with the masked killers — three, this time — and, even though they were incapacitated, didn’t unmask any of them. As someone who so loved the two-hour premiere of Scream Queens, it pains me a bit to admit that the series is seriously beginning to drag.
We want to hear it.
This goes back to the issue I highlighted in last week’s “Beware of Young Girls” where Scream Queens becomes really week when it goes heavy on the plot. “Mommie Dearest” had plenty of exposition, from Grace realizing Gigi was the Hag of Shady Lane, and then realizing that Wes must have known her from their time at Wallace University. Later Chanel dumps the information that Grace’s mom was the terrible KKT sister we met in the initial flashback to 1995, meaning Grace isn’t the bathtub baby like she suspected. As previously mentioned, the third big moment, which served as the big cliffhanger, was the revelation that Boone and Gigi have a third killer they’re dealing with.
At this point Scream Queens has wound itself around so many times that I don’t know if any Red Devil Killer reveal is going to be actually shocking. From multiple sinister mirror moments to every character giving bombastic speeches that make it seem like they are the killer, the FOX dramedy just feels like it’s treading water to fill screen time. Maybe this show would have worked much better as a feature film — that was part of why the two-hour pilot worked for me so well, because it felt like the spiritual successor of Scream. But as we lose the charm of revisiting and satirizing horror classics, the potential of Scream Queens slips away. Even Jamie Lee Curtis’s recreation of her mother Janet Leigh’s famous scene in Psycho didn’t have the weight it might have had in earlier episodes, thought it was a fantastic moment for horror fans.
We want to hear it.
The moments that did work: Chanel and Chad’s night of 1000 compliments, and her snark to the Scotland Yard detectives that “first of all, I’m an American. I don’t have to understand anything.” Even the scene where she went and apologized to Grace worked as a rare moment of character development in this series that prioritizes plot twists and snark over traditional storytelling. Emma Roberts and Glen Powells’ performances are keeping the joy of this show alive for me.
The episode title, “Mommie Dearest,” is a reference to the theme of motherhood throught, from Grace learning who her mother really is to Chanel opening up about her hard upbringing (that flashback sequence was fabulous) to Gigi trying to manipulate her mother-lite role within the Gardner family. It’s also a reference to the 1981 biographical film of the same name about the troubled relationship between actress Joan Crawford and her adopted daughter Christina. Maybe this is theorizing a bit too deep, but the story of Joan and Christina bears a striking resemblance to the tale Chanel tells about her mother. Could it be that this is the show’s hint that Chanel is actually adopted, and mean that she could be the bathtub baby? At the pace Scream Queens is going, it will take five more episodes to find out.
Unless there’s some big plot turn coming up that sends Scream Queens in a new direction, this week’s episode highlighted how the relatively simple plot isn’t enough to sustain this whole series. There were some high points, but overall “Mommie Dearest” was one of the show’s weaker installments. Better luck next week.
