--- description: The mean-spirited satire in one of fall's buzziest shows fails to please title: Scream Queens Review: Ryan Murphy's Offensive Horror Show image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc242dfdab24a4be/698864ceab6d772ecd6a648b/emma-roberts-sceam-queens.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _Scream Queens_ is a Missed Opportunity for Fox, and Ryan Murphy  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 22, 2015 7:27 PM CUT  Emma Roberts as Chanel Oberlin in Scream Queens Emma Roberts as Chanel Oberlin in Scream QueensFox  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 22, 2015 7:27 PM CUT Ryan Murphy is uniquely positioned to make a show about college in the 21st century. The writer and producer is still best known for _Glee_, a series whose giddy musical numbers coexisted with a take-no-prisoners attitude towards every member of its high school student body; his short-lived NBC sitcom _The New Normal_ let some of the air out of widespread liberal excitement over gay liberation with a venal, rude central couple who only occasionally learned or grew. Returning to network television Tuesday night with a series set on a college campus, Murphy might have made a series that had nasty, exaggerated fun at the expense of sheltered students and clueless administrators. _Scream Queens_ is not that series. The show, a loving homage to slasher movies as filtered through Murphy’s own sensibility, is giddily excessive, to be sure. But the degree to which it takes place on another planet—returning to earth only to comment on race by making fun of nonwhite people—makes it, so far, a major missed opportunity. The two-hour pilot episode takes place largely at a sorority house at which, in 1995, a co-ed died under mysterious circumstances after giving birth. Twenty years later, the Greek sisters still seem, somehow, stuck in the _Clueless_ era, from their dress to their bearing to their concerns; at least two of the Chanels, as the central clique is known, are motivated in all they do by their desire to become network newscasters. (Shouldn’t they, really, be trying to host YouTube makeup tutorials?) As the leader of the group, Emma Roberts is mean in a way that’s delicious but that we’ve seen her do, for Ryan Murphy, before. On _American Horror Story_, Murphy’s cable series which returns for its fifth season next month, Murphy is able to let loose; love or hate that show, it is entirely what it is. _Scream Queens_ takes vague stabs at commentary—one of the characters has a “helicopter parent,” another takes a break from dying violently to send a tweet—but feels at a loss when it comes to connecting the dots more meaningfully. It’s as though so much effort was expended setting the stage with the sorority characters that the actual plot of the show, which is set into motion when a mask-wearing murderer starts picking off students, went underthought. Actual predatory behavior on campus, and the perception that the manner in which it’s covered by the press and prosecuted by institutions is inept and inadequate, is among the biggest news stories in America. That’s why the use of _Scream Queens_‘s setting and willingness to court scandal feels wasted when going after randomly chosen targets. There’s no good way to make a comedy about violence for a broadcast network, but Ryan Murphy’s eagerness to congratulate himself for courting scandal just shows _Scream Queens_‘ particular pointlessness. The too-rare moments when _Scream Queens_ has anything to say about the particular sensitivities and oddities of campus culture in 2015 nestle up to weaker moments involving Jamie Lee Curtis’s villainous-ish dean, whose malign motivations might be fun if she didn’t just rattle them off as exposition to a student she was bedding. And genuinely odd touches that reveal a fun camp sensibility—frat brothers sleeping, like Bert and Ernie, in side-by-side double beds, or Nasim Pedrad’s commitment to the role of a ditzy sorority alumna—are put right up against a brutality that’s way too real. To complain about the racial aspects of Ryan Murphy’s television shows is to miss the point entirely. From the still-running _American Horror Story_ to the late _Glee_ and _The New Normal_, the showrunner’s projects all put forth a with-it liberal sensibility in which line-crossing cracks about nonwhite (or handicapped, or gay, or…) people are proof of subversive wit. But it’s the muddledness of _Scream Queens._ It tends to get forgiven because the Murphy sensibility is so baked into shows that are so confident in what they are doing; _Glee_ paired wild insensitivity with a love-yourself message so confidently one had to go along or stop watching. But, here, the crassness feels more than ever like a put-on. There’s nothing fun about watching Roberts call her housekeeper “White Mammy” and making her quote Butterfly McQueen’s lines from _Gone With the Wind_, and nothing that creates a greater understanding of her character; we can tell she’s a monster without being goosed to think her race-tinged bullying is a little funny. The sensibility seems shot out with a pellet gun: A hearing-impaired character is brutally murdered while failing to hear her sisters’ screams. She’s goofily screaming “Shake It Off” nearly to her final moment. Whom is the joke on, here? (We’re also informed, “Like all deaf people, she has horrible halitosis.” Unsatisfied with existing stereotypes, Murphy has created new ones.) Worst of all is what’s done to Niecy Nash, this year an Emmy nominee for her role on _Getting On._ Nash gets to appear as a loud, stupid, and lazy security guard who gorges on burgers and refuses to climb stairs to protect her charges, a joke that’s both complicated (playing on the idea that black people are smart enough not to court danger in a horror-movie scenario) and so muddled as to lose its edge. “You cannot win an Emmy for a role that isn’t there,” Viola Davis said at this year’s ceremony; nor is an actress likely to triumph over anything beyond the obstacles Murphy creates for her. It’s a role whose attempted subversion of tropes is just a hair away from acting out the trope itself. It’s hard to criticize a show for not trying to be something different—and if _Scream Queens_ just wanted to be a competently done horror series, it’d have to be judged on that basis. But the show clearly wants to be a satire of horror, and society, and the racial attitudes that remain an obsessive concern of Murphy’s. Had it narrowed its aperture, tried to be a show that took on mismanagement of criminal doings on a college campus, or a simple genre homage, or a diva smackdown for gay audiences only, it might have been a success. But Ryan Murphy wants his shows to do it all, including stuff that’s never really worked for him. And in an era when actresses who don’t look like Emma Roberts are demanding respect more loudly than ever, it shouldn’t be a surprise if people change the channel. ### See Photos of Celebrities at the 2015 Emmys  Taraji P. Henson at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  SofÌa Vergara at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Dan Steinberg—Invision/Television Acad  Ariel Winter and Laurent Claude Gaudette at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Charles Sykes—Invision  Carice van Houten at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Danny Moloshok—Invision/Television Acad  Nikolaj Coster-Waldau at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Gwendoline Christie at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Sophie Turner at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Maisie Williams at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Elisabeth Moss at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Jessica Pare attends the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images  January Jones at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Kiernan Shipka at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Christina Hendricks at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Uzo Aduba at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Danielle Brooks at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Laverne Cox at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Samira Wiley at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Laura Prepon at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. 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Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Keltie Knight at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Danny Moloshok—Invision/AP  Louise Roe arrives at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 20, 2015, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Danny Moloshok—Invision/AP  Sarah Paulson at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Mark Davis—Getty Images  Jessica Lange at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Mario Anzuoni—Reuters  Emma Roberts at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Steve Granitz—WireImage  Lady Gaga at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Steve Granitz—WireImage  Jamie Lee Curtis at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Allison Janney at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Dan Steinberg—Invision/AP  Lily Tomlin at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Alberto E. Rodriguez—Getty Images  Aubrey Plaza at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Amy Poehler at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Mario Anzuoni—Reuters  Julia Louis-Dreyfus at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Tony Hale at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Jane Krakowski at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Amy Schumer at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Charles Sykes—Invision/AP  Nazanin Boniadi at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Dan Steinberg—Invision/AP  Padma Lakshmi at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Mark Davis—Getty Images  Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Renee Bargh at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Christine Marzano at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Kat Deeley at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Mario Anzuoni—Reuters  Liz Hernandez at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci/Invision/AP  David Foster at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 19, 2015 in Los Angeles. Dan Steinberg—Invision/AP  Natasha Lyonne at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Lauren Lapkus at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Paul Buck—EPA  David Benioff and Amanda Peet at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Kim Dickens at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Charles Sykes—Invision  Kate McKinnon at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Danny Moloshok—Invision/Television Acad  Nathan Anderson and Anthony Anderson at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Danny Moloshok—Invision/Television Acad  Tracee Ellis at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images  Maggie Gyllenhaal at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Felicity Huffman at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/Television Acad  Regina King at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Vince Bucci—Invision/AP  Debbie Matenopoulos at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Danny Moloshok—Invision/AP  Ellie Kemper at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Mark Davis—Getty Images  Morena Baccarin at the 67th Emmy Award on Sept. 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4044311/scream-queens-is-a-missed-opportunity-for-fox-and-ryan-murphy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4044311/scream-queens-is-a-missed-opportunity-for-fox-and-ryan-murphy/"},"headline":"Scream Queens is a Missed Opportunity for Fox, and Ryan Murphy","datePublished":"2015-09-22T19:27:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:33.243Z","description":"The mean-spirited satire in one of fall's buzziest shows fails to please","url":"https://time.com/4044311/scream-queens-is-a-missed-opportunity-for-fox-and-ryan-murphy/","keywords":["Television","Ariana Grande"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc242dfdab24a4be/698864ceab6d772ecd6a648b/emma-roberts-sceam-queens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc242dfdab24a4be/698864ceab6d772ecd6a648b/emma-roberts-sceam-queens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Emma-Roberts-Sceam-Queens","caption":"Emma-Roberts-Sceam-Queens","creditText":"Fox","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4044311/scream-queens-is-a-missed-opportunity-for-fox-and-ryan-murphy/","name":"Scream Queens is a Missed Opportunity for Fox, and Ryan Murphy"}}]}] ```