A girl alone at home receiving sinister
phone messages from a masked killer watching her from the shadows.
We
all know the iconic opening to Wes Craven’s 1996 classic Scream, and
that’s exactly what we get yet again in its television adapted pilot episode.
Nina
Patterson (Bella Thorne) enjoys the spoils of cyber bullying after posting a
private video of a fellow female classmate making out with another girl. As
local social media blows up over the scandalous footage, Nina rewards herself
by stripping down to her undies and taking a late night dip in her Jacuzzi,
despite knowing that someone is watching her from inside her house.
Beautiful
she may be; smart…she is not.
Nina
begins receiving flirtatious text messages from who she assumes is her
ex-boyfriend. The messages however become increasingly sinister, and a severed
head is eventually thrown into the Jacuzzi beside her. Needing nothing short of
a metaphorical shovel to the face, Nina finally understands the level of danger
she’s in, but it’s too late. The notorious Ghostface (sporting a new mask)
emerges from the shadows and stabs Nina in the back before finally slitting her
throat and dumping her body in the pool.
It
all seems frightening…until the show suddenly slams on the brakes, in which
this “horror story” becomes a generic teen soap opera. Hitting every checkmark
for every high school stereotype, we have the Mary-Sue-turned-popular girl,
Emma, her dumb jock boyfriend, his even dumber jock teammate, the sexy harlot
who’s sleeping with her teacher, the new-to-town resident bad boy, the film
nerd, and the wrongfully-persecuted bisexual outsider.
Kevin
Williamson’s masterfully crafted screenplay for the original Scream blended
horror with dark humor and social commentary to perfection, giving audiences
insight, laughs, scares, and a reprieve from the genre’s overuse of clichés.
This teleplay tries to capture that same essence from its predecessor, but
what’s played here for nostalgia ultimately comes off as a low-grade knockoff. First
impressions are everything, and that’s the sole purpose of a pilot episode.
It’s meant to sell the audience into tuning in again. Scream: The TV Series doesn’t do that.
There’s
next to no redeemable, let alone likable, characters at first glance. Emma (Willa
Fitzgerald), our protagonist, comes across as sweet, but we soon learn that
peer pressure has turned her into one of the “mean girls”. Then there’s Emma’s
boyfriend, Will, whose only defining characteristic is that he pulled a Ross
and slept with Bella Thorne’s character while he and Emma were “on a break.” We
can’t forget the Queen Bee-otch herself, Brooke, who enjoys spreading rumors
apparently as much as she does spreading her legs…for her English teacher. And
who can forget the recently deceased, mean-spirited Nina Peterson? If the
audience is rooting for most of your cast to bite the dust right from the
get-go, that’s never a good sign.
Despite
the soapy teen drama and limited horror, there has to be some kind of plot,
right?
Yes,
there is.
The
basic plot of Scream: The TV Series:
One
by one, attractive youths are savagely murdered by an unknown assailant. Some
suspect it is Lakewood’s serial-killer-turned-local-legend, Brandon James, who
was shot by police in Wrenlake where he presumably drowned some twenty years
ago after having romantic ties to the protagonist’s mother.
Wait
just a second…
There’s
a problem here. This story sounds eerily familiar…
Some
horror fans may remember a little 2009 CBS mini-series called Harper’s
Island, where one by one, attractive youths are savagely murdered by an
unknown assailant. Some suspect it to be the works of John Wakefield, the legendary
serial killer who was presumably shot dead in the water some years ago after
having a romantic relationship with the protagonist’s mother!
See
the conundrum?
Sure,
you could shrug off the striking similarities as coincidence, but you
shouldn’t be too quick to do so. With some simple research, you’ll find that
Jill Blotevogel, one of the writers for Scream: The TV Series, was also
an executive producer and writer for…you guessed it, Harper’s Island. It’s
one thing finding inspiration in previous material. It’s another thing though to
lift the entire story arc from old work and repackage it under the name of a
famous franchise.
But
don’t change the channel just yet. “Hello, Emma,” the second episode in the Scream series is an improvement from the
pilot. Sure, it’s still a teen soap opera, but some much needed character
development finally unfolds. One downside, it fluffs the storyline, hindering
the overall pacing. The original Scream
kept the mood strangely light with its snappy dialogue, but there was always
tension building under the surface. Here, the scenes are either played as
everyday contemporary or showcased as downright scary. Never both. As the
sinister elements of the plot become more prominent, that hang-up will hopefully
resolve itself though. Fingers crossed.
For
those interested in the horror genre but unenthused by Scream, then Harper’s Island
comes highly recommended. Despite the uncannily similar plots between the two
series, the immensely underrated horror/murder mystery, Harper’s Island, is
more compelling and worthy of viewers’ attention. With its ridiculously
extravagant deaths, fair share of humor, and a fantastic cast that includes Covert
Affairs’ Christopher Gorham, Sleepy Hollow’s Matt Barr, and Supernatural’s
Jim Beaver, this mini-series is all-out campy, “grab some popcorn” kind of fun.
As far as Scream: The TV Series goes,
watch at your own risk…of being bored. Seriously, the pilot really could serve
as a substitute for Ambien. There is hope for the series, but only for a
faithful enough viewer to suffer through the slow beginning.
Scream: The TV Series rating: C-
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