Scream Queens
Episode 2.1 “Scream Again”
Written by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk & Ian Brennan
Directed by Brad Falchuk
Starring Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Abigail Breslin, Keke Palmer, Billie Lourd, Kirstie Alley, Niecy Nash, Lea Michele, Taylor Lautner, John Stamos
FOX
Air Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2016, 9pm

Spoilers for Scream Queens…

Last year, the creators of American Horror Story and Glee smashed those two shows together and its crazy offspring was Scream Queens, a horror-comedy filled with quirky dialogue and ridiculous characters that starred the original “Scream Queen” herself, Jamie Lee Curtis. The show was a season-long modern version of the 80s slasher, complete with a masked killer, vicious and bloody murders, and of course, a bevy of sexy young stars to slice and dice through. Despite their being a psycho killer dressed as a Red Devil campus mascot, the main antagonist was Chanel #1 (Emma Roberts), the leader of Kappa House and the Chanels. Curtis played Dean Cathy Munsch, and both were as bad or worse than a killer with a penchant for deaths involving gardening tools and chainsaws.

SPOILER if you didn’t finish Season 1 —- The killer we discovered was Hester aka Chanel #6 (Lea Michele) who invaded the sorority and killed from the inside. She pinned the crimes on Chanel #1 and her associates, Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd) and Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin), who were then sent to live in a mental institution.

Most of the cast from Season 1 has returned and there are plenty of new stars including Twilight‘s Taylor Lautner in his first TV role, TV legend Kirstie Alley, and the ageless wonder himself, John Stamos.

Like with the debut season, Season 2 starts with an old backstory. Thirty years ago on Halloween night, doctors murdered a sick patient for having the nerve to have a medical emergency during the big hospital Halloween party. The solution for Dr. Mike (Jerry O’Connell) is to dump the body in the mysterious polluted swamp behind the hospital leaving a pregnant woman and unborn son without a husband and father…

30 years later: Dean Cathy Munsch is now Dr. Dean Cathy Munsch (after getting an honorary doctorate) and she chews the scenery through her exposition story. She hit the jackpot becoming the face of new feminism and the Chanels were freed after a Netflix documentary (ha ha) exposed the truth and led to Hester’s capture. Munsch recruits now medical student Zayday (Keke Palmer) for her new teaching hospital and soon she is working alongside Dr. Brock Holt (Stamos) and Dr. Cassidy Cascade (Lautner)… this show does come up with fantastic names. Stamos immediately makes me spit out my beer, telling the story of how he received a successful hand transplant after losing his at a Super Bowl [party] accident in a garbage disposal.

“I got my hand and I couldn’t get a job. I was like Shoeless Joe Jackson being banned from baseball in his prime.” – Dr. Holt

“Handless Joe Jackson” – Dr. Cascade

When Zayday presses uber feminist Munsch for more female employees”¦ welcome back Chanels. Despite being freed and clear of murder charges, the documentary exposed the Chanels as the horrible people they are and they were left as pariahs and poor. Of course, the three immediately misread the situations; they were brought in as med students, they think they’re highly paid doctors. However, soon enough, Chanel #1 is helping “Dr. Hot” (Stamos) figure out solutions to incurable cases like “werewolf girl.”

Chanel #5 pulls graveyard shift and sets up hot tub style med baths for her and a now shorn “werewolf girl” (SNL‘s Cecily Strong). Unfortunately, with them locked in the tubs, a killer dressed as the infamous swamp monster (from the opening flashback) enters dripping green ooze and brandishing giant blades and soon, werewolf girl is minus more than her hair”¦

The season premiere of Scream Queens picks up right where Season 1 ended. The show is the very best of the creators’ other popular television works. There’s the blood and scares of AHS with the slapstick and insult-filled writing of Glee. Emma Roberts just owns the role of Chanel and has become TV’s best “Queen B.” All the Chanels are great, and Curtis and the veterans like Kirstie Alley and John Stamos appear to be having so much fun doing the silly things they’re asked to do and reciting the ridiculous dialogue. Even Team Jacob (Lautner) quickly adapted to the small screen and was very funny as the chillingly cold Dr. Cascade. This episode was naturally heavy in exposition, but next week will bring more lunacy as we get more characters returning from Season 1, and a takeoff on Silence of the Lambs involving Hester.

Scream Queens returns next Tuesday night at 9:00pm on FOX.