TV Review: Scream The Series (Season 1, Episode 2)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

EPISODE: HELLO, EMMA

THE DISH: When another barbarous murder claims the life of a Lakewood teen, an acrimonious rift is caused between Emma and Audrey. Meanwhile, a town reporter hits the scene and starts digging for dirt.

WARNING: MINOR TO MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU'VE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE, STOP HERE!

THE DICE-UP: In what I really hope becomes a defining motif for the entire series, we open the second frame of Scream the Series with – just like the pilot episode – a gripping startle of a death sequence. This time it's Rachel, the tormented love interest of Audrey who was literally taunted and bullied to the point of near suicide after the video of the two smooching went viral. I dug the suspenseful buildup and tension created before her ultimate demise, all the way down to the duplicitous SCREAMy phone calls spurring on the mayhem. Definitely a well executed execution, even if it lacked a bit in the gore department early on. Of course, this thickens the plot quite deliciously, as now we have to consider a whole range of potential suspects and possible motives as to why Rachel was murdered. And why would the same person have a lethal beef with both Nina, last week's victim (who filmed the viral vid) and Audrey (the subject of the viral vid)?

Sure to help probe these queries is Piper Shaw, a city reporter and true crime podcaster sent to cover the Lakewood murders. She instantly rubs Emma the wrong way, a la Sidney and Gail Weathers, bringing up the fact that her dad was the sole survivor of the Brandon James murders from 20 years ago. Not too cool. Meanwhile, Audrey is super pissed off at Emma for cozying up to her out of guilt for her own proximity to Nina, who died viciously last week as a result of filming the viral video. Worse yet, Nina's dude Tyler is still at large, despite being gorily decollated last week. What gives? Will Audrey forgive Emma for not stopping the video? Will Emma's mom the coroner divulge the fact that Rachel didn't commit suicide but was in fact murdered? Will Emma dump her creepily controlling boyfriend Will and shack up with new guy Kieran for good? And goddamn it, whose committing these heinous slayings?

The best part of Scream so far, exemplified well here in episode two, is how deftly balanced the high-school relationship drama is with the underlying murder whodunit narrative. I for one have no idea who the killer(s) will be at this point, though such care and craft has been woven into that back-story that pretty much every character is implicated with credible motives and untoward activity. A vocal tone here, a facial tick there, an oddly incongruous statement made…the subtlest of clues. Like Will, for example, dude's constantly mugging and lit with a devilish glow, which makes him seem suspicious every time he's onscreen. Then again, he and Jake seem too obvious a tandem culprit, no? I dug the basketball scene with Will and Emma though, and how Kieran looks to stir up some more shit between the two. I also really dig the budding Noah-Riley coupling, even if I felt quite strongly that, as perhaps the shows best character, Noah wouldn't catch the blade that early in the series. The false-kill scare tactic on the football field didn't work on me here, did it you?

As for the macro, I'm definitely onboard with where Scream the Series is headed. I'm an unabashed sucker for slasher whodunits, so I'm a bit biased in that regard, but as an appropriated film-to-TV entertainment, the show f*cking hums so far. Time flies, which is a good sign for an eminently watchable show. Who knows if and how the quality will be sustained, as it seems the one-kill-a-week formula will inevitable whittle down the actual killers in a mere few weeks. But remember, SCREAM is all about the dual-killer convention, so assuming credible accomplices becomes half the fun. So do the suspenseful setups and jarring kill-taunts. Jake and Will, as mentioned, seem likely, but almost too much so. Perhaps it's Kieran and his copper pops Clark doing dastardly deeds? Maybe it's someone we haven't met yet, though far less likely. Whoever turns out to be exacting the baleful butchery, it should be a bloody good time of messy guesswork every step of the way. I'm in!

KILL OF THE WEEK: Since it's the plot-thickening opening scene that springboards the arc of the entire episode, Rachel getting the old long noose has to be the one. We know Audrey didn't do it, so who could have? And why?

BLOOD & GORE: Not much beyond a leaky body bleeding off into a swimming pool, Nina's from last week, with the killer posing in a selfie right in front of her.

WTF CHARACTER MOMENT: Not so much a moment, but a serious question. How the hell does our killer manipulate such specific voice-work? The SCREAM flicks all feature the same sort of garbled voice scrambler, yet here it seems the killer has software that can credibly recreate recognizable voices. Rachel, for example, thought she was speaking with Audrey at the beginning of the episode, yet clearly wasn't? Then, in the final scene, a more typical SCREAM killer-voice was used to rattle Emma. WTF?