Scream: Season 1 (2015)

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

What I liked:

• Noah Foster. Holy crap, this guy! I absolutely adore him. He is so geeky and I find that immensely cute, but aside from that, I find him to be a great character. I mean, just the way he says things, example: “Oh, holy Manson family album”, etc. It was like finding my spirit animal – just the weird ways of expressing oneself. I love it! Plus, he is the character pointing everything out to us in the show, as well as narrating the events.
• The contemporary references, etc. that made the originals so awesome.
• Everyone is fair game, and when they get killed, the gore is so rewarding. Yes, again, Noah could be my spirit animal.
• The humour. Really, this is something I had a total blast with. It was pretty geeky and quite entertaining.
• Noah Foster screaming. Really, it rivals Dean Winchester!
• The throwbacks and references to the movies, as well as how some scenes were shot. Big fan of the little details like that. This is an awesome page to check out to see more about it.
• The gore. Yep. At least they got that right, even though it was undercut by that stupid soundtrack.

I actually really enjoyed Kieran’s character, and hope we see more of him in the next season. And while not necessarily my cup of tea, he was pretty easy on the eyes. Just saying.

I beg to differ with Noah’s assessment. Sure, maybe not conventional, but the cute, geeky, nerdy guys have always been way more appealing to me!

What I didn’t like:

• The way this whole show feels like a girls show. I mean it, the music, focusing on such mundane things like your ex being a tit, and how you feel about the new guy. That’s all good and well, but could we check something besides relationships out? I am all for it, but not when her love triangle becomes the most important thing. UGH.
• The music. I bitched a bit in the point above, but really? Do guys actually listen to that crap? I might be really out of touch what people are listening to nowadays, but seriously. I hated it, and it irritated the hell out of me. It also undercut the gore and stuff, because the show just doesn’t feel like it is built for everyone, if that makes sense? The music alone could stop an entire demographic watching it because it just doesn’t gel with the content.
• Piper Shaw. She was such a flat, bland character for me, and didn’t break the mould in the slightest.
• How predictable the show was at the best of times.
• Emma. I know this is awful, she is the lead, and we are supposed to back her, but she just grated on me, for reals. She was whiny, flaky, annoying, silly, icky. She will never be the new Sidney Prescott, I don’t care what anybody says! What a useless lump.

Rating:

So I finally got to watching this, though I had my reservations, what with being a huge fan of the movies. The series isn’t really like the movies, but it is, if that makes sense. There are certain aspects that spill over, like the in your face way it tells you what is going to happen, and how all horror/slasher formulas work, and the stereotyped characters. However, where the movies succeeded, this failed in the sense that the show is really soft. It made me think (on more than one occasion) more of Pretty Little Liars and not so much other shows like American Horror Story or Hannibal (although nothing is like Hannibal, to be fair).

I expected something more hardcore, especially with the blood and gore that Scream would feature. Not to mention that the soundtrack does not help this out at all. I don’t know, do guys actually listen to that stuff? I might just be really out of touch with what people listen to as I don’t listen to the radio and watch TV, but I don’t know… it’s a little femme. I don’t say this in a derogatory sense or that guys can’t listen to that, I am just saying that this is the kind of music you find in chick flicks and shows for teenage girls (*cough cough* again why I thought Pretty Little Liars). Add to that, there is a hell of a lot of teenage drama going on, and so much relationship mush. Yep, these are all things that bugged me.

I know we are supposed to get attached to the characters and care, but only some of the characters that were killed were handled that well, the rest, not so much. Also, let’s just explore this really messed up relationship between Emma and Kieran – how is that ever going to work out? She has dropped this guy, hurt this guy, run back to her ex, jerked Kieran around, accused him of murder, crushed him, but hey, let’s do this thing? I am so darn confused. How much is he going to take from her, and why is he okay with it all? Also, I am not a fan of Emma, and found her entitled, whiny, and annoying, which  made giving a crap about her damn difficult. In fact, I didn’t, even right at the very end. Her fate is none of my concern.

Then there is Noah, and he is the only one I am concerned about, no kidding. That guy is my favourite thing about this show, and the reason I continued watching (because, let’s face it, the beginning of this show was rocky at best). He is hilarious, and so unapologetic about the nerdy, serial killer obsessed dude that he is, and I love that. My spirit animal, I swear. I wish that some of the other characters had been given more time. In a movie I can understand not having the time to focus on other characters, but in a series based off of a movie that is just under two hours in length, I would say there is spans of time to flesh out the side characters.

Anyway, this is a fun show if you don’t take it too seriously, though I don’t think it will ever, ever hit the heights of the movies. Not the worst series you can waste your time on if you have nothing else to watch, and it is a real quick, eight episode filler watch, probably great for when you are trying to decide what to move on to next.