Scream Queens *

Some things (criticisms, maybe) that are a bit bothersome in the first two episodes—Pilot & Hell Week—to me were how a few of the characters were drawn in the show early. Seeing Curtis as this dean looking to tear down the bitchy, vicious Kappa sorority sisters system, hoping to undermine the preppy, elitist, “me” image that casts a shadow of regal, arrogant prestige many girls seem to envy and covet was a pleasure for someone like me who obviously despises all they stand for, but the show also has us look behind the curtain to see her in a different light when she isn’t opposing Roberts’ Chanel Oberlin. Curtis’ Dean Cathy Munsch is presented also as a maneater. She is shown smoking some grass in bed with Chanel’s “popular stud” boyfriend, Chad Radwell (Glen Powell). Chad speaks of himself in the third person, is never shy about commenting on his status as the envy of all, and sits comfortably on his pedestal despite adversaries towards diminishing that idol he has created himself as. For instance, Dean Cathy says he’s dreadful in bed. He doesn’t even allow that remark, which is pointed and targeted with a type of direct arrow-to-the-heart sniper skill coolness only Curtis could deliver. He tells her he wants to call her, that he’s in love with her, and she couldn’t possibly mean what she says about his lovemaking skills. But Dean Cathy indeed means what she says. Cathy actually admits she blackmailed Chad into her bed, and I asked myself why. I guess it might be the power of finally achieving “Dean” after years of eyeing the position. It seemed that when Dean Cathy addressed her nemesis, Chanel, in her office and without restraint, just ditching caution, and deciding not to mince words, setting up their rivalry and what her goals were in repackaging KKT, this character seemed to have potential for quite the crowd-pleaser. She sits in a seat and says what so many would love to but are unable. Those “have-nots” always under the thumb of many fortunate enough to secure a direct path towards privilege without the struggle, heir-apparent elites with the red carpet laid out for them might never get their chance to sit in Dean Cathy’s seat and dictate the new “rules of the game”. Cathy

also tells the Chad of the college world he will do as she says and speaks to him with disregard and contempt, ridiculing his high opinion of himself. Neither—her unflinching plans to bring down the Heathers in the KKT and the harsh comments against the libido of the campus’ resident Male Adonis—really does a whole hell of a lot. Cathy then must coral the torrent of media attention towards the murder of a deaf Taylor Swift fan who agreed to have herself buried (along with other KKT hopefuls) up to her neck in the yard of the sorority house. She meets the father of a potential KKT (who sees herself as the chance to change the sorority for the better) played by Oliver Hudson (son of Goldie Hawn) and makes a pass at him! Oliver wants to take his daughter—he’s an overprotective father—out of the school to keep her from being killed by a serial killer and Curtis hits on him! She doesn’t really hide the fact that she’s very, very interested in lots of sex.