Scream Queens..And so ends the..

First Season. It was fun. The finale of course went off the deep end as slashers often do, with this ridiculously elaborate set up that gets the final killer off because she's the smartest, most cunning, and slippery girl in the Kappa House. There's another killer who also involved in getting his hands bloody, as the Red Devil costume can be a disguise for anyone to use if needed. Boone, Rodger and/or Dodger, Gigi, Taylor Swift fangirl, Sam, Candle nut, Earl Grey, Caufield, and the Dean's husband: just some to head off the mortal coil with Red Devil so often to blame. Even the first student mascot to wear the Red Devil and Ice Cream Coney disguise just happened to be shit outta luck. And don't even get me started on the poor pizza delivery guy who paints the sorority house red when the final killer straps a bomb to him, with a timer rigged to explode!

Coming out of Scream Queens, what I certainly consider either be appealing or disapproved is its exaggerated style, performances, presentation, and behavior. One moment, when Chanel Oberlin is found guilty in court she sinks into her chair and her eyes and body language scoff, with mannerisms all hoity-toity towards this whole experience, considering the justice system for her “kind” to be beneath them, that being “stupid-rich” can rescue you from suffering whatever sentence is passed down to you. Oberlin, ordering a snake online, thinks she’ll just end it all when one of her caustically abusive rants towards the Chanels under her is manipulated into being towards so many others besides just them. Murders committed against the Kappas and Dickie’s Dollar Scholars are explained as warranted because of what sororities and fraternities do to those deciding to “join a sisterhood/brotherhood”, with the hazing and ridicule causing unpardonable repercussions.

Pete was an ongoing investigator throughout the first season with Grace. There was this romantic development between them. In fact, at the very end Grace is about to offer herself to Pete, a ready virgin willing out of great affection and maybe even love. Then Pete bears his soul, and lays open his secrets.

That Pete was the Red Devil, killing Boone and one of the Rodger/Dodger twins, escaping near death to the twins in Red Devil costumes, almost about to unveil the final killer to an enraged Grace when he's interrupted...By the Red Devil.

The final chapter (besides the guilty verdict, which sends three sisters to an asylum where they wind up *happier*) really goes into the absurd. It gathers the remaining principles (a few not involved, like Chad) and Hester (who survived a flight down the stairs that would have killed pretty much anybody) just unleashes a flurry of “you, you, and you are guilty!” of tirades that directs guilt right at her, as parents disown their children (or tells their daughter she was adopted!), Denise Hemphill, given the chief of police position because the current department was so incompetent and stupid (they hired paranormal investigators instead of bringing in reinforcements to help with the serial killings investigation!), agreeably accepting everything all too willingly. Hester’s pointed accusations are so preposterous (after researching her past, Grace and Zayday realize *she* is the best candidate considering her records are fake) that she winds up getting away with murder and accomplishes what she sets out to do…tear down the mean girls hierarchy and initiate a new way the Kappa Kappa Tai to function, where girls of all types have a chance to belong to a welcoming and friendly sisterhood. This winds up becoming the model sorority Dean Munsch could be proud of. The Dean’s near death experiences and Oberlin’s rant that turns the campus against her, Hester’s incredible accomplishment of seeing those who are horrible (but not the murderers) punished (they *do* try to kill the Dean, and Oberlin does try to kill the former head sorority president who suffered serious burns due to acid in the spray tan because she believed her to be the Red Devil seeking revenge for her scars), Chad’s persistent narcissism and self-glorification, Oberlin’s lack of a filter (Zayday, despite Oberlin’s ugly soul, talks to her about not always saying everything that pops in her head), Hemphill’s focus on Zayday as a suspect despite zero evidence to the contrary, and Grace’s dad engaging in carnal relations with DeanMunsch, at first because Grace needed to get her hands on the files of the remaining sisters, before they become an item; it all closes the show in as deranged and crazed fashion as expected. The show wasn’t subtle or even tried to be. It was outlandish and exaggerative, unapologetic about it, with plenty of dialogue (particularly from Oberlin!) that would make many blush…I couldn’t help but laugh or react in great surprise, just wondering what M&F would throw at us next. The show is quite inflated in its embellishment of characters excessively devoted to themselves, involved in seeing their own avarice and egos are satiated. It was quite a trip. But not for all tastes. Definitely not for all tastes.