Scream - The Second Season: I Know What You Did Last Summer

 My daughter was dying to watch the second season of "Scream The TV Series" so I figured out how to make that happen since Netflix has all three currently available. Since the announcement of "Scream 5", the buzz has [sort of] picked up for the franchise. I can't say I overly excited because I think four films and three seasons of series (Woodsboro for the film, Lakewood for the series, with different shape masks for the two Ghostface killers). So it seems the second season of "Scream" picks up after the first season just a little bit later, with one of the "Lakewood Six" returning after a "mental sabbatical", Emma (Willa Fitzgerald), while Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus), working in a movie theater, receives threatening texts from a likely associate of Piper's (the killer from the previous season). Noah (John Karna) has a podcast obsessively focused on their survival of the killing spree, while Brooke (Carlson Young) momentarily has a fling with Jake (Tom Maden), who doesn't last very long (yep, he's one of those unfortunates who winds up in a barn; the barn is not particularly kind to folks in slasher films and the show reiterates that). Also Kieran (Amadeus Serafini) and Emma sort of decide not to rekindle their previous romance after their first night together is kissing and stand-offish awkwardness leads to no sex. Meanwhile, Emma tries to acclimate herself back into school, while also having a recurring dream about a barn with her in it as a child pulling out intestines from a pig. This first episode interestingly focuses a lot on Audrey's confrontation with two social-media pranksters who try to pull a Ghostface scare on her resulting in a stab that doesn't leave any fatal injury...the asshole kids who pull this shit back off, but the girl decides to try and further defame Audrey out of spite for the prank's downward spiral. Kieran acts a bit aloof and distant with Emma trying to dissolve any tensions or further awkwardness. This episode closes with letters between Audrey and Piper plastered on the walls of a stall at the theater. So this second season really has Audrey seemingly the intended target while the house near the barn in Emma's dream has newspaper clippings on a wall about the Lakewood carnage. Sort of a setup but the setpiece in the barn involving Jake is right out of "Saw" with his foot caught in a bear trap, later the Ghostface killer responsible for his hanging upside down delivering a fatal slice with a scythe resulting in a good blood spill. Nothing extraordinary about the first episode for me personally, but I can see why this might be enough for fans of the series. 2.5/5

*There is the introduction of a possible love interest for Noah in Zoe, often finishing up his horror movie trope monologues, while the sheriff's eerie son seems to draw up disturbing portraits of Emma while staring at her unpleasantly. The teacher in psyche class gives out an "dream journal" assignment which could be a bit of a seasonal theme going forward.