Scream Queens (2015)

Co-creator Murphy has been wittily mocking adolescent caste systems ever since he produced the cult sitcom Popular in 1999, and he's never been sharper than in Scream Queens, which is studded with affectionate allusions to everything from Animal House to Caligula.

If crazed killings and macabre laughs aren’t your thing, you may want to avoid the show. So far, though, Scream Queens is outlandishly fun.

It's cheeky and lighthearted escapism perfect for unwinding on a Tuesday night.

This one’s just so relentless. As in “Glee” or “American Horror Story,” Murphy delights in misdirection and abrupt shifts of tone, both of which he does well. The dialogue is snappy and no pretension escapes un-nailed.

The satire is sharp, including a scene in which one sister texts with her killer as he's trying to kill her. But the two-hour premiere does itself no favors, so overstuffed with scares, silliness, intrigues and occasional moments of real horror that it fails to coalesce into something resembling coherence.

I loved every minute of tonight's two-hour premiere of Fox's new horror-comedy, Scream Queens, except for the ones Jamie Lee Curtis wasn't in.... This is a show that's gathered an impressive lineup of young names, including Emma Roberts as the ultimate mean girl, Abigail Breslin ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Keke Palmer ("Akeelah and the Bee"), Billie Lourd (a newbie who'll also be in the new "Star Wars" movie with mom Carrie Fisher) and, of course, Michele, and then cast them as cliches.

Scream Queens is completely clueless about what’s actually scary, and its comedy is ugly and mean-spirited, full of hateful stereotypes and casual misogyny.