Critic Reviews

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.

At its best, Scream Queens challenges our motives for empathizing with outcasts in the first place. When it specifically targets younger generations on that front, it feels fresh.

Whatever your perspective, if the idea of Glee or Popular spiked with wanton slaughter sounds appealing, Scream Queens initially should have you covered.

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.

The joy, though, is listening to Roberts’ Chanel Oberlin bark at her minions and security officer Denise Hemphill (a brilliant Niecy Nash) savor the show’s writing. They’re funny in a fresh, interesting way that fits nicely with Murphy’s social commentary.

Heroes Reborn and Scream Queens are both good. They're both dead-on in doing what they've set out to do, and both two-hour premieres (Scream today, Heroes Thursday) are voice-driven, exciting, and very much themselves.

The first two hours are well worth watching. It's funny stuff.

Instead of being seriously macabre, it goes for broad satire, although it certainly has its gory moments. It’s an odd mash-up that leaves little room for real connection to the characters, having faith instead in laughs and blood. Then again, laughs and blood have a good track record.

If you like the idea of a murder victim texting endlessly, even ridiculously, for help mid-attack... if you enjoy the fright of horror only when undercut by laughs, Scream Queens may be for you. For many, sampling the pilot will be enough.

Like AHS and Glee, it could become a mess, but the launch is fun.