I have actually known for a long time that my favorite slasher franchise had a series adaptation produced by MTV. Wes Craven himself was one of the executive producers, which gave me enough confidence to finally give it a try, even though I was still pretty skeptical. Just yesterday, I finished Season 1. It took me about a month to get through all 10 episodes (I have been very busy, okay?). Anyway, let’s get straight to it and talk about what I think of this series.
This time, it is not about Sidney Prescott anymore. Instead, we follow a teenage girl named Emma Duval (Willa Fitzgerald), whose life, of course, will far from pleasant. After the brutal and mysterious death of Nina Patterson (Bella Thorne), the lives of the teens in the town of Lakewood start to fall apart. One by one, they are stalked by a masked killer. But this mysterious murderer does not kill without reason. It is trying to bring back the dark history surrounding Brandon James, a man once labeled a freak, and his connection to Emma’s mother, Maggie Duval (Tracy Middendorf).
Honestly, this series is not bad at all. It is actually pretty easy to watch. The mystery is not too hard to follow, and it does not make me feel lost while following the story. It also does not try too hard to look smart, which I appreciate. Throughout the ten episodes, I always felt curious enough to continue to the next one, even though my watching pattern ended up being 3-2-3-1-1, simply because I did not have much time.
The characters are quite interesting too, and some of them are actually quite likeable. I really liked Brooke because she has that slightly bitchy attitude. It was fun to watch her (she is hot, btw). There were also two kill moments that really caught me off guard since they were surprisingly graphic. One of them even left me shocked, especially considering how the show is mostly pretty bloodless. That scene was so gruesome, and honestly, I loved it.
Unfortunately, even though it is not a bad show, I actually have more to say about why it does not leave a lasting impression. For starters, there just are not enough intense moments. Honestly, I got a little bored because the series feels low on suspense. There are barely any chase scenes, and the body count is super small. Maybe it is because the episodes are pretty long, so they decided to limit the kills. I get it, if too many people die too fast, we had just be stuck watching Emma, and we all know she is going to end up as the final girl anyway, or at least make it to the last episode. I guess Noah was right when he said, “You can’t make slasher movies as a TV series.” The best episode is definitely episode 7, where everything finally comes together. The suspense, the kills, the blood, the mystery, everything is there and completely on point. The rest of the show, though, just keeps going in circles with the same mystery.
Even though I said earlier that some of the characters are likeable, none of them ever reach a strong point of development. Everything just feels halfway done. Emma, Audrey, Riley, Brooke, Jake, Maggie, Piper, Clark, Kieran, Will, and the others never made me truly care about them. Sure, I said I liked Brooke, but there is still so much about her character that could have been polished. Unfortunately, it all ends up feeling pretty ordinary. And if I am already saying that about Brooke’s development, you can probably imagine how the others turn out.
Lastly (I feel ashamed this review makes the series sound worse than it actually is), the episodes are just too long. If each episode had been around 40 minutes, six or seven episodes would have been more than enough. Because they stretched it to ten, the mystery ends up feeling like it is going nowhere. In my opinion, if you watch from episode 3 to 7, you will not really get that much new information. You could probably even skip episodes 4 and 5 and still catch up pretty easily by episode 6.
People really do tend to focus on the flaws, even when there are good things to appreciate. Sorry about that, haha. But honestly, even with some good parts, I still think this series is just average, maybe even a bit flat. Watching this and then rewatching the original Scream might actually make that 29-year-old movie feel like a masterpiece all over again. If you are just looking for some not-too-hard entertainment, go ahead and give it a try. Just do not expect to be impressed because I am not impressed by it.
Score: 2.5 out of 5
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