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‘Scream’: Season 2 Premiere Provides Prime-Time Scares

By Joey Click

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Starting the second year of its hopefully long run, MTV’s ‘Scream: The Tv Series’ opens with a premiere episode other series could learn a great deal from.

The following contains slight spoilers for ‘Scream: The Tv Series’ premiere for Season 2. You’ll be fine to dial into the review. Standard reading rates apply.

Last year’s freshman season of Scream:The Tv Series did the unthinkable: produce a television series based of a legendary horror property that was actually great, fresh, and well thought out.

Sleep is Overrated-Noah Foster

Not only was the first season great, the Scream series had many amazing things going for it. It featured great characters, magnificent dialog, an original story that helped the series have its own distinct voice, and suspenseful situations that amplified that dialog and narrative.

With I Know What You Did Last Summer, the Season 2 opener of Scream: The Tv Series, we get so much more of what makes this series so special. Have no fear, there is no sophomore slump here.

I Know What You Did Last Summer’s script is solid for a few reasons and they are:

First, what you’ll notice first when you watch the premiere, other than the amazingly appropriate opening, is there’s been a decent time jump from last year’s finale.

While a lot of shows will employ this tactic, however, what Scream is doing is letting the audience know big-story situations happened during this time. Every story (the good ones) has exposition, and what Scream: Tv Series is doing essentially is using this time jump to its fullest potential by making what happened as a result of the first season’s events but making it Season 2’s jumping point.

Willa Fitzgerald as Emma Duval in ‘Scream: The TV Series’-Courtesy of MTV

Also, I Know What You Did Last Summer changes the killer’s target from the Emma character to Audrey. It’s now Audrey being the main one stalked, and it’s her that the opener mainly focuses on.

This is due to the new killer knowing Aubrey was the second killer from Season 1. She must pay; everyone has been thinking about it all year. This was a genius move that not only continues the narrative from last year, but also shakes things up brilliantly.

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The script is even so good and unpredictable, in fact, the Season 2 opener kills off one of the core cast members, now known as “The Lakewood Six.”

Furthermore, I Know What You Did Last Summer’s  script, written by Michael Gans and Richard Register , really respects what came before it with dialog that specifically incorporates situations from the first season. This helps the audience not only get back into the world of The Lakewood Six, but also organically makes the series come to life. Other series can come off cheap and assembled with tape…Not this baby…IT’S A SCREAM BABY!!!(shout out to my boy Stu).

As for other aspects of I Know What You Did Last Summer, the acting is still solid from a cast of almost all previously unknown actors.

Bex Taylor-Klaus, playing Audrey Jensen, gets most of the screen time and does amazing work with the time. John Karna, again in the role of Noah Foster, is also doing stellar work again in the surprisingly great series. In fact, the whole cast is doing work they should be proud of here.

The direction is also decent, spear headed by Brian Dannelly, with the best work coming in the episode’s opening. If you watched the first seven minuets, you’ll remember. It takes place during an amazing homage to the original Scream series.

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So, will Audrey be outed by the new killer who has come of bring the truth to The Lakewood Six? Will Noah come closer to finding out his best friend helped cause pain to so many he cares for? Will Kieran and Emma be closer or further apart after the events of the Season 1? You’ll have to dial MTV’s number and give them a call to find out you Scream Seekers.

THE VERDICT:

Brian Dannelly‘s I Know What You Did Last Summer is a great hour of television that is both well written and well thought out. Summer stays focused, leans on what happened in last year’s finale, and keeps things even more interesting with in-between season exposition that is remarkable for a show that was supposed to be just a cash-in. Scream: The Tv Series is the real deal. Don’t miss out on this call and see it now.

THE GRADE: A

Checkout a preview of next week’s episode,

Psycho

, courtesy of MTV:

Love Scream? Think the series does the film franchise justice? Did or didn’t like what I Know What You Did Last Summer had to offer? Let’s all dial that number and join the conversation in the comment section below. 

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