Scream (TV series)

Synopsis

After a cyber-bullying incident serves as the catalyst for a brutal murder, a group of teenagers become the prime targets of a serial killer, as dark secrets from Lakewood's troubled past resurface and conjure memories of a similar murder that occurred 20 years earlier in the community. Emma Duvall, a teenage girl who is somehow linked to the town's past, is the killer's main obsession and the center of these grisly murders. With both her family and friends in apparent danger, she sets out to uncover the town's dark mysteries and unmask the killer once and for all. This proves difficult, however, especially when everyone is a suspect and anyone could be a victim.

Main

Recurring

Development

In June 2012, it was reported that MTV was in the early stages of developing a weekly television series based on the Scream film franchise. In April 2013, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that MTV had greenlit the pilot episode, with Wes Craven in talks to direct. In July 2013, it was reported that Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin had officially boarded the project to write the pilot script and in April 2014, it was reported by TVLine that the show will be penned by Jill Blotevogel. In August 2014, the series announced its cast as well as the director of the pilot episode, Jamie Travis. The series was originally planned to debut in mid-2014, however, this was changed to summer 2015.

On April 12, 2015, the first trailer for the series was aired during the 2015 MTV Movie Awards presented by Bella Thorne, also revealing the series's June 30, 2015 premiere date.

On November 9, 2015, it was announced that Jill Blotevogel and Jaime Paglia will be stepping down as showrunners due to creative differences, although Blotevogel will remain a consultant on the series. Michael Gans and Richard Register replaced them for the second season. The second-season premiere date was changed to May 30, 2016. On October 14, 2016, MTV renewed the series for a third season of 6 episodes, and announced that they were replacing the showrunners again.

Casting

On August 5, 2014, both the main cast and recurring cast were announced. However, Amy Forsyth dropped out and was replaced by Bex Taylor-Klaus. On February 22, 2015, it was revealed that Joel Gretsch, who was playing Sheriff Clark Hudson, had left the show as producers thought his character should go down a different path. He was replaced by Jason Wiles. On December 11, 2014, it was revealed that Bella Thorne will be a part of the cast. Thorne confirmed this during an interview saying, "Yes it's true. I will re-enact the famous scene of Drew Barrymore in the original series."

On April 22, 2015, True Blood actress Amelia Rose Blaire was confirmed to be joining the show as Piper Shaw which, by the character description, is a role similar to Gale Weathers from the Scream films.

On June 18, 2015, Bella Thorne confirmed she was offered the lead role in the series but turned it down in favor of a smaller role. She went on to explain, "I had the option to do the lead, but I thought I should choose this role because I felt it was more iconic, I thought it was just a little bit more and also I've never been killed on screen before. I've never been killed ever on anything that I've done. I've always been the character that lives at the end so it was my first time dying on screen which is pretty cool. I wouldn't say that my character isn't necessarily in any more of the episodes but you'll see!"

Filming

The show was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Filming of season one took place from April through July 2015. Filming for the second season began on February 16, 2016.

Music

Two official soundtrack albums have been released by MTV. The first season's soundtrack was released on August 14, 2015 under Columbia Records. The second season's soundtrack was released on July 29, 2016 under Island Records.

Scream After Dark!

Scream After Dark! is a talk show hosted by Jeffery Self, which features behind the scenes footage, and guests discussing episodes of Scream. The first instalment followed the season two premiere and featured Willa Fitzgerald, Bex Taylor-Klaus, John Karna, Amadeus Serafini, Carlson Young, and Kiana Brown, and received 185,000 viewers. The second instalment aired following episode eight and featured Fitzgerald, Taylor-Klaus, Karna, Young, Brown, Santiago Segura and Sean Grandillo, and received 201,000 viewers. The third and final installment aired following the season two finale and featured Fitzgerald, Taylor-Klaus, Karna, Young and Serafini, and averaged 145,000 viewers.

Critical response

Scream has received an overall mixed response, though both critics and fans have praised Carlson Young's performance, along with Bella Thorne's opening sequence in the first episode. On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season received a rating of 47%, based on 29 reviews, with a 5.4/10 average rating. The site's critical consensus reads:"Lacking truly compelling characters or scenarios, Scream is formed to trade too heavily on nostalgia for its big-screen predecessors in the franchise." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the series has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

In a positive review, David Hinckley from New York Daily News awarded the pilot four out of five stars and stated, "Happily, Scream maintains a sense of humor, reinforced with snappy, self-aware pop culture dialogue." Similarly, Brian Lowry of Variety commended the show's ability to maintain suspense "without much actually happening during the rest of the episode," noting its use of music, but expressing skepticism if the series could maintain its originality. Aedan Juvet of PopWrapped gave a positive assessment of the series and called it, "a prime example of a game-changing horror series." Conversely, David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle panned the series and gave it one out of four stars, criticizing the acting performances as "bland, robotic, and uninteresting" as well as its apparent lack of racial diversity. In a mixed review, Mark Perigard of the Boston Herald gave the show a C+, saying, "There are a few scares here, but while the Scream films kept audiences jumping, Scream: The TV series risks putting viewers to sleep."

Broadcast

On October 1, 2015, the entire first season of Scream became available to stream instantly on Netflix worldwide except in the United States. On May 13, 2016, the first season of Scream became available on Netflix in the United States. The streaming service started to broadcast the second season weekly on May 31, 2016, with a one-day delay with respect to the original United States broadcast. On September 30, 2016, the second season of Scream became available on Netflix in the United States.