Roughly two decades ago, when I was asked by an out-of-town group to speak on popular entertainment, I’d fill half of my suitcase with VHS cassettes. Most every one was cued up to a specific music video or scene from a television show to help make one of my points. Back in those days, I felt compelled to inform my audience that we were no longer living in the days of Leave It to Beaver or even Home Improvement. By showing these snippets, I felt confident I was communicating the concept that entertainment was indeed spiraling down the toilet. By doing so, I was hoping audiences would begin to take this issue more seriously. (By the way, that’s exactly how somebody first got under my skin and into my heart about media discernment, a story I tell in more depth in my book, Plugged-In Parenting).
But when I speak today, I no longer play examples of sordid entertainment. My presentation is more principle and Scripture based. I’m not saying I now discount the power of “shock and awe.” But I ceased using repulsive content to make my points about a decade ago for several reasons, the most important being that things have gotten so debauched that I found I couldn’t with good conscience bombard my audience with the visuals, even when they were brief. In essence, I’ve become a bit hamstrung.
And nothing confirms my reluctant decision to drop the clips quite like this year’s new TV series Scream Queens. In his review of this Fox show, my Plugged In colleague and “TV guy” Paul Asay writes, “And if mass murder wasn’t enough of an issue, Scream Queens also bathes in a slew of problematic collegiate stereotypes. Sex. Gay sex. Near nudity. Alcohol. Drugs. Scream Queens is what you’d get if Jason, Freddie and Michael Myers all pledged to a 21st-century version of Animal House.”
Lest you think Paul was just being cranky because his swanky Honda Fit was broadsided in the parking lot the day he was writing that review, the Parents Television Council agrees with his take wholeheartedly. In fact, the PTC calls the series one of the three worst new shows on TV, opening its review with, “Containing content (graphic gore, sexual dialogue, and a deeply disturbing tone) more appropriate for a premium cable program, this show’s greatest shock is that it is on the public airwaves to begin with.”
I wish I could link here to some clips from the show to prove Paul’s and the PTC’s points. But, alas, I can’t in good conscience do that. I don’t want to be a stumbling block. Like I told you: hamstrung.
So, with no video to show, words will have to do: Check out Paul’s full review. And then I’ll go one step further and give you my take on how this series fares for family friendliness. We don’t rate TV shows with a numeric rating like we do with movies. But if we did, Scream Queens would most likely get a half point out of five—which means it would join the likes of Spring Breakers, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, This Is the End and Machette Kills.
It saddens me that we live in a world in which young children, teens and even adults are tuning in to soak up Scream Queens. Also, it saddens me that network execs at Fox would greenlight such a thing. That truly makes me wanna scream!
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