You Have to Check Out go90's "In the Vault"! :D

Let's talk about go90's new 8 episode series "In the Vault", starring "So You Think You Can Dance" (SYTYCD) star Paul Karmiryan.

A bit about Paul. Paul is a Top 10 finalist from Season 10 of SYTYCD. I met him at the Season 10 Live Tour at the Pine Belt Arena in Tom's River, New Jersey. He's a down to earth guy and I still follow his career. Although he is still heavily involved with SYTYCD as an All-Star, he is also embarking on an acting career. He has been featured in (and written) various skits on YouTube and was recently seen in the Hallmark film The Stalker Club (2017). "In the Vault" is his latest project that premiered on go90 on September 13, 2017.

So, if you liked Ryan Murphy's "Scream Queens" on FOX and you miss it, you're going to love "In the Vault" to fill that void.

Like "Scream Queens", the first season is a murder mystery that takes place during the main character's first semester her freshman year of college on a fictional college campus. We meet Liv Steele, played by Claudia Lee, who also provides the voiceover narration, a storytelling technique reminiscent of "Scream Queens". A previous bad girl, she wants to use college as an opportunity to reinvent herself and leave her past behind her. A "Reformed Queen Bee" (according to IMDb), if you will. I really appreciate how good-natured her character is. She lives on the same floor of her residence hall called "The Vault" (hence the title) at Woodlawn College as the rest of the students who make up our colorful cast of characters. She meets her straight edge Russian roommate Jane Sidorova (Audrey Whitby), the overachieving Denise Parlsey (Sadie Schwolsky) whose whole thing is that she eats, breathes, and sleeps studying, the jock Evin Watson (Caleb Castille), the accented but unpleasant womanizer Omid Ayman (Karmiryan), the former movie star and apparent heartthrob Taylor Price (Timothy Granaderos) with whom Liv of course starts a sexual, social media relationship, Taylor's strange and creepy roommate Karlis Kehoe (Taylor Gray) who so far just films everybody all the time, and Evin's roommate Chris Rummel (Jac Bernhard), the...ahem...Christian.

For some reason people assume that because we are Christians, we don't drink. One of my favorite lines and biggest laughs from the first episode is when all of the characters go to a party and Omid literally duct tapes liquor bottles to Chris's hands to get him to drink and Chris says something like "I don't/can't drink. I'm a Christian." to which Omid responds, "And I'm Muslim. What's you point?"

It's hilarious to me knowing how kind Paul is in real life and seeing him play such jerks. lol

It's also nice to see a religious Christian/Muslim joke actually work in this day and age.

Then we are introduced to the final member of the cast, Denise's social justice warrior roommate Valentina Velez (Julia Kelly) who definitely keeps this story current and relevant. She has some sort of an unrevealed past with Liv, therefore causing friction between the two.

So the way this show works is that each episode is dedicated to one of the characters, the first being Liv. At the end of Liv's episode, someone dies. Now everyone is a suspect because each of them seems to have a motive to kill said victim and we get to see the story from every one of their points of view until we determine the true culprit.

Here is the official description:
One month into college, a freshman dies – suicide or murder? Everyone on the dorm hall suspects one another of foul play. Each week spotlights a different character, so a hero one week is a villain the next.

For some reason, suicide is a suggested result even though right now I don't see why that is.

As you can see, it is way similar to the first season of "Scream Queens" in terms of plot, setting, eccentric characters, humor, and quotable lines, as well as to how it is shot with accompanying sinister background music. However, it is not as juvenile as "Scream Queens". "In the Vault" uses more adult language (f bombs), and although both have their share of dirty jokes and intriguing word usage, the students in "In the Vault" come across more normal as opposed to the over the top, flamboyant Chanels of "Scream Queens". Also, I think for "In the Vault" we only investigate the one death, whereas "Scream Queens" was a parody about slasher films.

One thing that is kind of lost on me is Liv suggesting that Jane has a crush on Taylor. I personally don't really see any truth to that, unless the facial expression Jane gives when Liv steals Taylor away from their invigorating game of hackysack for an intense night of sexiling is any indication. Perhaps we'll get more insight in the next episode, which is dedicated to Jane, premiering September 20. :)

The beauty about go90 is that it is a free web live streaming service with no intrusive ads or subscription needed! It's awesome! :D

Here is the trailer.

And here is the first episode. 

"In the Vault" uploads a new episode every Wednesday. It's a typical murder mystery, so if you're into that, I highly recommend you check it out! :D

"Scream Queens" Cancellation: My Thoughts and a Brief Review of the Two-Season Series Overall

"Scream Queens" has literally been cancelled for a month now (announced May 15) and I'm just finding out now. lol Last night I tweeted another girl about the show when she tweeted about binge-watching it only to wake up this morning to her response tweet telling me that it has been cancelled. I looked it up and lo and behold found articles about it.

I've been looking it up on and off to see if it had been been renewed, so I'm surprised that I missed this news. This entire time since the Season 2 finale I had been indifferent to whether or not it would be renewed and had planned to be fine with either outcome. The following is why.

I figure that I'd blog about my feelings about this considering how I've dedicated blog posts to it before. This is the first time that a TV show I followed has been straight up cancelled as opposed to simply ending after a lengthy run, like creator Ryan Murphy's other creation, "Glee."

Okay so here are my thoughts.

Murphy says that they told their story, and I agree with him. It ended in a way that was complete, so I wasn't really foreseeing any continuation. There was nothing about the Season 2 finale that told me that any more needed to be said. It's also telling when the main cast starts to move onto other projects that the end is near. The lead female characters all have successful careers and Lea Michele's character, Hester Ulrich (I literally forgot her name. I had to look it up.), the main antagonist of the series, actually ends up scot-free in a relationship with Dr. Brock Holt (John Stamos).

The only thing that threw me was the cliffhanger ending when Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) encountered a Kappa Kappa Tau logo and the Season 1 Red Devil once again in her car, which opened up an opportunity for a third season. It ended much like the Season 1 finale, after all.

But, there isn't a true reason for one. Most of the main characters have died, including fan favorite Chad Radwell (Glen Powell). Some fans, including myself, speculated that maybe Grace Gardner (Skyler Samuels) would return for Season 3 for revenge, considering that she is also still alive and living in an insane asylum, but I guess that isn't coming to pass.

The fact that I had to look up most of these characters and actors' names and forgot that Denise Hemphill (Niecy Nash) survived the series tells me that maybe this show wasn't as memorable as I remembered.

The true stars were clearly the Chanels (which I'm now kinda realizing and understanding how it was a parody of "Heathers"! lol!), particularly Roberts, and Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd) and Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin).

You know, Season 2 wasn't nearly as interesting as Season 1, and unfortunately plenty of fans felt this way, which probably led to its demise. It lacked the ratings. This is probably because Season 1 was a fresh, new concept and the audience didn't know what to expect, whereas for Season 2, you kinda had an idea. I tuned in, but not as much. What really aggravated me about Season 2 was how early on they revealed the faces behind the Green Meanie, thus making the finale anticlimactic. Once they disclosed to the audience who the three Green Meanies were and all that was left was for the characters to find out, I lost interest. Even Chanel's relationship with Dr. Brock was cringeworthy. I mean, I know Chanel is supposed to be an adult, but it was still so weird for me. She's a girl in her twenties competing with a middle aged woman, Dean Cathy Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis - I remembered her full name at least!), for a middle aged man's affections (even though, now that I recall, Brock was either younger or older than he appeared, which made him a suspect, or not...See how much I've forgotten about this show??!). I know this was the comedy, and it was unique to say the least, but still...weird, even for "Scream Queens" standards I guess. I also wish they gave Chanel #5 a romantic happy ending. I was getting sick of her being a constant punching bag so I'm actually very pleased with her outcome of finding her purpose working at the hospital with Zayday Williams (Keke Palmer - remembered her too!) and finally away from the two bitches she called friends.

In fact, the only good thing to come out of Season 2 is Billie Lourd and Taylor Lautner's (who played Dr. Cassidy Cascade - I remembered!) real life relationship, which is still going strong!

So, a Season 3 would have been fun and a good number of seasons to flesh out the rest of the series, but definitely not necessary. You don't want to drag something out to a point where the entire series as a whole becomes despicable and you run out of ideas, somewhat like how "Glee" got stale towards the end. But yet that show was regarded very successful and had a very heartwarming series finale. "Scream Queens" has ended on a not high, not bad, but mediocre note.

It normally upsets viewers when a beloved TV show is cancelled after a season ends on a cliffhanger, but for "Scream Queens," it is actually pretty appropriate given the show's theme, and I'm satisfied with the run.

So long, "Screams Queens"! It has been a crazy ride! :)

My Theory for the Third Red Devil's Identity is...

My blog posts have really been "Scream Queens" themed lately, haven't they? lol

Okay so we already know that the two other Red Devils are Gigi and Boone, may he rest in peace. I've been muffling around in my head who the possible third Red Devil is the entire season, and I think I finally figured it out.

Let me let you in on my other possibility before I reveal my one true suspect. The Red Devil could very well be Chanel #3 for the mere fact that we're yet to see her get attacked by a Red Devil. It would also make sense for Sam to suspect her considering that heart to heart that they had. We also don't know her real name like we do with the other Chanels, so perhaps it would give her away. A lot of people seem to think that the third Red Devil is her. I still somewhat suspect Grace too because I think it would be a great twist that the one girl we've been following investigating these murders draw attention away from herself and turn out to be the perpetrator all along.

However, I believe that I finally figured it out. I finally figured out who the Red Devil is.

The Red Devil is none other than...

Character Equivalents: A Look at Ryan Murphy's "Scream Queens" and "Glee"

I love "Scream Queens". :D

How fitting that my October blog post is about "Scream Queens", which is a new anthology series whose first season is about the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority of Wallace University being terrorized by the school's Red Devil mascot that keeps murdering a character or two every week.

It's so stupid and corny, but at the same time I love the show for that reason. It's the point of the show, parodying '80s and '90s slasher films. I also love mysteries and twists, and this show provides them. Every episode provides new clues to help us viewers figure out the Red Devil's identity. It's my new favorite show. I look forward to it every Tuesday night on FOX. I was looking forward to it since I first heard about it.

The more I watch it, the more I realize that it is EXACTLY like "Glee", which makes sense because it has the same creators: Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan. It's literally the same humor with the same plot with the same characters. It's the same exact show! The only difference is that they replaced musical numbers with bloody murders. It seems to me that Murphy might be having some "Glee" withdrawals.

It's funny because "Glee" used to be the only primetime dramedy show I watched. The TV I normally usually watch is dance competition shows. I guess I just really like Ryan Murphy's stuff. I don't appreciate gore at all but for some reason the gore in this show isn't as severe or it just doesn't bother me much. I think the humor balances it out.

Do you ever notice that certain TV shows or movies tend to have the same character lineup, as if each show needs the same character structure? I do, so therefore "Character Equivalents" is now a new "Taking it One 'Stef' at a Time" series. :)

Comparing and contrasting "Scream Queens" and "Glee" is our first installment. I'm going to prove to you that this is the same exact show. Given that the shows have the same creators, the similarities are a bit understandable.

Yep. This is going to be one of my long analytical essays. I know you've missed them. ;)