Scream Queens Season 2 Episode 5: Finally, We're Getting Somewhere!

Early in Episode 5, after (spoilers!) Darlene has been electrocuted and Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) has decided to cover up the entire ordeal in order to protect the C.U.R.E. Institute, the cast stumbles across the entire cast of the musical Hamilton literally strung from the rafters of the hospital's waiting room. As most of the characters worry about who could have done such a horrible thing, Chanel #3 (Billie Lourds) utters the first thing I've heard resembling comic gold since the return of this rather awkwardly paced series: "We should look for the guy dressed like Aaron Burr!".  And, with that, the seemingly long hiatus of Scream Queens Season 2 has finally accomplished the perceived impossible task: for that brief moment, I actually felt like the series might be able to reclaim the stupid fun of its predecessor season.
Look, I know there's a lot of reasons to overlook this series. The plot is stupid, none of the characters are really likeable, the dialog borders on inane and even the funnier jokes are only worth a mild chuckle that don't really require too much from the whole thought process. If anything, it just feels like another Ryan Murphy/Fox hybrid circle jerk that produced the likes of Glee (sophomoric nonsense masquerading as a tolerance message that grows more obnoxious with each season) and American Horror Story (interesting premise that never lives up to its early stuff because they just can't seem to write a great ending). If anything, I could accuse humanity for failing intelligent life because, while nearly perfect shows like Community struggled with ratings throughout their life spans, Glee never had a problem drawing the tween-anything-with-musical-numbers-must-be-good-because-they-did-it-in-High-School-Musical crowd and their parents over to their increasingly condescending ( the "how the world should be" crap they kept shoveling) message that that particular nonsensical tripe offered for entertainment.
But, fortunately, Scream Queens was the rare Murphy-led product that didn't feel like it was trying to be better than you or guilt trip you into liking it. It was just stupidity masquerading as mindless fun with nothing beneath the surface. There was no ulterior motive, no character who we were supposed to like because they were gay/handicapped/fat/non-white and no real plot beyond "watch what these dumb bitches do and remember to laugh if they die because they deserve it!". All in all, considering Murphy's early attempt at heady TV fare, this ranked as the rare pure consumption option that was never going to be an awards show regular or even a ratings shark. It just existed solely to exist and we were expected to merely like it or not. And I wouldn't have it any other way.