It’s not particularly fair to judge a series by its promotion, months before its premiere, but hey, bitch, this is Hollywood,d deal with it. And Fox is pushing Scream Queens, its new series from Ryan Murphy of Glee and American Horror Story, pretty hard. In fact, you can watch four “cute” mini-interviews with its four main characters right here, published recently in Variety.

But really… Murphy’s track record in horror (and in comedy-drama in general, actually), has been spotty at best. Glee fell hard and fast after a phenomenal first season, American Horror Story has been … well, icky since its earliest days, what with ghosts in rubber BDSM suits, circus freaks and stories that start in one direction and then zoom off into another for … well, often for no discernible reason, other than Ryan’s current interest.

And even with the involvement of really accomplished young (though tragically over made-up) actresses like Emma Roberts and Abigail Breslin, the whole concept feels so dated. The premise concerns a bitch-clique at a high-toned private school (I think; a little hard to tell) called “The Chanels,” and is — as they keep telling us — Mean Girls meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But Mean Girls was a ‘thing’ more then ten years ago; the original Chainsaw was — oh my god, my heart — forty years ago, and even the remake was made in 2003, and not even Jessica Biel wants to talk about it. Besides, Roberts has already done this role, as good as it’s going to get, in the “Madison, the Bitchy Teen Witch” season of American Horror Story. They even reference Heathers. Heathers: 1988. When Christian Slater and Winona Rider will still teenagers.

Hasn’t Ryan seen anything made since, oh, the Bush Administration?

I don’t know. We’ll see. But like they say before they drop the bombs and regret it later: confidence is not high.