american horror story has covered plenty
of terrifying ground
so there are bound to have been some
huge hits and some big misses along the
way
here are some of the best and worst
episodes of ryan murphy's horror
anthology juggernaut
american horror story broke onto the
scene with murder house
a traditional haunted house story of a
dysfunctional family who unwittingly
move into a doomed new home
the harman family are trying to weather
plenty of family issues
including ben's affair and vivian's
miscarriage and encounter a number of
odd neighbors
including the brooding tate and the
controlling constants as they uncover
the dark history of the house
why'd you move here my dad had an affair
my mom
literally caught him in the act that's
horrible in piggy piggy
the season sixth episode one specific
mystery is solved
it turns out tate is not a neighbor at
all but a ghost who resides in the house
tate however is unaware that he is dead
and audiences are introduced to billy
dean howard
a medium who can help him with this
discovery in classic ahs tradition
the episode is jam-packed including a
revelation that vivian is pregnant with
the antichrist
and a subplot involving one of ben's
troubled psychiatry patients
but the emotional core remains with
violet and tate who confess their love
for one another and stand by each other
through each frightening realization
that they encounter
though it wasn't immediately obvious
that colt would focus on the 2016
election
murphy announced the inspiration before
it aired setting audiences up for what
was sure to be a polarizing season
with regular sarah paulson and evan
peters taking the helm as a liberal
snowflake
and a power-hungry right-winger
respectively the season had a strong
concept
unfortunately in standard american
horror story fashion it tried a little
too hard to juggle too much
including more unnerving neighbors a
succession of influential cult leaders a
roving band of killer clowns and more
the seventh episode of the seventh
season valerie solanus died for your
sins scumbag
utilizes a relatively clumsy flashback
to feminist figure valerie solanus
who shot andy warhol in 1968 at the
factory as an active rebellion
who are you kidding shooting me will be
the only thing you'll be remembered for
i am your legacy
though this did actually happen and
solanus was a real person
the script takes some fairly wild
liberties with her story suggesting that
somehow she was responsible for all the
zodiac killer correspondents
yeah it was kind of a big mess and all
its muddled story beats made for an
unsatisfying episode
one of the more whimsical seasons of the
show the third season of american horror
story
focuses on a coven led by fiona goode
played by jessica lang
the ruling supreme who will do anything
to hold on to her throne
meanwhile the young witches in fiona's
coven attend a unique academy with
good's daughter cordelia
acting as headmistress throughout the
season each witch hones her powers
wielding them against outside forces
while fine-tuning them in hopes of
becoming the next supreme
the season premiere of [ __ ] gives
viewers a perfect introduction to the
season's enormous coterie of characters
which will only grow throughout the
season setting up the fight for supreme
as well as introducing us to a couple of
truly terrifying villains
throughout all of this setup the
premiere doesn't feel clumsy or
expositional
but rather like it's prepping viewers
for the emotional and pulse-pounding
rollercoaster we've been waiting for
jesus sabrina relax
we're just messing with you though coven
was a positively received season
and it began with a proverbial bang it
ended with a whimper
with the season building to one question
who will be the next supreme
the couple of witches are all prepared
to battle it out for the title
as each witch makes her way through the
test she's stumped by one element or
another
in the end cordelia winds up coming
through as the supreme which after
pitting the girls against each other all
season feels utterly underwhelming
and a little bit like a cop-out having
fun yet
yeah it's a real party even an
appearance by stevie nicks who opens the
episode with a short impromptu music
video
can't save this lukewarm finale which
culminates in fiona finding herself
trapped in her own personal hell
being stuck in an old farmhouse for
eternity with her former lover the
axeman
watching jessica lang frantically scream
about the house's foundations does
elicit some chuckles
but as a whole this ending doesn't do
any service to the roller coaster of a
season that preceded it
when it comes to american horror story
it's not uncommon for a season to
premiere strong
only to start losing steam as plots
become more and more convoluted and
characters come and go
freak show is no exception even though
the season ranks quite low among the
others
monsters among us is a standout episode
in its own right audiences meet elsa
mars played by jessica lang in her final
full season of american horror story
as she rescues conjoined twins bet and
dot from a hospital only to place them
in her freak show
the episode also seamlessly introduces
twisty a terrifying murderous clown as
well as socialite gloria mott and her
deranged son dandy
how's that it's better this seat's warm
mother made it toasty for you gross
anyway to cap it all off elsa performs a
david bowie song
the aptly name life on mars to be
precise to close out the episode and
reveals her own secret she's a double
amputee
the premiere of freak show is an
excellent example of a successful start
it expertly sets up the rest of the
season and despite the lackluster
episodes that follow
it remains one of the standouts of the
entire series
even though it had an extraordinarily
strong start freak show much like its
predecessor coven
ended with a fizzle most of the finale
focuses on elsa herself who moves to
hollywood and marries an executive
but allows herself to be escorted to the
afterlife by the ghost of edward mordray
who kills any freak that performs on
halloween why because american horror
story
that's why
the day of reckoning is here it hurts
but only for a moment in her final
performance she sings david bowie's
heroes
before being gently escorted back to the
freak show where her deceased brethren
are waiting with open arms
though it seems like a fairly warm and
happy ending to such a violent season it
not only leaves plenty of narrative
threads in the dust it's also a
straight-up dull closing to an arc that
once held so much promise
unlike asylum which proves closure by
giving lana winters one last act of
revenge
freak show pretends it's giving viewers
a satisfying ending when ultimately
it looks more like the showrunners
weren't sure where to go with such a
challenging and off-the-wall season
the sins of the living don't add up to
much around here
in life we play the parts for casting
it's consistently ranked as the best
season of the entire series so it's
difficult to choose the best episode of
asylum
the finale in which lana winters takes
her revenge on her murderous son
and triumphs by force of sheer will was
a strong contender but the top spot has
to go to name game
if only for the trippy out-of-place
dance sequence starring jessica lang
from which the episode takes its title
yeah it's a wacky one in all the right
ways this episode is a perfect showcase
for the best of everything that american
horror story has to offer
sheer fantasy indelible images and
dramatic moments
including a touching turn by francis
conroy as the angel of death
who arrives to collect the dead
throughout the episode when it's at the
top of its game
the show looks a lot like this a love
letter to both camp and horror
while still letting each character
experience real human moments that
remind us of why we fell in love with it
in the first place
i wanted to say goodbye goodbye
if asylum is frequently ranked as the
best season of american horror story
then hotel
which usually falls on the bottom of the
pack is its direct inverse
the season is based loosely on several
hotel-related horror stories
including hh homes murderous hotel where
the serial killer kept his victims
during the 1893 world's fair in chicago
and the 2013 disappearance of elisa lam
at la cecil hotel
with jessica lang's exit at the end of
the previous season the show had yet
another hurdle to overcome
who would serve as the leading lady and
though lady gaga offered up an admirably
campy turn as the vampira countess
it couldn't save an uneven season that
tried a little too hard
and muddled its own story time and time
again after all would it even be
american horror story if it didn't have
too many arcs and way
way too many unlikable characters who
the hell are you people the premiere
remains the worst episode of what many
viewers consider one of the worst
seasons
if only for its best-known scene a
violent sequence during which gabriel
played by new girls max greenfield is
sodomized by a monster known as the
addiction demon
critics and fans alike viewed this as
exploitative and unnecessary
and it became clear that while american
horror story was usually a guilty
pleasure
this season might be abandoning the word
pleasure entirely
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