★★★★★ | American Horror Story
American Horror Story, or AHS as it is abbreviated to, is a four season (soon to be five) long delve into the creative mind of Ryan Murphy, the creator. In case anyone hasn’t watched AHS yet, please do.
I mean genuinely it is such a deep and intense show you can not afford to miss it. I will be honest, since Season four “Freak Show” finished in January I have re-watched season 1, 2, and 3 all over again in less than a week. I am an addict, I will admit. Now with the premise of season 5, “Hotel” featuring, Lady Gaga, I am struggling to keep my panties dry.
I will commence with a season by season commentary, I will warn you, there will be spoilers.
Season 1: Murder House.
The Harman family move from the East coast to the West, LA, to settle down and try and get their family together again after a ‘brutal’ abortion and a cheating husband. Mum Vivian, dad Ben and daughter Violet move into their 18th Century house which appears normal. Until they slowly discover all of the deaths in the house. Almost every occupant who has lived there has died in that house. Each of them are wanting something. It isn’t long until Ben gets his first patient (he is a psychiatrist) and we meet Tate Langdon (Evan Peters *Clenches butt*). Violet and Tate hit it off great and it’s even more dramatic when we find out he is dead, and why… It is so damned intense! Vivian gets pregnant with twins, unfortunately for her, one of the babies is Ben’s but the other is a masked man’s in a gimp suit who raped her. Turns out it was Tate. Fast forward a little and she looses Ben’s baby in childbirth and gives birth to the rape baby, but dies in labour. At this point we find out Violet died from an overdoseThe neighbour next door, Constance (who we find out is Tate’s mum and is played by Jessica Lange) takes the rape baby because it is her grandchild. Ben is left alone and the other spirits kill him, which leaves Ben, Vivian and Violet together as a family in the house. It’s oddly a nice ending. It ends with them warding off new buyers so the don’t have to go through what the Harman’s did.
Season 2: Asylum. Featuring Adam Levine.
Set in the 1960s, this corrupt church owned mental institution is governed by the sick minded Sister Jude (Jessica Lange). She wrongly commits Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) into their care because she was snooping and wanting to write a story about an inmate, Kit Walker – Bloody Face, (played by Evan Peters), who was wrongly accused of skinning alive women. Move down the line and Lana thinks she finds her escape with a friendly doctor but turns out he is Bloody Face and he rapes her. She gets away and ends up back in the asylum. Finally, she gets out again and gets her story out and kills bloody face. In all of this time, Sister Jude has been forcefully committed to the asylum and her fellow Nun, Sister Mary Eunice who has been possessed by the devil was partially responsible. Queue a Nazi Doctor and you have an amazing story! Things progress, and Kit Walker gets free and later takes sister Jude with him. She dies and he gets abducted by aliens after he gets terminally ill (the aliens are explained in the plot). At the end, Lana is an old woman who is a very successful writer and ends up meeting her baby from Bloody Face’s rape she gave up for adoption. She shoots him in the dead and that’s it. End. Finito.
Season 3: Coven.
Set in New Orleans this school for witches sounds like a cheap and nasty Harry Potter magic school. It is far from it. It is set now. It is modern, sassy and darn right attention holding season. There is less explaining I can do here. A group of witch girls fight to become the new Supreme of the Coven and cause havoc on their way to it. People die, monsters die, zombies invade, slavery is witnessed and we see what hell is like. The majority of the soundtrack to this is Fleetwood Mac so if you like that you’ll like this because Stevie Nicks also makes an appearance as well. We end up getting to the point were there are two witches left and their new Supreme. The coven makes national news and they recruit a mass of new witches. This end well. Well worth a watch as this is my favourite.
Season 4: Freakshow.
You follow around Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) a German woman of wonder who is the owner of a travelling Freak Show. They settle down in New Orleans but the welcome is not great. They are losing audiences fast. Throughout this, we visit were Elsa has been, through picking out the freaks to getting mutilated, to where she wanted to be. On TV. In the show there are new acts, new drama, back stabbing, kidnap and a new and gorgeous fancier of one of the women there. Betty and Dot (Sarah Paulson) the two-headed woman is right in the sights of Dandy (there are a few bare butt scenes which are a bonus). Things get so out of hand at the end that Dandy buys the show, massacres the majority of the freaks and then gets drowned by the remaining few. Elsa gets her TV show but ends up dying. This doesn’t end well for any of Jessica Lange’s characters.
Season 5: Hotel
This season is coming out in October 2015 and features the one and only Lady Gaga. The saddest part is Jessica Lange is not in it anymore (my ultimate woman crush). All we know is that it is set in a hotel. It looks promising with many returning characters and I just hope it is too the standard of Murphy’s other work.
Not only is AHS beautifully written and cast, it has some real personality. The cinematography is a gem, the mise-en-scene is fabulous, the sounds are eerie and well thought out and the editing is just as you want it. You can tell that Ryan Murphy has put every last thought into it. A masterpiece. The only criticism is can you please you not bring Emma Roberts back. That is all.
