AMERICAN HORROR STORY

Would you believe me if I told you that bombastic television show Glee originated in the same brains that American Horror Story is derived from?  It’s puzzling to imagine Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk with their legs crossed, sipping coffee, and brainstorming the tortuous scenes that will star their “Asylum” season nemesis,  “Bloody Face”.  All the while, both of these men knowing they previously created a show exploding with high school drama inside a flamboyant and talented circle of singers.  What a lucky “fly on the wall”. 

American Horror Story is the most paramount show on television right now.  Even if you find yourself to be one of few opposed to watching sixty minutes of terror, I’m sure the title still rings a bell of familiarity.  Although it is common to hear people bicker over which of the seasons is the best, I feel that most can agree that each and every one sailed above its expectations.   I can’t stress enough how impressive it is for a show to continue its ability to shock viewers in the following seasons.  Typically, the first is always the sharpest, and then it slowly start to dull and deteriorate as the years pass.  Sometimes it’s to the point where I wish I stopped watching certain shows after the first season. 

The design of AHS and how each season is completely unrelated to each other gives the show much more room to expand and find different paths of scare tactics.  It also helps that the same actors keep coming back as fresh new characters that viewers can fall in love with all over again.  Instead of each season picking up where it left off, like viewers are accustomed to, every first episode feels like the first time.  Although each season has its own unique cluster of gore in the opening sequence, they all share that spine tingling “dun…dun dun” classic tune. 

Most television shows star fresh faces that most aren’t familiar with.  Occasionally an A list actor will make an appearance to boost ratings, but it is unusually amazing how AHS signed Jessica Lange, Frances Conroy, and Dylan McDermott to pave the way to the show’s stardom.  Now four seasons deep, the series has not only added the expertise of Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett into the demented plots, but it also amplified, if not created, the names of Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson, amongst others.  In my opinion, the character development portrayed throughout the series is the key factor responsible for this type of success. 

I must admit, when I first heard of AHS coming out, I had my doubts solely for the reason it was premiering on FX and not a premium channel like HBO or Showtime.  I questioned how a show, let alone a horror series, could possibly succeed with a mature audience without the gore, violence, profanity, and sexuality, which is typically concealed on commercial airing channels.  When I saw Dylan McDermott “pleasuring” himself in the first season, I realized how inaccurate my assumption was. 

American Horror Story is appropriately raw and explicit, and the seasons seem to progressively advance their shock value.  I have only seen one episode of Freak Show so far, and it is already apparent the trend is continuing as presumed.