[TV] American Horror Story

[CeeKay]

OK, what was the deal with the Dr. Ben's patient in last week's episode?  it didn't seem to go anywhere and felt more like something to fill out the episode.

I guess it was just supposed to be an ironic filler?  Aren't all of the patients aside from Tate kind of filler material? 

usually they don't spend that much time with the other patients, with the exception of the one who was obsessed with the house.  it just seems odd they have him in several times, only to have a definite end to his story.

Spoiler for Hiden:

the only thing I can think of is that they may be planning ahead for next Halloween.

[hepcat]

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that if even one of the incidents that have occurred during this first season actually happened to yours truly in real life, there would be a vague, hepcat shaped mass of smoke where I used to be standing after the first occurrence. 

[CeeKay]

they finally showed who the black vinyl man is, and wow, did not see that coming.

[hepcat]

...and another case of "wow, did not see it coming.".  Well done and took me by surprise while still making perfect sense.  This show is really growing on me.

[rittchard]

...and another case of "wow, did not see it coming.".  Well done and took me by surprise while still making perfect sense.  This show is really growing on me.

Me too!  I think someone alluded to it somewhere in this thread, or maybe I imagined it.  But I was still 100% completely surprised when it happened.

And on a side note, Evan Peters as Tate has got to be the breakout actor/character of this season on ANY show.  Would love to see him get some recognition from the Globes or Emmys but the role might be too dark.  Either way I think he's just fantastic, but of course the writers have given him such a juicy role.

[CeeKay]

OK, finally found something creepy with the show:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Bunred man's family.  great makeup jobs and the CGI to make it appear like their skin was still smoldering was a nice touch 

[kadnod]

Just watched the season finale.  What a fun, scary, unexpectedly well written show.  Great, weird story with some really solid acting.  I think Game of Thrones is still my favorite new show, but I can not wait until this one gets rolling again.

[CeeKay]

totally forgot the finale was on last night, and haven't gotten a DVR yet at the new place.  I guess I can wait for it to show up on Hulu.

[Toe]

Just watched the season finale.  What a fun, scary, unexpectedly well written show.  Great, weird story with some really solid acting.

Definitely not your typical season finale. Kept you wondering what was around the next corner from start to finish. Well done and an overall awesome season 1.

[jament]

Absolutely loved the show from start to finish. Easily the best horror series on TV.  Angela Lange deserves an Emmy.

[hepcat]

Finally had a chance to see the season finale after getting home from vacation.  I really enjoyed it.  At least 3 times during the episode I thought "well, that's it...they can't possibly introduce something else." ...and then they would.  Well done.  This show went from something I had to force myself to watch to something I actually look forward to.  Can't wait to see how they handle season 2. 

[CeeKay]

***SPOILERS*** a bit about season 2 ***SPOILERS***

[hepcat]

That could really work.  While I was happy with the way the show evolved, I was also painfully aware that focusing on one family/story for the rest of the show's run was going to be very, very confining.  Eventually you get a soap opera instead of a horror franchise...unless you're a genius script writer, that is.

Now they can go out and grab a Richard Matheson or Joe Lansdale and create a great 1 season horror story.

[CeeKay]

Zachary Quinto will be a regular next season, along with Jessica Lange.

[CeeKay]

season 2 revealed with SPOILERS for those who haven't seen the first season:

Ryan Murphy Reveals Title of New Chapter of American Horror Story


“American Horror Story: Asylum”

‘Asylum’ Stars Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Zachary Quinto, James Cromwell, and Joseph Fiennes

LOS ANGELES, August 1, 2012 – Award-winning producer Ryan Murphy today revealed the title of the new chapter of American Horror Story, “American Horror Story: Asylum.”

Set in 1964, American Horror Story: Asylum stars Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Zachary Quinto, James Cromwell, and Joseph Fiennes.  Principal photography on the new minseries began on July 17 and it premieres on FX in October.

Spoiler for Hiden:

“When we launched the show last year, we kept quiet about the closed-ended nature of the show because we didn’t want to tip off the audience that the characters were not going to survive,” explained co-creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy. “Now that it has been established that each year is a closed-ended story, the time seemed right to reveal what we’re calling the new installment.

“We picked ‘Asylum’ because it not only describes the setting – an insane asylum run by Jessica Lange’s character which was formerly a tuberculosis ward – but also signifies a place of haven for the unloved and the unwanted. This year’s theme is about sanity and tackling real life horrors.”

The first installment of American Horror Story, which concluded last fall, earned 17 Primetime Emmy® Award nominations, tying for the most of any program this year and setting a record for the most Emmy nominations for a miniseries in basic cable history.

Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Dante Di Loreto and Tim Minear are Executive Producers of American Horror Story: Asylum.  It is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television.

[hepcat]

AHS started off VERY slow in it's freshman year, but became good television towards the end.  I'm looking forward to what they're going to do.  I'm surprised to see that more than a few of the main stars of season 1 are missing from that list, though.  I was under the impression that nearly everyone was returning for season 2.

I also have to wonder if the plan was to make each season a standalone series from the very beginning or if they decided that after they'd already started season 1.

[Autistic Angel]

For what it's worth, I'd heard the stand-alone story per season thing for a long while.  I gave up on watching a few episodes in, though -- the show's mythology just seemed like a muddled patchwork of random, unrelated tropes.

-Autistic Angel

[hepcat]

It did at first, but as I mentioned earlier it started to come together towards the end of the season.  I'm looking forward to a hopefully stronger start to season 2.

[CeeKay]

son of a-  I just realized that my DVR wasn't recording the new season after the first episode, and they're not available on the shows website.

[soulbringer]

son of a-  I just realized that my DVR wasn't recording the new season after the first episode, and they're not available on the shows website.

Well I missed the first few episodes as well.  My DVR is set to tape American Horror Story not American Horror Story:Asylum  stupid DVR.   

[Teggy]

Just watched the first season of this on Netflix IW. Really enjoyed it - I am one of those oblivious types, so I didn't see the big twist coming and loved it.

My only criticism is that I felt the first half was more scary/creepy. After a while it started getting so crowded with deaths/ghosts to the point where it felt a bit campy.

Also,

Spoiler for Hiden:

why didn't the devil child have hooves like the nurse said it did?

[hepcat]

I thought they handled the big twist in season 1 quite well.  At least the twist I found surprising:

Spoiler for Hiden:

that the daughter was actually dead for much of the latter half of the season.

As for season 2, I'm really enjoying it.  You can tell the actors are having a ball doing it.  The story is so friggin' convoluted and over the top that I can't wait to see what they'll pull out of their collective behinds each week. 

[Teggy]

I thought they handled the big twist in season 1 quite well.  At least the twist I found surprising:

Spoiler for Hiden:

that the daughter was actually dead for much of the latter half of the season.

Yes, that's the one I was thinking of.

I'll have to see if I can catch up with season 2 with repeats, but probably not.

[rittchard]

I thought they handled the big twist in season 1 quite well.  At least the twist I found surprising:

Spoiler for Hiden:

that the daughter was actually dead for much of the latter half of the season.

As for season 2, I'm really enjoying it.  You can tell the actors are having a ball doing it.  The story is so friggin' convoluted and over the top that I can't wait to see what they'll pull out of their collective behinds each week. 

This season has really been one crazy ride, it's so weird it's hard to describe.  I honestly can't tell where they are heading, and more often than not, I find myself wondering if what I just saw really happened or not.  It seems like they are wrapping up storylines each week, with the finale being focused on Jude.  I don't expect them to pull it all together but it would be pretty cool if they could, for instance, have Kit's kid(s?) stop Dylan McDermott in the present(?) or explain why he/they were so important.

[rittchard]

Very nice conclusion to the season.  Fairly satisfying endings to each of the core characters' storylines and some wonderful acting by Jessica Lange (no surprise).

Already confirmed Evan Peters and Sarah Poulson will join Jessica for the next season, I'm so happy.  I'm totally in love with Evan Peters, no one looks hotter in a wifebeater and tighty whities 

[hepcat]

My eyes teared up a little during the conclusion to Jude and Kit's stories.  That was some might poignant and touching writing.  Wasn't expecting that level of tenderness towards the characters.

[Crusis]

Did anyone find the time jumps in the last two shows jarring? Maybe it's just me, and really, they had the same sort of jumping around at the start of the season.

Still, what a great season, and Jessica Lange - wow.

[Chaz]

Is there anywhere online to watch season 2 yet? I only just finally got done with season 1 a few weeks ago. 

[Crawley]

Finished watching the rest of the episodes the other day. Did not like Season 2 as much as the first season - but I did enjoy parts of it. It seemed this season was all about pushing the network television boundaries and seeing what stylish shots the directors can do. The first few episodes in particular they seemed to focus so much on shock value with how much gore, sex and nudity they could get away with. That would be ok once in awhile but it seemed like each subsequent episode was trying to out do the one before.

It kinda reminded me of Spawn on HBO way back when. At the time I was looking forward to it but instead of writing an entertaining episode the focused seemed to be on shocking people with nudity and violence - look what we can do in a cartoon folks! It got tiresome quickly so all you had to fall back on was the writing which was rather boring.

Another big problem with the show for me was there were way to many story lines and characters to follow. So the show jumped around constantly to advance each characters plot line. You would literally get 20-30 second scenes before they had to move on to someone else. It really hurt the focus for me. Some of those story lines were unseeded too -

Spoiler for Hiden:

like the Kitt alien abduction thing. It didn't really go anywhere and seemed pointless in the end as his kids were nothing special (a doctor and a lawyer?) Same with the Doctor's experiments in the woods. It seemed like he initially was trying to do something with extending life but that storyline didn't go anywhere.

So those wrinkles, which were pretty large as they were major parts of the story, kinda detracted from it overall.

But it had plenty of good stuff in there too. Enough where I'm in for Season 3 but hopefully they tone down the focus on pushing the limited and work on the story a lot more.

[CeeKay]

Kathy Bates joins season 3:

“Oh, Kathy’s never [played] someone this bad. Her [character] is a bad, bad woman!” he said, adding that she'll be “five times worse than [her] Misery character — which is why she liked it."

[rittchard]

Another big problem with the show for me was there were way to many story lines and characters to follow. So the show jumped around constantly to advance each characters plot line. You would literally get 20-30 second scenes before they had to move on to someone else. It really hurt the focus for me. Some of those story lines were unseeded too -

Spoiler for Hiden:

like the Kitt alien abduction thing. It didn't really go anywhere and seemed pointless in the end as his kids were nothing special (a doctor and a lawyer?) Same with the Doctor's experiments in the woods. It seemed like he initially was trying to do something with extending life but that storyline didn't go anywhere.

So those wrinkles, which were pretty large as they were major parts of the story, kinda detracted from it overall.

Personally I loved it, the last two episodes felt a little rushed plot-wise but some of the character moments were absolutely fantastic.  For me this show is more about some absolutely fantastic character portrayals and acting; the limit pushing is fun and can be exciting, but in the end the show thrivs because of the quality of the acting and direction.  Jessica Lange can do no wrong and Evan Peters is an absolutely awesome find.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Regarding the storylines, I thought the point was not so much that his kids were special, but that Kitt himself was - given that they took him in the end...  Besides the fact they are ALIENS, so their motivations and ultimate endgame should inherently be alien to humans.  The Doctor story I thought was handled well enough given that I can't stand that guy, he annoys me in every thing he's ever in.  I don't recall the detail but between what he told the blond demon chick before he died and the way he kills himself, I thought it was a pretty closed story about his character; I'm not sure what more would have been satisfying plot-wise.

[hepcat]

The first few episodes in particular they seemed to focus so much on shock value with how much gore, sex and nudity they could get away with. That would be ok once in awhile but it seemed like each subsequent episode was trying to out do the one before.

And herein lies the formula for success...

[CeeKay]

get ready to possibly have to re-adjust the DVR again for a new title: American Horror Story: Coven. 

[rittchard]

get ready to possibly have to re-adjust the DVR again for a new title: American Horror Story: Coven. 

Kathy Bates AND witches?!?!  Bring it ON!!!

[hepcat]

Fantastic!  I was hoping someone would eventually get around to a remake.