Man, there are so many things I can say about this season of American Horror Story. Let me start by saying this: Murder House is absolutely still my favorite season. But where does Freakshow fall? Let's have a chat about this.
There were a few reasons that this season of AHS was awesome.
Reason 1: The characters.
This guy. Twisty the Clown. He had the ability to terrify people, then make them cry with intense amounts of sympathy in the matter of one episode. His back-story was amazing. His mannerisms were totally awesome. His reasoning behind what he did, fabulous.
I loved him so much that I actually decided to dress up as him for Halloween.
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| I had way too much fun with this. |
Dandy Mott; have you ever met someone so horrifyingly perfect on the outside, but disgustingly twisted on the inside? If you have, I applaud you for surviving, and I also want to give you a hug while you weep into my shoulder. What a messed up person. Watching his character develop and become more and more maniacal and awful was probably the most entertaining part of the show.
Many of the other characters, ie. Elsa Mars, Jimmy Darling, and Desiree Dupree were definitely note-worthy. The performances of their respective actors were incredible. Elsa was developed beautifully. Strongman (Dell Toledo) was one of my favorite characters, and so fun to watch. He was a mess. It was great.
But there were plenty of things in the show that needed improvement.
Reason 2: The circus concept.
It sounded like it was going to be such an incredible idea. I mean, after a haunted house, an asylum, and a bunch of witches, what's the next scariest thing you can think of? (Take Coven out of there because it definitely was not scary by any means) I think of clowns and a circus. Now, I'm not afraid of clowns. Pennywise is my man. Art the Clown is a big favorite. Twisty made the list of my top 3 favorite clowns of all time (hell, I even had a doll, Christmas ornament and figure made of him to put in my collection) but the way this was done was pretty cool.
Based loosely on the 1932 film Freaks, you saw Pinheads, two-headed twins, "Lobster Boy", and more. The correlation was great. The original film is classic, so if you have never seen it, I suggest that you do. The full thing is on Youtube. It's pretty creepy.
But there were a few things that ruined it for me:
The season dragged. I only really enjoyed 4 or 5 episodes, most of which involved Twisty. For those of you that watched this season, you know why I say it like that. If you're planning on watching Freakshow, either stop reading, or expect subtle spoilers. I'll try to be good. I truly believe that the downfall of the season were those awful musical numbers. Jessica Lange is incredible, by all means, I bow down to her, but I think that the awkward songs (that were strangely out of the time period) threw off entire episodes. They were just...bleh.
What really ruined it for me was the season finale. While most of the season was just mediocre, saved only by really screwed up characters, the finale was so half-assed. I'm sorry, I don't know how else to say it. It seems like the writers didn't know how to wrap it up, so they just killed everyone, and left the rest to what we all already knew would happen.
Murder House left me guessing the whole time.
I haven't seen Asylum so I can't judge it, but I hear it's pretty great.
Coven didn't really fit into the series so much, but it was entertaining and the characters were wonderful.
This one...honestly? Honestly.
I don't mean to be totally down on it, but I don't really have much good to say. I mean, they put NPH in and got rid of him without wrapping up his character. All the other ones got an awful sendoff.
I feel like this post isn't even completely cohesive. I'm just so disappointed that it's all of my thoughts smooshed into a post.
Let me know what you thought about this, guys. I'm so sad, I expected it to be awesome because it started off strong, but I learned about 3 episodes in that I was going to be disappointed. -sigh-
...I still love Twisty though.
