Okay, let's put aside the fantastic season 6 premiere from last week for just a minute.
Let's put that aside and think back, six seasons ago, to the original American Horror Story: Murder House. Remember that? Remember Tate? And Violet? And the leather suit? And the way the house was this representation of a place lost to time, where everything that had existed still did and it transcended death and it was beautiful in this really original way?
I remember that.
And I remembered it when I started watching the last season, Hotel, and I was honestly disgusted. Full disclosure: I did not finish that season. I couldn't. I'm no prude, but the episodes I watched were so disgustingly sexual for no reason other than to create shock value. I'm not into that.
So let's rewind another season, back to Freakshow. That season I did watch in its entirety, in a dorm with a group a friends. (This is a viewing style I absolutely recommend, by the way!) I liked Freakshow. I liked the characters. I liked the interconnectivity both within the season, and outside of it. I loved that we got back story for characters, like Pepper, that tied back into the Asylum season. Freakshow was a pretty good season.
Rewind again. Coven. The season about witches, right? Again, full disclosure, I didn't watch it. Not because it turned me off, but because it was freshman year, I didn't have a TV or friends that were interested in it, and I just never got around to watching it. So let's skip that one.
And let's go to the Asylum. I have mixed feelings about this one. I haven't seen in years, but I still remember the things I liked and the things I didn't. I liked the diversity of the characters. Again, I lived Evan Peters. The whole story with the nuns was great. But then we get into the aliens. And that was too much. Seriously. Why did they have to bring in the aliens? I remember finishing the season on Netflix and immediately saying that they had tried to do too much with the season.
None of that was in the spirit of the first season. Sure, Murder House had flaws. I wasn't crazy about the way that the spirits come back and hang the husband, or about the rape-baby being the devil. Those didn't fit so well. But looking back at the rest of the season, it didn't matter. Murder House was just that good.
So let's move forward again, to the new season premiere. They're doing something completely new, again, and I respect that. I know some people don't. My own boyfriend was not impressed by the reenactment style the show is using this year. But I was willing to give it a try. And while I'm eager to see what happens next week, I'm not hopeful. They're setting up too much, and I think it's going to be a mess of a season. But since I have TiVo this year, I'm willing to give it a few weeks.
American Horror Story is an anthology, so theoretically, it could go on forever without the characters or the plot getting worn out and stale. But I'm here to ask: should it?
