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Where American Horror Story Went Wrong

American Horror Story FX Reviews

When details of the fourth season of American Horror Story were being revealed last summer, fans found themselves getting very excited for what’s to come. There were so many different avenues they could have ventured into with the premise of a freak show. With so much material to work with, Freak Show  ended up accomplishing absolutely nothing. But why? How did we go from the great storytelling and vivid characters of Asylum to the non-existent plot and one-dimensional characters of Freak Show?

For the past two seasons but more specifically with Freak Show, American Horror Story has been writing plots around keeping certain cast members. With the same principal cast coming back season-after-season playing different characters, it can be quite hard to fit them all within a specific seasonal theme. After an astonishing performance as voodoo queen Marie Laveau in Coven, Angela Bassett took on the role of Desiree Dupree, a three-breasted woman in Freak Show. However, Desiree added very little to the season as a whole, suffered from inconsistent writing of the character and received little screen time. But it’s Angela Bassett and we can’t lose her – so let’s create a character for her. 

Now I get it. I really do. You want to keep talented actors on the show.  However, writing to keep a specific actor is harshly limiting to the show and keeps the plot from being organic. Another good example is Evan Peter’s character in Coven. Was there really any need for Kyle that season? Evan Peters was filming a movie at the time and was less available for shooting; hence his reduced screen time and… Uh… limited dialogue (if you can even call it that).  It probably would have been better had Peters taken the season off instead. It would have allowed the writers to flesh out some of the more interesting plot points of the season. Instead we got stuck with the unnecessary B-plot of the CW-esque love triangle between Zoe, Madison, and Kyle.

Frances Conroy and Finn Wittrock as Gloria and Dandy Mott      (Photo credit: Yahoo/FX)

The biggest under-use of a talent however, goes to Frances Conroy. She’s absolutely amazing but is so devalued in American Horror Story. Her Freak Show character was killed off only six episodes into the season, never to be mentioned again. Was that really necessary? After being with the show since it’s debut season – she deserved a lot more material to work with. She, along with Finn Wittrock were easily the highlights of the first half of the season. 

Freak Show suffered from having too many characters and not enough time to expand all of their stories. And when they did, it never furthered the plot. Devoting an entire episode to Pepper was foolish. Yes, it was a nice throwback to Asylum and yes, we got to see our girl Lily Rabe again, but it was essentially a throw-away episode. It added nothing to the actual story. With such little plot going on as it is, was it really wise to go even more off-track? 

With Jessica Lange leaving the show and Sarah Paulson being signed to American Crime Story, my hopes for season 5 is a complete reboot of the series. Start off with a fresh new batch of cast members. While I'll miss the likes of Lange and Paulson, American Horror Story desperately needs to be revitalized if it is going to continue.

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