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WARNING! This review contains some spoilers! I will try to keep them to a minimum but just know that you've been warned!
In my earlier post, I said that Ryan Murphy has a creative yet scary mind and that's because of this show. The things in this show are..unconventional to say the least. I wouldn't say that this is a horror show but it's more like a super creep show. It's almost really scary what Ryan Murphy conjures up for this show and I'm super excited that they got a confirmed order for a third season. I have no idea how they're going to top this season, but then again, this is Ryan Murphy we're talking about.
What I really liked was how Ryan approached this concept. Instead of having it as a regular show where each season is a continuation of last season, Ryan made it where each season is part of an anthology and each season is different. Different plot, different characters, all that jazz. I find it interesting that Ryan has this sort of drive to fill people's niches that people didn't know they were missing. And he seems to have some divine foresight to know to create a singing show and make money on the songs they sing, to have a horror anthology show, or to have a gay couple show. It's like he's a game changer and people are looking to him for the next thing for people to bandwagon in a good way.
This year, American Horror Story is set in an Asylum, Briarcliff, where of course, people aren't what they seem. It's run by a nun and a monsignor, but the main doctor thinks he's running the show. The patients at Briarcliff are sometimes put there mistakenly but of course, back in the sixties, no one really questioned what happened at mental institutions. They were secluded far from any kind of other civilization, they used all kinds of cruel and unusual punishments that didn't even help their supposed problems, and it was just really inhumane.
Anywho, there are a lot of plot points in this season and they touch on a lot of things. Historical stuff like how white men and black women together were frowned upon or how lesbians were considered icky. It also touches on a lot of personal themes like living with demons, romance, fighting for things you believe in, doubt, all kinds of things. Ryan Murphy really packs it in this season. I haven't seen the first season, I think I'll catch it when it finally comes on Netflix if I can work myself up to it. I usually don't like horror genre things. You'll never catch me at a screening of Halloween yet I'll watch Freddy Kruger and though he shouldn't even be considered in the horror genre, I'll watch the Chucky movies.
There are also some less than historical themes like aliens, devil possessions, crazy nuns, Nazi's, and weird science experiments in the woods. Yeah, there are definitely some eyebrow raising moments but if you like this sort of thing, just put your trust in Ryan Murphy's creative little hands, and go along for the ride. You won't be disappointed. Believe me.
They have a very huge cast for this but a definite fave of Ryan Murphy is Jessica Lange. Not to be mean, but she's just not an attractive lady, but I'll be damned if she wasn't a good actress. I can see why she's been kept around for two seasons and is now being picked up for season 3. They also have Joseph Fiennes, Sarah Paulson, Zachary Quinto, and James Cromwell. These are some really heavy hitters and then you have semi fresh faces like Evan Peters or Lily Rabe and it's easy to see why they would want to hop aboard this wagon.
Honestly, there's too many characters to try and get through so I'm just going to limit it to the major players and my favorite, Evan Peters of course.
Evan plays Kit Walker, the aforementioned white guy with a black wife. He's in the 1960s part of the show. Sometimes this show does time jump and at first you're like which time am I in but you figure it out close enough. At first, I didn't know what to think of him. I knew that he was cute and looked completely familiar. But I was very interested to see where they were going to take his character.
Spoilers aside, he gets framed for the murder of his wife and some other women and sent to Briarcliff pending psychiatric evaluation to figure out if he did it for kicks or if he did it as a sort of mental breakdown. Because audiences know what happened, you're sitting there like "HE DIDN'T DO IT!" LOL. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that for me, he became an instant tragic character because he's stuck in this place where he doesn't belong while his wife is still alive but unreachable. I don't know if there's something chromosomally wrong with me but I just adore tragic/misunderstood characters and Kit definitely fits that profile.
Here he is, minding his own business, adoring his wife, and in the next instant, he's public enemy number one and he has so many cameras shoved in his face, so many people asking him questions while hating him for what he's supposedly done. No one will believe him and everyone just thinks he's a crazy psychopath who won't admit to what he's done. The only person that will believe him is Grace. She won't get her own profile, but here, I will say that she is kind of cute for Kit. She's one of those people who you know belongs there, yet she doesn't. She killed her parents and that's why she's at Briarcliff, but she's also so much smarter than the people there and so....uncrazy. It's easy to see why her and Kit would gravitate towards each other. She was one of the few people who understood him instantly and knew that he didn't kill his wife or all those other women.
I will say that Evan Peters brings a raw authenticity to his character, I can wholeheartedly believe that he is practically a kid in 1960s whose being wrongfully imprisoned at a horrible institution. So kudos to Evan because it's not easy to get into that kind of mindset and actually sell it and not lose yourself to it.
The next person that I think deserves some shout time would be Jessica Lange. Like I said, I didn't see her performance in the previous season of American Horror Story, but since it is an anthology, I don't have to in order to praise her brilliance on this show. She plays Sister Jude, a controlling strict nun who takes no mess from nobody. I grew up with mordern nuns so all of these horror stories I hear about nuns doesn't faze me. I never had a nun hit me with a ruler, never had one yell at me or anything like that, so I'm incredibly freaked out about how they're portrayed on this show. There's Sister Jude and then there's Sister Mary Eunice and the way they're portrayed makes me a little angry because of my faith. I respect that for the purposes of TV, you can play around with practically anything but it also makes me upset that so many writers play around with people's faith.
I just don't understand how people can't control themselves. In my own writing, I leave God or anything of the Catholic faith out of it, though I am a Catholic and yes, it's a personal choice, but I also feel like people kind of have no right to do that. But this isn't about all that.
Sister Jude didn't lead a chaste life and then got the calling at a younger age. She was a prostitute at first, or at least a boozy cougar who really loved sex, and she had a horrible drinking problem. From what I've seen or read about the 60s, everyone had a drinking problem. She ran over a little girl in the middle of the night. Okay, what was a little four eyed white girl with pigtails on her hair doing in the middle of the night on a deserted road, riding her bike like it's the thing to do? I know back then murderers and rapists were sort of few and far inbetween, but no respectable parent should have had their child out like that. I'm just saying, all of that looked a little funny to me.
Anywho, she ran over the little girl and ever since then, she's kept the secret to herself and devoted her life to God, trying to repent for the many mistakes of her past. Yet, she wears a red teddie underneath her habit and fantasizes about the monsignor. Honestly, when it's Joseph Finnes, who wouldn't? But because he's playing a priest, it's like why would you? But knowing her past, it is understandable. She spends most of the episodes trying to keep a leash on her rowdy patients and keeping Sister Mary Eunice in line. If someone gets out of hand, they get caned. Sister Jude isn't exactly scary, but she is a force you do not want to reckon with. I can see why Ryan Murphy would want to keep Jessica Lange. Her versatality is almost unmatched.
The next person, would have to be James Cromwell. This fool pops up in some very random but frequent places. It's astounding how long I've seen him crop up in movies and not know his name yet love his acting. He's always played an old, professsor type of guy so it's not surprising he's playing a doctor but it is surprising that he's playing a Nazi doctor, named Dr. Arden, who keeps experimenting on people he thinks the world has forgotten.
Of any of the characters on this show, he would definitely be the creepiest, spookiest, and craziest. First of all, he's a Nazi doctor. I mean, come on, it doesn't get creepier than that. But what also makes him creepy is that he's in love with a nun because of her pureness but when said nun tries to come onto him, he recoils like it's disgusting. He put makeup on a statue and called it a whore and then broke it. I mean, this guy has some serious psychological issues and I can't think of anyone else to play this type of character.
A major defining quirk of this guy is that he's think he's untouchable. He's all controlling and he likes things the way they are, which is his way. He has no regard for Sister Jude and think she's just there as a front. When she comes close to figuring out that he's a real Nazi doctor, he figures that she has to go.
He's also been doing some really freaky science experiments. It's never been clear to my simple mind, but the gist is that he's trying to create a super human, one that can withstand nuclear radiation like cockroaches. It makes their face bubble up and really pus filled. I mean, this guy is just sick. He's so concerned about human advancement, it's like he just can't wait for evolution to take its course. He also chopped off a woman's legs because she tried to come on to him. The things this guy does is just mind boggling, because to outside viewers like Sister Jude, he's just a doctor with a power trip. But to everyone else, he's a closet psychopath who just likes cutting people open. This is another great performance by this man and I'm so glad that he decided to get into acting because if he didn't, the craft just wouldn't be the same.
Next would be Zachary Quinto who plays Dr. Thredson. My goodness man, just my goodness. I first fell in love with Mr. Quinto when he was on Heroes and playing the bad guy. I guess something is just wrong for me because I like villains of the show, not necessarily the heroes, no pun intended. He did an amazing job on Heroes. He played this tragic character who had this incurable need for power. On AHS, it's the same tragic character, he does have his issues, (like mama's boy from hell), but he's not after power. He's after affection. And this is what I like about how Ryan Murphy creates his characters. Because we all have that universal need for affection, for someone to love us and for us to give our love as well.
So while Dr. Thredson is someone we should be wary of, we can't because he's after the same thing we're after. Yet, at the same time, we have to understand that he is a bad character, he is a bad guy.
*Scroll over for a MASSIVE SPOILER!*
*Dr. Thredson is in fact, Bloody Face from the very first episode. That first image of him shooting the imposters was a total mind freak to me. Because you had one, then you had two and you're like, what the heck is going on? And then out of nowhere, a third pops up and you're like WTF! If you've been keeping up, then you know that he called the police on himself to showcase the imposters and to let the world know that there is only one Bloody Face. What is most creepy about this is that you see him in the past and you see him now. He's gotta be at least 60 or 70 years old and this fool is still going around killing people. Granted, he's doing it with a gun instead of flaying people's skin off but still. It's creepy because you know that in the past, he's not going to get caught. If he's still walking around shooting people, then he doesn't get caught at all.
As you also know, Dr. Thredson tricked Kit into confessing about the murders so that he could go on killing people. What's sad, is that he's killing women that look like his mom. He kidnaps Sarah Paulson's character, Lana, and thinks he's found the one. The one to replace his mother and give him the affection he's craving. That is what makes him such a tragic character but you can't feel anything for him because he's a serial killer with severe mommy issues. What I didn't like about this was how dumb Lana has to be. She keeps trying to get away. I know there's an inherent need to get away from anything that hurts us, but if you're facing down a serial killer, DO WHAT HE SAYS WOMAN! I'd like to think that if I was in that situation, I'd be the best damn mom he could have ever dreamed of. Just saying.
What I also liked was how in tact Dr. Thredson seemed to be. It was like he really wanted to help and was always there to lend a hand. And when he said that he would help Lana break out, I was like wow, how awesome. Then he totally flipped the script by being creepy and knocked her out and being completely unhinged. And he took it up a knotch by kidnapping her lover, plucking her teeth out, and sewing it onto his mask. And yet you can't forget how put together he looked in the beginning of the season. If it weren't for the scenes of being in his apartment and being totally creepy, I wouldn't have guessed it was Dr. Thredson. That was a completely 180 for me.
And how dare he frame Kit. Kit is so cute and it breaks my heart that he's rotting in jail while Dr. Thredson is getting his rocks off with Lana. But, this only speaks to how talented Zachary is. He is truly a character to watch out for. How many guys do you know that can go from serious and normal to freaky and a psychopath?*
Zachary Quinto is truly an amazing actor and I very much can't wait to see what he does next. It's terrible that actors are such fickle people. They don't want to be stuck playing one type of role. But my whole thing is that if you're really good at one thing, why not suck the thing dry?! It's just so delicious watching this amazing actor play his craft and I wish that he would continuing playing it. Like Jason Statham with all his action movies. Like why wouldn't you want to continue doing it?
Sister Mary Eunice is played fantastically by Lily Rabe. In the beginning, I was like, why is she crying all the time? I thought she was going to get real old real fast. But then things changed and I'm ashamed to say that I like this person a lot better. I've noticed a trend in people just wholly not liking female characters. I don't know if it's the writers or if it's the actresses. But I do know it's my inner feminist that just can't see a woman crying for no reason. It's like buck up, lady! Put your big boy pants on and sit at the adult's table!
I can't write about her without another MASSIVE SPOILER, so scroll over for her profile!
*Sister Mary Eunice becomes possessed by the devil which is the reason for her complete turn around of character. As a Catholic, I'm disgusted by this proposition that a nun would be possessed by the devil. I can understand why Ryan Murphy would do this. I can appreciate the irony of it all, but still, it's like leave religion out of things!
As a writer, I think it's very clever. What I can't figure out is how no one knows she's the devil! She was such a sniveling, scared woman and then she completely turns around and is suddenly okay? She's okay with caning people, she's okay with helping Dr. Arden avoid being found out as a Nazi, she's okay with killing someone, and neither Sister Jude nor Dr. Arden have noticed the turnaround and it's like, how blind are you? At least the promos for the show makes sense now. The all white nun going into the woods emptying buckets of blood and guts. Watching it, I was like what the heck? But now I totally get it.
Im curious to see where this character goes. At first, she's just going around creating mild mischief. She took it a step further when she killed the PI Sister Jude had working for her. And it looks like she's no longer playing like she's second fiddle to Dr. Arden so it's going to be interesting watching the power play between the two of them during the 60s when feminism was on the rise.*
I think that Lily Rabe is a great actress and I'm interested to see where she goes from here. I think she's very gifted and she is definitely someone you need to look out for.
Everyone else, I've pretty much covered. Though Joseph Fiennes and Sarah Paulson do amazing jobs in their respective roles, somehow I just feel like their storyline hasn't really gone anywhere juicy enough to warrant a full profile. Joseph's character did do something scandalous, but even that is one small thing so like I said, I don't see any reason for a full profile.
If you like horror shows or just plain creep shows, this is something you should definitely watch. On the surface it's blockbuster fluff and has all the makings of a horror genre soup. But if you really take the time to watch it and dissect it, you'll see that these could be real characters. They're not just 2D they're definitely 3D and you're just so interested in seeing where these characters end up. Ryan Murphy is a master storyteller and you can't help but tune in every Wednesday and see what happens.
Honestly, watch it, and you won't be sorry.
