FX: American Horror Story

[Toups]

American Horror Story: Discussion Thread

[Toups]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/07/fx-picks-up-ryan-murphybrad-falchuks-pilot-american-horror-story-to-series/

The spooky project which stars Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton and Jessica Lange, has been picked up for 13 episodes and is eyed for a Halloween launch with an October 5 premiere. Described as a psychosexual thriller, American Horror Story centers on a therapist (McDermott) and his wife (Britton) who, dealing with the aftermath of the husband's adultery, move along with their kids into a new house that seems to know all about their fears and plays on them. American Horror Story has strong supernatural elements (For example, the housekeeper is perceived differently by the two spouses) and also explores other forms of horror in society.

[Juliajms]

http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/ahs/aboutTheShow.php

I'm going to watch. I think it looks good and I love Conny Britton.

[YRBB]

The trailers look fantastic but a review seems to indicate that CB is the bright spot of the show and that the rest needs some work.

[Juliajms]

I can believe that, but I always judge for myself. So often critics hate the things I love and vice versa.

[EricMontreal22]

EW picked it as one of their top shows--after a kinda mixed review a few weeks earlier which confused me. A GREAT cast (though I can take or leave Dylan McDermott who probably will do a lot of yelling), and yeah the off beat, S&M sex meets horror thing has me intrigued. It's Ryan Murphy so probably will work really well for the first few episodes-or maybe even first season. Apparently each season will have a new family... Anyway despite my feelings for Murphy, I'm definitely giving it a chance.

I still find it pretty bizarre how they advertise it from the creators of Glee. Yes, Glee has a big following, bla bla, but it just seems liek the kind of thing you don't wanna remind audiences wanting a cutting edge horror show, about.

[DRW50]

EW will usually fawn over Murphy stuff or anything they think will be hip.

Dylan McDermott is one of the most uncharismatic leading men I have ever seen.

[EricMontreal22]

He really is.

Actually Ken Tucker at any rate has been very ahrsh on Murphy as of late--it was a marked turn around, he's been one of the few critics I've seen say exactly what all of us say--hwo the man has never had a successful post first 13-episode season. But yeah, whoever then put the show after their mixed review in the "5 to watcdh" obviously wasn't paying attention to the review, lol.

[Skin]

I actually thought Nip/Tuck was amazing until the fourth season when Sanaa Lathan showed up. From that point on the show was horrible.

[EricMontreal22]

Skin, you had issues with how Torchwood shows women--but didn't in Nip/Tuck? Not trying to pick a fight at all, I'm genuinely curious (I suppose it could be said that the men on Nip/Tuck became so ridiculously reprehensible anyway that every character was treated with disdain...)

I loved its first year, and admit while i was already annoyed with the dropped storylines, I enjoyed how gothic it started to get in Season 2. It was the revelation of the Carver at the end of Season 3 where I really started to lose interest. I think I stopped watching sometime in Season 4 (I had to download it at the time which played a part--if it was still on tv locally I may have tuned in just out of habit). I know the cast was VERY vocal about how much they disliked and were confused by season 4. Season 5 was meant to be a reboot with the move but that was kinda fruitless and apparently they filmed Seasons 5 and 6 back to back, with FX airing 6 much later than filming--I did see some of the last season and the finale but I just found the over the topness so ridiculous and, while the show always had a nasty edge, it got downright unpleasantly mean spirited I felt, just for the sake of being mean spirited. (and stories like the son getting breats implants to please his cellmate, etc, I just can't...)

[Skin]

They lost the plot completely in season four. I don't think there was one damn thing that came out of that season that was even remotely viable to the characters story arcs. After season four the show degraded into pointless shock value and gratuity. It existed solely for the sake of shocking the audience and they didn't care at all about character dynamics. The storylines were just ridiculous.

As to the way women were portrayed in Nip/Tuck I can't say I objected to the way they characterized the women. All of them had their own goals, all of them were independent (or became so) and all of them were diverse enough characters who were different from another to have meaning and remain important figures to the show. Of course there were tragic tragedies (name every single one of Christian Troy's love interests who he single handedly decimated one by one) but they were all three dimensional characters who held meaning. Which is more then I can say about Torchwood where it seems the women are only used as fleshy appendages for the male characters. I can say that the female characters on Nip/Tuck weren't portrayed as being perfect and they weren't portrayed as being hellish harpies either there was a richness and variation to each character and they were well defined entities separate from the male protagonists. I would actually say that Murphy did a good job creating different characters who were all strong and had their cons just as they had their pros. Although Murphy being Murphy at the end of the show no characters were likable and he diminished every character he penned.

Much like what he is doing with Glee. Nearly no character on that show is likable and that is because Ryan Murphy has no clue how to write a likable protagonist. I would say Sean McNamra and Sam McPherson were probably the closest he ever got. But even they disintegrated into hypocrisy and wrongly attributed self-righteousness on numerous occasions.

[soapfan770]

Watched the premiere tonight. The show has promise and potential but was rather sloppy and all over the place. The daughter's story only had like three scenes total with vague explanation. The real horror is that the excessive amount of quirkiness will probably sink the show. Of course bad acting from Dylan McDermott and Jessica Lange hamming it up didn't help matters either.

[DRW50]

Has Jessica's face work gotten any better?

I read that Dylan McDermott showed his ass - it took quite a few years. If he'd done that on The Practice it might have been bearable.

[soapfan770]

McDermott was indeed naked for a number of scenes of his character sleepwalking, it really didn't make it any more watchable really.

Lange plays a quirky plump granny on the show, not exactly the most appealing type. Its sad really.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha Lange was a highlight for me (though again Ryan Murphy with the down syndrome characters/actors--I can't tell if it's nice to be inclusive--we certainly do need more people on tv with disabilities--or is just exploitive. on Glee it comes off as condescending more often than not, and so far on AHS it came off as just kinda hard to watch, but the whole tone of the show seems to be aiming for that). It does look great, and aside from McDurmott I thought hte cast was great and did a lot more than they could have with such thinly drawn characters. I admit, I kinda liked how over the top and unrelentingit was--which seems odd as I complain about those same qualities in Nip/Tuck and Glee, but I'm not sure if it can sustain that tone even for the 13 episode season and not just get boring.

I'll watch a feww more episodes...