So, I’ll get straight to it. American
Horror Story is a show about a spooky house that does bad things to good
people, or was it good things to bad people, or random things to anyone in the
vicinity? It’s a bit hard to tell at first, but as the story goes on it becomes
a bit clearer (but not by much). The main premise involves a family of three
who have recently moved in: Dr. Ben Harmon, an adulterous psychiatrist whose
best idea of mending the past issues in his life (i.e. cheating on his wife) is
to uproot the whole family and move them to the suburbs – clearly he is awesome
at his job, Vivien Harmon the wife… and that’s all you can really say about her
at the start, no other qualities or defining characteristics (and later on she
is characterised is the stereotype of the betrayed house wife, nothing more),
and Violet Harmon the standard moody teenager, misunderstood by society (and
her psychiatrist dad who seems oblivious to her distress), who finds solace in
Tate, an eerie and morbid teenager who is being treated by her dad. There is
also a hot/not hot maid and an even creepier next door neighbour with a
tendency to pop by and bring poisoned treats for the family while constantly
reminding everyone of how knowledgeable she is of how the world truly is and
her cursed womb.
The story at first seems very cliché and
unimaginative, but over time starts to branch out into multiple mini-stories,
each having one of the main characters at the centre, while still managing to
intertwine them quite well when the narrative requires it. I did find the first
few episodes unnecessarily convoluted, which may put off some viewers, but if
you manage to stick with it, it does improve, especially after some depth is
given to the characters.
It should be mentioned that this may be the
one of the few shows on TV at the moment that actually does suspense-horror
properly (the other being the Walking Dead). It is usually a difficult balance
that has to be achieved to make a horror show good; the characters must be
interesting and well developed, as they are the ones we need to associate with
and whose reactions and experiences make the show entertaining, and the shock,
supernatural and gore value must not be exaggerated. Shows that fail at horror
usually either focus too much on making the monster, poltergeist, whatever, too
scary, or too detailed, or in-your-face that the audience habituates to it, and
the story loses out. The other pitfall is over-developing characters, something
that you can see on Supernatural, where any semblance of horror, suspense, or
narrative seems to take a back seat to the drama of the protagonists’ lives.
AHS hasn’t (yet at least) failed in this respect, as the show is now the
characters are properly defined and given individual views on the event that
are occurring around them, adding layers and depth to the story as a whole.
That being said, it seems that when it comes to “giving depth to characters”
the writers fail to separate “people” from “ghosts”, and if a ghost starts to
be overly developed, any effect it will have on the horror aspect disappears.
If a ghost talks, walks, eats, has sex and even (spoiler ->) makes babies,
then what is the actual difference between people and dead-people?
The thing that annoyed me are the great
differences between how the scenes progress, where sometimes the audience is
flooded with information and important plot points, while at others there seems
to be no relevance to a scene aside from creating a pause between the “good
parts”. It could be argued that this is done intentionally, but the lack of
fluidity at times severely affects the immersion process, without achieving any
long term advantages.
A little tip that I have for fresh viewers
of the show is to not imagine it being about the family and the event that
occur to them, and view it more as the story of the house and the things that
happened and will happen there. Also, try to ignore the ridiculousness of the
maid, especially in scenes where she is in a room with both men and women where
she gives the impression of being schizophrenic, shifting between lascivious
and noble based on who she is facing.
Overall, the cinematography is well made,
there is no overuse of special effects or trickery, and the acting in general
is very good. The cast itself has great chemistry, having their interactions
appear realistic and fluid. One issue is that they show tends to over-develop
individuals that are only around for a short time, or that play minor roles.
There are also plenty of references to other horror stories, urban legends, and
tragic deaths in real life, some of which are subtle, but most are quite
obvious. If you are a fan of horror you may appreciate the “classic” quality of
the scare tactics, and the fact that the show does not shy away from brutal and
extreme setups (e.g. at one point there is a rape scene with a guy dressed up
in S&M-style latex suit), and for regular fans of TV you may find it
refreshingly different than other current shows on TV.
