American Horror Story spoiled us. In many ways, we weren’t able to fully comprehend just how good we had it those first four seasons until it was all yanked out from under us like a massive rug. We literally had Jessica Lange leading a cast-wide sing-a-long and dance to “The Name Game” in the middle of a 1964 asylum… if that’s not evidence enough that we had it made in the shade in the early days of American Horror Story, then I don’t know what is. Tragically, Ryan Murphy‘s American Horror Story franchise lost its luster once Season 4 came to a close back in 2015. And while it feels sacrilegious to write out that statement, almost every iteration that came after American Horror Story: Freak Show has been a bit of a mess in its own right. Most of us were pretty crushed after hearing that Jessica Lange wouldn’t be returning for Season 5, but news of Lady Gaga‘s arrival put a temporary bandage on the situation. That is, until Season 5 actually came along. Now with American Horror Story: Delicate, it appears Kim Kardashian‘s casting might have been a similar situation.
‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Was the Last Strong Season
While co-creators, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, certainly couldn’t force Lange to stay on the series, there are definitely other things they could’ve done to make the new era of American Horror Story feel a bit more like its original roots. What actually happened in the seasons after Freak Show, though, is a whole lot of smoke and mirrors, which — given the premise of the series — is actually pretty fitting. In an effort to make up for the fact that things were definitely a bit different, Murphy and Falchuk decided to pull out all the stops to make things, well, normal again, but all it did was make the entire series feel messy.
The season was filled with a cast displaying various types of oddities at a “freak show” in Jupiter, Florida, one of the last remaining ones in the country in 1952, the year the season was set in. Lange led the group of individuals as Elsa Mars, a Marlene Dietrich-esque performer who — despite seeming like she wasn’t one of the bunch — was actually a lot more like the others than she led on. The main antagonist of the series was a murderous clown named Twisty (John Carroll Lynch) who wreaked havoc on just about anyone he encountered, possibly one of the best antagonists in American Horror Story history.
Lady Gaga Could Only Do So Much for American Horror Story
Season 5’s American Horror Story: Hotel started out strong and Gaga was actually a solid addition to the team, even ending up winning a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Elizabeth “the Countess” Johnson. But the thing is, the visual grandeur of Hotel along with the blinding star power of Gaga distracted from the fact that the season’s actual storyline was a bit all over the place, especially once the season hit its midway mark. Murphy and Falchuk had a stellar premise: a glittering hotel filled with death and manipulation simmering under the surface, but once the storyline started slipping, that original premise couldn’t hold up the rest of the season.
While it was definitely a fresher cast with actors like Cheyenne Jackson, Matt Bomer, Wes Bentley, Finn Wittrock, and Gaga at the helm, it felt as if we almost needed our old buddies to swoop back in to solidify things. Halfway through the season is where things really started to take a turn for the worse, as the original plot of homicide detective John Lowe (Bentley) investigating the Hotel Cortez got lost as we dove deeper into the Countess’ past life. Overall, it felt like we were slowly falling into a wormhole into a completely different series.
American Horror Story Started Prioritizing Visuals Over Story
In many ways, that’s exactly what happened with Season 6, American Horror Story: Roanoke, which, again, is another incredible premise given the amount of lore that has come out of the “lost colony” of Roanoke in North Carolina from a historical standpoint. The season had some more star power in its arsenal, with Cuba Gooding Jr. fresh off his incredibly successful run as O.J. Simpson in American Horror Story’s sister series, American Crime Story (also executive produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, among others). Gaga appeared again in the season, albeit in a much smaller role this time around.
Between Roanoke sometimes being so dimly lit that it was genuinely hard to see what was going on as well as the crumbling plot line, it was just another Hotel — but quite a bit worse. The premise breaks the season up into two parts, the first being the reenactment section of a documentary about a couple living in a supernaturally-charged house in Roanoke, and the second being extra footage from the sequel to the original documentary. Despite the interesting premise, though, it was tough to follow because of how meta the whole thing felt with it being a show about a documentary and then the behind-the-scenes footage of the documentary itself.
The seasons following Roanoke only fell further and further down that same path: most of the seasons had great premises in theory, but when it came to the execution, things just didn’t pan out as well as they should have. With the current Season 12 they decided to throw another bait of star power our way by adding Kim Kardashian to the cast while also bringing back Emma Roberts to the scene. And once again, it’s just not working. For one, it’s just not putting the “horror” in American Horror Story: it’s become more so like any other television show as opposed to one where the main focus is being creepy and terrifying, which is a major departure for the series. On top of that, it’s a bit tough to accept Kardashian as a force to be reckoned with on the show as we’re all so used to seeing her solely through the reality TV lens.
American Horror Story Used To Have Complex Characters
The main thing that each of those first four seasons of American Horror Story had in common was that they all stuck to the main storyline of their respective premises. Sure, there were tons of sub-plots in each season, but most of them uplifted the larger story being told instead of diverting attention away and getting — for lack of a better term — pretty lost in the sauce. The original four seasons also had the quadruple threat of Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, and Lily Rabe: an absolutely unbeatable group of actors who took each season by storm and were a large reason why American Horror Story became as successful as it did.
If Season 1’s American Horror Story: Murder House was the perfect hook to the series, then the following year’s American Horror Story: Asylum and American Horror Story: Coven were the glory years of the franchise. Each of those seasons melded true terror with incredible character development and some serious sprinkles of good humor here and there, making them both compelling to watch and more accessible to people who wouldn’t usually go for the horror genre. There was a clear storyline in each season, and guest stars like Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Chloë Sevigny, and James Cromwell only upped the quality of the series. Things were definitely a bit overly flamboyant when it came to Freak Show, but that came with the territory of its premise. Looking back, this is where things first started to slip with the series, but Freak Show almost gets a pass because of Jessica Lange’s stellar performance as Elsa Mars and the return of our beloved Pepper (Naomi Grossman) from Asylum.
Perhaps it was the fact that Ryan Murphy started stretching himself a little too thin after a few seasons of American Horror Story. As the series became more and more popular, he became even more in-demand when it came to writing, producing, and directing. Directly following Freak Show, Murphy started in on all of the following shows: American Crime Story, Scream Queens, Feud, Pose, The Politician, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Hollywood, and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. That is a lot to juggle, which is why it’s no surprise that American Horror Story was moved to the back burner. Those first four seasons of the series, though, were just about as close to perfect as it gets when it comes to horror television — so at least we’ll always have those to run back to.
The Big Picture
- American Horror Story lost its quality after Season 4, with later seasons feeling messy and with convoluted storylines.
- The emphasis on visuals over story became more apparent in later seasons, such as Hotel and Roanoke. While the premises were interesting, they fell short in execution and became difficult to follow.
- The early seasons had complex characters and a clear storyline, thanks to the talented cast of Lange, Paulson, Peters, and Rabe. The show’s success declined as Ryan Murphy took on too many projects and American Horror Story took a backseat.
