Every time American Horror Story delves into a different genre of show, they've hit it dead on the nose every time. My Roanoke Nightmare was perfect; the reunion reality show was completely accurate even as it went off the. American Horror Story took us back to a 50s freak show carnival this year, complete with killer clowns and lobster boys. The Best Episode of “American Horror Story” Was Everything “Roanoke” Failed To Be. Can we just bring Pepper back? Please? In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I’ve never been a big fan of “American Horror Story.” I try to at least give each new season a chance, but I must admit that I have not seen every single episode of every single season. If that means that my overall opinion of the show is invalid, then so be it. But what I have seen is the entirety of “American Horror Story: Roanoke” – the season finale, at the time of writing this post, airs tonight. And my main issue with the found footage- inspired season is the very same issue that has prevented me from sticking through most of the show’s seasons. Based on what I’ve seen, “American Horror Story” is less about story and more about creepy images being thrown at a wall in the hopes that some of them will stick and get people talking – obviously this is working out pretty well for FX, despite my own personal feelings. Evan Peters stars as the psychotic mass murdering teen in the first season of 'American Horror Story.'. American Horror Story: Roanoke Recap: I Did the 'American Horror Story' season 2 finale deliver a satisfying ending to the tales of Briarcliff? True to form, in nine complete episodes of “American Horror Story: Roanoke,” the show’s writers have thus far failed to make me care about anyone or anything in it; with each new “twist,” the season has only become more convoluted and, well, less interesting. We’ve now seen three different sets of characters go through the same exact motions, and the story has been stretched so thin that I’m not sure how we even made it to ten episodes. Mind you, “Roanoke” has mostly been a whole lot more restrained than previous seasons – I only made it through one episode of “Hotel” because the story had already gone off the tracks within the first half hour – but it still suffers from the same storytelling issue that has plagued the show since the beginning. Despite hanging around them for multiple hours, across a couple months, I felt no semblance of a connection to the mostly unlikable characters, and by the time they were all brutally butchered – for shock value rather than dramatic impact, of course – I found myself once again wondering why I was still watching. Literally nothing I’ve seen in the nine hours of “Roanoke” thus far has made me feel ANYTHING. Like, literally anything at all. But there is some good to be found within “American Horror Story.” Fourth season “Freak Show” had many of the same problems that “Roanoke” has suffered from, and it similarly ended with nearly all the characters being killed off ? But one thing “Freak Show” pulled off that “Roanoke” wasn’t able to was having at least one episode that made sitting through the whole season feel worthwhile. The tenth episode, titled “Orphans,” was perhaps the very best episode of the FX series to date, and thinking back on it, it exceeded by being everything that “American Horror Story” so rarely aims to be. The episode mostly centered on pinhead Pepper, a character who had previously been seen in “Asylum” – it was the first time the show directly merged two seasons together, with the events of “Freak Show” taking place a couple years prior to the events of “Asylum.” At the start of the episode, Pepper awakens to find that her husband has passed away in his sleep, and we then head back in time to learn the stories of how Elsa Mars acquired her favorite “monster” and how Pepper met the love of her life. Eventually, Elsa decides that it’s time for Pepper to “go back home,” and she hands her over to her sister. She’s subsequently framed for a murder she did not commit and sent off to Briarcliff Manor. Highlighted by a gut- wrenching performance from Naomi Grossman, “Orphans” was the finest storytelling that has ever been on display in “American Horror Story,” so full of genuine, raw emotion that it almost felt like it belonged in a different series entirely. Written by James Wong, the incredible hour of television put aside all the show’s trademark style and shock in favor of story and substance, and it was so good that it added a previously un- present emotional depth to the season as a whole. The episode wore its heart on its sleeve, and the humanity on display was nothing short of beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking. I cried throughout the entire episode, and I get misty- eyed just thinking about it. But here we are. It’s been two years since “Orphans” blew me away and had me reaching for the tissues, and not since December 1. I ever again, while watching “American Horror Story,” felt even an iota of what I felt on that night – certainly not at any point during “Roanoke,” which I’ve been completely detached from since the beginning. Granted, I’m not demanding that a horror TV show make me cry every week, but to feel absolutely nothing at all over the course of nine full episodes of any show is the single biggest problem a series can have. And I can’t help but wonder. Do the show’s writers not know how to tell a good story, or is storytelling just not something “AHS” is interested in? Maybe it’s time they remove the word “story” from the title altogether. But this. Now this is what storytelling looks like.
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