Just a reminder-I get super spoiler-y on my recaps, so if you're like me and nearly a week behind on your television viewing, bookmark this recap and watch the show first!
The first episode opens on Adam Levine and Janna Dewan-Tatum started the show with a romantic rendezvous in the horror house. Being that this is AHS, the dalliance is a little more than kinky, and faster than you can say Casey Becker, Adam Levine is lying in a pool of his own blood, his arm in the general vicinity of the rest of his body, leaving poor Janna Dewan-Tatum running through the house. It was a storyline that was harkened back to several times throughout the episode, unlike some other story lines from the past season where it sort of was "murder, then nothing else" later in the episodes, and so I sort of wonder, since we didn't actually see either character die and that neither actor (or "actor" in Levine's case) is a complete unknown if we may see the characters yet again.
And also, before we get in, did anyone else find it odd that Zachary Quinto wasn't in last night's episode? I didn't get to see the trailer for next week, so I'm assuming he's showing up soon, but he did get top, non-alphabetical billing, so you'd think the story would revolve around him a little bit more.
But I digress, as there's so many juicy bits to discuss from last night. The casting of this show shows a real talent on Murphy's behalf in trying to find characters that perfectly fit their parts. Of course there's Jessica Lange and James Cromwell, two veteran, venerated actors, but you also have a healthy mix of young up-and-comers (Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson) with actors who are criminally undercast (Chloe Sevigny, Joseph Fiennes). I will start out with Lange, because she's the clear drawing point to the show. Murphy gives her another strong-willed, self-assured character, but unlike Constance Langdon, her Sister Jude is not the holder of all of the cards-she's a character that is on the other side of the answers. I love that Murphy lets Lange, who is more than capable of the subtle but is at her best when she's shooting for the moon, run wild with the character. She's able to instill a sense of religious menace in her character, but also a series of question marks-not just the why of how she came to be the daunting nun that she is, but also the why behind whether or not she is our deeply complicated hero or just one of many villains in the show. Constance Langdon was a character that toed that line rather ferociously last season, before settling upon true, complete villainess toward the end. I suspect we may have a similar ride with Sister Jude.
If the first episode is any indication, the show may center around the two most interesting performances of last season-that of Lange's character, and that of Evan Peters' Kit Walker. Peters looks completely different than Tate Langdon last season, and I'll say that I'm a huge fan of the change-his sandy blond hair works well for him. I also love that we get a bit of an inverse of last season here as well-last season we had Tate, the murderer, who gets to roam without justice. Here we have Kit Walker, accused of being a serial killer named Bloody Face, and from all accounts so far, he's completely innocent of the crimes, one of which is killing his own wife. It's a bit of justice for those of us who had somewhat hoped for a second season with those characters and wanted to see more comeuppance for Tate. Peters is brought to the Manor while awaiting trial, and in the process, since again, this is AHS, he's the one who drew the naked card. Murphy takes advantage of Peters striking resemblance to Malcolm McDowell late in the episode, when he has him pull an Alex de Forrest eye-popping, and while under the examining table of James Cromwell.
Cromwell's character is my biggest eyebrow-raiser of the episode (of which, if you can't tell, I was a big, big fan)-while he's a sensational actor, I'm not 100% sold yet on what his character is clearly setting up-mad scientist is such a classic horror trope, but another word for classic is cliche, and I'm curious to see if Murphy gives the character enough room to breath and break out of this standard plot point.
I'm not going to go completely into the episode (it's getting a wee bit late and I need to finish my TiVo clean-out from my trip), but I will say that I loved a lot of the smaller plotlines, in addition to the Lange and Peters ones, including Joseph Fiennes handsome priest (and Lange's clear lust for him), Lily Rabe's complicated nun (a vastly underused actress-I'm glad we're going to get to see her really stretch her acting muscles this season), and Sarah Paulson's lesbian journalist (again, another vastly underused character actress, and a recent Emmy nominee for her great work in Game Change). There were some Murphy touches that I didn't care for (a lot of commentary about race and sexuality, and with Murphy you're always at risk of a lecture or a moral within his show, so I'm hoping that he steers clear of that since those are always the worst executed episodes of Glee and The New Normal, no matter now noble the intentions), but overall, I'm totally bought into this season.
What about you-are you pumped to be back into this American Horror world? Which new character are you most/least intrigued by? And do you think we're dealing with aliens, monsters, or Constance Langdon's fourth, never named child in the woods?
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