American Horror Story: Bitchcraft (#3.1)

Now entering Ryan Murphy’s School for Gifted Youngsters (McKinley High, you’ve been replaced).  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are in season three of American Horror Story.

I haven’t had the chance to re-watch some of the past seasons of the show, but I can tell you that, compared with some of the past seasons, I’m a teensy bit more nervous than I was after watching the premiere episode.  There was an incredible lot to like about the first episode.  Jessica Lange’s latest incarnation, Fiona, for example.  Lange has incredible presence, and manages to use her sexuality as a brandished weapon (though not as literally as Taissa Farmiga's Zoey).  The fact that she is the “Grand Supreme,” the most powerful witch of her era is a given the moment she click-clacks onto the screen.

The only other cast member that manages to equal her in this episode, though in a far more subdued way, is Sarah Paulson and her Cordelia.  Paulson, the great treasure that we’ve discovered from this series (am I the only one really feeling that she’s about to get her first Oscar nomination for Twelve Years a Slave?), shows what years of emotional abuse from her mother Fiona have done to her.  She’s clearly a mousy but powerful witch who spends most of her time tending to plants and instructing the young girls.

The rest of the episode wasn’t really my cup of tea, though there’s certainly potential all around (I promise that next week this will read less like a review and more like a recap, but this is my first encounter with these characters, after all).  The new cast members didn’t really catch on with me.  Gabourey Sidibe I love to death, but she was given less than nothing to do in this episode.  Emma Roberts, who is her inferior as an actress, gets a more robust role (she’s in the opening credits) and as a faded teen star (hmm…potentially life imitating art?) she shows a casual indifference to life that should be good for some chilling scenes later in the season, provided that she takes after her more talented costars.

Two actresses that we’re all more than aware can act that I also wasn’t feeling quite yet?  Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett.  From what I’ve heard I’m in the minority here (particularly with Bates), but I thought both of them played far too high into the rafters.  This is something I’m not as concerned with quite yet (like I am with Roberts) because both of these actresses can rise-and-fall a character as necessary and they were surely heightened to impress the craziness of their time (their scenes were nearly two centuries ago).  Once they come back to the modern era, I suspect that they’ll be able to join Fiona and Cordelia in a less scenery-chewing way.

The episode was oddly structured as well.  Taissa Farmiga’s voiceovers throughout the episode seemed eerily reminiscent of Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan monologues in the Twilight saga.  Her power to make men’s head explodes when she causes them to orgasm was a clever joke at the beginning of the episode, though part of me wonders if this is going to be a decision the writers regret if she can’t eventually get with Tate…err Kyle (who else had Murder House flashbacks during that party scene?).

One of the best things about this episode, though, was the wonderful actress love-in this episode received.  Evan Peters and Denis O’Hare aside, this looks to be an entirely female-oriented season, something that I would have thought impossible on FX in the past, and if nothing else, it’s going to be a Bechdel grand slam (though the reverse Bechdel was passed, I doubt it will be very often).  I haven't even mentioned Jamie Brewer, Frances Conroy, and soon-to-be-spotted Patti Lupone-it's a wonderfully female-driven season, and I couldn't be happier.

All-in-all there’s more than enough to get me back week-after-week, but I just felt there was something off throughout.  What did you think?  Is there a particular actress or performance that you were drawn to (for me Lange and Paulson seem the best so far, but I’ll reserve judgment until I get to know the gang a little better)?  Did you also feel the Twilight overtones?  And what direction do you see the season headed?