Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thoughts On American Horror Story: Freak Show


Once upon a time, I used to do recaps of American Horror Story (and Glee, for that matter), but I quit a few episodes into Coven, principally because I quit watching the show.  In fact, though it sits somewhere on the labyrinth that is my Netflix queue (I feel like there are films on that list that will never actually escape at this point-I hit my 500 film limit a while ago), I have little yearning to go out and finish the series.

However, I have heard such interesting things about Freak Show that over the last three days I decided to binge-watch the first seven episodes, and I have to admit that I’m pleasantly surprised.  While it lacks the gravitas of Asylum and the surprise of Murder House, it may be the best-plotted Ryan Murphy show I’ve ever seen.  People seem to be a bit turned off by the deliberate, and occasionally even slow pace, but this is Ryan Murphy we are talking about-he starts and ends “major” relationships in single episodes of shows.  The fact that he seems to have actually planned out and kept Freak Show relatively grounded in a coherent story is nothing short of a miracle (I say this knowing full-well that next week one of the freaks could end up being an alien).

As a result, I’m not going to get back into recapping Freak Show (maybe I’ll start again with Season 5), but I figured I’d go through the five things I love and the five things I can’t stand coming out of the first seven episodes (Obviously, spoilers ensue)

The Good

1. Finn Wittrock’s Dandy Mott: Honestly, this is enough reason to watch the show.  Wittrock (whom I have met, and really is just spectacularly dreamy in person, to the point that I met Andrew Garfield moments later and couldn’t stop thinking about how attractive Wittrock was) is wonderful as Dandy, a sociopath with the mentality of a child and the sense of morality of a barracuda.  His lines can be both ridiculous and frightening.  And Wittrock isn’t afraid to make Dandy weirdly intoxicating and oddly real.  Plus, the American Psycho homage was, well, something to behold.

2. The Pacing: I said it above, but the pacing of the show has been beautifully-restrained, and has only helped sell the story.  The Dandy plot, in particular, seems unusually deliberate for Ryan Murphy, as he normally would have had Dandy out killing someone in the first episode.  There’s also the giant question mark of which villains we should fear the most: is it Dandy or is it Denis O’Hare’s sadistic Stanley, out to profit from the deaths of the freaks?

3. Jessica Lange: Lange’s story is weirdly similar to last season’s (a once-powerful woman clinging to her fading youth and delusion), but this year she has a darkness that goes with it.  I love the way that she finds the complete lack of moral compass and sense of reality that is Elsa: this is a woman surrounded by the absurd, and she has pronounced herself a god, but there is absolutely no hope for her dreams, and we as the audience see the pointlessness of her life, but she doesn’t, which results in a sense of danger surrounding her.

4. The Darkness: The reality of this year, quite frankly, is that it might be the darkest and bleakest season so far of the series.  You see that in Elsa, who had any chances of stardom stolen from her when her legs were amputated during a snuff film (again, dark).  You see that with the devastating long sequence death of Matt Bomer’s Andy (and the way that Dandy and Andy serve as weird mirrors of each other).  You see that in the death of arguably the series’ most lovable character Ma Petite, when the death seems so unnecessary.  And of course, also in the last episode, you see that in the way that Penny is forced into becoming a freak by her father, who tattoos her face because she disobeyed him.  These are rough, difficult, permanent scars that are inflicted on these people in a way that twinges a bit more than usual for this show.

5. The Celia Weston Scenes: At first this was a bit of a downer for me, as was the entire Denis O’Hare storyline (at some point they’re going to explain the Viking joke, correct?), but this is yet another payoff of moving at a slower pace.  It seems that the Weston scenes may be building to something-perhaps that all of the freaks have died at Stanley’s hand?  That we’ll someday see some of our villains like Stanley or Dandy in her cavalcade?  There’s so much potential here, and building potential is not something Ryan Murphy does well, so this is definitely in the plus column for now.

The Bad

1. Angela Bassett: Hopefully we’re headed in a different direction with the Oscar-nominated actress, but at this point she seems to be woefully underused by the show, and is forced throughout the series to use the phrase “ding-a-ling” which seems a bit much.  Honestly, and I mean this in as nice of a way as I can because the horrible nature of the show has been a solid high point for the series (it’s received an infusion of The Leftovers), but did we really need Desiree to have her dream stolen so quickly with the death of Dr. Bonham?  Couldn't that plot line have continued a bit longer?

2. The Twisty Back Story: I liked the back stories on nearly every character on the show, with this exception.  Twisty the Clown was far more menacing, and in my opinion, effective, when we had no idea what was going on behind the mask.  I understand that his being a murderer without as much knowledge of what he is doing compared with Dandy’s ruthless evil is a solid juxtaposition, but why did we even need to know that evil can come from good as well as bad?  Why not leave his creepy, horrible clown as a creepy horrible clown that eventually inspires Dandy to become just as ruthless?

3. Patti LaBelle: What precisely was the point of hiring someone as famous as LaBelle to be in the series just to have her be killed off without any sort of character development?  If they had to do that, why not pick an unknown actor who is looking for a break rather than a platinum-recording artist?  Considering how much singing randomly goes on at the Freak Show, couldn’t we at least have had a song before she went?

4. Michael Chiklis: I don’t like Dell, and like all Ryan Murphy productions, he’s the character who I find could have been cut (every season has at least one plotline that doesn’t need to be there, and Dell the Strong Man is certainly that role this year).  Dell is unnecessarily angry and illogical (he’s already a pariah-why does it matter to his fellow carnies if he was also gay), and quite frankly I haven’t seen enough character growth or rationale to keep him around, and his actions in killing off Ma Petite were just awful.

5. Emma Roberts: I don’t get what the appeal is here yet.  Her character’s actions are always shifting, and she’s not a strong enough actress yet to really sell these scenes.  Her role should be more interesting, particularly since she may be the most moral person so far in the season, excepting Ethel (she’s one of the only major characters who hasn’t killed someone quite yet), but I don’t see the draw to her at all yet.

The Undecided

1. Gabourey Sidibe: I don’t quite want to list all three of the main African-American actresses as disappointing this season quite yet (even if they all three feel vastly underwritten at this point), but I’m hoping that Sidibe is at least somewhat fun next week.  Sidibe is great with comedy on the red carpet, and her one-liners are frequently hilarious in other films/shows, so hopefully next week’s episode, where it looks like she is a featured player, will be great.

2. The Crossover Element: Ryan Murphy has claimed that all of the series are related, but doesn’t seem to have an ending planned.  Either he’s flying by the seat of his pants (always terrible in his case) or he has a plan to link the seasons together in the future, which would be pretty incredible if done well.  We’ll see when Lily Rabe returns as Sister Mary Eunice if this ends up being completely awesome or not.

3. Sarah Paulson’s Story Arch: The twins, it should be noted, are incredibly watchable.  Paulson’s acting is sublime, and they are fascinating in the way they are similar and different.  However, their story has been stuck in park since the first episode, and there hasn’t been much growth in their plot.  Clearly they are gearing up for them to be separated, but can’t they do something else in the meantime?

And those are my thoughts so far on the season.  What about yours?  Are you watching Freak Show, and where does it rank compared to past seasons of the show?  Where do you hope to see the show progress in coming weeks?  Which of this season’s newbies do you hope becomes part of the “regulars?”  Share in the comments!

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