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?
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