{"id":15014,"date":"2015-01-28T14:47:57","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T22:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theculturednerd.com\/?p=15014"},"modified":"2015-01-28T14:47:57","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T22:47:57","slug":"american-horror-story-freak-show-review-spoiler-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theculturednerd.org\/?p=15014","title":{"rendered":"American Horror Story Freak Show: Review (Spoiler-Free)"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Horror Story<\/em> has grown to become a show I love to hate. This is the kind of show we all want to enjoy, but as seasons progress, I\u2019m finding myself increasingly less enthusiastic. Season 3 of American Horror Story<\/em> was the least terrifying of all of the seasons thus far, leaning much more towards comedy and drama–an intentional move on the writers\u2019 part. Still, we were at least left\u00a0with a dose of torture and threw in some zombies for good measure. \u00a0I had high hopes that Season 4 would be truly horrific, considering the subject: Freak Show. From the beginning of the show\u2019s creation, creator Ryan Murphy had expressed his distaste for a circus-type theme, but for some reason was swayed. While there was a lot of death in Season 4, horror was never a part of it. Even the fan-favorite serial killer clown wasn\u2019t around for more than a few episodes. Despite promises from the show\u2019s creator that he\u2019d return to haunt the town of Jupiter, Florida, he only appeared for a few short moments in the finale.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

From the very beginning, I was worried that AHS<\/em> would depend on the freaks themselves to provide the source of horror. That may have worked in the 70\u2019s or 80\u2019s, but this is 2015, and our world is generally accepting\u00a0of disability, not horrified by it. Back in the day, folks with disabilities were put on display for us to gasp and gawk at. There\u2019s a reason freak shows aren\u2019t a thing anymore; somewhere along the way, we realized these were real people, and deserved to be treated as such.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not saying the show was completely deplorable. I really enjoyed the thematic elements that American Horror Story has been known to create. The artistic depiction of a freak show in the 50\u2019s holds a tragic beauty to it. As always, the sets and costumes were beautifully done. I also think it\u2019s wonderful that the creators decided to use actual \u201cfreaks\u201d, folks with known disabilities, for some of the characters. I\u2019ll admit, my harsh criticism of Freak Show<\/i>\u00a0does come from high expectations for a \u201chorror\u201d show that\u2019s been known to be depressing and dark. What we\u2019ve seen the last couple years has definitely been angled to draw in a larger demographic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to take a brief moment to mention that the creators, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, are also responsible for the atrocity known as \u201cGlee.\u201d Glee\u2019s cancellation was announced in 2014, and I\u2019m sure it was before the writing for \u201cFreak Show\u201d had been completed. This was the first season of AHS to feature musical numbers — No less than 5 full songs, to be exact. We rarely went an episode without some sort of solo performance by the cast. It very much felt like Murphy is trying to cling to the dying ashes of his high school musical drama by forcing shoddy musical covers down our throats.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The acting, per usual, was incredibly well done. Evan Peters and Jessica Lange continue to steal the spotlight, albeit with poorly written characters. Peters plays the famed Lobster Boy, whose deformity and history are based on a real-life serial killer. The character\u2019s true horror was only hinted at briefly for one episode; Jimmy Darling spends the majority of the season whining and drinking. Lange continues to be \"Finn<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>typecast, once again playing a twisted Prima Donna who you don\u2019t know whether to love or hate. For a season that spent so much time on character development, none of the characters really tugged at my heartstrings. We saw several multi-episode arcs explaining the origin of one freak or another; these characters were quickly pushed from the limelight as soon as their episodes were over. Death of a character should make us feel something, and this is the first time AHS has failed pretty hard at the human, emotional element. Nevertheless, the show continues in its tradition of discovering up-and-coming stars. Finn Wittrock stole the show as insane pretty-boy Dandy Mott.\u00a0Some of the best moments of the season were the celebrity cameos; we saw appearances by Wes Bentley, Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka, and Matt Bomer.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk plot. There definitely isn\u2019t an overarching plot involved; Instead, we were treated to several mini-stories: A con man and woman trying to sell deformed body parts to a museum, an alcoholic strong man who can\u2019t figure out which team he plays for, several forbidden love affairs, and two different serial killers all featured in this year\u2019s display. The finale was drastic and dramatic, but used cheap methods to bring the story to a close. While everyone got their due justice by the end, the saga never really came together. It\u2019s disappointing that in our times where so much source material is accessible, Freak Show <\/i>didn\u2019t manage to capture any of it. The show shamelessly borrowed from the 1930\u2019s black and white film Freaks<\/i>, as well as American Psycho.<\/i> While the former was eventually credited, stories like \u201cCarnivale\u201d have taken us through a freak show saga much more eloquently.<\/p>\n

I will say that I\u2019m excited how the seasons are beginning to get tied together. Fans were treated to easter eggs and connections from my favorite season, Asylum.<\/i> However, since the show seems to be continuing to stray away from any sort of true horror, I\u2019m no longer going to be following it as closely. If you haven’t seen this season yet, give it a once over, but don’t get your hopes too high. Murphy may be gaining a more mainstream audience, but in doing so, he\u2019s leaving true horror fans in the dust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nAmerican Horror Story has grown to become a show I love to hate. This is the kind of show we…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “American Horror Story Freak Show: Review (Spoiler-Free)”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":15024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,19],"tags":[42,58,59,60,262,281,578,736],"class_list":["post-15014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-tv","category-tv","tag-ahs","tag-american-horror-story","tag-american-horror-story-freak-show","tag-american-horror-story-season-4","tag-featured","tag-freakshow","tag-reviews","tag-tv-reviews","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Horror Story Freak Show: Review (Spoiler-Free) - The Cultured Nerd<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theculturednerd.org\/?p=15014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Horror Story Freak Show: Review (Spoiler-Free) - The Cultured Nerd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American Horror Story has grown to become a show I love to hate. 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