American Horror Story: Freak Show

I will always see Jessica Lange as her character in King Kong. That movie was awesome. It used to come on once a year on network television and my cousins and I would watch gleefully.

I am watching it and I give major kudos for this series to be able to reinvent itself each year.

I'm just not finding the material "scary." More disturbing, which is fine. The clown guy didn't freak me out. I did find the scene with his hostages (cage, etc) more intense, but not scary.

Homicidal maniacs just don't freak me out. The supernatural, however, does. (Good/Evil, devil, witchcraft, ghosts. All prior seasons were more frightening.)

This isn't a complaint, though. I like the disturbing quality to it. I do sense that some supernatural elements will be brought in. A fortune teller? Perhaps.

The only downside this has so far (for me) is that I truly loved Carnivale on HBO and all other carnival/creepy "freak show" stuff will forever be compared to that. And likely fall short. But, again, very small quibbles.

I watched this first episode, but it might be my last. I thought the visuals were great: the scary clown and the intro, in particular.

But the characterization and writing is poor. Caricatures as characters -- the bubble-gum chewing candy striper stands out. The Strain, another Fox series I'm following, suffers from the same problem.

I'm kind of with Tinman here. The intro and the clown were quite Ewww inducing but I don't know. The snippet of Angela Bassett has me interested enough to give it another try.

I loved the way she and Lange played off one another in the last one.

Anyone still watching this? I kinda am, kinda am not. My husband accidentally deleted an episode from the DVR before I saw it, and I was like, "Yeah, ok. No big deal."

I *am* glad the scary clown is gone. The episode that got deleted was the part 1 that I guess set up the Mordrake thing, so I didn't really understand all of the part 2, but I got the idea that Scary Clown is dead and some wandering spirit now.


I'm not liking this season as much as I liked the witches setup last year.

CrastersBabies said:

I'm just not finding the material "scary." More disturbing, which is fine.

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This is exactly how I feel. I just didn't know how to articulate what it was, but this is it exactly. (I know this was posted, like, a month ago, but I just came across it.)

Listening to a Russian woman talk to a two-headed twin about their masturbation habits isn't scary. Super uncomfortable, yes. Frightening, no.

Which isn't for me, so I think I might being going back to watching horror movies. Oh well. I really loved the idea of a horror TV series, but I think horror is just a really difficult thing to do that way.

I'm not a huge fan of clowns, and Twisty, for the most part, was really fricking creepy, but my heart kind of broke with his back story and eventual demise.

I was sad that there didn't seem to be much interest in this show, but after the last episode, I think I'm out.

This was my first attempt at this series, and I had such high hopes, what with the circus-y type setting (which, to me, is inherently creepy) and Twisty!! (holy cripes, I was immediately smitten!), but it all just went south for me.

I can't find any "horror" in this show. It's just unpleasant and hard to watch, in a "that's just f***in' sick" sort of way. Oh well, it's not the first time my hopes have been dashed.

I started watching during Asylum and caught up with Murder House before Coven aired. I have to say, Freakshow isn't my favorite, although I was really happy to see Matt Bomer, even if it was just for one episode before he got dismembered by Dandy the psycho and apparently wasn't dead yet.

Will keep watching because I'm kind of invested in the series, but it'll probably stay on my "wait until after NaNo is done" list.

This season feels like it's been slapped together to me. The story is all over the place unlike the previous seasons.

I watched last night's episode and feel confused. The chronology is all mixed up. I think it was 2 weeks ago that they showed Ma Petite being carried to her death by Maggie but then there she was on last night's episode. And the twins were killed a couple of weeks ago but were back last night too.

Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention - is it flashbacks? Doesn't seem to be. But I'm not even sure why I'm watching anymore.

I'm barely watching it. I actually think I have 2 episodes queued. I kind of skip over it in lieu of things that are usually secondary DVR choices. It's just falling flat for me in so many ways. I think part of it is that Carnivale on HBO pretty much sealed the deal for carnival-themed supernatural or horror shows. Can't get any better than that. (Or even Bradbury's "Something Wicked this way Comes.")

And why the singing numbers? I fast forward through those. Is this Murphy trying to revive Glee-esque musical numbers on television? The characters that interest me aren't on much, like Kathy Bates' bearded lady. I just don't care about many of the carnival members. Maybe lobster boy a little?

Just watched the Halloween two-parter, and I have mixed feelings. It's not that scary, and the visuals are a bit . . . I dunno, obvious? (Meaning the overall aesthetic--it's exactly what I'd expect from a Hollywood style "freak show," if you know what I mean.) I don't feel surprised or disturbed by it, if that makes any sense. I did, however, enjoy the hell out of Wes Bentley, and his collecting of everyone's sob stories. That was an interesting way to get a lot of exposition and backstory hammered out at once, but it didn't feel forced somehow. At least not to me.

Sarah Paulson's character(s) seem the most tacked-on so far. Conjoined, one of them is evil and wants to kill the other, the other one is innocent and terrified of the other, and they can communicate telepathically. Meh, if you want to see a super-weird and legit creepy story about conjoined twins, watch Takashi Miike's episode of the first Three . . . Extremes anthology. The visual effects are impressive though. At first, I was like, "Well, obvious CGI is obvious," just looking at the heads, but it's not that simple, is it? How do they do her wardrobe? How does she use her hands/arms? So yeah, that was cool.

I can do without the psychopathic man-child with mommy issues, yet again. Which is a shame because I feel like he's being set up as the main villain.

I'm missing Jamie Brewer, but glad to see so many real-life "freaks" in the cast. Mat Fraser is my fave so far. That was the big draw of movie Freaks from back in the 1940s, and it seems like they're building on that same theme: mostly good people trying to navigate a world that doesn't understand them. It's not really scary, but I support that as an idea. The Halloween two-parter was moving.

I thought this season would be AMAZING, but I'm honestly kinds bored... I enjoyed Coven a lot more. I'm not sure what's wrong/missing. Maybe just too many characters and too much soap opera this time.

I haven't watched any of the seasons except the first, but my friend loves this season (mostly because of Evan Peters. Okay, completely because of Evan Peters). From what I've heard, it seems like Ryan Murphy is adding too much of Glee into the mix. The covers of more modern songs in what's supposed to be 1950s Florida?

I have mixed feelings on this season so far. I love the idea of the old time freakshows, but I think I was expecting more horror? Season 1, you knew something bad was going down in that house. Season 2, you had various levels of insanity/mad science/possession going on. Season 3, I haven't season yet, but will be catching on Netflix in December.

This season just doesn't seem to have that spark of horror to it. They sort of had creepy stuff going on with the clown, but then that was wrapped up. Then they had the Halloween two-parter, and that was pretty amazing. It seems to be picking up a little now, but I'm still missing the horror aspect.

However, I do appreciate that they are trying to show how "freaks" and "normals" are not all that different, and maybe the regular people are more freakish than freaks themselves.

Plus, there's the fact their using a lot of people who don't normally get to showcase their work.

juniper said:

I watched last night's episode and feel confused. The chronology is all mixed up.

Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention - is it flashbacks? Doesn't seem to be. But I'm not even sure why I'm watching anymore.

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Those weren't actually happening. It was a "what if" scenario. I assumed it's we're in the head of the person for a minute as they are going through how they will kill someone, and then when the time comes, it doesn't go as planned.

Kweei said:

I have mixed feelings on this season so far. I love the idea of the old time freakshows, but I think I was expecting more horror?

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Same. The last seasons, around episode 4 or 5, something so huge would happen, and I'd be thinking, "where can the show go from here?!" And then the following episodes wouldn't disappoint.

It happened this season during the whole Twisty episode (don't want to be specific in case somebody hasn't reached the episode) But ever since then, I'm wondering what's the point.

And I want more horror too. Coven bored me because of the lack of suspense. I was hoping that would change this season.

Finale tonight! I am excited for that, even though I don't think the writing is all it could have been.

I do enjoy the show, most nights. It's my first season of AHS, so I have nothing to compare it to. I like the humor, like in last week's episode, where I was horrified to find myself cackling at the shocking demise of one main character It was so expected yet completely unexpected that it would go that way, lol.

Dandy is also incredibly hot to me (the actor, not the character!). I don't think I would have kept watching except that he's so hot and his character is so humorously completely twisted. His victim who wouldn't die is the type of thing I do enjoy.

The musical numbers were awesome with the intentional anachronism, imho. I love Magical Realism, so having time elements out of place in a completely unexplained and symbolic/fantastical way is something I enjoy.

The plotlines are just not really cohesive enough*, and some of the sexual motifs are overdone and stand out too much. But I do like it overall.

* The plots have too much happening at times that are convenient instead of stemming from each character's experience, imho. I don't mind randomness (I enjoy that), but I do hate convenience driving a plot.

I love this show! Not my favorite season, but I have to say that the theme song this time around and the cinematography are amazing. I, too, love Dandy. Funny, this season feels safe to me. I feel like the first two seasons pushed envelopes, and did it with finesse, but now I don't see the edge in it like I use. Eh well. Still enjoyed it. Will still watch the series tonight (or tomorrow).

Yeah, truly not scary.

Asylum was scary because the cruelty of asylumns has never ceased to exist, only evolved into more subtle, socially acceptable forms and you know it's happening in your local asylum.

Murder House was scary because you never knew who was dead and who wasn't until you found their body; and the neighbor girl's dark little statements and warnings were simply creepy.

But Coven, too, wasn't scary, just like Freak Show. It was this ridiculous "Let's show people we're just people, too!" group hug. Yeah, witches and people with deformities are people with feelings and flesh and blood and stuff, but do we need a huddle-together-in-a-blankie show about it when we expect to be scared?

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:

Yeah, truly not scary.

Asylum was scary because the cruelty of asylumns has never ceased to exist, only evolved into more subtle, socially acceptable forms and you know it's happening in your local asylum.

Murder House was scary because you never knew who was dead and who wasn't until you found their body; and the neighbor girl's dark little statements and warnings were simply creepy.

But Coven, too, wasn't scary, just like Freak Show. It was this ridiculous "Let's show people we're just people, too!" group hug. Yeah, witches and people with deformities are people with feelings and flesh and blood and stuff, but do we need a huddle-together-in-a-blankie show about it when we expect to be scared?

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Yeah you hit the nail on the head. With Murder House, the major reveal occurred midway through with the daughter, but then touching upon high school shooting, abortions, adultery all came together to freak me out. With Asylum, Sarah Paulson's character really got me. Imagine going from one psychotic situation to another? Although, when I think of it, that pretty much happened to most of the MCs, including Jessica Lange's character.

Coven hit on witchcraft, which feels like home to me. And hence not scary to me. I thought that maybe they'd show the dark side of religion in a way that Asylum hadn't; but it seemed like they've taken another turn. And Freakshow feels the same way.

Yeah, coven was like the cute little girls' boarding school with the level of competition and bitch fights that you get everywhere you put ambitious young females together in confined space. It wa also too cutesie-bootsie with the clueless zombie boyfriend and the sassy fat girl. Oh and let's not forget hippie girl. Oh my god. Horror story? Polly Pocket more like.

I finally saw the ending... loved it. It reminded me why I can't stop watching this show.

I liked the finale! I didn't like the writing in the beginning and got worried, but I really enjoyed it by the end. I wish we'd seen Neil Patrick Harris again, though, just because I really liked his character being in the show.