What on Earth is American Horror Story about ? We can only arrogate that Glee creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk hoped to channel some sorting of archaic mescaline - infused donkey - sex show , because that ’s what I walked away with .
What starts off as a ostensibly unobjectionable haunted house story , complete with the generic strobe light gag , turns into foreign sex exhibition . And not the playfulness kind , with the fan dances and the seashell - cupped breasts . This is more of a “ cry while you pleasure yourself ” experience , under the guise of a sexploitation television set show sexcapade . And yet , I liked it . Spoilers ahead …
For those of you conversant with the workplace of Murphy and Falchuk , AHS is a lot more Nip / Tuck than it was Glee . Although you’re able to definitely see the Glee influence with the high - character soundtrack and plentiful use of the testimonial - zprofile camera scene . But this pilot was n’t really channeling much of the fun , homoerotic charge card surgeon mysteries from the first time of year of Nip / Tuck . Instead it was a lot more , “ remember that meter Dr. Sean McNamara outrage the snow up dame in the midriff of his aliveness room flooring ? ” So yeah , if you did n’t wish the late Nip / Tuck years , get out now .
From a distance , AHS looks like your run - of - the - manufacturing plant haunted house story : a quarreling couple ( the Harmons ) , look for a fresh offset , go into an old rest home with their sullen teen daughter . And everything live terribly wrong . In fact , most of the bones of this serial are composed of classical horror cliches . There ’s the prophetic small little girl , wildly strong-growing bullies , a creepy new boyfriend , a monster in the basement , hidden science experiments kept in various jars , a horribly disfigured voyeur with a terrible warning , a ghost spiritually bond to a domicile , evil Gemini , The glow Father syndrome , a pregnant wife … the list go on .
But what does n’t appear to be more of the same horror is what ’s going on behind it all — or so we hope . Fingers crossed the parade of horror image in the pilot sequence was just to get all that gimcrackery out of the way , and now we can get into the meat .
Vivian Harmon ( play by the amazing Friday Night Lights ’ Connie Britton ) is the damaged married woman to Ben Harmon ( Dylan McDermott ) . Whose copious intimate indiscretions may or may not be to find fault for the miscarriage of their Logos ( due to stress ? ) . In the first few second of the series , Vivian make out home from a sorry doctor ’s function sojourn , where it was later unveil she was easy bear out remnants from her failed maternity — only to detect Ben pants - down in their bedroom , with one of his student . She stabs him with a knife . It ’s excellent .
Flash forward a year , and the full Harmon brood has move to LA , where the real demesne agents boast about how their property were once homes to the doc of the stars ! Oh LA , soil of fair weather , celebrities and mean schoolhouse rowdy who apply their strict no smoking policy by trying to make the niggling Harmon feed her illuminated cigarette . YIPES ! Also , no . This is not a matter that happens in gamy schooling , but it ’s OK because the writers explicate the aggression because the bully ’ Dad fail of lung cancer so … yeah .
But that ’s just how this show rolls , everything is in the extreme . The school bully does n’t do drugs , she does COCAINE . When Dylan McDermot goes jog he does n’t just run he RUNS HYPER - CUT dash . Opening the basement door sprain into highly edited EXTREME DOOR initiative . Ben does n’t just cheat , it causes him emotional pain in the neck not to be constantly putting his penis in something . Nothing is simple on American Horror Story Street .
After being teased and thwack around by the insanely fast-growing gang of Urban Outfitters models at her gamy school , the gloomful daughter Violet retreats into the terrible stereotype that show has crafted for her . Violet and her collection of lid that only look respectable on adolescent TV star ( in one shot she rollick a Davy Crocket cap — this is not a trend , America ) detest her sire , says sassy teen stuff and right away falls in sexual love with the first psychopath boy who put down her Dad ’s practice , Tate . Oh by the means , Ben is a really bad psychiatrist , but more on that later . And that ’s when things get even more “ Here In My Bedroom ” horrible for Violet .
Upon Ben ’s first meeting with Tate ( who is a patient of Ben ’s , but not the one that he had sex with , we retrieve — succeeding turn ? ) the stripling explains his hidden dreams to gun down everyone in his shoal . Ben laughs off these wildly waving red flags , as any creditworthy shrink would do .
The boy then hatches a plan to ling the school day bully who has been picking on Violet after they ’re done comparing their geld scrape and spill Morrissey and Kurt Cobain ( it ’s like the writers googled “ what did teenager do in 1998 ” ) . Tate then help lure the mean girl into the Harmon ’s horrifying basement and either transform or conspire up a demon in lace to scratch up the young girls pretty confront off . Violet is terrified , which is an instantaneous treachery to Tate , since she claimed she was n’t afraid of anything . Now we bed that this creepy young lad wants murder his high schooling class , can conjure demons , and is afraid of rejection . This can not end well for poor Violet .
Meanwhile Father Ben is having a hell of a fourth dimension not sleeping with the ghost that dwell in his home . decently after the Harmons move in , a unknown reddened - headed sure-enough woman shows up and demand that Vivian hire her to be the housekeeper . And not to be outdone by her girl ’s poor conclusion qualification skills , Vivian adjudicate to let Moira work for the family . No source balk needed — apparently , Moira ’s level about how she did a prima chore clean up after the execution / suicide of the previous owners is adept enough for Vivian . But here ’s the twist with this character : while Vivian fancy a wonky - eyed , sympathetic one-time fair sex , Ben sees a hot untested thing with exposed garters . Making matters worse is Ben ’s “ accidental ” stumble into Moira , mid - masturbation on one of their night club professorship . Which pass to yet another ego pleasuring session for Ben , but this time with punctuated by his screaming and split . Which means … he feels bad ? I ’d like to think that not all men make these sorts of noises after entrance their Halloween - costumed ghost maid playing with herself .
You see , Vivian has n’t had sexual practice with Ben in almost a year , and he ’s about to burst ( Get it ? You get it ) . And bristle he does , justly into a freehanded showdown fight where Vivian unveil her offend warmheartedness , “ You buried your rue in some 20 - year - old ’s pussy . ” And Ben cries about how she have a dog alternatively of verbalise to him after their son break down .
It sounds nuts , but this was the first moment where the characters sense like actual people . bring up something as piffling as , “ I need you and you start a dog , ” gave us a open frame from the horror and last displayed what was really become on inside these two characters . In fact most of the most memorable non - shock note value moments are when characters bring out a deep lugubriousness such as Violet ’s comment about the death of her brother , “ Have you ever seen a infant coffin ? ” Plus it helps that McDermott and Britton have tremendous “ fuck you , lie with me ” chemistry . They then break their neuter streak in good order there in the haunted house .
And again later when a mysterious figure appears at Vivian ’s bedroom door . think it ’s Ben , and endeavor to prove that she “ can be kinky , ” she catch some Z’s with him . About halfway through both the interview and Vivian realize that mayhaps she was n’t have sexual urge with her husband . But how you politely get yourself out of that situation , I ’ll never screw . Did you catch that last look on Vivian ’s face ? That was some timber “ Oh dickhead , I just fucked a ghost in rubber . ” What should we make of this ? Not sure but in the destruction we find oneself out that Vivian is preggers again , and we must assume that she ’s channel the spawn of Rubber Man .
So , the Rubber Man is frequent Vivian ’s vagina , Violet is being haunted by unhinged Tate , so who is haunting Ben ? Why , honest lineage ’s King of Mississippi , Denis O’Hare ! He tracks down Ben to warn him that both he and his family are in grave danger ! What kind of danger ? The Shining danger . consort to Denis O’Hare the home made him burn up his family awake ( hence his now frightful burn scars ) and Ben and his family must leave before the voice start talking to him as well . Too recently , Denis — they already are !
But wait that ’s not even all of the character ! I ’ve save the absolute best for last . There ’s also Constance , play by Jessica Lange , and her “ mongoloid ” daughter Addy . Constance appear to have crawled out of some stereotyped gay serviceman ’s fantasy . She is forever and a day lark about a beauty parlor up - do , dons a Pucci - esque pattern good afternoon dress , say thing like “ I adore the dish of a foresightful line of merchandise ” and delights in thumbing through her neighbour ’ possessions . Of course there ’s a much darker side to this puppet — she calls her mentally disabled daughter horrible figure , and may or may not have murdered Moira .
But even when she ’s being absolutely despicable , it ’s still Jessica Lange , thumb out a cigarette ( from a coffin nail purse ! ! ) with the hired hand movements of a grand ballerina . She clearly knows much more than she ’s let on , but I ’m dead die to see how she ’ll let on her secrets . I ’m wishing , hop , think and praying that we ’ll be allow into her plastic covered sanctuary sometime soon ( if she ’s even real at all ) .
And that ’s it — which is certainly a lot . distinctly I was much more interested in the type than in the basic plot , which was fairly weak . I ’ve take a lot of folk exact that this series was intrepid and disturbed chilling — I would n’t go as far to call this show a nightmare , but whenever Constance was brutal to her daughter , that sure as shooting made my fuzz put up on death . But the hyper cuts and sexual practice acts were for certain flung at the audience from every angle . I ’m not certain how this series can keep this footstep up without lose the hearing . My interest is emphatically offend — I want to know more about the house ’s three weirdos : Tate , Moira and Constance . Are they impound to the home , like the spirits from The Others , or are some of them actually alive ? I ’m invest … at least for a few more instalment , that is .
Questions , Observations and Odd Moments
– Once the leather “ gimp ” costume is discover in the attic , the soundtrack set about playing the whistle tune from Kill Bill , “ Twisted Nerve . ” That ’s a lot of Quentin Tarantino .
– In the preview for next workweek , Moira , Tate and Constance were all tattle to each other . More proof that they ’re all ghosts ?
– Dylan was naked a lot in this . Not so much the ladies .
– That dog is not longsighted for this Earth . Addy predicted it .
– Could you hold up in a house with a horrible history ? It ’s amazing what a difference of opinion a few years make .
– Biggest question of the instalment for me : Who was the Rubber Man ? My money is on Tate .
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