Opinions are like a-holes, everyone has one. So here are our opinions on American Horror Story‘s first five seasons, ranked in order of greatness.
With the sixth and ever-so-mysterious season of American Horror Story starting tonight on FX (10pm ET), the team at AwardsDaily TV ranked their favorite seasons of the series. What will the team choose as their favorite season? Were we allured by the witches of Coven? Did we all want to stay with the residents and vampires of the Hotel Cortez? Were we sympathetic to Freak Show? Or, did we prefer checking in with the crazies of Asylum over Murder House? Read below to see our choices.
Murder House
Best In Show
Welcome to 2011 where producer Ryan Murphy unveiled a daring new horror anthology series called American Horror Story (the subtitle Murder House would come later after subsequent seasons were assured). It dug into horror tropes of the 70’s (female sexuality, fear of pregnancy, sex in general…) and meshed them beautifully with 20-century murder milestones. Black Dahlia? Check. Nurse murders? Check. Columbine? Check. Murphy penchant for kitchen-sink writing kind of worked beautifully here as we didn’t yet understand the rhythms he would undertake for the series. The cast is uniformly good with Connie Britton lending gravitas to the proceedings and, of course, Jessica Lange dominating with her Tennessee Williams-based Constance. Perhaps best of all, Murder House started in October and finished shortly before Christmas with a tight season. Whereas later seasons would drag out into the new year, this one is horror television for the ages. – Clarence Moye
Asylum
A worthy follow up
American Horror Story: Asylum aired back when audiences were super-intrigued, you might say hyper-actively committed, by the new franchise following the success of Season 1, Murder House. The second series got us hooked, confirmed our devotion. Set predominantly in a mental institution during the 1960s, the wacky characters this time fit the bill of the season’s premise: struggling inmates, evil nuns, twisted doctors, an angel of death, a horrific Santa, and even a certain Anne Frank makes an appearance. Tackling under eerie, gripping execution are themes of bloody murder, homosexuality, possession, amputations, and a whole host of fucked-upness. With 17 Emmy Award nominations, Asylum was a creepy blast with the awards bodies too. Performers like Lily Rabe, Emmy-winner James Cromwell, Zachary Quinto, and of course Sarah Paulson, particularly go for it – not to mention an unforgettable bout of the name game. – Robin Write
Hotel
Better than its reputation suggests
With Jessica Lange gone from AHS and Lady Gaga stepping in, there was going to be trepidation with the fan-favorite gone from the show after four seasons. Hotel returned the show to Downtown Los Angeles and ranks as our third favorite in the series. What did we love? Denis O’ Hare as Liz Taylor. Great as always, but the rebirth scene was such a wonderful send off for this loved character who had had such a heartwarming story arc. Sarah Paulson as Hypodermic Sally was a welcome addition but seeing her character Billie Dean Howard from Murder House was a giddy delight.
We all loved Emmy-winner Lou Eyrich for keeping the clothes off of Matt Bomer’s vampire Tristan, and we all loved that vampire orgy scene. In true AHS style, there was lots of blood and lots of sex. Finally, Lady Gaga as The Countess delivered a seamless transition from stage to TV and gave a stellar, Golden Globe-winning performance in her series debut. Each week, she donned those glam gowns and went for the kill in that Michael Schmidt glove, adding to the visual beauty of the show which remains outstanding season after season. – Jazz Tangcay
Quote of the season : ““Hack me, bludgeon me, surprise me!”
Coven
Eh…
If you were wondering what tone the third season of American Horror Story was going to have, look no further than the title of the first episode. “Bitchcraft” assures us that the scares will be aplenty but so will the toxic tone. Set in sweaty New Orleans, the season focuses on the small group of girls that attend Miss Robichaux’s Academy, and it’s basically a more violent, stylish Hogwarts. For the most part, the season tries to keep it light, but it falls apart by the end due to over-plotting and too many episodes. It’s the perfect example of how the holiday break ruins the momentum of this series. Despite a horribly villainous (and Emmy-winning) turn by Kathy Bates as slave owner Madame LaLaurie, the season really belongs to AHS newcomer Angela Bassett. Her voodoo priestess reminded us how much we missed seeing Bassett in a juicy role, and it proved that Ryan Murphy has a knack for reviving actresses’ careers. – Joey Moser
Freak Show
Worst. Season. Ever.
A lot of people love American Horror Story: Freak Show. It’s just that none of those people work at AwardsDaily TV. What started out so promising ultimately devolved into a plot-devoid, drawn-out, and exhausting mess. The major hook of the up-front ad campaign was the brilliant creation Twisty the Murdering Clown. But, as he often does, Ryan Murphy lost interest, and Twisty met a too-soon end in the series after being made something of a sympathetic figure. We want none of that. Instead, we’re given the good-looking monster Dandy (Finn Wittrock) who whined and pouted and bitched his way through the rest of the season. His personality was the biggest horror show of the whole season, nearly squashed a delicately beautiful performance from Sarah Paulson as Dot and Bette Tattler, conjoined twins. Then, there were the awful production numbers… We’re not actually convinced the Television Academy really watched the season. It garnered 19 Emmy nominations – a high for the series – but won only 5 awards in the Creative Arts categories. This was the first year the series failed to take home a major award. We think that’s because voters finally watched it rather than ticking off best friend Ryan Murphy’s name 19 times. Freak Show emerges as a sad, sad mess, and we welcome anyone to legitimately defend it. Razor-tipped glove thrown down. – Clarence Moye
American Horror Story: 6 premieres tonight on FX at 10pm ET. Check back for the full reaction from AwardsDaily TV later tonight. You can also follow @AwardsDailyTV for our AHS:6 live tweeting event.
Finn Wittrock gave one of the greatest performances in history (TV or Film!) as Dandy Mott, he showed a shocking amount of layers and depth, and even a year later it is STILL a travesty that he lost the Emmy to anyone, let alone Bill Murray’s NOTHING role on Olive Kitteridge. He made the season watchable, even at it’s most noticeably messy. As someone who watched all of Freak Show, I’m not sure YOU Clarence, or AwardsDailyTV watched it in it’s entirety.
Hotel on the other hand, was anything BUT watchable, it was painfully depressing, Lady Gaga can’t act for shit (her Globe win was UNIVERSALLY mocked, even Leonardo Dicaprio laughed at it when she won. In the middle of the freaking ceremony. On LIVE Televison. Better than Kirsten Dunst in Fargo? Gimme a frikkin break!), the Production Design looked beautiful, but ultimately I just didn’t care about anyone in Hotel.
I have seen every episode of AHS, some twice. We’re sorry you didn’t agree with our picks. Sadly, with Emmy voters, not everyone can be pleased. Trust me, we’ve had discussions about what was robbed – *Podcasts*
I’m sure not everyone agrees we picked Murder House, but hey, we tried 😀
I just assumed we picked Murder House because of Dylan McDermott’s whack and weep scene 🙂
Ranking things such as this is never easy because different things appeal to different people. That said, rest assured that I have seen every episode of every season of American Horror Story. I don’t agree that Finn Wittrock, an actor I have nothing against, gave a performance of layer and depth because I don’t believe it was written as such. He’s effectively a murderous Veruca Salt.
Thanks for your feedback, but I did want to jump in and clear up whether or not I’d seen the whole season.
Ah well, I completely disagree. Veruca was this one-dimensional character with no impact or range. Finn had the PERFECT episode submission “Bullseye” in which you actually feel kind of sorry for his pathetic, evil character. All art is subjective, its cool.
It’s all good!
I know I’m risking being told to Cersei that Shame Walk by the rest of the ADTV team but I think there are a lot of elements of “Freak Show” worth celebrating. Yes, I admit there were a lot of messy elements of the season; Kathy Bates’ accent, the writing team not knowing what to do at the 3/4 mark, wasted potential for characters. However there were a lot of moments that stand out to me as the most horrific of the AHS franchise.
I personally loved how Finn Wittrock’s Dandy was utilized throughout the season. The introduction of him as a monster came across as an attempt to evoke classic Stephen King. Here we are surrounded by these bizarre and frightening looking miscreants but the real monster of the story is the rich straight white man. Personally I think this would have worked even better if they kept Twisty around longer as it was a huge mistake getting rid of him so early but Dandy was the true horror of the season.
I really related to the element of the freak show as a representation of disenfranchised people on a lot of levels. Having lost my leg around the time Freak Show came out I really related to all of the outcasts represented and my only wish is that the writing team gave some of them better material. The season also began to explore what makes someone a freak or a monster and the perfect example is the Grace Gummer storyline. From a queer perspective I think the freak show element perfectly represented why historically the gays have been so drawn to horror.
Overall the season stands out as having some of the most horrifying moments: the scenes with Twisty, the ending with a shooter rampaging around the campgrounds, and my stomach still churns when I think of the scene where Grace Gummer’s father mutilates her and turns her into a freak.
Yes the season was messy. Yes it lost steam. Yes the writers owed better material to some of the characters (why hire Michael Chiklis and not give him worthy material?). But in the end I think the season represents why Ryan Murphy has always loved to explore camp and horror.