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Tonight is supposed to be a big one for American Horror Story fans. Ryan Murphy has teased there is going to be a huge twist that threatens to turn the entire series on its head, and that twist is supposed to premiere tonight. As a site, we have a good idea what that reveal may be, but personally? I don’t care. Nothing AHS comes up with tonight can beat the twisted magnificence of the show’s second season, American Horror Story: Asylum. Spoilers for all seasons of AHS ahead.
Seasons of FX’s anthology series is often discussed in the same way as different Harry Potter books and movies are. Your selection and devotion to your favorite season says a lot about you, and passionate fans of the series aren’t afraid to lash out over which season is best. For me, Asylum was the season that accomplished American Horror Story’s goal the best without delving too deeply into Murphian madness.
The point of American Horror Story is right there in its title; it’s a horrific story about themes and subjects that are distinctly American. Though Murder House gleefully ripped apart the traditional family and Coven plunged headfirst into arguably the darkest period in American history, there was an understated American quality to Asylum. The conceit of the season — a slew of “atypical” people being labelled as insane and forcibly mistreated by an institution that’s supposed to help — is not something that’s American-exclusive. Stories about the gruesome effects of mistreating mental illness are global. However, the forms of otherness the season decided to focus on, the season’s villains, and the role of media and representation in Asylum served as a complicated portrayal of our country.
Perhaps more than any other season, Asylum had clear protagonists and antagonists. The good guys were the “others” — the dedicated journalist Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), who happened to be a lesbian, the wrongly-accused murderer Kit Walker (Evan Peters), who was in a mixed-race relationship, the murderous and microcephalic Pepper (Naomi Grossman), and the sex-addicted Shelley (Chloe Sevigny). Again and again, the truly evil people (because everyone is a little evil in AHS) are the “normal” ones — Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto), the trusted but horrific Monsignor Howard (Joseph Fiennes), and to the most extreme example, AHS’s perfect portrayal of a demon-possessed nun, Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe). If you didn’t fit the strictly defined role of “American normalcy” in Asylum, then you were probably going to be tortured. That’s what made Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) such a compelling character.
Sister Jude both fit into the American, hyper-religious ideal and didn’t. She was fiercely devoted to Christianity, but she was also bossy, aggressive, controlling, and a recovering alcoholic. In a word, she was unladylike, a departure from “normal” that pegged her as an unlikely hero in this brutal season. Watching Lange’s devastating performance as she transformed from Briarcliff Manor’s oppressing leader to one of the oppressed was haunting, and it was one of Lange’s strongest American Horror Story performances to date. But the real reason why I love Asylum so much is because it’s actually scary.
Even though the second word in the show’s title is “horror,” American Horror Story rarely watches as an actual horror series. Rather, it’s more of a gruesomely-themed soap opera, which has its own merits, but Asylum proved that the series was able to go full horror. And it did horror well. From Shelley’s disturbing transformation to the revelation of Bloodyface, Asylum contained several genuinely scary moments. It was a season that was fun to watch with the lights off, curled up in a comfort blanket, yet it was a season that could just as confidently slip in a Lagne-led musical number and not feel completely insane.
This isn’t to say that Asylum didn’t have its faults. The alien subplot at the end came out of nowhere and never had a strict conclusion. Murphy’s work often contains the same strengths and weaknesses — strong beginnings with strong characters that end in weak and confusing endings. Asylum fit that mold, but the season was also was a purer, more structurally sound season of American Horror Story. It didn’t rely on big name guest appearances as much as later seasons did (sorry Stevie Nicks and Lady Gaga). Instead, it told one sinister story about how otherness is treated in America all while embracing typical horror movie conventions. It was dark, disturbing, and messy, but it created a template for how great the series could be. Maybe I’m underestimating Season Six. Maybe My Roanoke Nightmare’s giant reveal tonight will make me backpedal and re-evaluate the series as a whole. I really hope that’s the case. If I can get another AHS season as ruthlessly scary as Asylum, I will be a very happy lady.
You can watch new episodes of American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.
