American Horror Story: Coven -- Pre-Premiere

Tonight, American Horror Story: Coven, the next installment of the AHS series premieres on FX. My thoughts on the show as a whole fluctuate often, but I think it boils down to this: I know this show is just bad for me in some ways, but I keep watching like an addict.

I say it's bad for me as someone who can generally handle graphic violence, but sometimes the depths AHS goes to just feels like too much. For anyone who hasn't seen the show, let's just say I could make a legitimate tv drinking game for it by using actions such as rape/sexual violence, torture, nudity, and particularly gruesome deaths. And it's not just that it's graphic -- I feel it may also be bad for me in the sense that I'm not entirely convinced that it's good storytelling. At times it seems that the story just throws everything horrific at its characters and us for shock value and because it'll be aesthetically cool. That's the true core of the show -- aesthetics, style, and gore. Just because the show may be awesome in those aspects, it doesn't mean it can't excel in story. Take NBC's Hannibal for instance. It's heavily stylized, mixes dreams and hallucinations and reenactments. It has outstanding make up and visuals, but it is still very focused on story. It's psychologically thrilling, and audiences are made to care for Will Graham and either love or hate Hannibal as the villain. It gets to be visually astounding and tell an excellent story at the same time.  Perhaps it has to do with the anthology format of AHS and the fact that it's intended to be a one season spectacle, but it just seems like there should be more going on with the lives of the characters besides their trauma.

I also don't know how to feel about Ryan Murphy in general. It's hard to forgive him for the entire mess that is currently Glee, and certain aspects of both shows do make me wonder if he kind of hates women. Not that I'm saying shows stand in for opinions, but his female characters usually end up ruined by circumstances or are just generally cruel, crazy, unintelligent, or unlikeable.  Ryan Murphy, I just don't know about you.

In short, I can't find much fondness for the show. It's a guilty pleasure if anything. Maybe that's the point. It keeps me watching (for now) and that's what a show is meant to do, after all. I plan on doing a follow up post to give my take on this season's premiere. Come back tomorrow to check it out! Here's the trailer for American Horror Story: Coven so you can also get a look for yourself.