Thursday, October 6, 2011

TV Review: American Horror Story

Meh....

That was my response to this supposed new and wonderful TV show that debuted last night on F/X.

From the "creators" of the show Glee and Nip/Tuck this was supposed to be "new" and "innovative" and a reimagining of what a good horror show could be.  The fact that it was being done on cable and not network TV would let the creators push the boundaries...

Ummm...not so much....

Instead what we get is a mish mash of retread horror themes from various sources around the media world.  I literally felt I was dropped right in the middle of Lost season 3 or 4 when the show just began throwing every piece of crap possible against a wall to see if it would stick with no really rhyme or reason to any of it.  Same scenario here except it started in minute #1.

All the horror cliches are here and in no particular order include but are not limited to: A haunted house, a creepy basement, a creepy attic, creepy neighbors, psychotic former owners of said house, murders in said house, weird unexplained hallucinations, weird unexplained dreams, weird unexplained sleepwalking, a cheating husband, a sex deprived husband, a chilly wife, a psychotic teen, a monster in the basement, bullies at school, a questionable pregnancy, weird pictures behind wallpaper, characters that may or may not be dead, a retarded person who has deep insights, a creepy guy who follows a character around...and on...and on........and on.....

All of these and more are thrown into a blender, given some good production value and puked upon the screen in an attempt to make dumb viewers sit back and say "Wow...isn't this wonderful".  It isn't.  It's boring.  It's not scary.  It's not revolting.  It's not funny.  It's not really much of anything except for a waste of time and some 1/2 way decent actors.  Connie Briton is the stand out here and is the only likeable character of the bunch--though her stupidity reduces that likeability in rapid fashion.

Which is what this show comes down to.  Stupid repetition.  We've seen all this before.  We've seen it done better.  Mashing it all up and throwing it on the screen at one time doesn't make it new, it just makes it tedious.

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