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Filler episodes of American Horror Story are a very peculiar creature. They look good but they truly put the faults of the season on display. It isn’t that nothing happens--the entire episode was based around a special ritual called the Sacred Taking wherein the coven can produce a new Supreme through the sacrificial suicide of the current one so there was a great deal of plotting and manipulation--it’s just that nothing means anything by the end of the episode. The status remains quo and this season remains The Fiona Show with occasional special guests. This is something I brought up last week, but yet again the focus on Lange’s character far beyond all others is starting to turn Coven into the lesser of three seasons.
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Before anyone thinks I have no idea what I’m talking about by dissing the constant focus on Fiona, hear me out. The very idea of the Sacred Taking was intriguing and it was quite the image to see all of our coven together in one place working together to cast out the detriment to their clan. The bits with Madison and Myrtle were very enjoyable as they worked to taunt and influence Fiona’s actions as supposed spirits from her twisted recent past. Emma Roberts especially this year is one of the real sparks that make this required viewing and anyone can come at me that still has a reason to dislike her involvement this year. She’s the cynical but deeply wounded girl that I wish was given more of a lead role in the story. Yet I fear that’s something worth saying about most of the characters this season because the very nature of Coven hinges primarily on the grand question of who the next Supreme will be.
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Nearly everything that’s happened so far has been related in some way to the hunt for America’s Next Top Supreme and it’s preventing so much possible character development from coming through. Wasn't there supposed to be some kind of war going on? Whenever we’ve seen Marie LaVeau following her failed zombie uprising against the coven it’s been as a rather toothless villain. She deserves so much better but being so removed from the Supreme arc prevents this from happening. We mostly see LaVeau in the back of Cornrow City flaunting her non-caged presence in front of her prisoner, Delphine, or ordering ordering witch-hunter Hank. Why can’t we see her get her hands dirty more? And no, beheading Delphine doesn’t count for a powerful act of violence since the centuries old madame cannot die and she isn’t truly part of either side of this so-called witch war as she is not of witch kind. So let’s just say that the unboxing of Delphine’s severed living head was the very opposite of a Gwenyth Paltrow in Se7en reveal. We know what’s in the boooooooox and it’s underwhelming.
Part of this state of events could well be the death problem on this show. Usually, I’m first in line to
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defend a show bringing people back from the dead. As a comic book fan, the ultimate medium for death being temporary, it’s usually enjoyable to see this trope in genre television. Madison and Myrtle are more than welcome to be around for the fun as actual members of the coven. But when Misty brought back Joan Ramsey, a character that most people in this fandom couldn’t give less of a toss about, that might have been the line being crossed. Joan’s over-the-top acts against her son Luke felt so out of place within the fabric of the show. We get it Ryan, so-called evil witches can perform acts of goodness and so-called good Christians can be total monsters. We got it last year with the Catholics and the crazies too. It was just probably a sick blast to get Patti LuPone to cradle that enema bag, but I hardly think any other scene in the history of AHS felt so completely gratuitous which is truly saying something. At least all of Doctor Thredson and Doctor Arden’s antics meant something to characters that drove the show and even the much-loathed aliens had more importance in Asylum than Joan Ramsey does for Coven.
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But perhaps what’s the most irritating about this year’s rules of death would be the fact that they’re easily bent yet not taken advantage of fully. Spalding’s a ghost in the halls of Miss Robicheaux’s now--there was no Misty Day resurrection for the leering butler and yet here he is. So as he saved Fiona from taking her own life all I could think was why don't they ever have the nerve to off one of Lange’s characters before the finale? If spirits can live in the house as freely as they did in season one then why couldn’t Fiona complete the Sacred Taking and haunt the halls with her Chanel and her cigarettes? She’s losing power rapidly so she’s really of no use in the upcoming battle plus this way she can still have half-hearted feuds with everyone else in the house while the coven could get the next Supreme mystery out of the way (it's such a weak thing to hinge so much of the season on) and be battle-ready. That would have been truly shocking considering the ‘rules’ that American Horror Story already seems to have for its various stories. That way we could even get more of the voodoo storyline which is something that’s promised to feature more in upcoming episodes and I sincerely hope that’s true. It's just not as fun as it could be and that's a shame to say about one of my favorite shows currently on the air. The promo for next week's winter finale was certainly very promising indeed so let's hope they start to throw out their own rules and make things truly exciting as Coven wraps up.
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