'American Horror Story: Freak Show' 4.01: "Monsters Among Us" Review
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Ever since American
Horror Story certified itself as an anthology series as opposed to something
with a single continuity, there have been a few possible themes fans have been
eager to see Ryan Murphy and co. tackle with their specific flair. Anyone that’s even stepped foot into the
fandom at large knows that the ideas of exploring the Salem witch trials as
well as some sort of circus/carnival setting are the two that were the most thought
of for future iterations. Last year gave us Coven which covered witches if not
exactly much Salem. Or horror truthfully. Don’t worry though, there’s a series
on another network that’s doing a hell of a job with that story. That left us
with the concept of a twisted circus or perhaps even a freak show. The fourth season premiere, “Monsters Among
Us”, spent a super-sized ninety minutes introducing us to the newest landscape
for new and veteran AHS performers alike to explore as this season follows a
sideshow troupe on its last legs in 1950’s small town Florida.
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Elsa Mars is a
(Jessica Lange) a German expat holding onto dreams of stardom despite the fact
that her current surroundings are far from traditionally glamorous. Her
traveling cabinet of curiosities is on the cusp of being evicted from their
lease and the days where townsfolk would line up to catch a glimpse of any sort
of oddity have passed them by leaving in their wake a sense of true uncertainty
regarding the future of both Elsa and her makeshift family of performers. The future
of the show lies on the shoulders of a potential act that might prove to be its
savior—a pair of super-conjoined twins.
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This episode gave us
time with each of the three ‘core’ AHS veterans: Lange, Sarah Paulson, and Evan
Peters. All three actors have appeared on every iteration so far of the series
and at this point truly need to be challenged and pushed that much more to prevent
any sort of stagnation with their characters. One of my major complaints about
Coven was the entire trajectory, or lack thereof, for Lange’s character Fiona
Goode. She just wasn’t terribly interesting ultimately. Sure, she had a hell of
a wardrobe but her lack of any kind of true weakness left Lange with so very
little to do but flaunt designer dresses and chain-smoke. That might have made
Ryan Murphy happy but just experiencing one episode with Lange’s performance of
Elsa Mars makes it clear that she’s a lot more excited with the material this
year.
Why wouldn’t she be, especially when Elsa is a chance to play a character that gets to
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experience true vulnerability—I’m
just in love with everything about her choices following that rousing
performance of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars’. Following a season with the
infuriatingly indefatigable Fiona Goode any chance to see Lange get to do some
first-rate broken heart reaction shots provides a refreshing reminder of why
she stole season one out from under the Harmon family. I kept waiting for her
arrogant catty rejoinder toward Frances Conroy’s latest character when Elsa’s
singing was insulted…and it never came. That’s something which immediately makes
Elsa Mars a unique character for Jessica to breathe life into for the rest of
the season, and that’s before the big reveal at the end of the episode. Boy,
American Horror Story sure does have its favorite tropes to explore, but choosing to give
the fairly untouchable Lange something like this to work with excites me
greatly for what other unwritten boundaries the show will cross this year.
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Paulson and Peters
also suffered from the creative stagnation of their Coven characters (Cordelia
is really only memorable as being the eventual Supreme and the less that’s said
about Kyle’s utterly wasted story potential, the better). But this is what makes American Horror Story more of a rewarding experience than not year in and year out. Didn’t like last year? Well
it’s all going to change next time so stay tuned. This year, Evan’s playing
Jimmy Darling the young man with the so-called ‘lobster claw’ affliction that
leaves his fingers fused together and perfect for giving frigid fifties
housewives proper orgasms. I just want to know which writer in the room thought
that because his prosthetic is rather phallic looking that they had to go there
with it. Peters is game as always however, and this facet of Jimmy promises his
most sexually explicit season yet. Remember in Asylum when gifs of his bare ass
were everywhere? I have a feeling we’ll get scenes coming our way this year
that will adorn many a dashboard in the same way. What I’m intrigued by is
Jimmy’s apparent quickness to anger and the kinds of bad decisions that come
from that trait as evidenced in the premiere when a cop came sniffing around
the lot for the twins. Can’t wait to see how things go down when his father
shows up next week to challenge his status as the top dog of the troupe.
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Sarah has the
flashiest role this year since she’s getting to play two very different girls
sharing the majority of one body. Bette and Dot’s circumstances before they
left to join the freak show are a main focus of the episode and give us a great
introduction to the very important distinctions between the sisters. It’s so
much more gray then simply a good twin and a bad as Dot is dour, judgmental,
and a cynic. Her sister Bette is wide-eyed, ambitious, and prone to tantrums.
After a bloody incident involving their mother and a thwarted chance to go to
the movies, Elsa introduces herself to the girls and coaxes them to come join
the show. The sheltered duo are going to be part of a new world filled with
equal parts acceptance and revulsion as they find a new family with the troupe
all while being thrust into a spotlight as a commodity for the general public
to gaze upon. The very existence of this character as a concept almost seems
like the natural conclusion to the question, ‘what does Sarah Paulson have to
do to get an Emmy for AHS, grow another head?’ But this is exactly the sort of
challenge someone as talented and versatile as Sarah Paulson deserves and I
have no doubt she’s going to create an iconic performance that can stand head
to head to head with her own Lana Winters.
It would have been disingenuous
to have a freak show theme and merely dress up the usual
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suspects in all manner
of prosthetic. Thankfully, there have been several performers cast this year
that run the spectrum of talents and body types and they’re getting the chance
to participate in a narrative that showcases the struggle of the outcast in a
changing world—a theme that has been touched upon in every season so far to a
degree. Before the premiere aired, a series of videos appeared on the American
Horror Story Facebook account that featured each of these new additions in an
empathetic, sincere, and humanizing way that is so necessary to keep the
audience from thinking of these actors as just various freaks used as set
dressing this season. As fun as it is to see the big name actors with these new
challenging roles, personally I’m eager to see the various stories each of
these performers will get to be part of. Even if their fate is as abysmal as so
many of the differently-bodied that came before them. We’ve seen where someone
like Pepper winds up and asylums like Briarcliff are shitty sure, but just in
case a looming unhappy ending isn’t enough dread for the audience there’s a
supremely terrifying clown that stabs people in broad daylight.
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Coulrophobia (fear of clowns) is one
of those phobias that’s almost too easy to draw upon for the sake of
scaring the audience. There’ve been countless depraved and maniacal evil clowns
throughout pop culture so AHS had their work cut out to try and break through
with a creation that could make people that didn’t already have said phobia get
a severe one. What’s clever about Twisty isn’t just his outer appearance—in itself
a disturbing visage—full credit here has to go immediately to his masked
portrayor, John Carroll Lynch. Here’s an actor that knows not only how to use
his hulking physique to great effect but knows how to fill the silences in such
an unnerving way. He snorts and snarls more beast than man and his movements
are so sudden and swift they leave victims little time for recourse. Plus
choosing to first show Twisty’s particular ‘act’ on a bright sunny day really
screws with the expectation of something looking like that only living in the
shadows. The light of day won’t save you from this killer clown. Hopefully his
backstory won’t take away from the character’s mystique as being able to
inspire such unease is an asset a horror show needs to be able to call on without it being lessened as the series goes on. Twisty has to remain a true threat.
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Just as the
suspension of disbelief is essential for the performers in a sideshow to set a
tone and create illusion and wonder, Murphy and his talented team have created
a gauzily-lit dreamscape filled with portrayals of the outwardly strange and
impossible feats. Despite the fact that
a great deal of special effects go into the presentation of Paulson as a duo,
about halfway through the episode I thought of Bette and Dot as fully-realized
characters and not Sarah talking to herself with a fake head strapped to her
shoulder. That’s because this season is
going to be strongly character-based and that’s when American Horror Story is
at its very best. Even if the plot goes a bit sideways or if too many things
get thrown against the wall just to see what sticks, having strong well-defined
characters keeps this show a afloat. The slower rollout of character
introductions and small handful of reveals hopefully mean that the storytelling
can remain at least a little restrained. Just for the first part of the season.
Then hopefully things go into overdrive but by then we care so greatly about
these characters and what happens to them that it will harrow our very souls to
stay on this journey with them. After such a strong premiere I’m eager for an
encore of this freak show.
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