The show has been a favorite of mine since premiering in October 2011. I love a good horror story, and here was a TV SHOW, offering me a series of horror stories to be told week after week. I was sold before I even saw the first episode. But once I did, I fell in love; the characters (and the amazing actors who portrayed them), the story, the scares...it was all new and brilliant territory for me. And then once it was revealed that every season would be a new horror story, with all new characters and theme, I was sold.
Last week AHS returned (finally!) with its newest incarnation, COVEN.
When I found out this season would be witch-themed, I flipped out in the best way possible. As I've written before on here, the TV show Charmed is my all-time favorite show, and just knowing that my current favorite show would allow me the opportunity of rooting for some kick-ass spellcasters once more was exciting. Plus, given the history of this show, I knew there would be some weird and dark twists given to classic witch lore--case in point, the picture I just posted above.
Now, two episodes into this new season, I must say I'm loving where this crazy train is going. Without going into specifics, the direction they are taking the stories this year is especially intriguing. It's dark, it's twisted--anyone who's watched the show's last two incarnations, especially last year's ASYLUM, know how twisted this show can get--but so far it's being done in a light manner. There are many strong themes that have been hinted at in the past two episodes, themes I'm looking forward to having them explore.
Taking a look at the rather large and impressive cast, anyone can see that this is a female-heavy season, which I think is a great idea. Only two of the regular cast members are male, and with various circumstances rendering them both speechless, the ladies are left to do most of the heavy-lifting. I'm looking forward to seeing how this feminist arc plays out in the remaining episodes, especially in the more-than-capable hands of acting giants like Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange.
Oh, Jessica Lange. I'd never seen/heard of her work until she joined AHS during its maiden season, but how I have loved her since. Every year she brings IT, and this year she's definitely bringing IT as "Supreme" witch Fiona. Not only that, but she does The Prue!* And then there's Kathy Bates, bringing the chill-factor as real-life slave brutalizaer Madame LaLaurie, and the uber-fierce Angela Bassett as voodoo legend Marie Laveau. While many fans (a.k.a several blogs I follow on Tumblr) were all caught up in the return of Taissa Farmiga (Violet from Season 1) and her subsequent love story this year with main-stay Evan Peters, I'm way more interested in the above three ladies. When they're on screen together things are electric; the story, dialogue, and entertainment factor are all elevated. This last episode had Lange and Bassett tangled in an epic war of words that had me hooting and hollering throughout. I can't wait for the inevitable scene featuring all three women (I'm just going to call them the Trinity--c'mon you know you were thinking it!) at once. There are also other gems in the cast: Emma Roberts is surprisingly fantastic as bad girl Madison, and Gabourey Sidibe is a wicked treat as the sassy human voodoo doll Queenie.
My only complaint so far would be that I want a little more "horror" in my American Horror Story. However, given that we're only two episodes in, I'm willing to let this critique slide for the time being. For now I will revel in the fact that my favorite show is back in my life, and continue to fall under COVEN's undeniable spell. Hopefully you will, too!
* The Prue: The hand-gesture Prue Halliwell from CHARMED (or The Best Show Ever) used to activate her power of telekinesis, which goes a lil' sum-sum like this:
Fiona uses the same hand gesture, and it goes a lil' sum-sum like this:
God, I love this show!
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