American Horror Story: Coven

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > American Horror Story: Coven

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Red_Museum posted:

Season has an official discription. Spoiler, it's witches.

"American Horror Story: Coven" tells the secret history of witches and witchcraft in America. Over 300 years have passed since the turbulent days of the Salem witch trials and those who managed to escape are now facing extinction. Mysterious attacks have been escalating against their kind and young girls are being sent away to a special school in New Orleans to learn how to protect themselves. Wrapped up in the turmoil is new arrival, Zoe (Taissa Farmiga), who is harboring a terrifying secret of her own. Alarmed by the recent aggression, Fiona (Jessica Lange), the long-absent Supreme, sweeps back into town, determined to protect the Coven and hell-bent on decimating anyone who gets in her way.

gently caress yes.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 13:51

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:28

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

johntfs posted:

I'd previously dropped AHS: Coven after the third episode, which involved necrophiliac incest and the Precious Girl having what can best be described as consensual rape with the Minotaur guy. I like some freaky in my shows, but freaky for the sake of freaky is just porn. And porn is kind of dull.

But like the right-wing religious nuts on some shows that have a change of perspective that gives them a sense of tolerance and compassion, I went back to the show last night to give it another chance. And I saw the tongueless butler in a woman's nighty try to pull Madison's corpse out of the chest in which he'd stored it so he could dance with/molest it, at which point one of the corpse's arms snapped off.

So yeah, burn in hell, AHS: Coven.

I don't think they're showing how creepy Spaulding is for no reason at all. They're probably building to something there.

But yeah, I don't think this is the show for you if you don't want to be grossed out by gross and hosed up things.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 23:07

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

johntfs posted:

It's not, but it's not really better than any other season.

Burn in hell is the extension of the "right wing religious nut" metaphor I'd made, like:

RWRnut: Burn in hell, show!

RWRnut: Wait, that's not really forgiving or Christian. I need to be more tolerant of diversity and to show compassion the way Christ did. I need to give the show a second chance.

RWRnut: (watches the necro butler accidentally rip Madison's arm off before a burned alive woman gets resurrected in her burned alive state)

RWRnut: Nope, right the first time. Burn in hell, show!

What a terrible metaphor.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 23:31

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

radlum posted:

I wish they elaborate on what makes him a "witch hunter". Fooling a naive woman, having sex with her and shooting her while distracted isn't special, maybe he has a natural resistance to spells or mind control or something.

It's probably the fact that he's a normal non-witch dude. He has the element of surprise. The fire-powered witch he killed couldn't detect anything magical about him.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2013 21:59

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Obese Janissary posted:

after a three day binge marathon I'm almost caught up (just started watching episode 8 of season 3). I went through a bit of the thread, and googled, but is there any consensus of what the lyrics in the opening song is?

After googling it I see some people think it sounds like words, some people think it sounds like water dripping (I tried hard, but I can't hear that at all). For half of the first season I thought it was "red skin". Now I keep hearing variations of "skin": "white skin" "black skin" "bright skin" "dark skin" "gray skin". And sometimes I think it sounds like "rescue"

Thoughts?

Wait... there are spoken words in the opening title credits? What?

# ¿ Dec 13, 2013 13:55

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

rare bird posted:

Myrtle (and her plants) theories!!!

The bouquet she brought in for Fiona's portrait showed up nowhere in the finished product. Also, as soon as Myrtle left, Fiona got a nosebleed. From the plant, maybe, or just coincidence?

It was odd to me that the nightshade conversation happened at all. Why would Myrtle even bring a toxic plant into the house, let alone into a house that housed a coven in which no risks should be taken? I knew what nightshade was but reading up on its history and the lore behind the plant begs the question: what is Myrtle up to?

Her gaudy yellow gloves. Are they fashionable or are they tactically worn to prevent any injury when handling deadly materials like nightshade?

It makes me wonder if perhaps Myrtle brought it in to simulate death with the girls after their trials, knowing Fiona is still alive. If she knew Fiona would be back, she could stage their deaths to protect them, then take Fiona out by surprise since she wasn't a body in the vision.

The plant in Chaucer's days was known as Dwale, which Dr. J. A. H. Murray considers was probably derived from the Scandinavian dool, meaning delay or sleep. Other authorities have derived the word from the French deuil (grief), a reference to its fatal properties.
Belladonna (nightshade) is supposed to have been the plant that poisoned the troops of Marcus Antonius during the Parthian wars. Plutarch gives a graphic account of the strange effects that followed its use.
According to old legends, the plant belongs to the devil who goes about trimming and tending it in his leisure, and can only be diverted from its care on one night in the year, that is on Walpurgis, when he is preparing for the witches' sabbath.
The generic name of the plant, Atropa, is derived from the Greek Atropos, one of the Fates who held the shears to cut the thread of human life - a reference to its deadly, poisonous nature.
Narcotic, diuretic, sedative, antispasmodic, mydriatic. Belladonna is a most valuable plant in the treatment of eye diseases, Atropine, obtained during extraction, being its most important constituent on account of its power of dilating the pupil. It has no action on the voluntary muscles, but the nerve endings in involuntary muscles are paralysed by large doses, the paralysis finally affecting the central nervous system, causing excitement and delirium.

Stevie Nicks is yet again credited to appear in the last episode and if the song Bella Donna is played I feel like it's definitely not coincidental and quite a double bladed sword as the lyrics apply to Fiona's possible demise and also lovely Myrtle's crazy plants.
"Bella Donna was serious -- I was not talking about a beautiful woman. I was talking about a beautiful woman becoming old and not beautiful. And skinny and too tired, the woman disappears." - SN

Hey, you should have wrote this season.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 03:27

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

That was a miserably lazy ending to a miserably lazy back half of a season. Zoey's description of her hell was just laughable. Worrying that the half-zombie wouldn't love her? Cringeworthy.

Why wouldn't her hell have something to do with her guilt over her killer-vagina? Or something?

I could go on and on with how lazy the whole thing was. gently caress this show.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2014 06:46

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

I like how Cordelia's eyes randomly healed themselves. I guess she needed to have radiant health, so why not have it happen for no reason.

I really wanted to like this season, but it was a goddamned mess. Whoever said that Frances Conroy was carrying the show on her back was right.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2014 16:04

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

escape artist posted:

No, I've been watching since day one, and can assure you that isn't the case.

Same here. Loved both Murder House and Asylum. I genuinely liked the first half of this season too, and there were some good pieces here and there throughout the whole thing, but you can't ignore how badly the writing brought this season down.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2014 06:53

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

My guess about what happened to the baby was that Spaulding did something horrific to it and they just didn't have the heart to show it onscreen.

There was a scene in the finale where Spaulding is using a ceramic doll's hand to mess with dead Madison's hair, I think they were (lazily) implying that we'd probably best not think about it too much.

Still completely useless though. Stupid stupid stupid.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2014 17:03

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Paradox Personified posted:

http://bit.ly/1iskVnd

They identified the image in Sarah Paulson's credit as Santa Muerte, a folk saint known as "Lady of the Seven Powers," according to Wikipedia, aka the Supreme. Let us not forget that Ryan Murphy has warned us to keep our eyes open for clues in each season's opening credits. "Can you spot the clues?" Murphy asked on Twitter.
More trivia: http://a-h-story.tumblr.com/post/73262397242/hidden-meanings-in-the-ahs-coven-theme-song

Oh poo poo, escape artist, you just got schooled by "Let me google that for you." Are you gonna let that kinda thing fly? I'm honestly surprised that you asked such an obviously googleable question in this discussion thread.

Thank you sir for showing us what Google has in its crystal ball..

# ¿ Feb 6, 2014 00:37

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

xeria posted:

Yeah, I don't think I'd equate Misty's hell to just 'literally high school' or put it even remotely on the same level of '...really?' as Zoe's "my boyfriend breaks up with me again and again and again" or Madison's "I'm in a terribly produced musical, and I'm not even the lead".

I'd put it on the same level or lower. It was just so cliched and awful.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 21:16

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

solovyov posted:

(Warning: the word "camp" does not appear in this article so some of you may have difficulty understanding it.)

Is this supposed to be a jab at a particular person or this thread or something? I don't get it.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 22:19

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Coven was fuckin poor quality TV. That means people will eat it up.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2014 18:27

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:28

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Doltos posted:

That's not at all how it went down and this is a ridiculous recap on what happened. People kept asking how this show as more popular in season 3 and I said it was because they were catering to a bunch of new demographics, one of which included gay people. People latched on to me mentioning gay people and whined about it like typical SJWs, ignoring that I said a bunch of demographics were being targeted and that there was nothing wrong with it.

But please, continue thinking of alternate realities.

Oh yeah, I remember that whole thing. To be fair, whatever you were trying to say sounded and still sounds really awful. Criticizing a work directly will always carry more weight than simply blaming a drop in quality on catering to gay people.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2014 17:13

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > American Horror Story: Coven