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I take each season as it comes. I expect nothing anymore. Except something totally goofy at some point. Personally, I've always thought Ryan's period pieces are so much better. Asylum, Freak Show, even Feud. So I don't have a lot of confidence that they'll craft a story around the election that is more clever than it is obnoxious. But time will tell.
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Aug 1, 2017 02:38
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Perhaps the biggest mistake Freak Show made was eliminating Twisty so fast, so maybe it's lingering feelings of regret. I don't know, sometimes he gets these ideas in his head and they're just sort of there. Like that gremlin stuck in the mattress in Hotel that was all over the advertising and didn't mean anything but to be a spooky image.
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Aug 1, 2017 23:38
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Well Roberts did punch her boyfriend Evan Peters on more than one occasion as I recall. And she usually is typecast as some kind of uppity exaggerated WASP. But I agree she was very good in Scream Queens. In fact, given the choice between SQ season 3 or AHS: Cult, I would probably picked SQ.
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Aug 3, 2017 03:49
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I'll go on record as saying that every season is entertaining, it's just some are entertaining the same way watching a celebrity be shallow and a total trainwreck is. Coven is a total dumpster fire in terms of motivation, logic, pacing, and character likeability. But it's not like we don't remember the BEEEEEEEEEEEEEES fondly as a moment so goofy we bring it up whenever we can rather than suppress it.
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Aug 12, 2017 23:13
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And here's a trailer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-27J0sR9268 On the titles: I like the remix of the theme song. But it sort of reminds me of Hotel's intro, where they use the same two or three visuals over and over and it doesn't really jump at you like the previous ones did. But overall, I dig it, glad to have it back. Do we spoiler tag discussion on previews and trailers? I forget. Just in case, on the trailer: I didn't actually expect any Trump name drops during the show itself, but I guess I was wrong. Although I still don't think they'll actually talk about him in name beyond the fact that he won. I will admit, the idea that Paulson is a liberal lesbian mom with a fear of clowns starting to descent into madness with the election result being the trigger, and the idea that Peters is some anarchist cult leader weirdo who wants to use it as a trigger to incite that madness ... it's actually a really interesting idea for a horror show. And Chanel #3 as a freaky babysitter who indulges her son with his interest in ol' Twisty, I love it. I'm actually ten times more excited for this show than I was upon hearing the season concept. I'm sure the actual show will kill that with the typical goofiness, but hey, at least I'm not on the verge of just skipping it this time.
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Aug 22, 2017 20:32
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Thanks for the heads up. Season 1 was pretty good and the No-End House is a great story to adapt.
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Aug 23, 2017 06:48
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Kinda forgot about teasers this time around. Here's the playlist from FX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER-aB4Tur5M&list=PLIDyzBpnfjqnMmtPnmlhHygnxYb7tGUog OmegaBR fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Sep 6, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2017 02:40
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Man, I've heard a lot of criticism about Ryan Murphy, most of it totally justified, but the idea that he dislikes women or makes them look stupid, that's a new one. He definitely plays into stereotypes to an annoying degree, but I've never felt it was overtly offensive. No more offensive than a guy rubbing Cheeto dust on his face, mimicking Trump's hands, and later being called a 4chan basement dweller by a city councilman. Frankly, that article reeks of the idea that it's misogynistic to show any flaws on a female character at all. And women have always survived as the heroes on every season of AHS. Ally's crazy and irrational because she's crazy and irrational, not because she's a woman. Many liberals did blame each other in the wake of the election, including those who "wasted" their vote on Stein or didn't vote at all. Winter wanting a trigger warning before the results, now that's a classic over the top line that's obviously over the top (but then again, you see what some people say on twitter these days, maybe not so over the top.) That being said, I don't have a lot of hope for this season at present. The pacing seems off. 70% of the episode was Ally screaming at things she didn't see ... or did she?! I'm not a big fan of that kind of storytelling. Winter's already showing the kid murder on the Darkweb, Ivy's already questioning her commitment to Ally, the clowns are already shown to be an actual gang of vicious murderers with over the top highly custom masks (which look great but aren't exactly indicative of the whole "random clowns in the woods" phenomenon.) Kai is clearly the most interesting figure here, simply because we need to know what he's all about, and he definitely has the charisma so far. I have a weird feeling he and the clowns are separate entities, and I don't know that that would sit well. The enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of stuff.
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Sep 7, 2017 08:12
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I was marveling at the layout of their house the whole episode. Facebook Aunt is right, their finances are bizarre. The main problem with this season is that it's going to take 11 episodes to tell a story that could be told in 5 or 6. Arguably a problem AHS has had in the past, but we're going to see a lot of scenes of high tension with Ally, cautiously moving through a location only to find something horrifying she may or may not have seen. The main appeal of this season is going to be all these goofy scenarios and one-liners that AHS is famous for. The married couple who wed because of a promise who love Nicole Kidman? Wonderful. And you need twice as many in a season that apparently limits its horror appeal to a gang of non-supernatural clowns. The main moral as I see it so far, is that if you allow yourself to be consumed by your fears, you become the thing you hate the most. I mean, it was pretty blatant this episode, what with Ally putting gates on the windows, getting a gun, and then shooting a man that turned out to be the one they refused to fire because she was scared someone was at the door. It's actually a poignant point, what with people advocating attacking other people because they would seemingly advocate attacking others. I actually have a theory that Ally voted for Trump. She was waiting to vote, then in the booth she panicked and bubbled in his name. She blames herself for his election and that's what triggered all this anxiety more than the election itself.
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Sep 13, 2017 23:09
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I guess it's possible that Ivy isn't in with the cult and merely kept quiet about Winter because they had committed a fairly serious crime. Maybe Winter is indeed blackmailing her with that and got the job as a result. I don't know, the idea that literally everyone but Ally is in on it and are torturing her doesn't feel right anymore. What's the endgame? Unless, they go full cult and Kai somehow worships Ally as some kind of messiah of fear that he has to help realize her full potential. Knowing this show, they could go that route (and then end on an underwhelming note.)
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Sep 27, 2017 11:58
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Assuming she's in on it, Ivy probably thinks it's for the best that she's with them instead of against them, and is thinking of Oz with that logic. Plus, she can actually have a modicum of control that ensures they don't harm him (the one did tell him he was dreaming rather calmly.)
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Sep 29, 2017 15:21
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I think they do their best work with period pieces (Asylum, Freak Show, parts of Roanoke.) I'll admit Freak Show was pretty dull at parts, but the characters felt more genuine. Coven just attacks all your concepts of logic and reason and sympathy again and again. When people say it's the worst, it's the most offensive from a storytelling standpoint. I think the reason this season is starting to actually receive a lot of praise is because Murphy is purposefully being as goofy as he can be. In previous seasons, he'd try to play it straight and look like a goof, but when he's trying to be funny, he's really quite good at it. It's why Scream Queens was so great.
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Sep 30, 2017 04:22
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I keep looking for the cracks - random zombies killed by an unexplained power that never shows up again, a previous season character callback that gets them killed for shock value, a car full of beeeeeeees - and I just can't think of any. Lord help me, the story is coherent. Everything that's happened has some kind of reasonable explanation and gasp even ties into the master plan. It's astounding. The only thing I can think of is the Twisty in their house with the other clowns, but I actually have confidence they'll explain that too! ....although that next episode preview might be the start of them.
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Oct 11, 2017 09:40
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ShakeZula posted:Given the size of the town and their apparently low crime rate, it's not unreasonable to think that Cult Cop is one of the only homicide detectives they have, which would mean he is theoretically capable of shifting a ton of evidence to fit whatever narrative Kai wants. It's a very convenient excuse, but that's what's happening. And it actually makes sense, simple as it is, unlike a lot of AHS stuff.
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Oct 12, 2017 06:41
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I doubt Ally will actually get charged with the shooting spree, just like she wasn't charged in the murder of Pedro. Again, the idea is that the police can be manipulated by the cult through Samuels. But much like that incident, the fact that she was there and in the middle of it will be fodder to pollute people against her, make her even more paranoid, etc. In any case, I doubt whatever Kai has planned for her could be achieved if she was behind bars.
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Oct 12, 2017 10:45
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I haven't done extensive research, but I have noticed a trend among a few of the usual sites that keep up with AHS and do recaps and all. They hate this season and feel like its dug a hole it can't crawl out of. Mind you, these same sites are the ones that gush about seasons like Coven or Hotel, where it's full of guest stars and camp and Lady Gaga and not so much coherence.
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Oct 22, 2017 23:10
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Politics aside, you could criticize things like how these seemingly normal people all fall under Kai's spell, and how every other character ended up doing so. Particularly Ivy, whose reason for turning on her wife does seem kind of silly to an outsider. Although, I think Murphy did get a perfect excuse this time around, because otherwise reasonable and mellow people have gone frantic at the result of the election. I think this one feels more compelling in part because the characters have more to lose. In the past, they could come back to life, be turned immortal, become ghosts, etc. The fears are more justified when your life could be destroyed or taken from you. And that is essentially what people on both sides are afraid of.
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Oct 23, 2017 18:27
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Someone I know described the season as a comedy for people who get it, a horror series for people who don't. If you're not in on the joke, you're the butt of it. I don't think the therapist was actually in on it fully, rather, he understood what Kai was capable of and finally got a clue. Still, his realization and subsequent death seemed pretty sudden. I guess Ally got out of the nut house because, as she told Kai, she actually has been cured, and convinced them of such. Kai actually did screw over Beverly and doesn't seem to have an explanation for it. Even if he was just testing her, he did promise her equal power from the jump. And for that matter, Kai believing Winter and allowing Ally into the fold both seem like awful ideas that will take him down. The problem with characters like Kai, is that they're two steps ahead and totally composed and constantly in control ..... until they aren't, and the whole thing falls apart because they need to end the story. Some random decision they made in anger that they should have known better about ends up destroying them. I'm hoping that's not what this is, but we do only have three episodes left.
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Oct 26, 2017 04:11
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haveblue posted:There have been signs all throughout the season that he's not really a manipulative genius and that his schtick has only worked so far because the people he used it on were broken and desperate and receptive and he has the natural charisma of a sociopath. They're probably going to complete the Trump parable more or less the way it seems to be going in real life- in the end all he can do is self-gratify and the cult falls apart when they collectively realize none of them are going to get what they originally wanted. He can suppress this for a while by intimidating and killing people, but that won't work forever, and he's already lost several important resources (his in with the police, his propagandist). But that's what annoys me about it. Despite how conveniently broken and easily manipulated the members are (Samuels had rock music blaring during sex and nazi paraphernalia for goodness sake,) his schtick still has worked. He has the power of the media, the police, he's on city council, and he has a mini-militia of "dudebro" drones now. And the only reason it's being threatened is because he's making the women serve as second class citizens in his utopia. I mean, BeBe actually was working for him, and riled up the women with SCUM talk at his behest. What was the point of that? And we still don't know what the deal is with torturing Ally and then bringing her into the fold. I'm hoping it's a case of simply not knowing Kai's ultimate plan yet. I just don't want this season to devolve into a series of illogical, plot-convenient events, as practically every other season has.
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Oct 26, 2017 09:47
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Gotta be honest, I'm coming back down to Earth like Jesus. I know this show, I know they tank the ending. I see Kai becoming more and more relaxed and Ally becoming more and more competent. I see important characters dropping like flies, like the therapist and Ivy, and I see Bev and Winter being next. I see the happy ending where everybody but Ally and Oz are dead and they ride into the sunset (and then we catch a glimpse of Oz on his laptop looking up the Dark Web to end the season.) Now, I will admit that the reveal of Kai being Oz's father blew me away. Made total sense as to why he targeted Ally specifically. Granted, it was a lie and totally discredits Kai at this point, but I didn't see it coming. This season has been pretty good at making you go "oooooooh." And if it's about the journey and not the destination, then it's succeeded more than most seasons. Man, Ivy is dumb though. I saw that poisoning so far away I felt like Sarah Palin.
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Nov 2, 2017 02:37
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Kai says, "Holy shitballs. I'm loving awesome. I literally spoke this into existence .... I'm a daddy!" That seemingly suggests that it was a flat out lie that he was Oz's father, and that he's truly gone off the deep end, believing the power of his words actually made it come ture, when really it's just Ally tricking him. If that's the case, it really kills any kind of credibility he has left. He lied during pinky power, he's blind to Ally tricking him, and he's getting drunk on the idea of a messiah baby. This is where it goes from smart, to simply crazy. And guys who do so much based on how smart they are and then let it fall apart because they go crazy, don't make for good characters in the end. I guess this could be another grand three-steps-ahead scheme where Ally does exactly what he thinks she will (he did keep eating the Manwich after all.) Maybe he donated to the clinic and took a guess, not knowing for sure. But they're really painting him as just crazy, which is what I was afraid of.
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Nov 2, 2017 13:57
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It has been a fun ride, but man, during that opening segment when they were trading buzzwords and references, I kept flashing back to every previous season. How they ended. How it all came crashing down. This season, sadly, is no different. My feet are firmly on the ground. The reveal that BeBe convinced Kai to mastermind this entire thing in the name of "female rage," it just doesn't do it for me. I already hate this newly paranoid Kai who doesn't realize he's being lied to in the most obvious manner. I know, I know. It's realistic as far as the crazy, paranoid cult leader, but it just doesn't make for a good ending. I mean, if he would really listen to Charlie, he'd eliminate all the women. Who, by the way, are in fact the ones plotting against him! He let Winter convince him that Beverly was a traitor, and now he's let Ally do the same thing with Winter. Not only that, they started to do so because of his own actions, making them second class citizens in the cult, and allowing BeBe to fill their heads with S.C.U.M. manifesto. Was Kai just placating BeBe this whole time before he could find a way to get rid of her? Was he really that under her spell despite forging his own path? Put it this way, what could possibly be the satisfying conclusion? Ally kills Kai and runs away free with Oz? She takes over the cult in his stead? Beverly snaps out of it and helps her? They were lying about the supernatural and Twisty himself shows up to wreck everybody? Like I said, flashbacks. They always tank the ending.
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Nov 9, 2017 06:54
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Open Source Idiom posted:Uh, no. The show consistently comes out against Trump and the alt-right. It doesn't devote nearly the same attention to Clinton. Granted, this is true for all the left leaning characters this season as well, who are shown to be rather easily manipulated by Kai (Beverly wants more respect, Meadow wants out of her desperate situation, Winter sees him as a pillar of strength, etc.) Especially Ivy, who got so mad at Gary she helped Winter kidnap him. Then she joined the cult and participated in actual murders because she married a fainthearted woman that didn't help her enough around the shop and had the nerve to say "my baby" in reference to their child. Although I agree, after the last episode and this whole concept of "female rage," the conclusion appears to be that women specifically need to stick together and not let Hillary's defeat define their place in society. Although all of Ally's disorders and fears were actually assuaged by Kai's treatment of her, she did find the strength to get through the hardship and seek revenge. You could correlate that with the idea of living and fighting in Trump's America in order to come out the other side.
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Nov 13, 2017 04:03
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They always tank the ending..... I remember when they announced season 7 was going to cover election night, and all of us rightfully cringed. And then the season started, with these outlandish characters, and a genuine curiosity over the clowns and all the craziness. Ally slowly becoming a hypocrite, shooting her Hispanic employee due to her own fear, and being berated by her annoying neighbors wearing sombreros over it? So goofy, yet so satisfying. Granted, they revealed nearly everyone was in the cult one-by-one, but it felt like something bigger was at play. For the first time in a long time, the show wasn't full of camp and unsubtle references and a total lack of stakes and likeable characters. It had a real villain with a real goal and real intrigue. It had a story. And now in the finale, Ally has conveniently become an FBI informant in the loony bin (after conveniently getting rid of all her phobias,) gotten away with the death of Ivy while acting as if she never existed (they even namedropped Lana,) conveniently met and rehabbed Kai's prison guard convert, and gets to smile in his face while he screams at her to get in the kitchen and make him a sandwich. Sucks. It just sucks. All that cringe from earlier in the year came flooding back. And the ironic thing is, all the usual sites who gush about the show have hated this season and it's reportedly the lowest rated one ever. I really wish they had never introduced the random militia guys. I think that was the turning point. That's when Kai went from being a local genius preying on the post-election fears of his devotees, to some alt-right caricature leading a pack of nazis against women. You introduce this idea that Kai himself was bred to resurrect S.C.U.M., then he went rogue with it, getting crazier and more paranoid and less intelligent, until his downfall came because he trusted a woman. I'll say it again: sucks. I'll say this again too: it's still the best season since Asylum and the ending doesn't change that. But maybe stop watching once the blueshirts show up.
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Nov 15, 2017 06:42
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discworld is all I read posted:So was her putting on the hood supposed to be a reference to a previous season or something? Cause it seemed like a strange thing to focus on and be the ending shot. It was a S.C.U.M. hood, like the one BeBe wore. She mentioned to Oz she was meeting a group of powerful women. Although for a moment I thought they were going to reference Coven again (hey, they took down that corporation of witch hunters with some goofy rat in a maze ritual, why not do it to Trump too?) By the way, what was up with Twisty appearing in their house during that first raid, the one that ended with her shooting her employee? And one of the teasers Murphy posted on instagram had a guy hanging upside down covered in bees. That never happened either.
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Nov 15, 2017 07:56
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Well that's why I'm so annoyed, it was consistent, until they totally tanked this ending like they always do, and filled it with an entire season's worth of plot holes and one-sided smugness. You don't have to read into it, it's there plain as day: Kai literally tells her to make him a sandwich while she smiles and says the only thing worse than a humiliated man is a nasty woman. Then Kai gets shot to death and Ally becomes a senator. It's a pretty huge triumph for one side and doesn't exactly paint Ally as maniacal and evil as Kai, leader of S.C.U.M. or not. Doltos sums it up pretty nicely, and if I hadn't sat through six seasons of these plot holes, and now a season that was mostly devoid of them, I don't think I would be so annoyed. They could have at least built the finale around Beverly instead of yet another "Paulson character triumphs" ending. She is the one that most showed signs of being like Kai, and then she turns into a complete mess because the militia threw her in an unseen cell for a little while. Sure, she got to shoot him in the end, but big deal. She became a footnote in the end, as did all the other cult members that made this season interesting. Facebook Aunt posted:Twisty merch exists, therefore a Twisty costume would be easy to get. Yeah, but who was it? All the clowns were accounted for eventually, except for him. And I don't think we ever saw him again in the roster of cult clowns?
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Nov 15, 2017 21:21
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Kai did an exceedingly good job at manipulating the individual members of the cult. It's when the militia showed up that he went full crazy paranoid and it became more about a bigger picture that didn't include the women, who were obviously going to be pissed off, especially when BeBe herself incites them. That's the part I can't get over, BeBe was allegedly pulling Kai's strings the whole time, which he went along with, even allowing the girls to kill Harrison, until he decided at some point to change the plan and cut her and the other women out. And then he goes and trusts Ally, the craziest one with the most to gain from his downfall.
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Nov 15, 2017 23:58
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Not for nothing, this show does have a knack for turning victims into villains. And not especially for the better. Lana Winters being a perfect example. I wouldn't say Ally has the moral high ground, but she was indeed triumphant and completely so. She felled Kai, tortured him even (with the news about Winter and Oz's real father,) and then smiled in his face as Beverly shot him. She also killed all her other betrayers, including Ivy. She was very heavily portrayed as the hero, the survivor of Kai's torture, and that's during her saying things like she's tired of being "mansplained to." They could have maybe played with that more in the end considering the state of politics right now, the tactics both sides are willing to resort to, and the reasoning as to why Trump won in the first place. But it was very heavy handed toward the one side, which could either be seen as a dark spiral, or a complete righteous victory, depending on who you're asking. If nothing else, a big opposite to the beginning, which made both sides look their goofiest.
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Nov 16, 2017 06:05
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All I can say is, I hope it's something historical. That's always their best work. The recreations of the various cult leaders were great this time around. Roanoke and Hotel had their share of flashbacks too, and they're typically not as bogged down in camp and social commentary and plot holes. We've had three straight seasons of modern day and I think they've covered enough in the present for a while (between the glamour of Gaga, the reality aspect of Roanoke, and the politics of Cult.) A season set in Alaska, or even Hawaii, could be neat. As long as we're still riding the women's empowerment train, why not something based around World War II, with the men off to war?
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Nov 20, 2017 21:06
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Every season except Roanoke, yeah. I don't know if Hotel counts since she was a ghost and all (but she did get clean and a healthy social media following.) That's why I saw this victory coming a mile away. And you're right the truth, Kai was clueless for the last third at least, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a master manipulator that was two steps ahead until he suddenly went crazy as he starting getting everything he wanted.
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Nov 25, 2017 04:15
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I'd say Peters is really the shining star of the series, opposed to Lange or Paulson.
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Dec 23, 2017 04:25
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AHS set in a Fallout-like dystopia that plays on the unknown terrors of a wasteland where it's every man for themselves, drawing parallels to the birth of the nation when it was pilgrimage into savage territory ... could be pretty neat. That being said, it'll probably be set ten years from now with a bunch of quips about how Trump ruined the country and opened the door for actual monsters to invade or something.
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Jan 10, 2018 07:24
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You mean Silence of the Lambs and Mean Girls weren't the exact same film? To that end, Peters is playing a "comedic" hairdresser.
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Apr 9, 2018 15:04
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So he wants to combine his two worst ideas (everyone becomes a ghost/witches are real ... real bitchy) into a season that may or may not deal with some kind of really near future political, if not literal, fallout? Yeah, this might be the one I quit. I just can't see it being anything but the bad kind of goofy.
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Jun 19, 2018 06:07
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Considering they brought down a billion dollar corporation with some rats in a maze, you'd think they would have taken care of Trump handily.
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Jun 19, 2018 21:30
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I'd gladly trade more AHS for more SQ. Poor Emma gave up Harley Quinn for it.
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Aug 9, 2018 03:08
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