It’s been two days since the season finale of American Horror Story: Roanoke and I’m still left with this sense of profound disappointment. You would think I’d be used to this feeling with the show because it has been like this since season four. When the show first premiered in 2011 with American Horror Story: Murder House, I was captivated from start to finish and was stoked that we would be getting a legit horror anthology show for a new generation. Now that we’re in 2016, the show has seen its ups and many downs but when will fans of the show have enough of having their emotions toyed with?
When season six premiered, under a cloud of great mystery, I was all in with its show within a show premise for this season. The series was in dire need of reinvention after American Horror Story: Hotel which rode the hype of casting Lady Gaga showing us gratuitous depictions of sex and gore that was simply there because they could show it, not because it aided the story. If we’re being honest, the weird for the sake of being weird approach started strong in American Horror Story: Freak Show and then dissolved into a mess. After these two last seasons, the show needed something different and American Horror Story: Roanoke looked to give us just that. By the end of the season premiere, I had a feeling I haven’t had since season three, American Horror Story: Coven – I didn’t want it to end.
I told myself that was only episode one and not to get too excited so I wouldn’t be let down. Then something weird happened: The next few episodes were even better. The show was fun but also a bit scary again which was something the last two seasons lacked. It was at this point I left this on my Facebook status update: “Season Six of American Horror Story” is the best the show has been since Murder House“. I put that bold statement out there because I had faith that Ryan Murphy and his team had gotten the show back on track.
Episode six of this season threw a bit of a curve ball at us and blended the worlds of the fictional show within the show and the real people that the fictional show was depicting (sounds confusing, right?). This little twist turned off some people I know but I thought it was brilliant and interesting. It could be a good commentary on true crime TV, Hollywood, horror and the fans who eat all of this stuff up for entertainment. It may have lost some, but it didn’t lose me and once again I was singing the show’s praises. I still get a laugh out of the mock 911 call where Sarah Paulson (now playing the actress who played a real-life character from the show within a show) tells the dispatcher that another actress is trying to steal her Saturn Award and the dispatcher asks if someone is trying to steal her car. It’s funny because most people wouldn’t know what a Saturn Award was but us nerds know exactly what one wins those awards for. It’s those in-jokes that made this season so much fun, up to that point.
I had a feeling I was going to be disappointed with the season finale during the previews for it after episode nine. There was something about it that made it seem like the episode was coming with very little bang for my buck. If you go back and look at the preview, it doesn’t even feel like its advertising the season finale. It could’ve been any random filler episode of the week the way it was being marketed.
I told myself not to worry because so far, season six has been so top-notch and there is no way Ryan Murphy and company were going to let me down. I guess I chose to block out how he gradually let me down with season two of Popular, everything after season three of Nip/Tuck and the mess Glee became sometime around the third season of its six-season run. Every creator has some misfires and a lot of times they can redeem themselves (he did this with American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson, which was captivating TV from start to finish). I had faith that he could maintain the momentum of the first nine episodes of this season and make the fans proud.
If you’ve been on Twitter or any other social media, you now know that the reaction to the finale has been VERY polarizing. I usually don’t side with the naysayers and think they come in a bit too hard at times but I have to agree with the negativity on this one. While the episode did have moments of smart commentary and solid acting (I think Adina Porter deserves some awards attention as Lee) it ended with a whimper rather than a bang. After all that solid build up all season, I felt let down by the show once again. I kept waiting for some epic twist (having Sarah Paulson playing Lana Winters from American Horror Story: Asylum, her third character this season, was a nice touch but it’s not enough). As I’m sitting in my room approaching the end of the episode, the sad realization sank in that I was back to that blah feeling I had during the latter half of season four and pretty much the whole time during season five.
I’ve been watching this season with a few people from work who have been fans since day one and some who just came on board last season. We all were into this season with eyes glued to the screen as each episode built on the next with so much creativity and promise. I walked into work the day after the finale and it was like we all had this moment where we expressed our collective disappointment without even having to formally bring it up. A lot of them, particularly the new viewers, felt like they wasted ten weeks of their lives watching it after such a lackluster finish. I wish I didn’t share that sentiment but I sadly agree with it. Can one episode ruin a whole season? In this case, it pretty much did.
Now that this is all over I’m wondering if the show can get back to season one greatness. Hell, I’d even take season three greatness since that was the last time the show was consistently good. Each season I see the promos and I get excited for the show, forgetting how much I was disappointed by the season before it. Perhaps it’s the power of marketing or I’m just optimistic that maybe this time they will get it right. I’m making my stance now: American Horror Story will not be must see TV for me next season. I don’t think I can get invested anymore and then drastically let down by the end result. There is a lot of good TV to watch and it can’t be wasted on something so inconsistent and mediocre.
Then again, who am I kidding? I’m sure season seven will have some flashy promo that makes me forget this little rant that I’m having today. Even more of a game changer is Ryan Murphy saying that a future season will be a crossover between Murder House and Coven (the two best seasons of the show). If I have it my way, this will be a true fans dream of epic proportions but knowing how things have been handled recently, I’ll probably be right back here writing a sequel to this story.
