I recently watched American Horror Story’s season six premiere “Roanoke” and I must say I enjoyed it. Even though I actually hate the show after season two, I do like the idea of the show paying homage to and mimicking the popularity of reality paranormal shows that currently litter cable TV.
One of my favorites that the premiere reminded me of was Paranormal Witness that currently airs on the Syfy Channel. Another one of my older favorites is called A Haunting and My Haunted House.
The new season of AHS along with these reality paranormal shows relay on a documentary style format setting. They interview the actual victims or witnesses, while actors reenact the dramatization of the incidents experienced. This format is what made shows like Paranormal Witness such a hit for the Syfy Channel. What’s interesting about AHS season 6 is that the production comes off as a mirror copy of the aforementioned reality show.
What I like about Paranormal Witness is that each episode is concluded within an hour. Some of the episodes are really good (they are tied to actual documented events) and some are really bad, but you’re guaranteed a new story each episode. This isn’t the case with AHS, which to me may be its failure.
The whole season of AHS will focus on one couple (Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr) and his ex-cop sister (Angela Basset) and the large house they moved into after outbidding local redneck yokels.
Even though I like premise of the first episode, I could easily see this getting bogged down with typical AHS mess and going to complete shit like all the other seasons of AHS beyond season two.
Just like with the Minotaur and the Clown in previous seasons, this season has a monster by way of a Pig Man. I couldn’t help but laugh as it reminded me of man-bear-pig from South Park.
So I’ll do just like I did with the previous seasons; wait until the season is almost over and binge watch the next three episodes to confirm my suspicions.
It’s not my fault I’ve lost all faith in the creators’ plots that has made the show unwatchable in the past. Nonetheless, I do hope the show proves me wrong.
Although I'm liking how Roanoke is starting out thus far, I'm not feeling Angela Basset's character this season and am continuing to lose interest in AHS altogether…unfortunately. I hope Jessica Lange appears in this season because her characters from previous seasons are what made me a fan of AHS in the first place.
I like the whole dramatic reenactment thing too
@hannibal what say you?
I'll binge it after the season is done, like I did with 4 & 5 (both disappointing as hell, btw) The decline of the show makes me wonder if Seasons 1 & 2 were really Ryan's and Brad's concept/ideas, because AHS has DEFINITELY lost the "ummpff" that Murder House and Asylum had.
Whu tag me in this? You already know how I feel. ASYLUM was utter nonsense. Coven was hands down the best season.deal with it.
Asylum was a MASTERPIECE!!! Sister Jude’s character growth was masterfully done. Murder House was interesting. Coven was wicked funny cool. I love Pepper’s character. Any scene she’s in is lifted for me, along with Jessica Lange. But 4 & 5 were disappointing. I never finished either one. The first episode of 6 had my heart beating so fast, especially after Kathy Bates got hit & pumped her big ass off into the woods….and the damn girl followed her into the woods & got lost. I don’t like that kind of stuff. I’ll try to keep watching. I thought that since it seemed like they were elevating their game (in the wake of the heightened gravitas of The People vs. O.J.) they would take this series to a new level at world. It does seem that there is a sincere effort to have diverse roles for people of color that aren’t complete stereotypes of what we’ve seen before. That’s refreshing. I’m undecided. I may need to wait & binge as well.
I am feeling the season so far, but as stated, the show always starts off good and somewhere along the way loses its luster. I agree that seasons one and 2 were the best, though Asylum did waaaaaaaaaaay too much (demons, Nazi experiments, AND aliens?) towards the end.
Okay… now that it’s over, this season over all was a win for me. I give mad props to them focusing on Lee towards the end and seeing her as a character rather than a black character. Race was there, but it didn’t seem like racist race. I think Ryan Murphy got/gets an education from his black stars and has been gradually making shows that are as forward thinking in terms of race as they are sexuality/orientation. They’ve done interracial marriage but I think since the OJ series, things have progressed, at least from how I see it. I thought the reboot near the end of the season was cool, but I would have been fine with the original storyline continuing like it did. I like gory/scary shit & this season had me fucking terrified.