Hello g33ks, m33ks and any lost gleeks or whatever you call the fans of Nip/Tuck… Carverettes? On Wednesday night FX debuted their highly hyped and anticipated new series from the creators of Glee, and the aforementioned Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story. This series has been advertised everywhere and recommended a great deal as being a true weekly horror drama. I don’t know if its possible for this series to maintain the creepiness and intensity of its pilot episode but so far as Episode 1 is concerned; AHS is a home run. As a big fan of the genre I wanted something scary/creepy/strange and I got it in spades. In fact, its very possible that they will have to break some taboos in order to top this first episode and maintain watchability. Seriously, things went down in this show and in order to discuss the highlights there will be SPOILERS so you’ve been warned.

This series is based around a classic horror movie trope. Small family moves across country to new house which is possibly haunted and trying to kill them. Wife Viven Harmon (Connie Britton) is dealing with two traumatic events: A horrific miscarriage in which she had to carry her dead son until she was able to give birth to him and months later while trying to regain trust in her own body she walks in on her psychiatrist husband Ben (Dylan McDermott) in the act of cheating on her. They have a daughter named Violet (Taissa Farmiga) who is an outcast at school and secretly a self mutilator.

The house meanwhile comes with just as much baggage as the Harmons. There are dead twin ghosts who were killed in the house in 1978 by ‘something’, Addy (Jaime Brewer) a woman with down’s syndrome who is obsessed with the place, the nosy neighbor and Addy’s mother Constance (Jessica Lange), and don’t get me started on the maid Moira… (Francis Conroy and Alex Breckenridge) Older and matronly or young and seductive depending on who is looking at her.

After all of that I still haven’t touched upon Ben’s psychotic patient Tate (Evan Peters) who dreams of massacring the people he likes at school in order to save them from life, Larry Harvey (Denis O’hare) a previous owner and burn victim who fell under the house’s control and burned his wife and children to death – recently released from prison due to having inoperable brain cancer, and The Gimp… At one point the Harmons find a gimp suit in the attic they assume was left by the previous tenants. Ben procedes to throw the suit away but later someone interacts with Vivien while waring it…

Let’s discuss what we know and what we can infer about this series:

Vivien while visiting her OBGYN is told that she needs hormone therapy to fix her menstrual cycle. The doctor compares her to a house who’s foundation needs repair and she tells him she’s not a house.

Vivien and Ben’s last sexual experience was about a year before moving into the new house.

We know the house was built in the 20’s by “the doctor to the stars” at the time. Sometime later Larry Harvey owned and set fire to the house, and sometime after that it was bought by a gay couple. The gay couple lovingly restored the house in every way except to cover the demonic mural in the lounge. Vivien removes the covering and reveals the mural.

Addy is obsessed with the house, as a child she warned the twins, “you’re going to die in there” and as an adult, she sneaks into the house while Viv is cleaning and says the same to her. Constance her mother is a failed actress who refused to get nude in the 60’s and once she had, “the mongoloid” (exact quote) she had to give up that life. These two women seem able to enter the house totally at will as they are shown time and again to be sneaking around whenever they want.

Moira the maid has worked for at least the previous homeowners, she discovered the murder suicide and cleaned the mess. The women in the series (Constance, Vivien, Violet) all see Moira as an older woman with a dead eye wearing a modest maid uniform. Ben sees her as a young beautiful woman who wears a ‘sexy’ maid outfit. This isn’t a situation where Moira is changing her form, as Ben and Viv both see her differently during her interview even though they’re talking to her at the same time. Moira is sexually available to Ben and on two occasions offers herself to him in extremely forward ways. The final note on Moira is Constance seemingly knows her well and refers to her as a “slut who acts matronly”, “the two of you” and also says, “don’t make me kill you again”.

Violet initially hates the house but when she learns of the murder suicide says, “we’ll take it” to the realitor. Often said to not be scared of anything by her mother, father and Tate. She takes on three popular bully girls at her new school going so far as to burn one of them with a cigarette.

Tate is a seemingly dangerous psychotic. He is Ben’s only patient in the new house, so far – we’ll meet new ones as the series goes on. He is a former mutilator who becomes obsessed with Violet. He doesn’t want to take his medication for fear of loss of sexual potency and tells Ben that now that he has someone to use it with he doesn’t want to lose it, referring to Violet. Ben forbids Tate from spending time with his daughter which of course makes them sneak around. Tate promises to help solve Violet’s bully problem by telling her to invite the main girl over and they’ll scare her together. Violet promises her cocaine in exchange for being left alone and while in the basement Tate seemingly attacks the bully and then transforms into the thing that killed the Twins in the opening.The bully runs away and Violet is finally afraid of something and throws Tate out.

Ben is beginning to sleepwalk in the nude regularly. He is also fighting his attraction to Moira who he catches pleasuring herself in a room. She doesn’t stop and actually intensifies the action seemingly as an invitation. (side note I want to thank the producers of the show for not switching us into the view of older Moira during this scene. I feel like they will eventually take one of these events to that point though.) Ben doesn’t scold her and instead rushes off to his bedroom and relieves tension himself. Later as Ben tries to report Tate to the police for his school massacre fantasy he is rebuffed and put on hold. Moira is cleaning his office and vocally offers herself to him. She seems to know what he did the last time and asks him to show her. Violet sees this interaction, except to her Moira is much older than what Ben sees, and she runs off.

Vivien and Ben finally have the fight they’ve been pretending didn’t need to happen and they reconcile. (This fight is one of the most honest, petty, and realistic moments in a television drama I’ve seen in a long time. It was an excellent scene between Dylan and Connie and I hope that kind of interaction continues to happen on the show. With a cast this good it should be a weekly requirment to allow them to shine this well.) The only let down of this scene is that sex and violence on this show are not hidden away except in this moment. We know they make love but almost on purpose there is a classic fireplace pullaway shot.

The only reason this is important enough to be mentioned is that later that evening Viv is in the bedroom and in walks The Gimp. Vivien thinks its Ben just trying to have some fun. Surprising even herself Viv says, “you really want to go for round two? Alright I can be kinky”. She has sex with The Gimp and in a Twin Peaks reference she sees Ben and The Gimp interchange. This sex scene is not cutaway you’re there well past when most shows would cut so the choice there is obviously on purpose.

All this ends up in a mystery because downstairs, seemingly at the same time is Ben sleepwalking. He is playing with the stove and looks ready to set a fire. Constance sends him back upstairs saying its not time yet and to enjoy the house. Upstairs Viv is sort of stunned by what she just did but still tells Ben she loves him. He says the same almost in a hypnotic trance. The next day Vivien tells Ben she’s pregnant and while they are ecstatic at a second chance to complete the family we’re all left ot wonder who’s the father?



Whew— anyone else exhausted after all of that? Well I haven’t touched on the Twin Peaks Black Lodge floor in their kitchen, there is something going on with redheads (Vivien, Moira, Violet and Ben’s as of yet unseen mistress are all redheads), and then there’s all the ghosts.

Can this show keep up the pace? Can it keep up the quality for a full season? Can its plot maintain itself to a second season?