⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Last year, we had the presidential election between democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and republican candidate Donald Trump. In a surprising victory, Trump won and took office as the next President of the United States. This result was met with negative responses from both political sides; most believing that he wasn’t qualified for such a job. Now, this controversial election has become the backdrop of the next season of American Horror Story, subtitled Cult.
In the town of Brookfield Heights, Michigan, Ally Mayfield-Richards (Sarah Paulson) and her wife Ivy (Alison Pill) are devastated at Trump’s victory. This doesn’t help Ally, since she already suffers from paranoid hallucinations. At the same time, Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) is ecstatic about the win, and decides to use this opportunity to start his psychotic takeover of the world. He begins pulling together a twisted cult of murderers, a group that Ally has some connection to. She must work through her fears and find a way to bring Kai down before he unleashes a wave of terror on the town.
Along with series regulars Paulson and Peters, this seasons also stars Billie Lourd as Kai’s sister Winter, Adina Porter as reporter Beverly Hope, Billy Eichner and Leslie Grossman as husband and wife Harrison and Meadow Wilton, Chaz Bono as Trump supporting cult member Gary Longstreet, Cooper Dodson as Ally and Ivy’s son Oz, and Cheyenne Jackson as Ally’s mysterious therapist Rudy Vincent.
I’m a recent fan of American Horror Story. I had wanted to watch for several years when it was really getting going, but certain limitations in television didn’t allow me to. This is the first season I have sat through when it premiered on FX (other seasons I binged on Netflix). I have always loved the marketing campaigns for each season. The enigmatic images of each commercial were so cool. While I did enjoy American Horror Story: Cult, in my opinion, this was the weakest season.
First off, like other seasons of this show, the performances weren’t necessarily the best. There were many moments during the story when Paulson was definitely overacting. There were also moments where other actors, like Pill and Lourd, were guilty of that as well. The only performance I thought was really good was Peters. I’ve loved every performance he has given in the show, and this one was no different. He really came off as threatening, while at the same time; we sympathized with why he was the way he was. He was a well-developed villain.
It takes a little while, but there are some genuinely scary moments. The first couple episodes can be confusing, not feeling scary but funny. This season certainly brings a good amount of unintentional laughs. But as the season goes along, it manages to figure what it wants to be in terms of tone, and also manages to bring some scary moments. It’s mostly due to the increasing intensity of Kai and his cult, who, like I said, is an effectively intense villain.
Unfortunately, there are certain things that kept this from being a great season like the others I’ve seen. For one thing, for talking up the election angle so much, it really wasn’t the focus of the season. Towards the beginning, its Trump’s win that set off the events of the story, but when it really moved forward, it lost sight of it. It very quickly becomes nothing but a small background element. It’s not that this was a bad thing, but for how much they were building it up, it didn’t really deliver.
I also felt that this season couldn’t really figure out what it wanted to focus on. It was clear that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk wanted to use this one to make comments about various social issues. The only problem was that it didn’t seem like they could decide which problem they wanted to focus on. It went from talking about politics, to same-sex relationships, to serial killers, to sexism, to organized religion, and so on. This made the season feel a little overstuffed and confused.
It couldn’t really figure out what it wanted to be as a whole, but in the end, American Horror Story: Cult was still a very entertaining season of this ambitious series. It may have been the weakest season of the show, but it still managed to get some messages around, and offered a creepy atmosphere and a satisfying end that resolves the story the way I would have ended it. I am so happy that this show has been renewed for two more seasons, and can’t wait to see what the next story will be.
Last year, we had the presidential election between democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and republican candidate Donald Trump. In a surprising victory, Trump won and took office as the next President of the United States. This result was met with negative responses from both political sides; most believing that he wasn’t qualified for such a job. Now, this controversial election has become the backdrop of the next season of American Horror Story, subtitled Cult.
In the town of Brookfield Heights, Michigan, Ally Mayfield-Richards (Sarah Paulson) and her wife Ivy (Alison Pill) are devastated at Trump’s victory. This doesn’t help Ally, since she already suffers from paranoid hallucinations. At the same time, Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) is ecstatic about the win, and decides to use this opportunity to start his psychotic takeover of the world. He begins pulling together a twisted cult of murderers, a group that Ally has some connection to. She must work through her fears and find a way to bring Kai down before he unleashes a wave of terror on the town.
Along with series regulars Paulson and Peters, this seasons also stars Billie Lourd as Kai’s sister Winter, Adina Porter as reporter Beverly Hope, Billy Eichner and Leslie Grossman as husband and wife Harrison and Meadow Wilton, Chaz Bono as Trump supporting cult member Gary Longstreet, Cooper Dodson as Ally and Ivy’s son Oz, and Cheyenne Jackson as Ally’s mysterious therapist Rudy Vincent.
I’m a recent fan of American Horror Story. I had wanted to watch for several years when it was really getting going, but certain limitations in television didn’t allow me to. This is the first season I have sat through when it premiered on FX (other seasons I binged on Netflix). I have always loved the marketing campaigns for each season. The enigmatic images of each commercial were so cool. While I did enjoy American Horror Story: Cult, in my opinion, this was the weakest season.
First off, like other seasons of this show, the performances weren’t necessarily the best. There were many moments during the story when Paulson was definitely overacting. There were also moments where other actors, like Pill and Lourd, were guilty of that as well. The only performance I thought was really good was Peters. I’ve loved every performance he has given in the show, and this one was no different. He really came off as threatening, while at the same time; we sympathized with why he was the way he was. He was a well-developed villain.
It takes a little while, but there are some genuinely scary moments. The first couple episodes can be confusing, not feeling scary but funny. This season certainly brings a good amount of unintentional laughs. But as the season goes along, it manages to figure what it wants to be in terms of tone, and also manages to bring some scary moments. It’s mostly due to the increasing intensity of Kai and his cult, who, like I said, is an effectively intense villain.
Unfortunately, there are certain things that kept this from being a great season like the others I’ve seen. For one thing, for talking up the election angle so much, it really wasn’t the focus of the season. Towards the beginning, its Trump’s win that set off the events of the story, but when it really moved forward, it lost sight of it. It very quickly becomes nothing but a small background element. It’s not that this was a bad thing, but for how much they were building it up, it didn’t really deliver.
I also felt that this season couldn’t really figure out what it wanted to focus on. It was clear that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk wanted to use this one to make comments about various social issues. The only problem was that it didn’t seem like they could decide which problem they wanted to focus on. It went from talking about politics, to same-sex relationships, to serial killers, to sexism, to organized religion, and so on. This made the season feel a little overstuffed and confused.
It couldn’t really figure out what it wanted to be as a whole, but in the end, American Horror Story: Cult was still a very entertaining season of this ambitious series. It may have been the weakest season of the show, but it still managed to get some messages around, and offered a creepy atmosphere and a satisfying end that resolves the story the way I would have ended it. I am so happy that this show has been renewed for two more seasons, and can’t wait to see what the next story will be.