Ok, I can FINALLY comment on this thread as I've just caught myself up.

And.

Wow.

It's crazy and schizophrenic to the point where sometimes the direction literally stresses me out (in a GOOD way; they are clearly trying to disarm the audience and it worked).

I am LOVING all of the elements that are coming together - I'm going to put the "SPOILER" warning on the below just in case.

• I agree with NE - Lange and Cromwell are absolutely horrifying and brilliant. He's a ridiculously good sadistic doctor.
• Nunsploitation and Nazisploitation!! Mon dieu!! LOVE that they are delving into more exploitative genres this season; The scene with Arden and the prostitute, the fetishism - So delightfully creepy and well-done... And OH! My nerdy horror senses are tingling with the "Anne Frank" story and the fact that the EVIL DOCTOR MAY BE A NAZI DOCTOR. BRILLIANT!
• Aliens (I saw it too NE - EEEEE!), mutants in the yard - AMAZING!!
• The Aversion/Conversion therapy - Wow, so creepy it made my stomach churn.
• Also, the torture/mangling of Chloë Sevigny was so incredibly disturbing it made my mouth drop open (I love it when "surprises" like that hit me in horror movies).
• Lily Rabe is INCREDIBLE and I'm ridiculously gleeful about the Evil Demon nun.
• I thought the exorcism was great, but oddly enough I had forgotten about it until I read J's post.
• To be honest, I'm not really sure how I feel about "present day," though I'm sure J's psyched about the fate of Adam Levine. ;) I am a little baffled by it, but have faith that the show will tie it together somehow.

I would say that my biggest complaint is that I'm disappointed in Joseph Fiennes; I think that he's a weak link acting-wise, which is too bad because I was excited to see my Shakespeare again. ;)

Also, for some reason Lizzie Brocheré/Grace bothers me; not sure if it's an acting issue or what, but she doesn't sit well with me. And I think that Evan Peters was better with a bit part last year that the more leading role he has this year.

However, everyone else is amazing and I feel the need to give a shout out to Zachary Quinto (who, while perhaps well-intentioned is wonderfully creepy) and Sarah Paulson is just perfect opposite him.

I would say that the biggest difference between last season and this season is that last season I identified and sympathized with more characters than I do this season, something that I thought would be an issue, but it hasn't stopped me from enjoying it yet.

Regardless of my complaints, I am ridiculously excited to see where the season continues to go. I think that they have reached a deeper level of dark and disturbing that has honestly unnerved me. Kudos. Can't wait to watch more of it.


I must have missed something NE because I'm not sure what you're referring to here?

In response to Chrono:

The four women in the house, listening to records. (One of them is the reporter's lover) They are all stereotypical lesbians circa 50s-60s. They're not spelling it out, but it's obvious if you know what you're looking for. Something happened at that house that we didn't get to see, and when the cop goes there the check up on the reporter's roommate, the house is abandoned. The implication is they've been abducted by these aliens.


You called them mutants in the graveyard, I saw them eating a dead body, so I called them flesh eating ghouls.


And I agree about the present day storyline. It's definitely the weak link, but I'm trusting them to make it pay off, because I love the potential of something called BLOODY FACE.

Ahh, Gotcha now...


I "got" that they were the stereotypical lesbian group, but I thought that it was implied that the girlfriend was attacked by Bloody Face after they left. Then again, there seems to be a tie-in with the alien abduction theme and Bloody Face, so if that's where they're going (the whole group getting abducted), I totally missed it.

Makes me want to rewatch the first couple of episodes.

heehee - Mutants vs. flesh-eating ghouls; I like the term "flesh-eating ghoul" better. :D

And I agree - Someone called BLOODY FACE - Brilliant.

Haha, I'm loving all of this secret correspondence.

Speaking of things that were sickening, how about Lana's aversion therapy? That was so disgusting. And the Anne Frank character once again reiterates the AHS writers' maniacal audacity, and at this point, I'd expect nothing less.
I also had an inkling that Dr. Six-Feet-Under-Babe was a mad Nazi doctor, so I was a bit jaw-dropped to have that revelation in the show.

Well, you know... we just don't want to spoil things for folks who haven't watched yet. Anyone's free to peek if they want!

Oh I know, it was just funny to see this conversation that was basically all whited out.

I thought the modern day twist at the Asylum was crazy. I wonder if we'll get to find out who Bloody Face is in the past?

Eventually.

I believe this may have been my favorite episode of the entire series. So many different things going on. Even the direction was superior to what you'd normally see on a TV show. They rolled out as many camera tricks as possible- forced perspective, claustrophobic framing, weird angles, quick cuts, extreme light and shadow, mujted color palette, odd coloration resembling old film stock from the 50s in the scenes from the past, use of shots with no people in them, such as the shot of a desk with two chairs before it or the flames in the fireplace, certain musical cues. At times it really resembled a homage to Hitchcock or Polanski.

And then the plot itself:
They're really delving into some dark corners here, dipping into the heart of evil in American society. The government use of former Nazi scientists, forced sterilization programs, ice pick lobotomies.
We're still getting glimpses of the aliens.
And holy shit- the revelation of who BLOODY FACE is.



This is top notch story telling and filmmaking. It's making use of the one advantage episodic television has over feature films- the ability to develop a storyline and characters over a period of time.
With the proper team in place- writing, directing, good production values, great actors- this form can't be topped. This series is one of the best efforts I've ever seen.

The reveal was surprising. I think a scene in an earlier episode was now played as how another character saw things. As I usually don't like it when a show lets us see things that didn't happen or are there to throw off the audience. But yeah, this show is using all these horrible things that happened in society, that were going on at the time to perfection. Few shows would be able to get away with this sort of thing without seeming silly. I like this a lot more than the original.

Before I add my $0.02, can a Mod update the title to say ***CONTAINS WEEK TO WEEK SPOILERS*** or something like that? I'm tired of writing in white. ;)



I'm going to be honest; I can't add a single thing to what NE said - I completely and utterly agree with everything mentioned here. Last night's episode was phenomenal, for all of the reasons that he mentioned.

• Did NOT see the reveal of Bloody Face coming; I knew that there was something just not right about the doctor, but I did not predict that he would be Bloody Face. Brilliant. I absolutely ADORE when reveals take me off-guard like that (doesn't happen as often as I'd like).
• The abduction/sterilization scene was brilliant, and creepy; can't wait to see where it goes.
• And, yes, the lobotomy - Wow. Just the Anne Frank storyline in general I thought was really touching, interesting, well-written and superb acting.

I noticed that the direction was particularly disarming this week. I wondering if they're deploying a technique wherein the direction gets more shaky/blurry as we "descend" into the madness of the asylum.

Really creates a great feel of dis-ease.

I like the white spaces... they're intriguing, like redacted government files...

I have appreciated the spoiler white outs... I'm still trying to decide whether I want to watch any of this series. I dont really watch any current TV outside of the odd comedy series and the news, but the whole concept of this show, especially this series, has me real interested.

The first one is more pure horror with ghosts but this one has everything. It would be bad high school/college creative writing stuff if not for the acting and way they are telling the story. I can't believe you're not watching this show.

If you can get your hands on it, definitely at least give it a try. I think you'll totally dig it.

Best show on television right now and certainly the only one I truly look forward to every week.


Ha - True; Just makes it harder to read over a mobile.

I agree with all of this and was thinking the very same things last night. This was definitely a crazy awesome episode. I didn't see Bloody Face/the doctor coming until they stepped into his house and I thought, "Oh shit, he's the killer." They did an amazing job with this character.

I don't know if that needed to be in white or not but on the off chance, I hid it.

Just watched this week's episode, and yes- really, really well-constructed. This show isn't always strong on the whole balancing storylines thing, but this episode was super-impressive. Restrained in some ways, still sheer madness in others.
Good stuff! Can't wait to see where all the huge developments/reveal(s) from this week lead.

YES!!! Agreed!

My one slight quibble with this show is with the scenes where they show Sister Jude's past. Jessica Lange is a terrific actress, and she deserves every acolade she gets for this role, but I just don't believe her as her younger self. They should get another actress to play her in those scenes, IMO.

This week's episode felt really jumbled and the Santa murderer storyline was pretty useless. But hey, whaddaya know, it was still a lot of fun. Next week looks crazy (as if that's any different) and -uh, oh- looks like everyone's favorite McDermott is back.

I like how the aliens show up at weird times. The show is crazy. I hope the devil gets to run into the aliens eventually.

Good to see Ian McShane back on the screen.

I wanted to kill James Cromwell in this episode. How could you side with the devil, Cromwell!

He's a Nazi, what do you expect?

True! And he is only mutilating various patients and tried to rape one of them. Oh, and he does torture and murder prostitutes.

Yeah, I was really glad to have him in this episode. He's always great.

Every Single Mental Thing Ian McShane Screams as American Horror Story’s Santa, in One Video

Here's an interesting interview with Ryan Murphy about the Christmas Episode and what's coming up...

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/12/06/am...ght-exclusive/

FX isn't showing AHS this week or next week. Did the show take a break and I never realized it until now?

I didn't realize it either. Very very sad to wake up to an AHS-less DRV.

This season is SO over the top...I'm loving it. I would watch Ian McShane in anything....that dude is ultra cool.[ hmmmm....a guest spot on Sons of Anarchy would be great.]

A bit worried about next year though....where the hell could they go after this one?

Yeah, seriously! I got myself ready for it like usual, only for The Hurt Locker to keep playing. Apparently it's taking a break and will be back after the holidays.

Have there been any leaks or hints of what the next season is planning? Even knowing the setting would be awesome.

I haven't even heard anything about them being picked up for a third season.

This week's episode was a real standout, with exemplary work from both Lange and Cromwell.


SPOILERS

LOVED that musical number! It was like something from a John Waters movie.

Holy crap- I hope that's not the end of James Cromwell!

Feels like this season is about to wind down again. Just like last season all the twists are over now and they are closing things up. SPOILERS!
























With two of the more crazy characters gone the atmosphere will be very different since there is only one nutcase left. Plus, the Aliens probably will only show up once more if that.

That's the one I was talking about.

Well, Jude is certainly not sane by any means. She could still hold plenty of surprises. In fact, it seemed like there was a little hint that the devil jumped into her when it left the other nun.

Finally caught up with last week's episode last night and... WOW...

• The musical number was absolutely brilliant. Where Sister Jude is now is so incredibly sad (which is fantastic that the show has evoked such pathos in me after hating her so much)... I didn't really see that the Devil has transitioned into her, but we'll see in the next episodes.
• I can't believe that they just offed my two favorite villains, Sister Mary Eunice and Arden - What an epic death! Did anyone else not believe Sister Mary Eunice when she started to cry in the Monsignor's arms? I thought it was the Devil putting on airs, so that, to me, says that the Devil somehow planned to be thrown over... What do you think?
• The development of Pepper (so to speak) as the "Protector" of Grace and the Baby was great (though shouldn't she have been able to protect the Baby from Dr. Threadson, thus not really enabling him to blackmail Kit?
• I'm sad that my two favorite Evils are gone, though I'm interested to see what happens with Threadson... I wish I were more interested in Kit and Grace; for some reason she just totally drives me bananas.

I have no idea where they will (or can!) take next Season... Mark guesses that it'll be some kind of island scenario, but I feel as though the past two seasons have been focused more on American Gothic Horror that an island wouldn't really fit...