Nothing is harder to watch than a stagnant horror plot, where you’re sitting around waiting for something to happen, and when it finally does, it’s anticlimactic and predictable. You know the type.
The second season of “American Horror Story,” titled “Asylum,” seems to be desperately avoiding becoming one of these underwhelming thrillers. In fact, it’s on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. The show has gone so far in the other direction, it’s developed a whole new set of problems.
FX’s “American Horror Story” strays from the conventional TV show in that it’s framed to be a different miniseries each season, so the plot, setting and characters are completely different each time around—although many of the first season’s actors returned in different roles. Structured this way, this anthology series forces itself to be refreshing, and doesn’t have a plot that drags on unnecessarily for six seasons (cough cough, “Lost”).
The show’s first season “Murder House” caught my attention and had me eagerly awaiting the show’s return, “Asylum,” which is set in 1964 in an unethically strict, Catholic-controlled insane asylum called Briarcliff. With a great setting, the show has certainly made a big return: perhaps a bit too big for its horror britches.
Now, six episodes into the season, “Asylum” has just about reached its halfway mark, and they’ve already introduced a hefty number of villians. Let me know if I’ve counted incorrectly, but so far I’ve listed (spoilers ahead): Bloody Face, the sadistic nun, the possessed nun, aliens, the Nazi doctor and his weird mutants. What the hell are these guys going to do next season, or—God forbid—the season after that? They’re using a hefty majority of the horror playbook in just a single season. Oh, I forgot to mention they threw Anne Frank in there too, tying her to a big government conspiracy, which I guess makes Uncle Sam bad guy No. 7. And how about the creepy little girl who’s murdered people: No. 8. Did I mention there have only been six episodes?
I’ll say it again, there’s no shortage of action in “Asylum,” but the show’s writers are clearly struggling to balance the many evil forces they’ve clown carred into this season’s current setting. This is shown through the fumbling of multiple subplots. For example, the audience would have been more skeptical about Kit Walker’s sanity and innocence when talking to Dr. Thredson if the existence of aliens hadn’t already been confirmed by Sister Jude. In addition, too many of the characters have been regularly compromised in order to comply with the overwhelming number of subplots (i.e. Sister Mary Eunice, the possessed nun who recently proclaimed herself the devil, is a sociopathic lunatic with super strength and demonic powers half the time, and just kind of a smart-ass the other half.)
But through it all, I’ve kept watching, which shows I’m willing to overlook these inconsistencies and oversights to see how this great big, spooky mess ends. Surely, one of these forces of evil must eventually take precedence over the others and become the frontrunner, but “Asylum” has left no apparent clues on which it might be. Several have been put on the backburner, such as the possessed nun and the aliens, who, after kidnapping yet another of Kit’s significant others, revealed their true motive of cock-blocking Kit for the rest of his life. However, I’m willing to bet our main man will end up being Bloody Face, who has gotten real weird with it as of late.
If “Asylum’s” goal is to shroud viewers in mystery with its ADHD-like plot-splosion, then “American Horror Story” went above and beyond. Here’s to hoping it will somehow wrap this up with a coherent ending.
Author’s note: I didn’t talk about the parallel, present-day storyline, because who cares.
