The Inevitable Downfall Of American Horror Story

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Season 1 of American Horror Story quickly became one of the most talked about shows on TV. It developed a cult following, and fans everywhere were ecstatic to see what Ryan Murphy had in store for future installments of American Horror Story. Though as more seasons would come out, fans became less and less intrigued by Ryan Murphys attempts at reinventing the wheel. American Horror Story has now been on the air for 12 seasons, and it's all but disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist. So what exactly happened to American Horror Story, and can Ryan Murphy ever recapture that initial flame?

#americanhorrorstory #ryanmurphy #kimkardashian #ladygaga

[Nerdstalgic]

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[MrHorrornerd]

We went from Evan Peters and Jessica Lange killing it every season to Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian’s terrible wooden performances. What a joke

[madedgar]

As soon as Jessica Lange was out it was over

[NinjaMatt]

For me it was the bad endings to almost every season after 1. They ran into the Marvel problem. They had great setups, but then they'd try too hard to trick the audience into not seeing the ending coming. A season would start so well, but the ending would squander the whole premise just so it wouldn't be what the audience expects. One thing I can't stand is writing poorly on purpose just to surprise your audience. I liked the Freak Show season, though I don't remember the ending. I liked the Hotel season, though I don't remember the ending. But I eventually gave up on the show because they had so many trash endings.

[homersimpson]

Ryan Murphy is just completely incapable of writing a satisfying ending and knowing *where* to end.

[Urmmz]

Every season has the strange feeling that the first half was written by skilled storytellers.... and then they pass off the last episodes to a bunch of fresh out of college interns. Every damn season!!

[howgroovyisthat]

Kim Kardashian was the nail in the coffin

[shubhamtanwr_]

The only scary thing about american horror story is the intros

[channingchills]

I met Jessica Lange at Anthropologie in New Orleans back in 2014 when AHS was at its peak. She was the most elegant person I’ve ever met. Extremely cordial. I’ve loved her since Big Fish.

[cookingwitchefzayy]

No offense when you add random famous people it just spells failure

[ronoc]

I gave up on AHS for good with Cults. I thought it had real potential, especially trying to frame politics as mass psychosis, but it kept twisting for the sake of twists. Apocalypse was just nuts; it's the end of the world, no wait it's witchcraft, no wait it's time travel and meta. It just felt like they couldn't decide on a single story, and somehow expected the audience to be wowed by quantity over quality.

[Ravuun]

The first season was self-contained, actually had a legit ending and closure. Ending seasons with voiceovers and montages gets old, and some later seasons didn't really have an ending at all. They just stopped LOL

[CarlosGarcia-dsdn]

One short clip of Kim K and I already know I don’t want to see that season

[julesrules]

AHS will always have 3-5 good episodes now, at the beginning of the season. Then it goes completely off the rails around the halfway point.

[mpadilla]

Started so strong and just dipped in quality. It's now a "look at all the famous people we got in our show" now. Fuck the scares fuck the story let's just pander to the "influencer" crowd.

[andrewkoster]

Roanoke was amazing, it's a slow start but it has KATHY BATES as the villain and i really liked the interactions between the "real" characters and the "actors" playing them and the way they fold the meta-narrative into the narrative near the end

[army]

The last season I saw was Freak Show. By that point, I accepted that uninteresting side plots and totally forgetting/giving disappointing conclusions to others were just part of the formula, and I was tired of it.

[PlasmaTwa]

Later seasons really needed someone to tell Ryan Murphy no.

[patrickhanlon]

Glee was arguably much creepier than american horror story

[vietanhnguyen]

My biggest issues after Asylum is they always have good concepts and themes but absolute terrible execution and plot point goes nowhere, hence I think teaser is better than the whole show. It has some moments and engaging but the shows always style over substance, and focus on drama more than horror. I quit after Apocalypse due to terrible plots and never look back.
I know JJ Abrams and Zack Snyder are getting flack for great concept, start strong but terrible execution and disappointment ends (and deserve it so; also I like Lost ending even Abrams is not Lost showrunner), but Ryan Murphy is the king of this, especially if you watch Glee and Nip/Tuck. I never finished all his series because they just a drunken stumble to the finish line that started off strong. Like Abrams, he's very good at coming up with fascinating concepts. But the man can't continue a story for long to save his life, though. I always hope that his shows turn out better than they actually do. It's always a strong foot forward then a stumble.
The only things that saved the show is phenomenon acting (Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Frances Conroy, etc.), but since everyone move from next big things and acting quality is downhill so I don't care anymore.