I recently watched S1 of “American Horror Story” on Netflix, and while it was interesting enough, I got so frustrated by them repeatedly breaking their own rules, or just ignoring the consequences of significant events, that I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. Knowing that each season is its own self-contained story, which subsequent seasons are worth watching and which seasons should I skip? Or just I just stop where I’m at?
First one wasn’t my favorite. Watch the Coven and Asylum seasons, they were really good. I liked Apocalypse too, but it built off of Coven (and other seasons I believe). The most recent (1984) didn’t do much for me. I also really liked Cult, but it was the least like any other season (no supernatural stuff, iirc). I remember kind of liking the Hotel season, but don’t remember much else about it other than that it had Lady Gaga in it. None of the other ones really stuck out as very good, or at least very memorable.
Watch Coven, watch Cult, watch Asylum. Those might grab you more.
Quite frankly, I don’t let inconsistencies in horror stories bother me - I worry more about the atmosphere and overall story. Came into AHS for Season 2 (Asylum) and later watched 1. Yes, the stories are separate, but they end up being somewhat connected down the line.
It depends a little on what genres you like. I personally have had enough teen witch movies so Coven wasn’t my bag, not that it was bad or anything.
Yes, they actually do improve. I remember that Murder House had a convoluted plot and was slow; the subsequent seasons improved dramatically.
My wife and I have found the seasons pretty uneven in terms of watchability. As Happy_Lendervedder says, Asylum, Coven and Cult (a trumpish analogue) are good. We really liked Freak Show too. We gave up on Hotel and Roanoke a few episodes into each season. We had high hopes for Apocalypse because we both like a good end-of-the-world story, but the tie-in to past seasons felt a little too mashed-up “been there, done that”, and we gave up on that one too. 1984 on the other hand, we grew up on cheesy 80s horror movies, so we really enjoyed that latest season.
I only saw some of the later seasons, but the Freak Show one was great, particularly the killer clown.
Yeah, that was one scary-ass clown.
Also, like Cult as mentioned, Freak Show did not have a supernatural element to it (except for one small part that was kind of tacked-on). I don’t mind supernatural horror, but I find a good non-supernatural horror story kind of refreshing.
Not in my opinion. By the time it got to Freak Shown (s4) it was tedious to get through, and I got through about half-way through Hotel (s5) and gave up (which is weird because by synopsis that should have been really up my alley). Haven’t watched it since.
s2 is generally regarded as the “best” but of course that’s subjective. each season has something to offer, and most seasons also have equally insane and idiotic subplots that go nowhere, so it really is just up to your particular taste. Personally I very much enjoyed the first 3 seasons and everything after that hasn’t been as good (note that I’ve still watched them all…)
I love horror. I tried to enjoy AHS. I’m not a fan. I don’t even consider it horror, I would classify it more as a (bad, really bad) soap opera with some superficial horror elements.
I could stomach 1, couldn’t make it through more than a few episodes of Asylum and Coven, managed to make it to about half of Freakshow and stopped trying after that.
I’m sorry if I’m offending fans of the show. More power to you. It’s just not for me at all.
The seasons are hit or miss. I considered S1 one of the best seasons, and I think that was a fairly common view. if S1 wasn’t to your liking I’m not sure the other seasons will be good either.
The problem I’ve seen on the last few seasons is that the ending is pretty unimpressive. Both season 8 and 9 (apocalypse and 1984) were good seasons, but the ending was pretty unimpressive.
I’ve missed the middle seasons, I’ve seen seasons 1-3, 7-9.
I’ve tried watching season 5 (hotel) but keep getting bored.
Same. I actually would rate season 1 as the best season. That’s the only one I went back and rewatched a second time. That was probably the most straightforward of all the seasons, all the others get pretty out there wacky at times. But they are all very different so just because you didn’t like one doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy another. I’d rate them in the following order:
- Season one. (Just called “American Horror Story” at the time, now referred to as Murder House.)
- Coven
- Asylum
- Freak Show
- Hotel (batshit crazy but I enjoyed it for it’s over-the-topness!)
- Roanoke
- 1984
- Apocalypse
- Cult (too focused on Trump to be entertaining)
I really enjoyed the first five, the last few seasons have been pretty poor IMO. I don’t even remember what the plot of Apocalypse was supposed to be, it was way too bizarre for the sake of being bizarre.
I’ve loved about half of them, and the other half I’ve given up on after a few episodes. Everybody seems to have different takes on which seasons are good vs. bad. But every one of them, even those I’ve loved, seem to wander off track about half way through. It’s like they try to squeeze too many episodes into too few concepts and end up with filler. But if you enjoy the genre, and like the performances, that’s okay too.
They are their own stories, but as you go into the series you will find that the plotlines intertwine. All the seasons exist within the same world, and it was fun to figure out how they fit together.
That being said, my three favourite seasons are as such:
- Asylum
- Coven
- Freak Show
I don’t recommend skipping any seasons - they are all different and have different styles of storytelling. But Hotel was the most boring season for me, despite my soft spot for campy horror.
I also second that Cult was too politically driven. The only way I could finish the season was to cross-stitch with it playing in the background.
I watched only the first few seasons but I grew tired of the emotional torture porn aspect of it.
I will say the episode with the school shooter was genuinely upsetting and terrifying it seemed a little to real for tv show.