Just finished season four of American Horror Story (Freak Show). Sweet jeebus that show is grim and nihilistic. The performances and effects are absolutely stellar, but the utter violent cruelty visited upon every character is really starting to get under my skin. I’m going to continue because I like the format and the actors, but it’s quite the experience.
And just mean.
There are some good seasons (Asylum, Coven) and some lame ones (Roanoke, 1984), but Freak Show was easily the hardest of all of them to watch.
The clown was the scariest bit.
Right. The but the clown was ok, though. That seasons premise, that people with disabilities are normal and normal looking people are the twisted freaks, is fine but WOW did they find crazy ways to drive that home.
I’d be hard-pressed to say what my favorite season was but Asylum was definitely some great quality television.
I’m a big horror movie fan and like to think I’m inured to a lot of horrific things onscreen, but involuntary body modification is something that deeply unsettles me. When Grace Gummer’s father drugs her then has her face tattooed and her tongue split, as punishment for falling in love with one of the freaks, I almost tapped out.
The Deodato cameo in Hostel 2 and basically the entire last half of Martyrs (the French version) had the same effect on me.
Same here, after that scene it took some time for my wife to convince me to watch the show again. There is nothing that gruesome in the rest of the seasons.
ETA: There is plenty of gruesome, I should say there is nothing that messed up in the other seasons.
Thanks for letting me know. I am looking forward to continuing it. AHS is the only Ryan Murphy show I’ve really taken a liking to, plus a film school buddy of mine directed a whack of episodes, so it’s cool seeing his success there. I just watched the first two episodes of American Horror Stories, the new spinoff show, because they’re a sequel to Murder House, but I’m holding off on the rest because I may not have yet seen the previous instalments they reference.
I’m starting season one, episode one of Atlanta with Donald Glover.
I’m only about halfway through the first episode, and it seems at least decent. Anyone else watched it who would recommend it? Is it worth getting invested in?
I’ve watched both seasons, and it’s got some standout episodes way out of expectations (the one with the TV interview, and, erm, a visit to an unusual person’s house) and I’m looking forward to season 3.
I started out loving that series. But it did become too much. I think Freak Show is the last one I watched.
I watched the first 2 seasons of Ozark and enjoyed it, but I hesitate to start watching the rest because it’s just so completely bleak. It’s the same reason I stopped watching The Walking Dead; it’s just 100% downer the entire time.
That’s what happened to me watching Weeds way back when. I loved the first season and would have stuck with the series if they didn’t hire script writers from D.A.R.E.
I’m still loving Ozark, but I cannot binge on it. One episode a day, max; sometimes after a particularly intense episode I take two or more nights off from it. I still haven’t finished the seven eps that dropped on January 21.
I heard good things about Station Eleven on HBO Max, so I tried to watch the first episode today but had to stop before it ended. The portrayal of a world-ending pandemic was just too much after the reality of the past couple of years.
I just finished episode 2. Although there is a lot of time skipping, I suspect scenes of the pandemic are done with by the end of episode 1.
Unfortunately, no. The episode switch every odd #'d episode is about the pandemic, every even episode is about the year 20 years later.
With just a few exceptions (I can only think of one at the airport) there is not a lot of dealing with the pandemic sickness directly. I found this series to be one of the best I’ve seen in a long time and I liked that the issues were about what happens when civilization disappears for all but a handful of people and not so much about the danger of the actual illness (or zombies, or pick your apocalyptic nightmare scenario) . The last three episodes were just wonderful- I immediately rewatched the entire series and have started re-reading the book, which I had mostly forgotten.
Sorry, voice to text.
Regardless, it’s a great show. It’s kinda like The Stand if you assume not every survivor was called to Vegas/Boulder.
My favorite line was Jeevan, freezing, in pain, finally reading the comic to distract himself, getting about 45 seconds in before throwing it away in disgust, yelling “It’s so pretentious!”
Just… perfection.
Yes ugh, that and the up close of Mark’s junk. Jeez that was unexpected. But I liked the series overall, the green backpack plot was funny. I kinda wanted to slap the honeymooners both of them. The series ended and they left the Kai character dangling as to his future after what Paula encouraged him to do.
Cant imagine a season 2.
They’re doing a White Lotus Season 2 with a different resort I believe.