I’m a fan of excess in pop culture. American Horror Story honchos Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker of 21st Century teevee drama. ZAZ were the zanies behind Airplane, Ruthless People, and the Naked Gun movies to name but a few. The ZAZ approach to comedy is to throw a lot of shit at the wall and see how much of it sticks. Murphy and Falchuk have used the same technique with the AHS anthology series. Sometimes it works, Asylum, and sometimes it doesn’t, last season’s Coven. BUT it’s always interesting like walking the tightrope or being the man on the flying trapeze. It’s glorious when it works and a fucking mess when it doesn’t. In short, nothing exceeds like excess…

I’m hoping that AHS: Freak Show is shit that sticks but that remains to be seen.  The first episode is quite promising as it shows signs of being surreal and totally unhinged from reality as opposed to bringing in historical characters such as Marie Laveau and Madame LaLaurie and not getting them right. I was relieved to learn that while the lobster boy is *based* on the real one, Grady Stiles, he’s called Jimmy Darling. (Hmm, I wonder if he’s related to the former Mets and A’s pitcher, Ron.) AHS works better when it channels history through its tabloid grinder instead of pretending to be the real deal. That’s one reason Asylum worked and Coven did not. The best thing about Coven was the totally wacked Lilly Rabe-Stevie Nicks sub-plot. It was almost as funny as something out of the Naked Gun series.

The post title is based on line spoken by Jessica Lange as Fraulein Elsa, the freak show’s proprietrix and talent scout. It was the CW back then as you can see from this print ad:

“It’s toasted” sounds like the effects of weed, legal or otherwise. Wow, man. Enough with the parenthetical asides, I’ll continue after the break to avoid spoilers, especially since Dr. A hasn’t seen Monsters Among Us yet.

Continue reading “AHS Freak Show Thread: It’s Lucky Strike, It’s Good For You”