The first season of American Horror Story reached its grisly yet oddly touching conclusion back in January.
Since then I’ve been practically bursting to discuss the show’s finale with anyone, I’m not picky about whom. The problem? I can’t find anyone else who has been watching. It is a familiar scenario, the same thing happened with Bored to Death and How to Make it in America.
It’s the tricky thing with cult TV shows; they start off small, normally on an obscure cable channel and attracting a few nerdy fans (like moi). Then they burst out onto the mainstream several months later or, as is often the case, are lost to the dusty annals of televisual history filed under “could have been great”.
I don’t want American Horror Story to disappear. It is too good for that. I want a big TV channel like BBC2 or Channel 4 to pick it up. I want my friends to start “liking it” on Facebook. I want to be able to debate with my girlfriends if Dylan McDermott’s character is: a) a sexy douchebag or b) just a douchebag. I want to have one of those cliché ridden “water cooler moments” gossiping about the show in the office and my office doesn’t even have a water cooler – I would happily go out and buy one just for this purpose.
The Guardian has described American Horror Story as “the Marmite of TV shows” – I get it, I really do. It somehow manages to be brutal, bloody, complex and kitsch – traits in embodied in the character Constance played by Golden Globe winner, Jessica Lange. The show walks a fine line between entertainment and downright disturbing. It is at once an utterly unhinged and tightly executed piece of television. To put it plainly: it is not an easy sell.
The fact that the show came from the minds behind Glee, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy, makes it an unnerving watch. I spent the whole first episode waiting for one of the characters to burst into song. It never happened. Instead, I got hooked into a captivating mish-mash of horror homages played out by a ghoulish ensemble of lost souls, some dead and some living.
It has been revealed that a second season of American Horror Story has been commissioned. This initially annoyed me – sometimes, great TV just needs to be left alone. Then, to my relief, Murphy announced that the second series would be built around an all-new cast and a new theme. This will provide a perfect opportunity for new viewers to jump onto the wildly out of control run away train that is American Horror Story.
In the meantime, I strongly urge you to watch season 1 (tip: you’ll need a pillow to hide behind, especially for the creepy opening credits). Once you’re done, meet me by the new water cooler and we can talk, OK?
FXUK are currently repeating season 1 of American Horror Story. Tune in on Sunday nights at 11.10pm.
Jen Evans is a journalist specialising in culture. She spends far too much time reading online spoilers about her favourite TV shows and gets annoyed when TV "fails to surprise" her. You can find more of her writing on her blog, Bookish Brunette.
Image via FXUK