American Horror Story - Season 6 Roanoke *

The new season of AHS starts on Wednesday night 10 pm Eastern. Still no official word on what the theme will be this season, though plenty of speculation. According to Ryan Murphy, this season is more "rogue and dark", whatever that's going to mean.

Many of the regulars are back, including Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Evan Peters, Dennis O'Hare, etc. Cuba Gooding Jr is supposedly cast for this season as well.

I remain hopeful that the quality of the story goes up a bit over the past couple of seasons. Visually last season was stunning, but it lacked in plot development, I thought.

The newest teaser trailer (which is basically a compilation of earlier trailers) was released a couple of days ago, with Lada Gaga as the soundtrack:

 

This show lost its mind during Season 4 and never got it back. What made the first three seasons so great just isn't there anymore.

 

I am really looking forward to the start of this.

Updated my ranking after last season finished. S5 seemed on par with S1 for me. I still don't understand what people liked about S2. That story was all over the map.

S1
S5
S4
S3
S2

 

Yeah...Jessica Lange

 

Mine goes like this. I totally agree about S2.
S1
S3
S5
S2
S4

 

They need Jessica Lange and Taissa Farmiga back.. Seasons 1 and 3 were the best

and they've lost Emma Roberts as well, yes?

 

Taissa I never found to be much of a talent. Same with Emma, but I did enjoy their characters.

I think the show just needs better writers, because the last two seasons are unwatchable. All the mystique and allure and style of their first three seasons was traded in for cheap Halloween thrills. I'd like to see Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton return.

 

I loved Emma's character in S3, so bitchy

as for seasons 4 & 5, completely agree, though they both had their moments. they just lost too many core cast members.. Lily Rabe gone too (other than brief appearance in 5)..

For hotel your main characters really are Wes Bentley, Lady Gaga, and, the final main in the coffin, Matt Bomer, none of which were in the others..

Sarah Paulson was S5's only redeeming quality, (and of course Chloë Sevigny @Marble Index)

 

And the new season is based on Stephen King's The Mist, or is that bs?

 

I really liked season 5. For me season 4 was the clunker.

 

Agree with S1 and S5. S2 and S3 were so bad I skipped S4.

I think the problem is the show is being made too fast. This is the earliest season premiere I can remember. I will watch the pilot but it will have to really be good to get me to keep going. I think a show like this should be every couple of years like "Fargo" and then maybe it would have enough time to be something special.

 

I watched the first four. Season 5. . . I watched a few episodes and bailed. Just not my thing. Season 2 was my favorite.

Not sure if I'll go for this new season or not. . . .

 

Season 4 was truly, truly awful. The random songs in the middle of it all. That season is Ryan Murphy's breakdown over Glee ending.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed. Hoping this is a good season.
I wish they kept the whole series inside the original season 1 house and let it evolve from there. (New home owners etc)

 

I thought they were going to link the stories conclusively in Season 5, but from what I read, they really didn't. Seems like such a missed opportunity.

 

Rabe was briefly in Season 4 (Freak Show) as Sister Mary Eunice, when Pepper was taken to the Asylum. And she was in Season 5 as well, as killer Aileen Wuornos.

Generally I agree with you though, she needs more screen time.

 

Yep, the dinner with Aileen, Jeffery Dahmer and the others was actually a pretty good scene

 

I'm surprised there's not more love for season two. Though the setting was depressingly bleak, I thought the performances and writing/directing were the strongest.

 

Me too.

 

That was the moment I realized "John" was dead.

 

I love Season 2. It oozed creepiness and evil, the performances were great, and the setting may not be topped by any other AHS season.

My biggest and probably only criticism is that they had a little too many concurrent storylines. I think something could've been left out without losing impact - probably the alien storyline. And the Anne Frank stuff.

 

Oh, bumping for tonight's Episode 1 as well!!!

 

Meh, the commercials for the show were infinitely more fun and creepy than this premier. Based on those commercials I can only assume that events are going to ratchet up as it goes along. Sarah Paulsen and Angela Bassett, as always, are magnetic. The end credits listing the actors show no Jessica Lange or Lady Gaga so maybe this will be the year when Kathy Bates takes the lead, we can only hope!

 

I watched the first season then bowed out a few episodes into the second season when it was clear (and reaffirmed by subsequent seasons that I went back to sample) that they were going for a sensationalist vibe that I found pretty uninteresting and annoying.

Then someone told me the new season promos implied something relatively different. So I watched the premiere last night. I even watched it live, which I haven't done in ages. Probably won't again, as I just can't take the commercials anymore.

As for the show? Meh, unfortunately so far.

The idea of an "Unsolved Mysteries" sort of format is quite interesting, but it's not at all credible as that sort of TV documentary. It's not as if it would ever be 100% believable as a real "documentary series with reenactments", and maybe they're going for a stylized thing where it's not really supposed to be that believable. The "interview" clips have recognizable actors, and are filmed with the same "look" as everything else. If they had given the interviews a "shot on video" (e.g. 60 fps) look or something, perhaps it would have seemed less like I'm watching a painfully stilted, unrealistic attempt to come across as a "real person interview."

Apart from the arguably needless sex scene (one of the reasons I tuned out of the oversexed, uninteresting "Asylum" season), I was surprised that this new season is at least restrained in a way "Asylum" and some other seasons haven't been. Unfortunately, the cost of this restraint is that it's rather boring and formulaic. It's got a bit of a "straight to VOD horror movie" vibe to it. Perhaps they'll pull out something really unique, because the "couple moving into a new home, wife sees weird stuff, husband doesn't believe her" formula is pretty tired at this point. I was disappointed by how many tropes (many to do with the *obvious* nature of the creepiness; as one review I just read pointed out, when the couple buys the house, it might as well have "HAUNTED!!!!" painted on the front door) this episode covered, but again maybe that's on purpose to subvert those tropes later on.

I'll give it a try next week I think, albeit via DVR.

 

Well that was a big "meh" of a show. Hoping it improves next week.