The new season of “American Horror Story” appeared last night with “Apocalypse” as the ominous theme for this season. Now, as a pretty big fan of the television series, I have been rather disappointed with the past few seasons. The co-creators of the show, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, say this season is going to be different. Why? Because they are promising to set a precedent for the show, to bring back characters and storylines from previous seasons.
The plot of this first episode is basically that the human race is wiped out because of nuclear missiles, but the audience follows a group of people as they are brought to a fallout shelter with strict rules led by an ambiguous Wilhemina Venable and Miriam Mead, played by “American Horror Story” veterans Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates.
The episode went by quite fast, and I felt as though I got very little from it in terms of how the rest of the season is going to go. Though I missed five minutes in the middle of the episode (due to wifi problems) and am not sure if I missed any character introductions, I did not see as much character development as most “American Horror Story” season premieres give.
One thing I did like was the atmosphere of the episode; I felt the “American Horror Story” vibe that the two previous seasons lacked. Many of the iconic trademarks of the series were present, such as the sense of mysteriousness and anxiety that surrounds certain characters and events, or the feeling that you’re missing great clues as to what is going to happen.
Something upsetting about this first episode was that the characters said to be returning from previous seasons were nowhere to be found. It is possible that the co-creators did this on purpose and are leaving out these fan favorites to build suspense and keep audiences wondering how the characters are going to tie into the plot. Unfortunately, with all of the hype and advertising of these returnees, it was more of a let-down than anything else.
Another precedent that has been promised is that the returning cast members will not only carry on some of their well-known, older roles, but will also simultaneously take on new roles. This was something I was hoping to see in the first episode, but again I was disappointed.
Though I am excited to see what the rest of this season holds, I can’t help but feel as though the co-creators are setting themselves up for failure, as they are creating expectations that are too high for this year’s theme. Hopefully, the next episode will give me, as well as other audience members, more to think about; it will slow in pace enough for audiences to figure out just what “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” has in store.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Calista Giroux is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at calista.giroux@gmail.com.