Home Invasion

OK so I sort of hated the pilot but decided to give this show a chance by watching a few episodes. Here's my thought on the second episode. We some how find ourselves in 1968 with clips on the TV from 1967. And a murder that doesn't make sense.

And somehow the patient Ted has free range of the house. Why is that? Beats me. Seems that if I had a patient who was talking about sex with my daughter as well as about how he wanted to kill everyone, I'd be committing him.

And low and behold the daughter and the bully from the pilot are now best friends. Who writes this stuff? I find the story line to be really poorly done. And the direction is annoying. Jolty cuts and shaky cams.

They still have that down syndrome girl Jamie Brewer and it's great that she's high functioning but lets be honest the people who make this show are using her.

I liked the second episode a little more than the pilot. But not by much. It's not well thought out and I wonder what all the fuss is about. Will try one or two more. Stay tuned.

The pilot was awesome and I too got caught up in the "what will they do next" query. The show just keeps the creep outs coming, with a less than subtle wink-wink with it's dark humor. I LOVE Jessica Lange and this has got to be so much fun for her to play, and it is quickly becoming my favorite role of hers. NO ONE can play this character like her. She pulls off tragedy, mental imbalance and humor, without uttering a line. But when she speaks...wow! The lines are great and the writers make her just "camp" enough to stay enjoyable, just don't eat her cupcakes! The second episode packed a lot in and creeped me out and made me go, "HUH?" and wait..."Is he real?" a few times. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy this entire cast and will gladly tune in week after week to get to know this house and it's stories, more Contance and Addie and maybe less Violet...if you like dark humor, mystery and a little gore with your drama, watch this show!

The pilot had such an odd impact on me that I highly awaited the show's return and wrote one of my strangest reviews. With productions like Masters of Horror we know what to expect as all episodes are standalone but with American Horror Story I was wondering what would be its format. Home Invasion revealed that its main story has potential because all the Harmon family members have what it takes considering what they have been through but I'm more skeptical about the weekly dose of horror or crime. My first complain was that the subplot wasn't frightening or disturbing enough. In fact it was even predictable at times. However it was shaken by the enigmatic Tate Langdon. Evan Peters role is surprising because so far I only knew him as the nice boy from Invasion. The therapy session was almost shocking, specially if you try to take Ben's place. His controversial relationship with his daughter Violet made things even more interesting because you don't know what he's capable of. As for Taissa Farmiga her role was reminiscent of feminism because it takes a lot of courage to survive, specially when your house is haunted or taken over by psychokillers.

Beside Tate and Violet I also really enjoyed Constance and Abby's side. The gorgeous aging mother and the trisomic daughter. A modern and twisted version of The Beauty of the Beast ? Probably but Jessica Lange definitely makes a charming monster and Jamie Brewer's performance was also quite convincing. Indeed until the vertiginous room of broken mirrors sequence the episode had been less surprising than the pilot. It just lacked the amount of creativity that made it so excellent. I also missed Moira, at least my libido did, and found Ben's arc far too anecdotic even if his absence served the main story in the end. However the show has plenty of intriguing plot lines to build up a crowd of hungry horror fans. From properly dealing with what happened to the girl who got her face hurt last time and of course the pregnancy I have definitely signed up for the upcoming episode. Otherwise I think the series desperately needs a goal the audience can rely on or else it will lose interest. Ending the episode with a cliffhanger was a first step in the right direction so considering its numerous qualities I can't see how it could miserably fail to satisfy our vicious appetite.

Well the pilot wasn't a fluke! The show is well and truly mental but hey it's 2011 and we have survived Lost, x-files and 24 so why not push TV that little but further and bring full on horror fest to the small screen. The show is easily on par with the fist seasons of Masters of Horror and equally as nasty. This episode was no exception and from scene to scene I was exclaiming WTF and OMG as they ramped up the violence and tension level. I am still not sure where or how the show can go on but I will be glued to my screen in anticipation of the macabre writers next twist. So much on offer it is literally a veritable feast of flesh!

So far, American Horror Story is proving to be a retread of tropes we have seen in many horror films and TV shows preceding it. There are some intriguing and unique elements included, but those elements are mostly pushed off to the background to make way for the clichés.

Jessica Lange is consistently the strongest part of this show. She manages to be unsettling but funny at the same time, and we have no idea of what her true motives are.

Her plot line, Evan Peters' plot line, and Denis O'Hare's plot line are all intriguing, but not much time is spent on them. Instead we get boring crap about the husband and wife relationship, and how the husband is going to Boston to support his mistress' pregnancy. This is all stuff straight out of a crappy soap opera, and given I'm watching a show titled American Horror Story, it comes off as just plain boring. The plot element about the maid and how the husband sees her as this sexy young woman, is one of the dumbest plot lines I have seen in a TV show.

Unfortunately, as with the first episode, we can count on the writing being absolutely abysmal. Poor Kate Mara is reduced to garbage in this episode, which is sad given what she continued on to do.

I'm still waiting for this show to increase in quality, but that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon which is a shame. Everybody is raving about this show, and for the life of me I can't see why.