American Horror Story

As long as you stay away from everything from season three onwards, you're in for some very entertaining bad television. The Murder House one was legitimately creepy at times, especially around the beginning back when I took it more seriously, and the Asylum season is simply hemorrhaging with incredible ideas, even if they aren't exactly organized in a coherent fashion. Jessica Lange shines in the first season, while the second belongs to the impishly evil Lily Rabe.

I feel like every season - Murder House, Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, all of 'em - gets off to an amusing start then just stalls out or spins into sheer dumb nonsense by the end. That said, the "Name Game" song sequence in Asylum is one of the greatest "Where the fuck did that come from?" scenes ever.

1st season is good, 2nd season is amazing, everything else is dog shit.

Season 2 is absolutely off-the-wall-batshit.

Rating for the best seasons: S4 (Freakshow, my favorite), S5 (Hotel, a more exuberant and more artistic True Blood), S7 (Cult, an outrageous acting clinic by Evan Peters and a spot-on cynical toying with progressive and MAGA opposing worldviews and their inherit retardedness). Special mention S3, which features masterclasses form Lange and Bates. Ideas run out after S7, less talented people take over

Every season they throw a ton of different horror tropes at the wall to see what will stick. The first season actually pulled them all together in a way that made sense, the rest .. not so much. Season two (asylum) was probably the best even though it didn't tie together. Believe it or not, the acting/directing is really solid in this show, the writing is what lets it down quite often.

Murder House - 68 / Asylum - 84 / Coven - 38 / Freak Show - 0/ This show is such a mixed bag. What was once an exciting and very unique voice within the sphere of television, quickly devolved into an aimless mess of stunts done for shock value and senselessness. Ryan Murphy is one of those people who should be allowed to pitch ideas to other people, and then be completely removed from the project afterwards because he just sucks at follow-through.

The best part of the show is the fantastic opening theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omu0lDUcMP4 but unfortunately the show is not nearly as creepy as it should be as it's on cable.

A guilty pleasure perhaps, as it is a crass, dirty, batshit crazy mess. It still hasn't managed to rival its first season.

1x; Stopped watching after S11.