|
 American Horror Story is an anthology series created by Ryan Murphy. Each season is American Horror Story: NYC is about... I dunno, Pizza Rat. FX has promoted this season so little that there was actually an organized fan revolt not too long ago demanding some, any, information about it. We didn’t get any tangible material until the very end of September, and I was waiting for them to post the usual story trailer before making this thread, but it looks like they’re not going to do that, so here we are. All we have is this summary from the FX website, which I’m pretty sure is just the copy from the premier episode’s Hulu page: quote:In American Horror Story: NYC, mysterious deaths and disappearances ramp up in the city. Meanwhile, a doctor makes a frightening discovery, and a local reporter becomes tomorrow’s headline. The rest of the images all look like avant-garde fashion shoots, which I would say implies things about the story if that weren’t true of all AHS promo images ever. Who has admitted to being in this: Denis O’Hare Leslie Grossman Billie Lourd Zachary Quinto Russell Tovey Charlie Carver Sandra Bernhard Isaac Powell Joe Mantello Patti LuPone Previous on American Horror Story: Double Feature   1984  Apocalypse  Cult  Roanoke  Hotel  Freak Show   Coven  Asylum   Murderhouse 
haveblue fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Oct 21, 2022 |
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 21:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 00:44 |
|
|
Well, waiting to see how this one turns out. I'm gonna start a rewatch of 1984 tonight
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 21:18
|
|
|
AHS has been on a killer streak, so i fully expect this season to be total garbage. the scales must balance eventually, Mr Murphy
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 22:20
|
|
|
the second half of Apocalypse sucked, but every season starting at Roanoke has been some of the most drat entertaining poo poo i've ever watched
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 22:21
|
|
|
My first watch was Freak Show when it aired, which put me off for years. Wife and I binged everything else last winter and it was all  .I can't believe how gross and bad Freak Show was. But also I had not yet learned to let go.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 05:36
|
|
|
AHS is that rare breed of show that is objectively awful yet incredibly enjoyable at the same time. The plot always meanders into nonsense, but there are always aspects that are amazingly inventive and entertaining. Every season has had unforgettable highlights. Leather Man and Andelaide in the “Pretty Girl” mask are among the greatest television characters of all time. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 05:56
|
|
|
precision posted:the second half of Apocalypse sucked, but every season starting at Roanoke has been some of the most drat entertaining poo poo i've ever watched Agreed re: Roanoake+, except, I honestly though the Apocalypse finale was one of their only decent finales (so that's a short list of four -- Asylum, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse). I think since 1984 the show's suffered a real drop in quality though. Basically since Ryan Murphy's Netflix deal started taking off / Tim Minear went off to focus on 9-1-1. tbh I've nothing but apathy for this season following the last two (really three) seasons, plus how terrible the first season of the anthology show was. The aliens arc was incredibly, incredibly boring, and the vampires stuff was basically just as bad. Will I still check it out? Mmmmmaybe. (yes) But there's so much other, better stuff to watch right now that Ryan Murphy isn't really a priority anymore. Plus, I hate to say it, but I think he's a bit over the hill now. That said, this is almost entirely a new cast configuration, and that usually means a refreshed season. So who the gently caress knows? It's AHS.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 06:49
|
|
|
i've watched Roanoke all the way through 3 times and i'm about to start it again. it's such a uniquely well done season of television and one that offers genuine surprises as it goess without being total nonsense in fact i'm pretty sure the plot just plain makes sense
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 15:52
|
|
|
First two episodes weren’t bad!
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 17:57
|
|
|
Caesarian Sectarian posted:First two episodes weren’t bad! I was just going to ask if NYC was any good. I dipped out somewhere near the end of vampires last season and didn't even get to the aliens half. In fact, I didn't even watch 1984. What am I still doing here? I usually love the campiness of this show but it seems it's been overwhelmingly bad lately.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 19:44
|
|
|
Haven't watched AHS in quite a while, but this season at least piqued my interest as something to watch in the background during work, given the gay-centric premise. It's OK for what it is thus far, but honestly, Knife + Heart tackled similar territory in a much more interesting way, and in only 102 minutes rather than an entire season of TV.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 19:50
|
|
|
This is so good so far. I'm sure it'll have that signature AHS mid season off the rails jump, but that usually works out okay. I'm glad they're also taking this season seriously so far, given it is obviously going to deal with the AIDS epidemic. Given AHS's fast and loose treatment of history I hope Ronald Reagan meets a gruesome fate.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 21:50
|
|
|
This season is very cis white gays do kink shaming (and then try to head off the complaints about any lack of intersectionality with Sandra Bernhard's vestigial subplot). But honestly I kinda thought it was solid despite all of that? lol that the police apparently employ a dude in chaps just to deliver single slaps to interrogation victims. Apparently Charlie Carver is a writer on this season as well as one of its nominal leads.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 03:26
|
|
|
i thought it was good as hell, strong premiere
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 06:12
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:lol that the police apparently employ a dude in chaps just to deliver single slaps to interrogation victims. smh that people are no longer familiar with the cinematic classic Cruising. (It was an actual thing back then, but most people probably know it from the movie when Al Pacino gets slapped.)
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 02:02
|
|
|
Last season started looking good before becoming maybe the worst season, even if the black and white parts were incredible. Goons have said all the magic words though, so I'm turning it on to be hurt again. EDIT/UPDATE: I wonder if gay people think Michel Gill does a fine job playing them, given that he's a straight man but I've seen him play gay characters three times now. Old Doggy Bastard fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Oct 22, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 02:03
|
|
|
i get the complaints about this being vanilla gays kink shaming, but i suspect that's misdirection i like the incredibly unsubtle nature of the metaphor though. having a serial killer stand in for AIDS is not new, but it works. and we're obviously doing a Mapplethorpe thing with the photography. i wonder if the series will have a Patti Smith stand-in
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 13:51
|
|
|
SilentChaz posted:smh that people are no longer familiar with the cinematic classic Cruising. (It was an actual thing back then, but most people probably know it from the movie when Al Pacino gets slapped.) Yeah, the love-letter shots to Cruising should really make people stop and go 'maybe not?' on 'is this a kink shaming approach' since they're very, very specifically invoking that film and its response.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2022 04:49
|
|
|
Loomer posted:Yeah, the love-letter shots to Cruising should really make people stop and go 'maybe not?' on 'is this a kink shaming approach' since they're very, very specifically invoking that film and its response. I'm not familiar with the film, I'm only looking at what's in front of me and seeing a group of evil gays do kinky murderous things to the vanilla gays. Maybe if you could explain your logic in more depth, that'd help? Just because the show is referencing something doesn't mean it shares its politics.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2022 04:57
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:I'm not familiar with the film, I'm only looking at what's in front of me and seeing a group of evil gays do kinky murderous things to the vanilla gays. Okay, go watch Cruising, drat! But basically: Cruising is Friedkin's film about a serial killer stalking the gay community of NYC in the late 70s, based on a god-awful book. Friedkin read it, was bored, then had the idea (or more likely had it given to him) that if you moved the action from the mainstream to the leather culture you'd have a really remarkable film, which he then made. Its sleazy, its gritty, its homophobic in some respects... and it is a classic piece of gay cinema now because when you aren't viewing it in 1980, the elements of it that function as a time capsule of a lost era of the leather scene shine through, and its approach to its characters never actually suggests they deserve what happens to them for being gay or into leather, only that where there is a despised group of people driven to the fringes predators will emerge to exploit that hunting ground. Its a remarkable film, and bluntly, the show better not share its politics: it should, and certainly seems to be building towards, share the politics of the modern cult fascination of the film, where its an artifact of its time that reads very differently now that we can have a film about amorphous gay serial killers, police indifference and predation on them, and the overlapping construction of sexual desire and disgust towards us by the straight world that characterize how we've been treated for so long. So when we have a series that's working the same time period, the same serial killer motifs, some of the exact same musical choices, the same places (literally: there are shots at the exact same angles of the exact same places as in Cruising, near shot-for-shot homages, of places like a specific park bench that probably doesn't even exist any more) as a film that was controversial when it was released for 'giving the gay community a bad name by painting us as sexually depraved' but which has now emerged as a classic piece of queer cinema in its own right? There's a lot more going on there with the 'oh no leather scary' motif. We're watching a show that's making a commentary on Cruising and its reception part of its horror and storytelling.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2022 05:16
|
|
|
This show has always had weird sex perverts who murder people. This season is focusing on gay life in NYC, so some of the weird sex perverts who murder people will probably be gay. I hope this whole season isn't going to be an origin story for the gimp outfit used in the rest of AHS. Or maybe I am hoping that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2022 05:19
|
|
|
While I'm at it on my 'this is a very specific love letter' nonsense, anyone who wants to get some context on the photography plotline should look into Robert Mapplethorpe, though our photographer here is going in a different direction in terms of character beats. I didn't think it had to be said but if people haven't seen Cruising I'm not gonna take that chance. Mapplethorpe is a big influence on some of the shots and approaches to bodies and horror in AHS in general, to boot.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2022 05:38
|
|
|
killer crane posted:I hope this whole season isn't going to be an origin story for the gimp outfit used in the rest of AHS. Or maybe I am hoping that. lmao that would be kind of brilliant i suspect that the plot is going to go super big and weird and much more sci-fi than it seems, too
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2022 16:36
|
|
|
precision posted:i get the complaints about this being vanilla gays kink shaming, but i suspect that's misdirection They were also pretty unsubtle about correlating the virus in Fire Island deer and culling them before they can infect real people with AIDS and a killer stalking gay men.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2022 03:40
|
|
|
Watched the latest two episodes. I'm waiting for the supernatural beings to show up. Maybe they won't; they didn't in cult. But if they are going for the government invented HIV and used it to cull the gay population, doing that during covid just seems  .
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2022 17:12
|
|
|
precision posted:i get the complaints about this being vanilla gays kink shaming, but i suspect that's misdirection having watched the third and fourth episodes, it still feels pretty sex-negative outside the context of monogamous romantic relationships, but I'll give it another week maybe
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2022 22:07
|
|
|
There does seem to be some sort of supernatural element -- or, at least, New York is loving lousy with people trolling others with tales of their future doom. So could just be regular New York. I've no idea how all the various different serial killers are meant to fit together at this point in the narrative either. Barry Convex posted:having watched the third and fourth episodes, it still feels pretty sex-negative outside the context of monogamous romantic relationships, but I'll give it another week maybe Yeah, apparently no practicing kinkster has ever heard of a safe word either.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2022 23:17
|
|
|
Barry Convex posted:having watched the third and fourth episodes, it still feels pretty sex-negative outside the context of monogamous romantic relationships, but I'll give it another week maybe Not to be flippant, but, like, the season is obv about HIV, and a huge number of nonmonogamous gay men in the early 80s died because of HIV. We're supposed to feel dread about these very sexy sweaty barechested men having wild unprotected sex. You know the outcome, they don't, that's part of the horror. It's going to come off as sex negative no matter what, because sex is how the virus is spread.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2022 05:39
|
|
|
killer crane posted:Not to be flippant, but, like, the season is obv about HIV, and a huge number of nonmonogamous gay men in the early 80s died because of HIV. We're supposed to feel dread about these very sexy sweaty barechested men having wild unprotected sex. You know the outcome, they don't, that's part of the horror. It's going to come off as sex negative no matter what, because sex is how the virus is spread. Agreed. They are unknowingly doing something terribly dangerous. The leather isn't the problem.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2022 05:43
|
|
|
Yeah many of these characters are doomed, but the episodes didn't have to conflate the fetish characters with violence and depravity; they could easily be some sort of tragic joy instead, but they've gone with Zachary Quinto luring men and raping them with chairs, or Tovey engaging in some lurid personal descent. (Cruising in the leather scene apparently involves instantly getting out the whips without the concept of a safe word even being floated, lmao.) This season's villain in a costume -- most seasons have one -- is just strqight up a dude in fetish gear, and unlike even the first season this leather fiend doesn't have the added bonus of being a spooky ghost. He's just a dude in leather with a cam handle for a name. It's pretty straight up reactionary.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2022 06:39
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:Yeah many of these characters are doomed, but the episodes didn't have to conflate the fetish characters with violence and depravity; they could easily be some sort of tragic joy instead, but they've gone with Zachary Quinto luring men and raping them with chairs, or Tovey engaging in some lurid personal descent. (Cruising in the leather scene apparently involves instantly getting out the whips without the concept of a safe word even being floated, lmao.) I still can't really agree, and that's as a kinky queer. These people are hosed up, but there's really nothing in it to say 'this is how it is, this is how these sick loving queers do it, you see this poo poo'. We've got leather characters who aren't violent and depraved - our reporter, in case you hadn't noticed, knows his codes, has his leathers, and is on a first name basis with the proprietor of the leather bar they wind up at. He's dabbled in that pond, if nothing else. Now, who do we have as our 'oh no the violent kinksters'? 1. The sexually repressed cop - oh gee what could that be a commentary on 2. The wealthy elite guy - oh, well, clearly no commentary here Let's consider your 'tragic joy' idea - Tovey's lurid personal descent has that going on. The cruising scene you didn't like? Well, the reality is this - not every kinkster plays responsibly, and not every scene has a safe word, even if we can all agree they really should. They especially don't when you're playing with repressed people on the spur of the moment. But beyond that element: that scene is shot in double-mode - its got its psychosexual drama poo poo going, sure, but its also the kind of poo poo you'd see in Drummer as a fantasy. And that's clearly pretty deliberate - its as much a fantasy as the bathhouse scenes, and the brutality of it is part of a rich seam of leather fantasies of 'straight' masc men going hard on openly gay bottoms. The most distasteful part of it, frankly, is how they've done Mapplethorpe's RL partner dirty like they have - he was a far more complicated figure than the murderous expy we have on the show. (EDIT: also how dirty they've done Klaus Nomi - what a waste) We also don't know Big Daddy's deal and frankly, I'm expecting the 'he's a ghost' or 'he's the vengeful spirit of a dying age' twist next episode. Loomer fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Oct 30, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2022 11:55
|
|
|
killer crane posted:Not to be flippant, but, like, the season is obv about HIV, and a huge number of nonmonogamous gay men in the early 80s died because of HIV. We're supposed to feel dread about these very sexy sweaty barechested men having wild unprotected sex. You know the outcome, they don't, that's part of the horror. It's going to come off as sex negative no matter what, because sex is how the virus is spread. very well said i'm loving this season but man i really hope all this weird plot comes together (it won't lmao)
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2022 16:18
|
|
|
precision posted:very well said So there is alot of potential with the setting. The cop coming out at work and telling his partner had some pathos. But big daddy feels like a red herring, the NOT HIV GOVERMENT PROGRAM I would also call a red herring but gently caress remember apacolypise loving anti christ and robots and nuclear war after that I think nothing is off the table. Also the weirdest part is the ex wife talking to the man her husband left her for. I had one couple I knew who while not marred when the boyfriend came out...it messed with her pretty hard and I cant really see an ex wife reaching out to the other man like that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2022 22:16
|
|
|
This season has a distinct lack of camp. The main cast all feel like they're trying to be in True Detective. Plenty of the background characters are giving it, but the drivers of the main story are just not in the right show.
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2022 04:20
|
|
|
killer crane posted:This season has a distinct lack of camp. The main cast all feel like they're trying to be in True Detective. Plenty of the background characters are giving it, but the drivers of the main story are just not in the right show. This is my issue as well. It’s too “straight” (pun not intended). I want a some of the insane bullshit that usually turns people off every year.
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2022 08:02
|
|
|
Fly Ricky posted:This is my issue as well. It’s too “straight” (pun not intended). I want a some of the insane bullshit that usually turns people off every year. so you miss jessica lange?
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2022 10:41
|
|
|
Ups_rail posted:so you miss jessica lange? You put into words what I couldn’t come up with.
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2022 12:31
|
|
|
There is very little that isn't improved with more Jessica Lange.
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2022 13:11
|
|
|
Loomer posted:Okay, go watch Cruising, drat! But basically: Thank you for the very informative post. I thought everyone in the world had seen Cruising multiple times but I yeah... bubble. Am I the only one who got exited when they played "Walk the Night"? I hope they play "Life at the Outpost" at some point as well as that may not be as danceable but still fun. Loving the music as I always had a fascination with this era of tunes. Waiting to see how this series goes but I'm liking it so far... love the subtle shout outs to a time and place that has always intrigued me. First time I saw "Klaus Nomi" I was so happy and then I saw Hale Appleman in his dapper attire. God I have such a crush on him and glad to see him again after the Magicians. If/when they die I will be so sad. Loomer posted:There is very little that isn't improved with more Jessica Lange.
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2022 16:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 00:44 |
|
|
Klaus Nomi rules
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2022 16:11
|
|