The one thing you can’t take away from American Horror Story is the institution that they’re building. You have to believe that these are the happiest actors on television, some of them in their third season. The actors are getting the chance to portray a different character every year, yet stay on a series that is tonally similar. I love how the actors are recycled; it keeps the show familiar and also allows you to see the range of their talent. Last year this worked wonders, but this season it’s a tad hit and miss. Jessica Lange is having a similar problem. We’ve seen her play this part before, but I can’t deny, she’s masterful at it. I liked Lange’s scenes most when she was playing off of Sarah Paulson’s Cordelia Foxx. The two have great chemistry and their scenes really popped despite the exposition-heavy dialogue that bogged down a lot of the episode. Lange’s Fiona Goode seems to be motivated on a quest for vitality and her discovery of Kathy Bate’s character Delphine LaLaurie is sure to stir the pot. By the way, Bates was sure devilishly evil tonight, and the scenes in her torture chamber were as gruesome as this show gets. Out of the other new actors, I have to say, Emma Roberts really isn’t doing it for me. She completely disservices the show by being stereotypically bitchy, bringing little range or depth, almost like she watched Mean Girls once and decided that being a brat is easy to do. Her character is raped in this episode, because it’s not a season of AHS without a little rape, but the next morning she goes right back to being bitchy, without even a shroud of that she’s holding something back, not even a subtle glance. Gabourey Sidibe shows up as Queenie, a human voodoo doll, and in her few brief scenes she really draws interest and works well within the pilot.
