Self-indulgent tripe that deserves to be canceled! Season 1: "Murder House" had its ups and downs, but was overall fairly easy to follow, at least by comparison to the next seasons. It had a few great episodes, a few boring/confusing and lousy ones, but was OK overall.
Season 2: "Asylum" was a mess cramming in too many unlikable characters with too many, distracting go nowhere subplots and became a monster mash, only with occasional awful musical numbers thrown in. The entire writing staff should have been fired and replaced by competent ones who understand that likable characters and a straightforward narrative structure equal a better, more focused show and happier viewers.
As Season 2 progressed, I began growing more and more bored, confused, and angry at how stupid the show kept getting. Aliens, Nazis, mutants, demons, and maniacs all in one place? That's retarded and just way too much. Every new episode was torture, but I kept hoping it would get better. It didn't. I didn't even bother watching the last two episodes for ten months, that's how much I didn't care what happened, and only bothered to finish them because Season 3 was coming and I wanted to be caught up even though I know the seasons aren't connected story-wise.
Season 3: "Coven" began last night, and after watching the premiere, I have to say it is just more self- indulgent tripe from the same morons behind Season 2, only now we have ZERO likable, interesting characters. The witchcraft is not authentic, the special powers are stupid, and as much as I like Jessica Lange (she was great with Jack Nicholson in "The Postman Always Rings Twice"), I never want to see her dancing around again after Season 2. Everyone is hamming it up unbearably, especially Frances Conroy, who is just awful in her one scene and looks ridiculous. It's like the show is trying to appeal to older viewers with all these "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" old ladies trying to make a career comeback AND to the idiot YA "Twilight" crowd who want to see teen girls doing dumb teen stuff. Seriously, who is the target demographic for this show now? It's not horror fans. So is it targeting "Murder She Wrote" old people? Middle-aged soccer mom Lifetime network viewers? The "Twilight" teen crowd? It's all over the place!
There's way too much estrogen going on this season, not enough female eye candy, and too much male-bashing. I just hope Kathy Bates doesn't get naked like in that creepy "Family Guy" hot tub sketch.
I almost didn't make it through the first episode of Season 3, and have no intention of wasting my time on this series ever again. And the preview of episode 2 begs the question, do we really need witches, zombies, AND Frankenstein? Why do all the same actors have to be crammed into each season even if they don't belong? It's like they're just writing roles to squeeze them in regardless of whether it advances the plot or not. Stupid, lazy writing.
The entire writing staff should be fired and the show runners/creators removed (yes, that means you, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for signing off on this brain-dead garbage), but I'd go one better if I were an FX executive and cancel the series. It's creatively bankrupt and has nothing new to say. It's not scary, not funny, it's nothing but junk that isn't doing the horror genre any favors. Honestly, it's like whoever's writing this isn't a horror fan and just wants to make it into a soap opera for weirdos, but without any of the charm of the original "Dark Shadows" TV series from the 1960s (not the crappy '90s reboot or the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton cinematic abortion).