Throughout its 12 seasons, "American Horror Story," fans have been haunted by "Murder House," have tried to escape from "Asylum" and have practiced witchcraft in "Coven." Viewers have traveled through time in each iteration of "AHS," from visiting the lost colony of Roanoke to reliving the 2016 election in "Cult." But as "AHS" continues to release season after season, the show has lost its magic.
The anthology's quality has been steadily declining over the years as big names like Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett made their exit from the show. "AHS" struggled without its familiar faces, leaving many fans craving the heart-pounding action of early seasons. As the series enters its 12th season, "American Horror Story: Delicate," it struggles to produce new and interesting concepts, often using recycled storylines and uninteresting plots, diminishing the shock and gore that made "AHS" so original.
While many viewers were excited to see fan favorites Emma Roberts and Denis O'Hare back on "AHS," many were disappointed when show-runner Ryan Murphy announced that Kim Kardashian would join the cast for its 12th season. Fans took to social media to boycott the new season, with many expressing that Murphy has hit an all-time low by casting a Kardashian. Yet a select few fans decided to give the season a chance, recalling the stellar performance given by Lady Gaga in "Hotel."
While some fans were concerned about the casting choices, many were also curious to see Kardashian in action. Others were equally excited to see if the new season lived up to previous installments despite its original negative reception.
Episode One:
This season follows a famous actor, Anna (Emma Roberts), who becomes increasingly paranoid as she manages her acting career. She struggles to conceive through IVF treatments with her husband, Dex (Matt Czuchry).
Anna's paranoia intensifies as she encounters a stalker and an intruder breaks into her New York apartment. As she continues her regularly scheduled fertility appointments, Anna has eerie visions of a spider in her womb and webs coming out of her hair. Anna cannot discern reality from her paranoia, yet her husband and publicist (Kim Kardashian) gaslight her and tell her everything is in her head.
The first episode introduced the main characters, their relationships and issues, and was less focused on plot development or horror. But what the episode lacked was quality acting. While many fans expected Kardashian to be the problem, Roberts's performance was one-noted and dull, unlike her past roles in other "AHS" seasons.
Kim Kardashian's character, however, almost saves this lifeless season. Anna's publicist and manager, Siobhan, is unfiltered and hilarious, bringing unhinged one-liners to every scene. While the character has good lines, Kardashian distracts from the show. It is impossible to take Siobhan seriously as a character or separate the character from Kardashian's reality TV persona.
However, this season's fatal flaw is its plot. Nothing about this season is fresh or original. From "Rosemary's Baby," "Devil's Due" or even "AHS: Murder House," supernatural pregnancy is not a new theme in the film and television industry. Murphy’s uninspired storylines are the true reason for the downfall of "American Horror Story."
Rating: 2/5
Episode Two:
"American Horror Story: Delicate" returned Sept. 27 with episode two, "Rockabye." While audiences were still clambering for more "American Horror Story" goodness with this season, people watching should not call "Rockabye" good. At most, it deserves a hesitant shrug and an "OK."
The episode picks up right where the last one left off, with Anna talking to the police about the break-in with her husband, Dex. As she's talking to the police and they question why Dex left so late at night, it seems they just don't care about what's happening. All the men in the room – including her husband – seem to think that the break-in is just Anna going mad, cracking under the pressure of IVF treatment.
After the break-in "investigation," we cut to the next day when Anna is talking about the upcoming awards season in Siobhan's office. Anna is officially a Gotham award nominee, and Siobhan insists that this is a stepping stone to the Oscars; she just has to get through an incredibly stressful award season while also being in the early stages of a very precarious pregnancy.
If the audience takes nothing from the first parts of this episode, they should take away that Anna and Siobhan's relationship is meaningful. They met in an IVF therapy support group, and Siobhan is always there for Anna, especially now. There's also an interesting dynamic between the two since Anna is now pregnant but Siobhan is not. While they are discussing Anna's upcoming award season marathon, Siobhan offers her some vials of the yet-unknown amber liquid that will help support her in this very trying time.
It would be a decent scene in any other season, but Kim Kardashian is playing Siobhan. She delivers increasingly absurd lines with almost no change in her facial expression or inflection in her voice. While some of the lines are funny, most of them come off as cartoonishly over-the-top and unnecessary. The ones where Siobhan is supposed to be serious are even worse, as Siobhan-Kim stares vacantly at Anna while trying to offer some support.
Additionally, several moments in the show appear to be callbacks to Kardashian's career. Most notably, Anna wore a dress worn by Madonna to the 1991 Grammy Awards to the Gotham Awards, which seems like a reference to the infamous Marylin Monroe dress scandal. Additionally, Siobhan often seems like a caricature of Kris Jenner, who is also a savvy PR empress known for her zingers. For fans of the Kardashians, this is great for people wanting to watch something that feels original and should reconsider watching Delicate.
One scene in particular during the Gotham Awards sticks out to me as particularly bad. When Anna uses the restroom, she meets a particularly eager fan.
It's important to note that Emma Roberts is 5 feet 2 inches, and Ashlie Atkinson is 5 feet 7 inches and stockier than Roberts. The fan approaches Anna and talks very loudly and rudely at her. Anna begins to feel sick and throws up in one of the toilets, and the fan holds onto her stomach. Anna panics, as she's already been stressed about losing the baby, and shoves the fan angrily. The fan slips and cracks her head on the bathroom sink, and Anna leaves the bathroom fearfully.
As she delivers her acceptance speech, Anna hallucinates the fan clapping for her and bleeding, as well as the anti-IVF lady Ms. Preecher. She then throws up and has a mental breakdown on the stage, and passes out. When she wakes up, the paramedics tell her it must have been a hallucination because there is no dead fan in the bathroom. The paramedics then forcefully give her anesthetics while she tries to fight them off.
While parts of this scene feel like the AHS long-term fans know — the psychological thriller elements mixed with horror visuals — the overall quality is bad. The fan would have had to fly back a significant amount for her head to hit the sink, and that is very obvious from the audience's perspective. Anna probably does not have the strength to do that, given she is five inches shorter and very skinny. It takes the viewer out of the experience and makes the scene superficial. Additionally, Anna's vomit is so obviously fake it makes you cringe with embarrassment.
There are many things in this episode (and both so far) that take away from meaningful or scary moments. When Anna is at the Gotham Awards and on the red carpet, a younger nominee stops to talk to her. When Anna is talking about her/Madonna's dress, the girl says, "I'll have to YouTube it, I wasn't born yet," which is not at all how young people talk. The pregnancy test that Anna uses does not look like an actual pregnancy test at all. The mirror break sound effect that was used in this episode sounded like it was from iMovie. All these little things add up, and it leaves the audience feeling separated from the action of the show.
The only really interesting part of this episode comes in the last few minutes. After Anna has her breakdown while accepting her Gotham Award, Dex and Siobhan decide it might be best for the couple to get a break from the whole awards race. They go to stay in Theo and her partner's house for a bit, which has a full-time security guard, Kamal, for Anna to help her feel safe after the break-in and the paranoia she's been feeling. While there, she fears paranormal things are happening but is often reassured by the security guard and her husband that everything is fine. While doing yoga, however, she experiences serious pain in her stomach and lower back. While Kamal is driving her, she begins bleeding profusely, and he drives her to the hospital.
This is where we finally meet Cara Delevigne's character, Ivy. Posing as a nurse, Ivy coldly addresses Anna and often ignores what she's saying. Ivy performs an ultrasound, and the equipment she uses to do so is bloody after. She says she's going to get a doctor, leaving Anna in the hospital room worried. Anna then finds out she's had a miscarriage, but the doctor on staff tells her there was no Nurse Ivy or ultrasound.
The moments after Anna finds out she had a miscarriage are probably Roberts' best performance so far in this season. This is the first time I've felt like she wasn't Madison Montgomery trying to play a 30-year-old. It's incredibly sad, and this is when the audience starts to feel like something is turning against Anna.
The whole premise of this season draws inspiration from its source material but is also very clearly influenced by Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow WallPaper." But the whole conspiracy against Anna's pregnancy just feels a little too obvious to me in this episode, so much so that it takes away from the plot in a meaningful way. The use of the "Annihilate Anna" social media page, the random scene where Anna is looking at Celtic rituals and that's somehow supposed to connect to the online hate, etc., all reminds me a lot of "American Horror Story: Hotel." So far, there are a million different directions, and the show fails to tie them all together.
Some aspects draw viewers into the story, but "Rockabye" fails to hold the viewers' attention. It would be surprising if anyone other than Kim K stans continued to tune in.
Rating: 2.5/5
