mary-masked
AHS Premier
Published: September 6th 2017, 7:36:12 pm
I saw the first season of AHS last night and it was FUCKING SCARY. I still feel a bit dazed (or maybe just hungover) But I took copious notes and, I think, wrote a good article about it.
I wanted to write something about the relationship between Kai and Winter because I found it utterly mesmerizing, but it didn't really fit with the rest of the essay and we haven't been given enough information yet. Maybe I can pitch another piece about them later.
There's a few spoilers in this essay but not a ton. I just sent it off to my editor, it's revised version should go up next Tuesday. I'm a little worried it'll get me hatemail but...I guess that's just the price of being a woman in public these days.
The current season of American Horror Story begins with a stomach turning barrage of footage from the 2016 election. Not winking recreations, or absurd exaggerations, actual news footage from the past year. With this season, Ryan Murphy has admitted that real life has outdone his art. Nothing could be scarier than what is happening right here and right now. But this montage is just a prelude. The real nightmare begins on election night.
We meet this season’s characters as the watch the votes roll in. Sarah Paulson’s screams, usually reserved for watching someone being butchered, nevertheless seem like an all too real and familiar reaction to Donald Trump being elected.
This is the season where American Horror Story really lives up to its name.
The Trump administration has a lot in common with American Horror Story, given its penchant for wealthy sociopaths, and characters driven by blind ambition or naked greed. Like Trump policy, American Horror Story often features the fears of queer people, poor people, black people, disabled people, and women in an overwhelming cavalcade of nightmares. And while an episode of American Horror Story can seem like three episodes of a regular show, a single week of Trump-era news can feel like a month’s worth of headlines.
This administration is a roller coaster of outrages, a spinning teacups ride of horrors: We should be afraid of Russia! No, North Korea! No, wait, white supremacists! Does anyone even remember ISIS? Don’t forget, climate change will kill us all but not before we lose our healthcare and are ground to death by crushing poverty. It doesn’t end and it’s all too fast. It’s overwhelming and it fills us up and nothing captures that bloated and confused terror better than an episode of American Horror Story.
Maybe the most American thing about this show is its excess. Describing the elements of any given season sounds like a Stefon joke from SNL “This show has EVERYTHING: Racism, aliens, Catholicism, evil nuns, homophobia, circus freaks, nymphomania, corporal punishment, abuse of the mentally ill, human experiments, vivisection, blackmail, smallpox mutants, and the worst named serial killer in history.” That’s not one season, that’s one episode.
In contrast, this season’s first episode feels uncharacteristically focused. Only a handful of characters are introduced. Only a couple of fears are explored. Unlike the other seasons, no hint of the supernatural has appeared thus far. But still the show feel like it’s too much. It’s too soon. It’s too real. The trump fueled tension of the scenes is so stressful that a good old fashioned clown murder scene feels as welcome and comforting as a big fuzzy blanket. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the season, but I’m a little worried my teeth might shatter.
So why would we want to watch American Horror Story talk about our current administration? Why would we want more? In a word, catharsis. It’s the same reason we have, like, six versions of The Daily Show right now. If we do not laugh we will never stop crying. If we do not scream, we will surely go mad.
In the show, Ally (Sarah Paulson) tells her therapist that this election has effected her the same way 9/11 did and she’s not alone. Plenty of therapists have reported a spike in their client’s anxieties, due to the election. For a large number of people in this country, Trump’s election is a trauma. All horror is about trauma. The fears it engenders, the way we fight through it. It cannot be buried, avoided, or ignored. The only way out is through. So were work our way through it in the nightmare dream logic of horror. Horror has a long history of working out cultural fears through allegory and, Boy Howdy, are we dealing with some cultural fears right now. Like, all of them.
The fears we once thought buried, the horrors we’ve too long ignored, they’ve all come back like Freddy Kruger.
Kai (Evan Peters,) a blue haired trump supporter bent on becoming a one man hate-crime wave, says that America has chosen fear over freedom That statement that has been true since 9/11 but has gained power since Trump came on the scene. Trump appealed to the fears of his base; their fear of terrorism, their xenophobia, their fear of poverty, their fear of being passed over, forgotten, replaced. Likewise, Trump embodies the fears of his detractors: white supremacist, narcissist, sociopath, abuser, bully, spoiled child, senile old man, fascist dictator, everyone sees something different when they look at him but they all see something chilling. Trump has become a mirror of our own worst fears.
Kai is certain that the country needs more fear, not less. He wants the country to descend into such panicked chaos that its population will be easily ruled by the “strong.” And so it was gratifying to see Mr Chang (Tim Kang) fight back against Kai. It was heartening to see him say “No. We will not be ruled by fear.” and tell Kai to get bent in no uncertain terms. But Mr Chang was also the first character to be killed off so…not that heartening. As the show has progressed Murphy has shown less and less interest in pulling punches. And Trump’s readiness to turn on those who speak against him is already well documented.
Not that I expect this season to be a carefully thought out critique of our world. “Careful” and “thought out” are words that are never used to describe the writing of American Horror Story. Like all American Horror Story, I expect it to be scattershot, confusing, often absurd and sometimes even a little dumb. But what is our current political climate if not confusing, absurd, and more than a little dumb?
Still, this season offers a unique chance to explore the reaches of our current fears. It may give us a connection to other people. It may give us a better understanding of our fears and how to face them. And, if we are very very lucky, it will give us some comfort.
The comfort that American Horror Story gave us for a long time was that it would always have a happy ending. It baffled me when I first saw Murderhouse, but the longer I watched the show, the more satisfying Murphy’s Mega Happy Endings became. Roanoke threw that (and many other things) out the window, but I hope Murphy brings it back for this season.
Not a lot of people survive a season of American Horror Story, but the ones that do, usually get to live happily ever after. That seems like the best we can hope for from a Trump administration. Maybe a taste of hope can give us strength for the fight ahead.