For the past five months, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have teased season 6 of American Horror Story in a rather odd fashion. In the teasers, there was never a distinct theme to the season, other than some rumors that it would be themed after the Lost Colony of Roanoke from 1590. This was met with much acclaim, yet some fans were still skeptical. On Wednesday, September 14th, Season 6 of FX's original series American Horror Story aired its first episode, still not releasing any information as to what the season was about, how many episodes they were signed for, or even who was on the cast list as a weekly regular. After the premiere ended, the reviews came flooding in raving about how the show was different and spectacular. But was it?
DISCLAIMER: This won't contain spoilers. That being said, this review will be very vague and won't go into too much description.
QUICK PLOT SYNOPSIS: This season (or at least this episode) is set up like a paranormal documentary series known as "My Roanoke Nightmare". It follows the interviews of Matt and Shelby Miller (Andre Holland and Lily Rabe respectively) as they reimagine their experiences and terror of buying a house on a desolate patch of land in Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Throughout the episode, you see actors reenacting the events that Matt and Shelby share with the camera. Multiple horrific occurrences take place in their new home, such as a break in, an attempt on someone's life, and even running someone over! Is this paranormal activity? Are these some country folk trying to run them out of the house? Are the Millers in danger?
PROS: Murphy and Falchuk knew what they were doing when they didn't announce right off the bat what the season was going to look like. Documentary style shows don't naturally do well, but the writers and actors/actresses pulled it off... to a certain extent. First off, Andre Holland and Lily Rabe were excellent as the Millers. It is very difficult to capture raw emotion from just sitting and describing events if they never happened to you, and they did this marvelously. The actors that were acting the story out (Cuba Gooding Jr. as Matt and Sara Paulson as Shelby) made the story come to life with exuberance and color. The script and the passion are both a plus for this series and will serve it well for the rest of the season.
CONS: The pacing for this episode was very, very slow. Nothing too interesting happened until two commercial breaks in, and that can be a deal breaker for some (although this can be something that can be satisfied later on in the season). Adding onto that, not everyone is a fan of a documentary style TV series, so the layout of this season may not be for those who can't sit through an episode of "Locked Up Abroad", "Intervention", or any History Channel program.
CONCLUSION: To put it simply, this season won't be considered appealing to all fans of American Horror Story. While it succeeds in its scripting and its character portrayal, the layout and the current speed of the show (or the first episode of the season to be a bit more technical) will be the definite killer for some.
FINAL RATING: 6.5/10
