This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I know I can't be the only one to hold such an opinion. Here goes: American Horror Story get more and more abysmal with every season, starting with "Coven" (season 3). I loved "Coven" for its campiness and plot holes, but I also saw it as a signal that AHS had lost its ability to churn out small-screen masterpieces like "Asylum" (season 2) and "Murder House" (season 1), which were quality, Emmy-winning material. AHS still won awards after "Asylum," but gone was the almost cinematic quality of the episodes. All of the episodes in the first two seasons felt like small films; it was not until the third season that I felt like I was watching TV. With each season, I feel as though AHS becomes more and more like the other trash you see on TV. Fabulous cast members like Jessica Lange, Connie Britton, Lily Rabe, and Taissa Farmiga are no longer part of the cast. Instead, the show stars the same four handsome guys that producer Ryan Murphey probably cloned in his basement (I'm talking about Matt Bomer, Wes Bentley, Cheyenne Jackson, and Finn Witrrock). All four men are good for the roles they play, but they seriously do look near-identical and lack the acting chops of the women I mentioned earlier. What was once a serious, dark, thought-provoking anthology has become a dreamboat-studded sex romp (not that sex was never a big part of AHS; rather, what once made up about 10% of the show's content now makes up almost all of it). The only reason I watched "Freak Show" (season 4) and "Hotel" (season 5) was because long-time cast members Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson were still onboard (in the show and in my heart). I'm not sure if I am gonna watch this new season when it airs on 14th.

I might not have to, since I've found a new show which can fill the hole that was left in my heart after AHS started to go down the proverbial drain. Netflix has launched its own original series, Stranger Things, and it is one of the best things I have watched in a looooong time. Of course, I'm more of a film buff than a TV watcher, so I don't really watch TV much. Regardless, Stranger Things has everything I like: 80's nostalgia, a great soundtrack filled with old school alternative and postpunk hits, science fiction vibes, and mucho suspens-o. It's the PERFECT show to watch during the Halloween season (which roughly lasts from the day Starbuck's first sells the PSL to Halloween night). All these years, I've been getting my creepy fix for Halloween from AHS, but why do that when the show has failed to curdle my blood in the best way the past three Halloweens? I mean, I might have been scared once during "Hotel," but that might have just been my reaction to seeing Evan Peters with a mustache. It wasn't a real chill.

Stranger Things serves up real chills, so much so that I'm afraid Circle K will sue them for creating a more chilling sensation than their bomb slushies. If you like aliens, conspiracies, superpowers, and alternate dimensions, this is your show. Banking on 80's teen movie clichés, the show follows a geeky, male circle of friends who like Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, and riding their bikes. When one of the boys goes missing (after being chased by some monster), the entire town falls under a cloud of "WTF." A girl with telekinetic powers escapes a government laboratory and becomes a part of the boys' club. The missing boy begins to talk to his mother (played by Winona Ryder!) through lightbulbs. And that monster from earlier? He shows up a few times, but you can never get a good look at him, making him infinitely more terrifying. To make things even more unsettling, the telekinetic girl, called "Eleven," apparently is a result of a real life experiment called MKUltra, which actually occurred in the 60s. In the experiment, the CIA gave test subjects tabs of LSD in hopes that it could be used for mind control. The experiment was put to a stop in the 1970s, for obvious reasons. Stranger Things proposes a scenario where MKUltra never really stopped and actually succeeded. Such a revision of history is really thought-provoking, and it actually had me second-guessing whether or not I could trust the government.

So far, there is only one season of Stranger Things available, and I am very close to finishing it, sadly. However, each episode, with its combination warmth and suspense, can be watched over and over again, just like the first two seasons of American Horror Story. I imagine that I will be definitely be watching the show all Halloween season long, when I'm not watching my other Halloween regulars (Hocus Pocus and The Twilight Zone). Maybe I'll watch the pilot of the new American Horror Story, but if it sucks, at least I have a back up in Stranger Things.