Summary
AlthoughAmerican Horror Storyhas never been particularly tasteful, I was still sad to see season 12 of the series indulge in a trope that has always been particularly unnerving. From its debut season,American Horror Storyhas always pushed the boundaries of good taste.Murder Housedepicted a school shooter as a romantic antihero andevery season ofAmerican Horror Storythat followed featured something equally, if not more, provocative. That said, not all of the anthology horror show’s provocations are created equal.American Horror Storyseason 12’s endingproves that some don’t work at all.
Related:American Horror Story Season 12’s Theme Causes A Huge Season 13 Problem
AlthoughAmerican Horror Story: Delicate’s ending was daring, it was also overstuffed, unclear, and unsatisfying. The ending felt less intentionally ambiguous and more hopelessly rushed. Throughout the season, I was impressed with how slow the pacing was and how comparatively reserved the tone had been. AlthoughDelicatewas still campy, its story didn’t go off the rails midway through the season, unlike1984andApocalypse. ThenAmerican Horror Story’s lowest-rated episodeended the season, leaving countless plot threads dangling and mysteries unexplained. One trope scene earlier inDelicate’s story should have tipped me off to this impending disappointment.
American Horror Story Season 12 Includes Real-Life Characters
Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow Have Roles In Episode 8
Delicateepisode 8 began with a cold open that focused on a lunch date between Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow even though Farrow is still alive and declined a role inAmerican Horror Storyseason 1.
Like a lot of recent seasons,American Horror Storyseason 12 added real-life figures, including two living people, into its story.Delicateepisode 8 began with a cold open that focused on a lunch date between Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow even though Farrow is still alive and declined a role inAmerican Horror Storyseason 1. The show’s version of Farrow then returned to the set ofRosemary’s Baby, where director Roman Polanski ordered her to shoot a dangerous stunt in Manhattan traffic. This bizarre decision made me uncomfortable, like many ofAmerican Horror Story’s earlier real-life cameos.
Although the cold open ofAmerican Horror Story: Delicateepisode 8was relatively short, the scene was still strange in terms of its historical context. The sequence ended with Kim Kardashian’s villainous Siobhan Corbyn appearing to Farrow, ensuring her that she would help her with the mysterious bleeding the actor was experiencing. This came after a scene where the show’s versions of Sinatra and Polanski both mistreated Farrow, tacitly linking real-life allegations of abusive behavior to the antics of a fictional ageless demonic witch. The discord between these events resulted in a jarring tonal shift that I couldn’t stand.
American Horror Story’s Real-Life Characters Always Feel Weird
The Anthology Show Mishandled Richard Ramirez and Valerie Solanas
Unfortunately,American Horror Storyhas a long history of portraying real-life people in earlier seasons, and many of these depictions were equally discomfiting and misguided. Most infamously,American Horror Story’s Richard Ramirez plotfrom1984was handled terribly, with the serial killer being portrayed as a charismatic, romanticized version of himself. I can’t imagine that anyone familiar with Ramirez’s life and crimes could have found1984’s version of the criminal to be anything but tasteless and profoundly insensitive. While the ethics of true-crime shows likeDahmerare debatable, incorporating Ramirez into an otherwise straightforward slasher pastiche was less excusable.
Similarly,Cult’s depiction of Andy Warhol’s attempted assassin, Valerie Solanas, was a misguided twist that felt more tacky than daring. Lena Dunham’s Solanas was a broad parody of humorless feminists, and even her casting was intended to be a winking joke about the writer/director’s propensity for contrarian attention-seeking. I found this distasteful considering both Ramirez and Solanas were real people with troubled lives who committed serious crimes, but they were portrayed as campy, cartoonish caricatures.American Horror Storyisn’t a venue for serious psychological analysis, but the show also isn’t campy and outrageous enough to make these characters work.
American Horror Story’s Real-Life Characters Used To Work Better
Historical Distance Helped The Show’s Early Seasons
The series isn’t as shocking and daring as it purports to be, with even satirical outings likeCultsteering clear of any divisive political commentary.
For all ofAmerican Horror Storyseason 12’s improvementsto the show’s well-worn formula, depicting Farrow, Polanski, and Sinatra dragged down the outing considerably. This doesn’t mean thatAmerican Horror Storycan’t and shouldn’t incorporate real-life figures into its plots, but that the series needs to be more careful in doing so. Maybe it’s just me, butCoven’s Madame Delphine LaLaurie andFreak Show’s Edward Mordrake belonging to different, comparatively distant eras make their depiction seem less strange and off-putting than, for example,Cult’s take on the Manson family. Their period origins provide a welcome level of distance.
Similarly,shows that are more unabashedly tasteless could utilize real-life figures for shock value, butAmerican Horror Storyexists in a strange hinterland when it comes to this issue. The series isn’t as shocking and daring as it purports to be, with even satirical outings likeCultsteering clear of any divisive political commentary. As such, claiming thatAmerican Horror Story’s reliance on real-life figures is intentionally tasteless campy humor doesn’t really cut it. At the same time, the show’s political messaging is garbled and often contradictory, so saying the series needs real-life figures to make social critiques also doesn’t hold water.
American Horror Story Season 12 Proves Season 13 Must Drop This Trend
Season 12’s Real-Life Cameos Added Nothing To The Plot
Delicate’s bizarre plot was too silly, insubstantial, and unclear in its attempted social commentary to justify its inclusion of real-life characters.
I never liked real-life figures showing up inAmerican Horror Storysince, at best, this trend was clearly a ploy for controversy. At worst, it was a tasteless exploitation of real people’s stories. However, I was willing to give the series a few shots at justifying this bizarre trend and I wanted to see the series provide a reason for its frequent reliance on real-life characters. ByAmerican Horror Story: Delicate’s finale, it was clear that the series didn’t need these cameos at this point, and they were more about shock value than deepening the narrative or themes of the season.
Pointing out that both Sinatra and Polanski mistreated Farrow in different, but distinctively masculine-coded ways might have been a meaningful statement about gender roles in another, better show.American Horror Story: Delicatewas a show about a cabal of immortal women breeding demonic babies to cause the apocalypse so they could bring about a matriarchy, and the one Oscar-winning actor who could stop them.Delicate’s bizarre plot was too silly, insubstantial, and unclear in its attempted social commentary to justify its inclusion of real-life characters, which has been a recurring issue with numerous earlier seasons ofAmerican Horror Story.
