Over three seasons, this show continues to come along with very exciting premises, and then (at varying times throughout each season) falls apart at the seems.
Ryan Murphy seems to be incapable of reigning it in. Rather than focus on all the good he has, especially in season 3, he manages, in 13 episodes to throw even more in, discarding stories he might find boring without tying them up, writing things into a corner so that they're forgotten about the next week to allow the story to continue, killing and reviving and killing and reviving, not to mention the stupidly confusing choices the characters make along the way.
So let's begin with the biggest waste this season: Fiona Goode. Jessica Lange has created, until now, two successful anti-heroes. Both were twisted and cynical but also possessed a capacity for love (albeit of a bizarre manner). Fiona Goode, her character in this season, is nothing but a tired rehash of those two women; same mannerisms, same accent, same attitude. She murders a young girl in one instant and then revives a still-born baby the next. Then she repeats the cycle again. There's only so many times a viewer can be bothered sympathising or hating someone. Along the way, one just gets bored.
The next biggest disappointments occur in two new additions to the cast: Angela Basset and Kathy Bates. Both do so much with what they're offered (Kathy eventually just reprising Annie Wilkes and Angela as the sassy black sidekick) that it ruins the entire season (how, if a casting director or even show creator can find nothing more to do with two gifted veteran actors can he possibly have had any idea of what to do with the show in the first place?). It's sickening, really. Kathy plays the villain Madame LaLaurie who was cursed by Angela's Marie Laveau to live forever. Entombed beneath New Orleans, LaLaurie is released by Fiona to discover the secret of youth. However, when Marie Laveau discovers that LaLaurie was released, she sends her demon army after the coven.
LaLaurie, clearly a psychopath, spends most of the season repenting and learning from the African American witch, Queenie. So it's bizarre that she spends so long repenting when she's devoid of feelings (what a waste of ten episodes to discover what we already knew). Marie Laveau, probably the most grey of the characters in this season, laments the passing of her minotaur pet who she set out to kill the Salem witches. She then bangs on about a truce being broken by the Salem witches. Honey, I don't want to go all first grade on you but you broke the truce first! Apparently, she had been breaking it for a while. So, who exactly are we supposed to support in this cluster-mug?
Surely it must be the young students of the Coven?!? Four young women all nearing the edge of reason who require nothing more than a wrong look to kill someone? Who kill and revive one another and then eventually just kill one another? Who love to soliloquise the end of the Coven and of the Witch line whilst they maim and murder and brutalise themselves and others publicly? Yeah, they seem a safe bet...
Maybe it's the supporting cast we should root for? Misty Day, Chordelia SpiritFingers or Myrtle? Whilst the least offensive of the cast, they also seem the most useless. Misty has the power to revive people and spends her days dancing to Stevie Nicks in a swamp until a Witch Hunter tries to kill her. Then she just gets killed at the coven, anyway. Chordelia SpiritFingers is the headmistress of the school and Coven and daughter of Fiona. She seems nice. I mean, she spends her days in a garden doing nothing but crying about how useless she is whilst her charges burn down houses, flip buses, shag men to death and force the neighbours to ingest bleach... Then she gets the power of sight (you might think she'd become proactive) but can't even figure out that her husband is a Witch Hunter (maybe it's poetic that she's blinded by her love of him, I just found it sloppy writing). Myrtle, Myrtle Myrtle Myrtle. Frances Conroy is the one thing I like about this season. She's batty. She's cookie. She's just plain nuts. She's also highly entertaining. However, like the other two, she kinda just dies and then comes back only to die again. She also melon balls some eye balls and looks peachy doing it. Guess that's alright.
So, to cap this off, this season is a mess. If you read this and thought "Gee, he sounds messy," I won't take responsibility. I've tried to linearise the plot strands. It's impossible. It's messy. It's confused. It's full of style and contains no substance. I applaud an almost all female cast but when they're reduced to bickering over men, murdering children for their youth or backstabbing one another for power, I can't help but feel they must all be ashamed. I know I'd be.
Ryan Murphy seems to be incapable of reigning it in. Rather than focus on all the good he has, especially in season 3, he manages, in 13 episodes to throw even more in, discarding stories he might find boring without tying them up, writing things into a corner so that they're forgotten about the next week to allow the story to continue, killing and reviving and killing and reviving, not to mention the stupidly confusing choices the characters make along the way.
So let's begin with the biggest waste this season: Fiona Goode. Jessica Lange has created, until now, two successful anti-heroes. Both were twisted and cynical but also possessed a capacity for love (albeit of a bizarre manner). Fiona Goode, her character in this season, is nothing but a tired rehash of those two women; same mannerisms, same accent, same attitude. She murders a young girl in one instant and then revives a still-born baby the next. Then she repeats the cycle again. There's only so many times a viewer can be bothered sympathising or hating someone. Along the way, one just gets bored.
The next biggest disappointments occur in two new additions to the cast: Angela Basset and Kathy Bates. Both do so much with what they're offered (Kathy eventually just reprising Annie Wilkes and Angela as the sassy black sidekick) that it ruins the entire season (how, if a casting director or even show creator can find nothing more to do with two gifted veteran actors can he possibly have had any idea of what to do with the show in the first place?). It's sickening, really. Kathy plays the villain Madame LaLaurie who was cursed by Angela's Marie Laveau to live forever. Entombed beneath New Orleans, LaLaurie is released by Fiona to discover the secret of youth. However, when Marie Laveau discovers that LaLaurie was released, she sends her demon army after the coven.
LaLaurie, clearly a psychopath, spends most of the season repenting and learning from the African American witch, Queenie. So it's bizarre that she spends so long repenting when she's devoid of feelings (what a waste of ten episodes to discover what we already knew). Marie Laveau, probably the most grey of the characters in this season, laments the passing of her minotaur pet who she set out to kill the Salem witches. She then bangs on about a truce being broken by the Salem witches. Honey, I don't want to go all first grade on you but you broke the truce first! Apparently, she had been breaking it for a while. So, who exactly are we supposed to support in this cluster-mug?
Surely it must be the young students of the Coven?!? Four young women all nearing the edge of reason who require nothing more than a wrong look to kill someone? Who kill and revive one another and then eventually just kill one another? Who love to soliloquise the end of the Coven and of the Witch line whilst they maim and murder and brutalise themselves and others publicly? Yeah, they seem a safe bet...
Maybe it's the supporting cast we should root for? Misty Day, Chordelia SpiritFingers or Myrtle? Whilst the least offensive of the cast, they also seem the most useless. Misty has the power to revive people and spends her days dancing to Stevie Nicks in a swamp until a Witch Hunter tries to kill her. Then she just gets killed at the coven, anyway. Chordelia SpiritFingers is the headmistress of the school and Coven and daughter of Fiona. She seems nice. I mean, she spends her days in a garden doing nothing but crying about how useless she is whilst her charges burn down houses, flip buses, shag men to death and force the neighbours to ingest bleach... Then she gets the power of sight (you might think she'd become proactive) but can't even figure out that her husband is a Witch Hunter (maybe it's poetic that she's blinded by her love of him, I just found it sloppy writing). Myrtle, Myrtle Myrtle Myrtle. Frances Conroy is the one thing I like about this season. She's batty. She's cookie. She's just plain nuts. She's also highly entertaining. However, like the other two, she kinda just dies and then comes back only to die again. She also melon balls some eye balls and looks peachy doing it. Guess that's alright.
So, to cap this off, this season is a mess. If you read this and thought "Gee, he sounds messy," I won't take responsibility. I've tried to linearise the plot strands. It's impossible. It's messy. It's confused. It's full of style and contains no substance. I applaud an almost all female cast but when they're reduced to bickering over men, murdering children for their youth or backstabbing one another for power, I can't help but feel they must all be ashamed. I know I'd be.