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citrinesunsetSo, I had the idea of posting AHS reaction posts/recaps this season, mainly because I know there are some people on my flist who are very interested in anything Matt Bomer is in but do not care to watch AHS. But also, there's not really anything else airing on TV right now that I'm interested in watching, let alone recapping.
But alas, when it premiered last week, I totally forgot to watch it. This is probably a good representation of how I feel about AHS at this point. I'm finally realizing that while I loved Asylum (season 2), all the other seasons so far have disappointed me. But I am curious to see Lady Gaga act, it's nice to see Matt have a major role, and like it or not, AHS has become a bit of a long-winded Halloween tradition for me. So I finally got around to watching the first episode, "Checking In." Here is my recap:
I feel like this season has a very 80's vibe to it. The way a lot of it is shot reminds me a bit of an 80's or 90's music video. Lots of fish-eye lens shots and light synth-style music.
We open with two European women (Swedish, I think) checking into the Cortez Hotel in L.A. They are immediately disappointed because while the Cortez is a beautiful old building with art deco architecture, the hotel is a ghost town that has no wifi or cell phone service. But the front desk lady, Iris (Kathy Bates) gets mad when they want a refund, so they decide to stay. They barely get settled into their room when they realize it smells bad. Upon inspection, they find a zombie-like dude sewn into their mattress. It's unclear if the zombie dude means them harm or not, but they're pretty freaked.
Around this time, we get the opening credits, and it's always kind of fun to see the opening credits since each season it's a new sequence with little clues and images relevant to that season's plot. This season, the opening credits are interspersed with the ten commandments. Hmm.
Back at the Cortez, the Swedish women have gotten Iris, who acts horrified by what they saw in their room. But then she tells them the police will arrest them if the leave the hotel without giving a statement, which is bullshit. But these girls are tourists, so I can forgive them for not feeling too confident about what to do right now. They let Iris put them in room 64, which Iris says they don't normally rent out. It seems nice enough at first, but then one of the women falls asleep and wakes to find her friend unconscious in the bathroom, being attacked by little blond child vampires.
Now we meet John Lowe (Wes Bentley, who looks so much like Sean Maher to me that that's all I can think about when he's on screen), a police detective. John goes to a crime scene where a couple has been tortured fairly graphically, apparently as punishment for adultery. Now the significance of the ten commandments in the opening credits is becoming clear. It looks like this season has a Se7en-inspired plot about a serial killer offing people according to how they've broken the ten commandments. This strikes me as kind of random, because I don't remember Se7en having anything to do with hotels and while AHS has always been big on homages, this seems very specific. That evening, John is at work and takes some time to Skype with his daughter, Scarlett. As he's leaving, he gets a call from someone claiming to be the serial killer, saying that he will kill again in room 64 of the Cortez Hotel.
Meanwhile, a young man checks into the Cortez, is given room 64, and is promptly attacked by some creature that looks like a monster from a Silent Hill game. Sally (Sarah Paulson), a drug addict whose style makes me think of an evil Cyndi Lauper (so much crimped hair and lipstick!) goes up to room 64 and watches while the young man is attacked. It's unclear if this has anything to do with the serial killer or not, and the scene is pretty brutal and long.
John arrives at the Cortez sans backup and takes his sweet time going up to the front desk. I'm starting to think this guy isn't the best detective. By the time he gets up to room 64, there's no sign of any crime. So John falls asleep on the bed. For fucks sake! He wakes to see one of the vampire children, who appears to be his lost son, Holden.
Finally, about a half hour into the episode, we're introduced to the Countess (Lady Gaga) and Donovan (Matt!). Donovan is lounging in the tub and the Countess is getting ready for a night out (part of getting ready is doing cocaine, apparently). These two don't do anything half-assed, so to go out and watch an outdoor movie, the Countess has decided to wear a corset and some sort of diamond harness around her neck and chest. They sit in the grass for a showing of Nosferatu, but seem more interested in having eye sex with the couple sitting next to them. The other couple looks pretty excited at the prospect of a foursome with these two, and I have to say, I'd probably be excited, too. They're hot. The Countess and Donovan take the other couple back to the hotel where there's a long sex scene with lots of carefully arranged nudity. Everything is going great until Donovan and the Countess kill the other couple and feast on their blood.
Afterward, lying in each other's arms, the Countess teases Donovan because he hadn't wanted to go out earlier. "It's not the getting ready," he says, "it's the clean-up." Being a sexy vampire is so hard, you guys.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the Swedish girls from the beginning are still alive. Only, they're being held prisoner by Iris, who appears to be preparing them to be food for the Countess and her vampire children. The Swedes are drug users, which makes their blood unsuitable at the moment. Iris torments them for a bit before Sally appears and chases her off. Sally frees one of the girls, and she runs. Before she can escape, the Countess stops her and kills her. The Countess is then annoyed with Iris for letting her food escape.
John takes his daughter Scarlett out to dinner while his wife, Alex (Chloe Sevigny), a pediatrician, takes care of some business. At dinner, he gets a text from Alex giving an address and asking for help. He rushes there with Scarlett to find police already on the scene. He leaves Scarlett in a police car and goes inside the building to investigate, but Scarlett is quickly able to get out of the car and follow her father into the building without anyone noticing. How worthless are these cops? They can't keep track of a kid who appears to be about nine years old. John chases after a shadowy figure but is interrupted when Scarlett screams. She's found two disemboweled corpses. Yay, great police work and great parenting! It turns out Alex never texted John--the serial killer somehow managed to make it look like the message came from her when it didn't.
We now see a flashback from 2010, where John and Alex's son, Holden, disappears at a carnival.
Present-day, John decides that for Alex and Scarlett's safety, he should move out for a while.
At the Cortez, New York fashion designer Will Drake (Cheyenne Jackson) and his young son Lachlin arrive with a realtor. The realtor informs Iris that Will has purchased the Cortez, which displeases Iris since she didn't even know it was for sale. The realtor, Will, and his son go up to the penthouse, where they interrupt Donovan, who's sleeping naked on the sofa. Very nice shot of Matt's ass, here. Donovan is pretty pissed, and rushes to the Countess to tell her of the invasion. But the Countess is well aware of the sale and welcomes Will warmly. While Donovan is enlisted to show Will around, the Countess takes Lachlin to a secret room where three blond vampire children play retro video games and eat candy. One of them is named Holden and does appear to be John's son.
Meanwhile, Donovan is ready to storm out. He is confronted by Iris, who turns out to be his mother.
In a flashback to 1994, we see a much less stylish Donovan go into the Cortez with Sally. They go up to room 64, where Sally gives Donovan some heroin. Iris tracks them down to try to protect her son, but when she arrives, Donovan is unconscious on the bed. He's not doing great. Iris follows Sally out into the hall and pushes her out an open window. Sally looks pretty dead, so apparently she was brought back somehow. Perhaps by the Countess? When Iris returns to room 64, The countess is on the bed with Donovan, admiring his jawline. Which is quite nice.
Present day, John checks into the Cortez. Yeah, this won't end badly at all.
Okay, so thoughts:
- I don't have super high expectations, but that's mainly because of how I've felt about the other seasons. I'll try to give this one a fair chance.
- I don't think this season is very good for the squeamish. Before watching the episode, I'd read some harsh criticisms of the amount of sexual violence in it, and I think it's saying something that the two rape/sexual torture scenes featured in the premiere were worse than I expected based on those reviews. It does feel more violent so far than some of the earlier seasons. AHS is very big on pushing the envelope of what they can get by with on the FX channel, and while some of that I can get behind (more attractive naked people, please!), the amount of violence can feel unnecessary. And I think that's what bugs me about the Se7en homage, because while Se7en is pretty graphic in spots, a lot of stuff is left to the imagination, which is very effective. But Ryan Murphy has no concept of subtlety.
- That said, I'm pretty impressed with Lady Gaga's acting, and she and Matt are very sexy together. Their scenes were my favorite part. I love AHS when it focuses on somewhat campy, over-the-top in an enjoyable way horror as opposed to just shocking stuff happening for the sake of being shocking. Hopefully the campy, fun aspects will continue.
- Also, I'm excited for Evan Peters and Angela Bassett to show up, so that's worth sticking around for.
But alas, when it premiered last week, I totally forgot to watch it. This is probably a good representation of how I feel about AHS at this point. I'm finally realizing that while I loved Asylum (season 2), all the other seasons so far have disappointed me. But I am curious to see Lady Gaga act, it's nice to see Matt have a major role, and like it or not, AHS has become a bit of a long-winded Halloween tradition for me. So I finally got around to watching the first episode, "Checking In." Here is my recap:
I feel like this season has a very 80's vibe to it. The way a lot of it is shot reminds me a bit of an 80's or 90's music video. Lots of fish-eye lens shots and light synth-style music.
We open with two European women (Swedish, I think) checking into the Cortez Hotel in L.A. They are immediately disappointed because while the Cortez is a beautiful old building with art deco architecture, the hotel is a ghost town that has no wifi or cell phone service. But the front desk lady, Iris (Kathy Bates) gets mad when they want a refund, so they decide to stay. They barely get settled into their room when they realize it smells bad. Upon inspection, they find a zombie-like dude sewn into their mattress. It's unclear if the zombie dude means them harm or not, but they're pretty freaked.
Around this time, we get the opening credits, and it's always kind of fun to see the opening credits since each season it's a new sequence with little clues and images relevant to that season's plot. This season, the opening credits are interspersed with the ten commandments. Hmm.
Back at the Cortez, the Swedish women have gotten Iris, who acts horrified by what they saw in their room. But then she tells them the police will arrest them if the leave the hotel without giving a statement, which is bullshit. But these girls are tourists, so I can forgive them for not feeling too confident about what to do right now. They let Iris put them in room 64, which Iris says they don't normally rent out. It seems nice enough at first, but then one of the women falls asleep and wakes to find her friend unconscious in the bathroom, being attacked by little blond child vampires.
Now we meet John Lowe (Wes Bentley, who looks so much like Sean Maher to me that that's all I can think about when he's on screen), a police detective. John goes to a crime scene where a couple has been tortured fairly graphically, apparently as punishment for adultery. Now the significance of the ten commandments in the opening credits is becoming clear. It looks like this season has a Se7en-inspired plot about a serial killer offing people according to how they've broken the ten commandments. This strikes me as kind of random, because I don't remember Se7en having anything to do with hotels and while AHS has always been big on homages, this seems very specific. That evening, John is at work and takes some time to Skype with his daughter, Scarlett. As he's leaving, he gets a call from someone claiming to be the serial killer, saying that he will kill again in room 64 of the Cortez Hotel.
Meanwhile, a young man checks into the Cortez, is given room 64, and is promptly attacked by some creature that looks like a monster from a Silent Hill game. Sally (Sarah Paulson), a drug addict whose style makes me think of an evil Cyndi Lauper (so much crimped hair and lipstick!) goes up to room 64 and watches while the young man is attacked. It's unclear if this has anything to do with the serial killer or not, and the scene is pretty brutal and long.
John arrives at the Cortez sans backup and takes his sweet time going up to the front desk. I'm starting to think this guy isn't the best detective. By the time he gets up to room 64, there's no sign of any crime. So John falls asleep on the bed. For fucks sake! He wakes to see one of the vampire children, who appears to be his lost son, Holden.
Finally, about a half hour into the episode, we're introduced to the Countess (Lady Gaga) and Donovan (Matt!). Donovan is lounging in the tub and the Countess is getting ready for a night out (part of getting ready is doing cocaine, apparently). These two don't do anything half-assed, so to go out and watch an outdoor movie, the Countess has decided to wear a corset and some sort of diamond harness around her neck and chest. They sit in the grass for a showing of Nosferatu, but seem more interested in having eye sex with the couple sitting next to them. The other couple looks pretty excited at the prospect of a foursome with these two, and I have to say, I'd probably be excited, too. They're hot. The Countess and Donovan take the other couple back to the hotel where there's a long sex scene with lots of carefully arranged nudity. Everything is going great until Donovan and the Countess kill the other couple and feast on their blood.
Afterward, lying in each other's arms, the Countess teases Donovan because he hadn't wanted to go out earlier. "It's not the getting ready," he says, "it's the clean-up." Being a sexy vampire is so hard, you guys.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the Swedish girls from the beginning are still alive. Only, they're being held prisoner by Iris, who appears to be preparing them to be food for the Countess and her vampire children. The Swedes are drug users, which makes their blood unsuitable at the moment. Iris torments them for a bit before Sally appears and chases her off. Sally frees one of the girls, and she runs. Before she can escape, the Countess stops her and kills her. The Countess is then annoyed with Iris for letting her food escape.
John takes his daughter Scarlett out to dinner while his wife, Alex (Chloe Sevigny), a pediatrician, takes care of some business. At dinner, he gets a text from Alex giving an address and asking for help. He rushes there with Scarlett to find police already on the scene. He leaves Scarlett in a police car and goes inside the building to investigate, but Scarlett is quickly able to get out of the car and follow her father into the building without anyone noticing. How worthless are these cops? They can't keep track of a kid who appears to be about nine years old. John chases after a shadowy figure but is interrupted when Scarlett screams. She's found two disemboweled corpses. Yay, great police work and great parenting! It turns out Alex never texted John--the serial killer somehow managed to make it look like the message came from her when it didn't.
We now see a flashback from 2010, where John and Alex's son, Holden, disappears at a carnival.
Present-day, John decides that for Alex and Scarlett's safety, he should move out for a while.
At the Cortez, New York fashion designer Will Drake (Cheyenne Jackson) and his young son Lachlin arrive with a realtor. The realtor informs Iris that Will has purchased the Cortez, which displeases Iris since she didn't even know it was for sale. The realtor, Will, and his son go up to the penthouse, where they interrupt Donovan, who's sleeping naked on the sofa. Very nice shot of Matt's ass, here. Donovan is pretty pissed, and rushes to the Countess to tell her of the invasion. But the Countess is well aware of the sale and welcomes Will warmly. While Donovan is enlisted to show Will around, the Countess takes Lachlin to a secret room where three blond vampire children play retro video games and eat candy. One of them is named Holden and does appear to be John's son.
Meanwhile, Donovan is ready to storm out. He is confronted by Iris, who turns out to be his mother.
In a flashback to 1994, we see a much less stylish Donovan go into the Cortez with Sally. They go up to room 64, where Sally gives Donovan some heroin. Iris tracks them down to try to protect her son, but when she arrives, Donovan is unconscious on the bed. He's not doing great. Iris follows Sally out into the hall and pushes her out an open window. Sally looks pretty dead, so apparently she was brought back somehow. Perhaps by the Countess? When Iris returns to room 64, The countess is on the bed with Donovan, admiring his jawline. Which is quite nice.
Present day, John checks into the Cortez. Yeah, this won't end badly at all.
Okay, so thoughts:
- I don't have super high expectations, but that's mainly because of how I've felt about the other seasons. I'll try to give this one a fair chance.
- I don't think this season is very good for the squeamish. Before watching the episode, I'd read some harsh criticisms of the amount of sexual violence in it, and I think it's saying something that the two rape/sexual torture scenes featured in the premiere were worse than I expected based on those reviews. It does feel more violent so far than some of the earlier seasons. AHS is very big on pushing the envelope of what they can get by with on the FX channel, and while some of that I can get behind (more attractive naked people, please!), the amount of violence can feel unnecessary. And I think that's what bugs me about the Se7en homage, because while Se7en is pretty graphic in spots, a lot of stuff is left to the imagination, which is very effective. But Ryan Murphy has no concept of subtlety.
- That said, I'm pretty impressed with Lady Gaga's acting, and she and Matt are very sexy together. Their scenes were my favorite part. I love AHS when it focuses on somewhat campy, over-the-top in an enjoyable way horror as opposed to just shocking stuff happening for the sake of being shocking. Hopefully the campy, fun aspects will continue.
- Also, I'm excited for Evan Peters and Angela Bassett to show up, so that's worth sticking around for.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-12 09:32 am (UTC)Fox doesn't show it in our neck of the woods...
no subject
Date: 2015-10-12 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 09:53 pm (UTC)I'm hoping I'll make it to the end of this season - I've started two previously and given up after a couple of episodes, but this time I have Matt (and his nakedness!) as an incentive. I hope there is less sexual violence going forward though, the scene with the nameless man in room 64 was pretty rough to watch.
I'm glad you're doing write ups :)