American Horror Story: Season 1 - Murder House (2011)
Alright folks, we're doing something different this time! Here is my first ever TV review! I was thinking for a while about reviewing a TV show, the first shows on my mind were Breaking Bad or The Sopranos, but then I thought about reviewing American Horror Story! Each season is something different, so it's kinda like reviewing movies, so I think this was a great way to start. Season 1 is about a dysfunctional family moving from Boston to Los Angles to start over after the father has an affair with one of his students, but little do they know that there's a sinister secret about their new house. Season 1 received mostly positive reviews from critics and was acclaimed by audiences, and had great ratings on television, spawning a second season with a completely different storyline, which I will be reviewing in the near future.
THE GOOD
The thing I loved about this season was that the story was consistently compelling. It took me 3 days to watch this season because of how interesting this was! I loved the twists and turns, the whole failing marriage aspect was surprisingly not cringe, and the atmosphere was a great bonus! The first episode and the home invasion episodes were by far my favorite episodes in this season, they had the best atmosphere in the entire season, the home invasion episode was the most intense episode in my opinion, and the first episode did a phenomenal job at setting up the season. The progression of the story is very well done, you slowly learn about the history of the characters little by little, and it gets more and more interesting and fucked up the more it progresses. The acting was absolutely fantastic, the actors who play characters who are meant to be unlikable really do a great job at making them unlikable! Taissa Farmiga is the best part of this season, I loved her performance and I loved her character, she was the character I cared about the most. Evan Peters also gives an absolutely wonderful performance as this troubled guy who is the love interest for Taissa Farmiga's character. You find out shit about him that's really fucked up and horrible, it's executed so fucking beautifully! The production value and gore effects are wonderful, it was shocking how good everything looked considering it was a TV show. This season has some real balls to it too, it isn't afraid to get fucked up for a TV show, there's some kinky sex stuff, a school shooting, dead babies, stuff you wouldn't normally see in a TV show made for network television. The music is also a major standout in this season, the theme song, and the musical score are horror magic! They definitely set up the tone of the show in a masterful way!
THE BAD
My issues are very few, but I do have to mention them. I do think this season focused a lot more on drama than horror. I do think more of a focus on horror would have made this season even better. There was this character who was severely disfigured, and while I acknowledge he was essential to the plot, I found him so fucking annoying. I always wanted him to go offscreen every time he had screentime because he always got on my nerves.
CONCLUSION
Murder House was a rock solid start to one of my favorite TV shows. It's not perfect but it does deliver all the goods I wanted, gore, horror, atmosphere, a compelling story and terrific characters and performances. I can't wait to review Asylum and I am looking forward to Season 10 coming out soon!
GRADE: A-
INFO
Air date: October 5 - December 21st, 2011
Studio/Network: 20th Century Fox, FX
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