Senior Marc Sheehan will be writing episode reviews of “American Horror Story” for The Rebellion. All future posts will be posted within two days of the airing of the episode (Please excuse the tardiness of this post), so please check in and comment if you watch the series.  His Episode Three review will go up tomorrow.

The brand new season of the highly praised FX series, American Horror Story, opened up, well, how everyone expected it to—with a pretty weird introduction.  The first episode reveals the two focus “freaks” of the season—Sarah Paulson and Sarah Paulson.  The odd, quirky, and terrifyingly realistic freak is a siamese twin, and writer Ryan Murphy utilizes any opportunity he has to show off the impressive character.  More importantly, the season premiere featured quite a bit of backstory on the duo, and it’s quite obvious that viewers will be following Bette and Dot for the duration of this season.

The premiere also introduced the beloved Jessica Lange’s character, Elsa Mars.  The audience first sees Elsa entering the hospital to sneak a peek at the rumored creature behind the curtains (Bette and Dot).  Sporting a thick accent, Elsa Mars asserts herself as a manipulator right off the bat by finagling her way into Bette and Dot’s room and then enticing Bette and Dot to join “The Freak Show.”

Of course, Evan Peters has become a star on the show in past seasons, and his character will be just as prominent this year.  Elsa confronts Jimmy Darling (Even Peters) at a diner, and she insists that she has found a safe home for him and all the other freaks, and he mustn’t screw everything up.  Very quickly, the show depicts Elsa Mars as a savior of the freaks.  It will be interesting to see how this role progresses throughout the season.

Oh, and she has no legs.

Jimmy Darling’s deformity is concealed for a brief amount of time in the show before there is a flashback to a group of wives complaining about their sex lives.  Soon after, one of the more shy wives is led to the back, where Jimmy lies on the bed.  In a very strange and uncomfortable few shots, Jimmy uses his ugly claw-hands to satisfy her.

These three big characters are freaky, but nothing goosebump-inducing such as Leatherman (From Season 1) or Bloodyface (from Season 2).

Or, so we thought.

Smash cut to an open field: a happy couple, having a good time.  When the guy goes to grab something, the face of the show emerges from the brush—Twisty the Clown.  But Twisty isn’t here to joke around.  Instead, he smashes in the boy’s face and takes the girl hostage.  Then, we get to see where Twisty does have his fun, as the girl is taken to a True Detective-esque bus in the middle of the forest.

But, of course, American Horror Story lingers on the best parts only enough to capture your attention briefly, as the focus shifts back to the more sympathetic characters at the Freak Show.  At the end of the episode, a detective attempts to arrest Bette and Dot on account of murdering their mother.  When Jimmy Darling attempts to stop him, the detective calls Jimmy a freak.  Infuriated, Jimmy slices the detective’s throat.  The freaks all help Jimmy bury the detective as the episode basically closes with Jimmy reassuring the others in the troupe that they all have a right to happiness.

Episode 2 quickly brings in the strongman Del (and his wife Desiree) as a key character who takes charge of the Freak Show and opposes Elsa as the leader of the group.  The town curfew — imposed because of Twisty’s murders — makes it impossible for the troupe to have evening performances, so Del decides they must have a matinee.

No one objects to the easily-irritated strongman.

Kathy Bates’ character, Ethel, confronts Del in his trailer at which point the audience finds out they have a son together: Jimmy Darling.  Because Del is now married to Desiree, there is clearly twenty years of tension built up between Ethel and Del.

To make matters better, Gloria Mott (Frances Conroy) decides to hire a clown for her stubborn, childish, whiny grown man of a son, Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock).  Not just any old clown, but everyone’s favorite clown—Twisty.  Yep — suspend all disbelief here: Gloria somehow sees the deranged, slipshod, creepily silent mess of a clown walking down the street and decides he is a must-hire.  This of course goes downhill when Twisty smashes Dandy in the back of the head.

However, while other shows may have the audience sympathize with Dandy — the poor child who gets his head thwacked by a clown (not even on his birthday!) — American Horror Story takes an unsettling twist.  Dandy wakes up from the thwacking, follows the clown killer to his lair, and as the female captive escapes, Dandy throws her on his shoulders in a noble act of heroism and rescues her — or wait, wait, he does not rescue her.  He actually takes her back to Twisty’s lair?  Dandy apparently is so bored that he is just dying for some homicidal excitement, and what better playmate for him than the failure of a clown named Twisty?  Yes — this type of stomach-turning character twist distinguishes AHS from other, more formulaic television shows.

Back at the freak show, matters worsen for Jimmy who gets the snot beat out of him by Del when he finds Jimmy and the rest of the troupe at a diner in town.  Even worse, the police find the murdered detective’s badge in Meep’s trailer and arrest him.  Elsa doesn’t get any happier upon seeing that Dot has singing talent.  Jealous of this threat to her non-existent fame, Elsa tries to convince Bette to stab Dot.  The show closes with a grim reveal of Meep’s dead body being chucked back at the freak show by the cops.

Two episodes in and there’s already a high body count for all characters involved: the police, the freaks, and the clown.

Here are some general notes:

NOTES:

• Elsa’s obsession with fame is clearly going to factor into a major plot point later in the season.  It’s hit on too much to ignore.
• Also, Jimmy’s dissatisfaction is not to be ignored.  He feels he doesn’t belong, yet helps corral the troupe as a family.  Giving off some major vibes of characters such as Luke from Cool Hand Luke and R.P. McMurphy from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
• Everyone wants to know the story of Twisty.  My guess is he may have been involved with Elsa’s freak show, but it’s too early to say.  Whatever Twisty is, he will tie into the show more clearly in coming episodes.  And Dandy’s search for fun is ironically with the biggest failure of a clown, making the entire situation a very interesting scenario.
• The bearded Kathy Bates’ sees an interestingly odd feminine turn in episode two versus Del.
• My biggest praise of this season: the cinematography.  Now before you all scoff, it’s important to know that some of the BEST horror/creepy flicks of all time were done by a man named Stanley Kubrick, who practically invented a type of shot called a “One-Point Perspective” shot.  This shot has become so important to the genre over the years and, ironically, American Horror Story hasn’t even utilized it until this season.  It’s basically a shot is 100% symmetrical, and gives off a very eerie, unnatural, and empty look to the shot.  It’s use in this season is helping to build for what may be one of the best seasons yet.