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Freak Show or Bleak Show?

American Horror Story made its debut in Australia in 2011 after receiving high praise from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB users. Viewers stated that it blew them out of the water with performances from Jessica Lange and Evan Peters as Constance and Tate Langdon in AHS: Murder House the first season and Fiona Goode and Kyle Spencer in AHS: Coven the third season.

Having just announced their fifth season, fans are eager to welcome back American Horror Story to grace our screens especially after a disappointing fourth season.

When the release of AHS: Freak Show was announced in 2013 fans were reeling for more after the Emmy award-winning performances of season three.

Season three was the story of the descendants of the Salem Witch Trials and their various trials and tribulations as they have to work together with their nemesis Marie Laveau in order to protect their dying covens.

Freak Show was highly anticipated but sadly didn’t deliver to its predecessor Coven. With such an amazing cast previously featured in the other seasons the dialect in Freak Show didn’t allow their acting abilities to be portrayed as well as they could have been.

Despite the term horror in the title there was no horror to be found throughout the season. No jump scares, suspense or even freaky scenes that have typically attracted the AHS audience.

Freak Show took a highly sensitive topic however sadly didn’t successfully deliver believable enough special effects on the “normal” cast. Ultimately the special effects wound up looking like prosthetics rather than natural deformities which some of the cast were born with. This took away the believability when the actors were delivering the heart felt moments about their differences, unlike those naturally born with these differences you couldn’t see the anguish pent from potentially many years of torment.

The most believable performances were in fact from the unknown stars such as Erika Ervin as Amazon Eve, the world’s tallest woman, Jyoti Amge as Ma Petite, a 21-year-old woman born with primordial dwarfism and Mat Fraser as Paul the Illustrated Seal, a man born with phocomelia in both arms due to his mother being prescribed thalidomide when she was pregnant. It was the performances of these actors alone that truly stole the show.

Although Freak Show was a good series with entertaining moments and great performances, it is not something I recommend for someone new to the series as their introduction to the American Horror franchise.

 

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