YEP- was the same age when it dropped, all anyone talked about at school every week, and it had hot topic in a chokehold. It wasn't "for" adults, it was just for teens to feel like adults watching it because we thought being edgy was meant we were adults
I am mad that the "alien" storyline was never explained. I actually liked it and was low-key expecting a whole season dedicated to it. Now I am left with more questions than answers.
They wedged in alot of horror tropes and aliens abducted the wife and deposited him back on earth for observation studies while protecting him. Later aliens returned the wife back to him and later when he died aliens reclaimed him. That's basically it.
The entire point of the aliens was that you weren't SUPPOSED to get answers. Ryan has said on multiple occasions that the aliens were always meant to be left up to interpretation.
I think AHS suffers from being too long. All the seasons could really be 10 episodes. The side plots always get muddled but the main story is usually pretty solid. This season was acted beautifully. I like that the show tries to make some bad characters just bad people, vs bad characters who are bad for other reasons.
Individual dialogues and scenes are super quotable and visually dynamic, thus super engaging. But I watched the show as an adult and it was kinda cringe tbh. It feels like they tried to shove in gory scenes with mild religious motifs for shock value
agreed. kit's storyline with the wives felt so muddled and I felt like they could have worked better with him either ACTUALLY killing his wife, or at least her not coming back. Also, grace was not a necessary character to have any relationship with, besides maybe with Lana and her escape
The Anne Frank subplot pissed me off the most. They didn't have to use her specifically to expose the doctor was a nazi (heck, they used a prostitute earlier) and the ending for her with the lobotomy was terrible even if it was common in the 40s to the '60s. It was like they were trying to shove cruelty down my throat by killing her again.
you are completely right that ahs is aimed at teenagers, why would someone get mad at that? i completely lost interest in it once i was approaching my 20s and i know its the same for many and like, how can anyone look at the violet and tate mess and claim that its aimed at anyone but edgy teenagers lmao
People who aren't teenagers see that observation as personally insulting. Probably out of insecurity, because they are emotionally immature, they are smart enough to know it, but can't admit it. That's what links the biggest fans of the show of any age, emotional immaturity.
i was 17 (i don't remember when i started watching the show 😭) and oh my god their relationship was almost insufferable, it was giving me wattpad "oBsEssED bOyFiE" vibes and it's like AAAAARGH. i'm on season 4? i think and i've been quite stuck bcs i just can't care enough to watch it; so honestly i'd say by teenager it would be more of 14-17 because omfg the show is lowkey nonsensical to me 😭
I was in my late teens early twenties when AHS premiered. It was very much aimed towards people in that age bracket because it was " Edgy" and " Quirky" to watch AHS. Now at 32 I just don't even care for this series anymore.
I liked asylum..the alien part I could have done without but sister Judes storyline and pepper were decent..definitely not the worst season..Roanoke holds that title
I feel like Roanoke was just done wrong like the pov from a reality show standpoint was very boring the story behind it though was interesting and could’ve been way better if we didn’t have the reality show lense diluting it
as someone who watched this show originally as a teenage girl and hasn't watched them since I can definitively say that yes I was definitely their target audience. remembering it now as an adult and with an appreciation for writing and... nuance, this show (this season and most likely all of the others, i dont remember them that well) could really benefit from just... doing less
But if you haven’t rewatched it as an adult, how can you know you wouldn’t like it and appreciate different aspects of it as an adult? You’re just going off of memory.
I also watched this show in my teens (the last season I watched was Freak Show I think) and I honestly cannot remember a single plotline from any season besides some plot twists like (SPOILER WARNING FOR ANYONE THAT WANT TO WATCH IT) Violet being dead and unable to leave the murder house or the witch that was a vegan necromancer getting stuck in her personal Hell having to disect a frog for the rest of eternity LMFAOO
Right! And this guy's review was all over the place. One minute he's feigning myopic ignorance the next he's fully aware of the show's intent to be incoherent while purposefully scattering themes tropes and narratives. I'm actually still dizzy from all of the talking in circles he did😕
literally i can still see eye to eye w someone who i disagree w if its elaborated well enough but at this point the fact that hes made two video essays on two of the highest rated seasons of the show im 100% convinced hes trolling and wanting attention lol like ive never seen someone miss the mark this much in my entire life but hey if a show abt horror doesnt offend ppl they didnt do their job
idk. personally, this is my favorite season of AHS. all the stories were terrifying and proved that danger is everywhere. the actors all gave amazing performances. it was full of surprises and i loved it
I agree. This and coven are my favorite. Granted I haven't watched past Cult or apocalypse (I don't remember which one is older) But AHS always has the problem of doing "too much". At some point you have so much it gets silly. And for me asylum took the longest before it became "too much". I really liked the beginning of coven but it "lost" me way before asylum
I think AHS criticism is usually very valid but I just enjoyed watching it so much that it doesn’t really matter to me. It has this unique vibe to it that I have never felt in any other show and I absolutely love the actors in it.
very well put. you can accept somethings flaws while still enjoying it. Do i think the prequels are good movies? hell no. But i still enjoy them. I love the world they created and what it brought with it. all the video games and tv shows that came because of it. I dont mind many of the flaws cause it just doesnt matter to me, while i completely, 100% get why someone who grew up with the originals hates the prequels. Its often about what you want to get out of a movie/tv show.
He accuses the show of being superficial and juvenile because this aesthetic is completely incomprehensible to him. It's a masterpiece at exactly what you said, creating that particular atmosphere, that camp loneliness that only ryan is familiar with. Some random straight dude with a sad degree (if any at all) could never comprehend it, he doesn't have the life experience to do it justice. I'm quite certain that roger eberts would understand part of its chemistry and love.
My biggest issue with Asylum was that it was just all over the place and lacked cohesion. None of the interesting themes and storyline were fleshed out well because there were 800 other storyline that had to be introduced and rushed through for seemingly no reason
I didn't think about it before you said it but yeah I was 14 when I started watching it and never in my adult life have I watched it so I see your point. I definitely think they gloss over heavily important issues way too much. Most of the time it feels they just want to use social issues to be dramatic. That's how people end up romanticizing a school shooter like in season one. I don't care how broken he is he still murdered people!
No the only reason they romanticize is because of Evan’s beauty… there’s wasn’t any like prosthetic or too much makeup done on his face and let’s be fr pretty privileged exist I do think and bet if Evan wasn’t an attractive person and was literally the literal opposite of “” beautiful “” no one would do that romanticization shit…. They like kit cause of the actor not the character itself… remove the rapping and school shooting part people would still romanticize the character cause he’s sad and attractive but the moment you take out the attractiveness off the character they won’t be romanticize him but rather see how much of a bad person he is I mean unless there’s some sick people out there that straight support his actions
"but hes such a soft and caring boy" "he literally shot up a school and r*ped his girlfriends mom" "yeah but hes cute and is nice to violet so it doesnt matter" a real conversation i had with a friend who is a fan. i despise this show with a burning passion
I see what you are saying about failing to give the heavy topics they’re talking about the gravity they deserve. I just don’t think AHS is even trying to have a voice. I’ve always seen it as pulp story, where those topics aren’t really messages but tropes. The whole thing with AHS in the first seasons is that in the first episodes there are always classic horror tropes with supernatural undertones like aliens, ghosts, witchcraft, etc. By the middle of the season however, it’s often revealed that those tropes are not really the most horrific thing that’s happening, that the humans and their actions and relationships are waaaayyy more terrifying. These are the horror tropes of today: not aliens, the racist; not witchcraft, patriarchy; not monsters, real life sociopaths in positions of power; not slashers, school shooters. I don’t think AHS is trying to comment on these topics by using tropes as a Trojan horse, I think AHS is saying that these topics are so common that they have themselves become tropes of American society and that that is horrifying because people just live with it.
@@TECfan1 I’m reading The Witcher and literally just read a thought on this. “People like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering their cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.”
The word that comes to mind, when I think of AHS is "gimmick". Everything is just a pastiche of gimmicks, from 1980's slasher horror to gritty body horror. Though fun at first, this type of filmmaking gets old quick, because the gimmicks wears off and you're left with a subpar story cobbled together from said gimmicks. That's why they feel immature, because the subject matter isn't given any care outside of what the FX team can dream up. Murder House has a fairly simple premise, but Asylum had aliens, angels, demons, Frankenstein's monster, ghosts, psychopaths, etc. Which is like making a film solely based on the lobby scene from Cabin in the Woods. My biggest complaint is they never start with a compelling story and find ways of imbuing that into the genres, instead of letting genres, references & homages drive the narrative.
I highly recommend revisiting Coven. And that’s the only one left worth rewatching. A weird thing about s.3 is it for better or for worse boosted tourism in New Orleans so much that nearly 10 years later there are still lines of people waiting to tour the outside of the coven house and see the real Marie laveaus gravesite. It’s extremely nuanced because the impact of the show definitely helps the local economy but sadly brings in skews of disrespectful people who think the real people referred to in the show can be treated with so little respect, as well as trivializing the actual religion of Voodou. On the other hand as a college student living here in New Orleans I do think the depiction of (heavily implied) Tulane frat boys is absolutely spot on in the worst way possible. The people of the city have a very lovehate relationship with the show. I hope you can see this and consider making a video on season 3.
Coven is the one the LEAST worth rewatching. 99% of the season is useless by the end. Hell, even the whole 'who's the new Supreme' is spoiled by the opening credits.
I will admit that my morbid curiosity might get the better of me when it comes to Coven, especially given how divisive the season is amongst fans. I remember enjoying it when it released, but that means absolutely nothing to me now for obvious reasons lmao. I'm naturally pretty hesitant about Coven because of how my experiences with revisiting the first two seasons went (fool me once, fool me twice, and all that). I might check out a couple episodes, but I'll only make a video on it if I have something to say about it that I feel is important. Still, I appreciate the support, the cultural insight, and the recommendation!
I would just love to be like them girls. Witches. They have Magical powers. And they made a boyfriend up using their magic powers. Who wouldn't? Would you? ☺ ☺
I think it's very telling that the two main ways people deflect the criticism of AHS are "it's not that deep" and "you just didn't get it". AHS is simultaneously trying to be deep while addressing deep topics in a very shallow manner, allowing these two mutually exclusive arguments to come from the same people. Either way, they're flimsy responses that elect not to address the actual criticisms and just discount the person making them.
Ryan Murphy isn’t the best writer. If he were a student in English class he would get like a C or D on his essays…. He knows how to get a story started but doesn’t know how to properly close a story
i feel like through Asylum, the whole concept was to make you feel like you were losing your mind along with the characters. that's how it felt watching it at least. when you say that they don't use all of the concepts to the fullest i agree, but i also feel like that's also effective in making you feel confused with the characters as well. it is called Asylum, i feel like the chaos works. my opinion at least 🙂
My problem with AHS is that I consistently relies on violence against women as formative plot points as well as for tons of convoluted, unnecessary side plots. I'm tired of seeing women hurt and abused on screen under the guise of "horror" and drama
That side of horror is a reality for many women, or if it's not a reality, it's a fear many women have. I think it's justified in a horror story... using violence against women in other genres could more easily be argued against as unnecessary. However, when you're dealing with fear.... living as a woman?... yeah there are very real threats to you, and your body, that men don't face. And that's scary.
@@ethanbrock5453dude… empathy, maybe? all they said was they’re tired of constantly seeing violence against women on tv, that’s a valid concern. when it’s already happening out there u don’t wanna be always reminded that it’s there😭
To me Aslyum is a good season but I'm ngl it's one of those seasons wherre a lot does happen and nothing really circle to the aslyum fully and too many subtopics but overall it's way better then season 1
Asylum, along with Murder House, were the best seasons of AHS. Asylum was just the perfect kind of bat shit crazy that all AHS seasons should've strived for and didn't accomplish.
I think I agree with you. I remember in this season I thought a lot of it was just "horror porn." I think you are calling it "shock value." That was the season that turned me off the show. Though I enjoyed the one set in Roanoke a lot.
I do agree that this season does throw a lot of small stories while focusing on like 2 big stories. I enjoyed this season a lot but it is refreshing to see some new takes on the season. You said in your video you are done with the AHS videos, but I thoroughly enjoyed your take and would love to see more of this content! Keep up the great work :D
Please don't stop making this videos. I love the series but also know that it's full of flaws and inconsistancies and I would love to see a complete review of every season made by you, especially since my favorite seasons are 3 and 5.
This is much more thoughtful than my criticism, which was just that telling me aliens exist in episode 1, that Satan exists a couple later, and that the Angel of Death exists halfway through, just took me out of the experience a little
i agree... it throws way... WAY too much. Best horror is simple and quiet. Haunting of the Hillhouse is good example of this. It's so good and well... haunting. AHS especially in season 2 just throws stuff at you and hopes smth sticks
The SA scene in this season was the nail in the coffin for me. I think that’s one of the most clear examples of pointless use of something horrible just for the reaction.
I feel this same way about the current seasons. Apocalypse and 1984 felt like a chore to watch and this last one I couldn't finish it. I feel like I've outgrown AHS, however those first 4 seasons will always have a special place in my heart.
26yo here, finally dove into it recently and can say those first 4 are easy to appreciate as an adult. They offer more than just shallow edge and style as some have said, even if it’s often a big mess. Hotel had its moments but was the most directionless narrative and caricaturized yet. On Roanoke currently. The framing of the story and history behind it are cool but I’m not sure about how successful the mockumentary approach will shake out. So there was definitely a pretty sharp dip in quality right after Freak Show. Which wasn’t like AHS firing on all cylinders but it at least kept me entertained and had Jessica Lange/an actually creepy clown. At this point I’m just waiting for Apocalypse as Coven has been by far my favorite and imo the most consistent season even if it’s not big on actual scares. Maybe 84 as an 80’s horror guy. Cult I am not looking forward to after seeing stuff about it. Just sounds kinda reactionary and sleazy.
@@JoshLeitzel apocalypse is pretty bad too ngl. I don’t even remotely remember anything about cult and I finished it. I just thought apocalypse was boring. The ending was an ending I guess. Meh I could never see it again and be fine. I think cult is unanimously the worst season in AHS tho so good luck 😂
@@littlepip4014 haha thanks for the perspective. All I’m really expecting out of Apocalypse is some decent fanservice tbh, if I at least get that I’ll be happy. My sister wants me to watch all of it to get to NYC as it airs so ima need that luck lol.
@@JoshLeitzel I loved Apocalypse and Cult! In the beginning I was super confused about the direction of Apocalypse but it has some great twists in my opinion and really made me feel dread as I was a Christian when I watched it. Cult really lets Evan Peter’s acting skills shine and there’s a lot of awesome twists in it, too. I don’t know who is watching AHS for fantastic, deep storytelling. I enjoy it as a visually pleasing and campy experience. It reminds me of when I first started watching and how it felt so weird and disturbing.
More to the point why does AHS still exist at all? I use to love this show but I can't deny how evident it is that they never have a concrete plot to start with and they just make it up as they go in each episode. It wouldn't be as noticable if they didn't put out episodes while still in the middle of shooting the season, they could at least edit around the inconsistencies in plots, characters, and motivations.
I'll say I think there's a difference between a target audience and then who it actually appeals too. AHS wasn't MADE for teens- but it largely appeals to teens. Like my little pony was MADE for girls ages 6-11 but it ended up largely appealing to adult dudes. It doesn't mean it was made them though.
I was listening to this video in the car with my 3 year old daughter in the back seat. Everything was peaceful until you said “spongebob”. “DAD DID HE SAY SPONGEBOB?! HE SAID SPONGEBOB” had to turn the video off until she calmed down 😂. Great content as always!
This is one of those shows that you kinda just enjoy on the surface level and not look too deep imo I love these videos but I also rlly enjoy the show!
I really liked this season back in the day for the exact reason that it's so out of place lmao. Other seasons felt like gory teen drama? But this season was more adult. It was disturbing but highly intriguing
I remember being 14 and watching AHS Asylum and being super confused about what was going on, in large part due to the editing. It felt like things were moving too fast while also not much was happening. In the end my friends and I dubbed it "American Horrible Story" since it wasn't scary just grotesque, and I never looked back until today
exactly i remember being young and watching the show and being so confused I didn’t understand a single thing that was going on. I just remember seeing a bunch of people in nun uniforms and that was it. I was so confused.
As someone who doesn’t like horror , I love this season. It’s so weird and fast paced and twisty and actually kept my attention without horrifying me. I have pretty horrific hallucinations and this show was so weird it distracted me from them. Im glad it exists even if it’s weird and cheap
As per your description, I think the whole point of the show was to "loose your mind" like the characters in the show were.. at least that's what I took from it. My fiance's favorite season is Coven, she grew up into the occult and in an actual cult at one time, so I think it all depends on what you can relate to and immerse yourself in is what youll get from these shows.
I recall loving Asylum and loathing Murder House. I’m not a huge fan of AHS in general, and I stopped watching a long time ago, even when I was trying to really get into the show. That being said, your thoughts are solid and I don’t think there’s a truly “perfect” season of the series because they always get so weirdly messy. Edit: I freaking ADORE Midnight Mass.
I have a love hate relationship with this show; it's entertaining as hell because I personally love shows that other people would say "try to be too many things at once" with too many tropes and genres, but on the other hand, it does feel shallow and a little trashy a lot of the time so I won't exactly shout from the roof tops how much I love it like I would with breaking bad. I do have nostalgia goggles for it, but some things I did go back to rewatch, specifically Asylum. It hasn't aged well, but personally I'm very hard to offend or shock so I just enjoy the unfilteredness of it all.
Idk. the other comments are so emotional and have some point or something. So im just going to say it. Yes, Asylum was complete ass for exactly all the points you made.
no matter how badly i think the show has aged i will always have a respect for ryan murphy, watching his shows were the first time i had really felt seen as an lgbtq+ youth. He made shows that made me both laugh and feel exactly how i felt on a daily basis as a trans youth with hella mental issues and i will always appreciate that
Hey hey. Non-Binary they/them here. Just curious as to how AHS deals with themes that are relevant to LGBTQ+. I havent seen it in years so I may have missed something. Someone else mentioned it too, which is why I'm asking.
Me and you both I have this sentiment too. I can respect what they meant to me but at the same time can acknowledge years later I don’t look at them as greatly as I once did.
@@FictitiousCtrlGames the most explicit lgbtq content of AHS is featured in this video: the issue of conversion therapy in Asylum, pretty much the whole character of Lana and the plot surrounding her. But there were queer elements in almost every season - sometimes just on the side (wasn't there a gay couple of ghosts in Murder House?), sometimes it came off more as a quirky / fraky attraction though portraied with some kindness and humanity (I can't remember their name or proper pronouns but there was a very gender non conforming character in Hotel, right?) and sometimes it was taken more serious (like Lana's storyline in Asylum or later the lesbian main couple in Cult). A lot of the time, the show's queerness comes off as very token-y or morbid to today's standards so you wouldn't exactly call it good representation but keep in mind that even though it's only been a decade, this was a different time. As a bi teenager, the only queer rep I'd seen when I watched AHS was Queer as Folk and The L Word, both of which were specifically made for lgbtq audiences. It's the same reason why Glee was so popular back then, we simply didn't get much queer rep in television and especially not in shows openly or quietly targeted at teenagers. Plus the whole outcast vibe that is discussed both in this video and the one on Murder House - man, we just ate that shit up as edgy teens trying to come to terms with our identity struggles and mental health issues. I feel the same as OP: I know that the show isn't objectively good and is in fact really, reeeaaally problematic but I still hold it dear for making me feel somehow understood and less alone when I needed it.
Isnt that just kinda sad, considering how badly it was done? I remember that whole era of internet/tumblr, you guys were rightly starved of content with proper representation, and I get this would serve that purpose I guess
I'm the kind of person who will give a TV show or movie way too much of my time even when I'm not really enjoying it (especially horror because it's my favourite genre). I stopped watching Asylum about 3-4 episodes in. It was awful! I did watch the whole of the first season but I didn't like it either. I haven't watched any season of AHS since.
My flaws with this season has to do with too many things going on. The commentary on social issues was meant to push the issues in a time a lot of people didn't think about it. With that said, in this season, Sarah Paulson hadn't got annoying in the series yet. (I'm referring to her coming out on top in every season she features in.) So I can admire her performance throughout. For parts of the story though, it feels like they added some things to explain other things. Aliens and super children I don't think were needed. Bloodyface could have just chosen Kit's wife and that would have been fine. The devil stuff never really pays off in my opinion. A lot of the season just felt like men vs women. There are legit reasons to dislike Asylum, but I don't think yours are valid. Social issues raised a decade ago when no one was really having that conversation, you can't go in raw. You have to open those lines of conversation gently and that is why it seems so shallow. In 2022, you could dive further into any of these individual issues and it wouldn't seem as bad because Asylum made it acceptable to talk about. (Not that it was just Asylum but I don't remember anyone else pushing shows with themes like this as the time.)
It exists to serve as a relic that carries this increasingly pathetic show. Nothing even comes close to comparing to it and some of us just continue to watch the show in hopes that maybe, just maybe, this next season will surpass it. But one can only dream.
In Murder House, they wrote themselves into a bad show because they couldn't keep the rules straight. In Asylum, they somehow wrote themselves into a good show by accident. The writing on AHS has always resembled a cat chasing a laser pointer. It is all over the place and doesn't know what it is chasing or why, it just wants to get that little red dot. The only season I think I've enjoyed rewatching is Roannoke which a lot of people didn't like. But, it felt to me where they had a definite idea of what they wanted to do and followed through on it. Most AHS seasons start out interesting and then completely fall apart. Others just fall apart right away.
@@elvangulley3210 I literally thought I liked ahs asylum (at least from what I could remember) but the more he spoke, the more I realized how right he was about this season. It was a mess.
I agree with much of your points, and I found my favorite season to actually be Roanoke, which everyone seems to actually hate, for the reason it feels like it has an actual through-line thesis. But I do enjoy putting on the series as background noise. Nothing like sorting laundry while watching Santa and clowns murder people
what a whiny breakdown but everyone is entitled to their own opinions! an awesome absolutely genre bending first of it kind tv show I remember the first time I watched murder house it absolutely blew my mind everything I loved about horror in a binge format, i still love every season just for the fact it is so unique ! your going on and on about if you wanted to watch this then watch that blah blah but what if I wanted to watch the literal MVP of horror troops all in one!? that is precisely why it is so fabulous I appreciate your eloquent commentary but everything your complaining about is the exact reason why some of us love it lol ❤️❤️
This is pretty trash criticism imo. We get it, left wing causes are sacred and can’t be a part of something that’s trashy and provocative for entertainment without a deeper meaning. Shit on the church all you want, but if conversion therapy is in the same episode as a joke of any kind it’s time to clutch some pearls. It was entertaining and disturbing, and that’s pretty much all I wanted from it, and all anyone should have expected from it really.
something to critize about this video, is that is the 1st video I watch from u, and I already have to go throught hearing 10 minutes of you defending yourself, sorry I just got bored hahaha
My experience with AHS has rarely been actual horror and far more purely entertainment based. The only example I could really find comparability wise would be saying that The Room is trying to be a drama, but it ends up being hilarious. AHS makes active attempts at being a drama, horror, and ‘thought provoking’ television and it ends up being comedic at every turn despite its efforts. Coven is the only real season that’s cognizant of this, and that’s why it ends up being, at least in my view, the only season of the show that ends up being genuinely solid in its execution.
Glad I’m not the only one who thought this season wasn’t that great! Everyone says asylum is their fav season & I’ve never understood why it’s like you said it said a lot but really didn’t say anything
I know your comment is from a year ago, but I wanted to say I felt this season was the one that was the most horrifying. The other seasons seem to have more camp than horror, while this season felt like the horror element was the strongest. It's not my favorite since I enjoyed Coven the most. I just loved the characters and I love witches. But when I talk about AHS with people who have never seen it, I usually will tell them Asylum has the scariest elements and feels the most horrifying compared to the others.
@@aroorooroo that’s cool for you I disagree I felt it was camp & tropy & the Anne frank thing & the Alien thing it was just too much. I think Roanoke was actual the most scary season & had the best horror elements. Coven is definitely my favorite & freak show is my least favorite
I think people got mad at the "targeting teenagers" part because of the actual content in the show. The marketing may be targeted towards teenagers, yes, but if you're a fan of the show you would know how adult the content can get
Funny thing is, the actress @ 18:45 also played the woman Clarice saved in The Silence of the Lambs. The senator's daughter that Buffalo Bill pushed into the van. (She was also in Grey's Anatomy.) AHS: Asylum definitely had a lot of references to other media that were honesty better.
I like this review ‘cause many of the things you critize are exactly why I love the show; it’s camp horror. Over the top, gratuitous violence, constantly trying to shock you in different ways, soapy storylines mixed with actual queer/black themes (in horror!). The show could be technically better without a lot of these immoderate, tonally dissonant things but idk if I would have it any other way.
He isn't criticizing it for being those things, he obviously likes those things as well, he's criticizing it for only gesture to those things but having no follow through or payoff to the many , many themes it touches on.
No one should be mad at you for how you feel about something...I like to hear all views on things I enjoy watching! Good or bad,everyone has an opinion.
I clenched my fist while reading the title but... the real question is why does AHS: Hotel exists? Apart from Gaga's glam looks, Sarah Paulson's "different" role and the pretty sets, everything else is mess. One thing I disliked about Asylym was the alien indications but nevertheless, it still is my fav season hand in hand with Coven. Really close comes Red Tide. Don't get me started on Death Valley...Ugh! Season 10 had so much potential and it was seperated in two parts. All in all if we sit and watch and rewatch ofc we're going to find more flaws but to me Asylym is still one of the best seasons, if not the best.
Oh I actually prefer Hotel over Asylum lmao. But it could just be that I don't like when something bad happens to characters just for plot. Like for Lana and Kit, of course you feel bad for them, they did nothing from and were essentially tortured for it. Its really hard to see them as anything but victims of their circumstances, no matter what they do afterwards. And as a viewer I feel as helpless as them, there's no room for emotions. In Hotel on the other hand, I feel like no one was put into their situation just for the plot or for us to feel bad for them. I can see why and how they landed there and feel different emotion for each character and their actions. Oh and I loved Red Tide, really surprisingly, I could have had a whole season just for that one.
I appreciated your take on Murder House not aging well, this is something I see in many shows I enjoyed when I was younger but now see the troubling side of through perspective I've gained with time. Although Murder House is my favorite AHS season I do see that, like most of Ryan Murphy's shows, it depends too heavily on shock value and exploitative material that doesn't hold up and the editing can be nauseating too. I always thought Asylum was a missed opportunity. Unlike Murder House which at least had a cohesive story that unfolded nicely with a great conclusion, Asylum started off with so much intrigue and potential but after a few episodes it lost momentum and became messy going in a direction that didn't end as satisfyingly as what was teased in the beginning. Too often opening doors on fascinating, though not fully thought out, possibilities just to end without getting the most out of them. This was a pattern I saw repeated in the future AHS seasons and I became accustomed to bracing myself for disappointment. I also realized after many seasons of a show called American Horror Story there was very little actual horror in it. Even though the actor's performances are admirable I eventually lost interest and gave up on AHS entirely not even finishing season 10. I relate a lot with you saying that 10 years ago I had a lot of love for the show but my nostalgia for it today is in very short supply because the majority of memories I have watching it aren't the most positive. You said it perfectly when you described it as juvenile, that's basically what Ryan's style of writing is. Often contrived and shallow, catering to his own preferences and unable to convey powerful messages without making it into a spectacle that comes off as tasteless. He also strikes me as someone with an ego problem and doesn't take criticism well so he surrounds himself with yesmen that don't challenge him to do better work. More often than not with his shows, you just get emotionally played with and have the rug pulled out from under you which is why I've stopped watching anything new he's attached to. Awesome job on this video!
I personally love AHS and Asylum is my favourite season. I rewatch it more than any of the other seasons. Instead of asking myself why did I watch Asylum I'm led to the question, why did I watch this video? It's 20 minutes of my life I won't be getting back. If you don't like something, don't watch it. I clicked on this bc it's about Asylum but I'm regretting it. And although perhaps they tied in teen grabs, everyone I know who watches and loves the shit out of it are in their 50's.
I love AHS, too, but "Don't watch it" is such a weak argument, lol. I mean, you didn't have to *watch this video* yet you did, and it wasn't titled: "Why Asylum is the bomb!", so those 20 minutes you lost are on you.🤷♀️ ~A fellow GenXer
no but you're right. i remember being 14 when i watched american horror story- asylum a fuckton of years ago and when i finished it i asked myself what the actual fuck was going on. at least all of the other seasons have a cohesive themes, being it a haunted house, witches, freaks, a haunted hotel and vampires and shit like that. asylum literally threw in the mix multiple themes that could have been explored separately (you tell me how its possible to have in the same show aliens, demonic possessions, a twisted asylum, a serial killer, a NAZI for fuck's sake and idk what else) and the result is a complete mess. loved sarah paulson there, i really did, but it's so messy and not everything about it can be explained by the fact it's intentionally campy. i really don't understand how when i was younger ppl could say this was the best season of ahs
I haven't seen this season since becoming an adult, but this was one of the only seasons that really upset me, since I've been institutionalized before Cult freaked me out bc at the time I had really bad agoraphobia, but it actually helped me get over it by the end!
So now that I'm fully invested in you tearing apart one of my favorite seasons if not /the/ favorite of AHS, I would LOVE to see how you react to the seasons that follow because, believe me, it just gets worse from here. I don't know if me being a teenager when I first watched this made me enjoy it or if it was more a show of the times, but this and the third season have the most cohesive plots in my opinion so if you found this to be filled with twists and drama then I can't imagine how undigestible the rest will be!
Oh man oh man- when you mentioned Ratched I immediately thought “Man…if you haven’t seen it yet and feel this way about AHS, then I am BEGGING you to watch it to witness just how awful it is” and now all I want is to watch people pick Ratched apart so badly. As a mentally ill AND bisexual woman it pissed me off more than Asylum did; it was insultingly bad and I felt genuinely really upset by it. The only positive thing I can say is that visually it has some really striking moments. I used to like Ryan Murphy’s stuff when I was in high school but then I started to realize how messy, lazy, and genuinely problematic a lot of it is. I’m glad there are people out there willing to point these things out, mad props for being a lot less biased then I would’ve been in your deconstruction here.
@Christi Schmidt Oh absolutely; Charlotte’s story was probably the most poorly handled out of all of the narratives they presented in that show. Additionally, dissociative identity disorder doesn’t even work like how Murphy depicted it in the show- patients who experience significant trauma as adults typically don’t develop DID as it’s usually a result of childhood trauma specifically(I say almost bc I’m not an expert, so please take that with a grain of salt, I base this on reading I did in various places after watching the show as, while I suffer from mental illness myself, I do not suffer from DID). As an adult, Miss Wells wouldn’t typically have that sort of trauma response, developing a significant and debilitating case of PTSD would be a much more plausible and realistic response to write in as a response to trauma that horrific as an adult. I would love to see someone here on RUclips to do a full deconstruction and breakdown of everything wrong with the show. The only redeeming quality(which by no means redeems the show imo) is how stunning some of the shots and costumes are and how visually interesting it is. It’s candy for the eyes but, frankly, kind of toxic for the viewing audience. I was shocked to see so many reviewers giving the show like 5s out of 10s and incredibly average ratings across the board when it first came out bc the deeper one dives into an analytical breakdown of the show, the more clearly it becomes how truly horrendous it is on every level.
I think Ryan Murphy is generally careless with every single WLW arc ever. The way he touted Britana bordering on the male gaze for GLEE, the way he approached the lesbian couple for Cult about one being bitter and vengeful for not getting to carry their child(🙄), and the way PROM was more about the shallow adults than the teen lesbians (which the film is too afraid to even say the L word) that the movie's supposed to be about. He just doesn't seem to hold them to much regard at all😔
This was one of the most unfocused reviews I have seen. I think he was trying to say that the season’s main theme was unclear or not well developed. But why does it need to be? Why can’t there just be a story? Why does it need to be compared to E.T.s theme when it is clearly a very different piece of entertainment? I have my problems with American Horror Story, especially the later seasons but I think Asylum is one of the series strong points in terms of storytelling. This video just left me confused on what he was trying to say.
Also just because many teens watch American Horror Story does not mean that they are the target audience. Sorry but that’s just not true and I don’t really understand why he spent like 2 minutes trying to argue otherwise. I really hate when people try to say “oh it’s just a kids show” or teen show whatever like that really makes a difference on the shows quality
i agree i put the video on 2x speed to see if he was just gonna keep with the unfocused rambling or actually make any coherent points.. waste of time lol
Teenagers, not "kids". Teens are also called "young adults". Kids implies the lower age range of youth, whereas teens involves the coming-of-age years. This is target audience and appeal, not what's necessarily best for them lmao. Teen slashers are aimed at teens as well, they often include all those things you listed.
AHS Asylum had convoluted storylines especially the Alien theme. At the end of the series , I was like what!?! But I still enjoyed it. Just calm guys! It’s his opinion. It’s his channel. 😊✌️
The aliens were a major WTF moment for me 😂 I don’t know why they decided to make them “real” in the season. I think it would have worked great as a delusion
Personally I don't really have much of an issue with most of criticisms, just his conclusion that this show has no reason to exist. I generally hate those kinds of overly dramatic and definitive statements, especially here where the answer to his question "why does this exist?" is so obvious. It exists because it combines all those types of horror he mentioned into one semi-anthology package. Like, that's why the show is called "American Horror Stories", its supposed to combine various types of horror stories into one connected package. Whether you like or hate what the show is doing, it does fulfill a niche that people enjoy.
I remember watching this with my mom when I was about 15, the first season of AHS felt scary to me but also too long and convoluted, the Asylum just made me feel like I was doing something wrong just by watching it, almost like this gore websites you'd look at with your mates at school. Watching it made me feel miserable.
It blows my mind that AHS was aired in the first place too. It’s seriously twisted and triggering, but I also understand that it’s supposed to be that way. I’ve needed to skip episodes when I watch it so I don’t get triggered. Asylum is a solid season, much better than Coven (which is a fan favourite). Is it great? No, but it’s definitely not the worst
Completely on point. I felt all of this the first time I watched it and couldn't finish. The stuff about misogyny and homophobia felt like cheap exploitation posing as cultural criticism.
i agree with the fact that ahs hasn’t aged well, when i was 13 (in 2019) i watched it thinking it was the best thing i ever saw but i would try and go back to watch as i got older during the pandemic and after all the protests ( and after being assaulted in december of 2019) it changed the way i viewed the show, hotel will always be my favorite season bc it got me through a tuff time in my life but i don’t know if i could ever watch it again, i’d feel like i’d ruin its significance for me
AHS encapsulates different existential GenX fears every season. Having your kid turn into a school shooter is one of those. We were raised on stories of UFOs & Roanoke as school readers. Our teenage foibles made us the targets of movie slashers. Girls dreamed of exotic powers to fight the patriarchy, nuclear war was always around the corner, and cloud of death hung over love. It's all a parable.
A fantastic and thought provoking review as always. Thank you for all the time and effort you put in to make such great content you really get me thinking. This season was as big a mess as I was on seeing the Evan Peters in a pair of tighty whities scene.
God Asylum had so much going on. I enjoyed watching it, but the cluttered chaos of themes made it hard to digest anything after I watched an episode. Coven and Freak show are where it's at.
I was a teenager when AHS started. It was a show engineered for Tumblr era teens from top to bottom.
Yes! So many gifs around Tate and violet pushed out for edgy love inspiration
YEP- was the same age when it dropped, all anyone talked about at school every week, and it had hot topic in a chokehold. It wasn't "for" adults, it was just for teens to feel like adults watching it because we thought being edgy was meant we were adults
@@AlwaysDreamingthat would be girls. Women always make everything cringe. Another example when Eddie Munson was first introduced in Stranger Things.
What did you call me?
Literally
I am mad that the "alien" storyline was never explained. I actually liked it and was low-key expecting a whole season dedicated to it. Now I am left with more questions than answers.
I was hoping the double feature aliens was gonna go over that tbh but eh
They wedged in alot of horror tropes and aliens abducted the wife and deposited him back on earth for observation studies while protecting him. Later aliens returned the wife back to him and later when he died aliens reclaimed him. That's basically it.
wish so badly they would have played on this and not the alien story they went with for the double feature in season 10
The entire point of the aliens was that you weren't SUPPOSED to get answers. Ryan has said on multiple occasions that the aliens were always meant to be left up to interpretation.
1984 is best season
I think AHS suffers from being too long. All the seasons could really be 10 episodes. The side plots always get muddled but the main story is usually pretty solid. This season was acted beautifully. I like that the show tries to make some bad characters just bad people, vs bad characters who are bad for other reasons.
After season 5 the season only get 10 or 9 episodes and the fans hate it
@Ragda Alhamwi truee 84' wouldve been great with the Double Feature format. they could do 84' for the first half and then a 90s style slasher story.
I think you suffer from being too short
Asylum was perfect as horror media if you stopped watching after I Am Anne Frank Part 2.
@@sutarikun me when i lie
I think what makes ahs so memorable and great is the actresses. It’s A+ acting on a b+ script
Individual dialogues and scenes are super quotable and visually dynamic, thus super engaging. But I watched the show as an adult and it was kinda cringe tbh. It feels like they tried to shove in gory scenes with mild religious motifs for shock value
c- plot
@@laurenw6742yeah for certain seasons. Absolutely not for asylum.
HES ESAPSEING THE KILLER IS ESCAPING
agreed. kit's storyline with the wives felt so muddled and I felt like they could have worked better with him either ACTUALLY killing his wife, or at least her not coming back. Also, grace was not a necessary character to have any relationship with, besides maybe with Lana and her escape
There’s always one bad storyline in each season
The Anne Frank subplot pissed me off the most. They didn't have to use her specifically to expose the doctor was a nazi (heck, they used a prostitute earlier) and the ending for her with the lobotomy was terrible even if it was common in the 40s to the '60s. It was like they were trying to shove cruelty down my throat by killing her again.
1984 best season
you are completely right that ahs is aimed at teenagers, why would someone get mad at that? i completely lost interest in it once i was approaching my 20s and i know its the same for many and like, how can anyone look at the violet and tate mess and claim that its aimed at anyone but edgy teenagers lmao
People who aren't teenagers see that observation as personally insulting.
Probably out of insecurity, because they are emotionally immature, they are smart enough to know it, but can't admit it.
That's what links the biggest fans of the show of any age, emotional immaturity.
i was 17 (i don't remember when i started watching the show 😭) and oh my god their relationship was almost insufferable, it was giving me wattpad "oBsEssED bOyFiE" vibes and it's like AAAAARGH. i'm on season 4? i think and i've been quite stuck bcs i just can't care enough to watch it; so honestly i'd say by teenager it would be more of 14-17 because omfg the show is lowkey nonsensical to me 😭
I was in my late teens early twenties when AHS premiered. It was very much aimed towards people in that age bracket because it was " Edgy" and " Quirky" to watch AHS. Now at 32 I just don't even care for this series anymore.
@@me_owwo_oyea I watched all 7 seasons that were available when I was 15, tried to rewatch a season at 19 and whew that was a challenge😭
@@bobsburgers8497I am28 and just finished first two seasons. I love it. It's edgy as fuck. Goosebumps for adults 😂
I liked asylum..the alien part I could have done without but sister Judes storyline and pepper were decent..definitely not the worst season..Roanoke holds that title
At least Roanoke made some sense. Apocalypse gave up three episodes in
I feel like Roanoke was just done wrong like the pov from a reality show standpoint was very boring the story behind it though was interesting and could’ve been way better if we didn’t have the reality show lense diluting it
@@rain7026 I concur
@@cooliostarstache5474 oh god I hate that season with all my being
i agree, the aliens were just too much
as someone who watched this show originally as a teenage girl and hasn't watched them since I can definitively say that yes I was definitely their target audience.
remembering it now as an adult and with an appreciation for writing and... nuance, this show (this season and most likely all of the others, i dont remember them that well) could really benefit from just... doing less
But if you haven’t rewatched it as an adult, how can you know you wouldn’t like it and appreciate different aspects of it as an adult? You’re just going off of memory.
I also watched this show in my teens (the last season I watched was Freak Show I think) and I honestly cannot remember a single plotline from any season besides some plot twists like (SPOILER WARNING FOR ANYONE THAT WANT TO WATCH IT) Violet being dead and unable to leave the murder house or the witch that was a vegan necromancer getting stuck in her personal Hell having to disect a frog for the rest of eternity LMFAOO
1984 best season, "Montana you are 80s forever" 😍
asylum easily one of the best horror series i've ever watched, and the best season of ahs.
Agreed
thank you for saying it
Right! And this guy's review was all over the place. One minute he's feigning myopic ignorance the next he's fully aware of the show's intent to be incoherent while purposefully scattering themes tropes and narratives. I'm actually still dizzy from all of the talking in circles he did😕
Yep
literally i can still see eye to eye w someone who i disagree w if its elaborated well enough but at this point the fact that hes made two video essays on two of the highest rated seasons of the show im 100% convinced hes trolling and wanting attention lol like ive never seen someone miss the mark this much in my entire life but hey if a show abt horror doesnt offend ppl they didnt do their job
idk. personally, this is my favorite season of AHS. all the stories were terrifying and proved that danger is everywhere. the actors all gave amazing performances. it was full of surprises and i loved it
1984 is best season. 80s forever
Mine too!
I agree. This and coven are my favorite. Granted I haven't watched past Cult or apocalypse (I don't remember which one is older)
But AHS always has the problem of doing "too much". At some point you have so much it gets silly. And for me asylum took the longest before it became "too much". I really liked the beginning of coven but it "lost" me way before asylum
I think AHS criticism is usually very valid but I just enjoyed watching it so much that it doesn’t really matter to me. It has this unique vibe to it that I have never felt in any other show and I absolutely love the actors in it.
very well put. you can accept somethings flaws while still enjoying it. Do i think the prequels are good movies? hell no. But i still enjoy them. I love the world they created and what it brought with it. all the video games and tv shows that came because of it. I dont mind many of the flaws cause it just doesnt matter to me, while i completely, 100% get why someone who grew up with the originals hates the prequels. Its often about what you want to get out of a movie/tv show.
Agreed!!
Tbh
He accuses the show of being superficial and juvenile because this aesthetic is completely incomprehensible to him. It's a masterpiece at exactly what you said, creating that particular atmosphere, that camp loneliness that only ryan is familiar with. Some random straight dude with a sad degree (if any at all) could never comprehend it, he doesn't have the life experience to do it justice. I'm quite certain that roger eberts would understand part of its chemistry and love.
I like it the way I like glee, I feel it’s campy I started watching during freak show so that’s probably why I love it’s campy nature
My biggest issue with Asylum was that it was just all over the place and lacked cohesion. None of the interesting themes and storyline were fleshed out well because there were 800 other storyline that had to be introduced and rushed through for seemingly no reason
I didn't think about it before you said it but yeah I was 14 when I started watching it and never in my adult life have I watched it so I see your point. I definitely think they gloss over heavily important issues way too much. Most of the time it feels they just want to use social issues to be dramatic. That's how people end up romanticizing a school shooter like in season one. I don't care how broken he is he still murdered people!
I never romanticized what he did, but I romanticized his character if that makes sense?
No the only reason they romanticize is because of Evan’s beauty… there’s wasn’t any like prosthetic or too much makeup done on his face and let’s be fr pretty privileged exist I do think and bet if Evan wasn’t an attractive person and was literally the literal opposite of “” beautiful “” no one would do that romanticization shit…. They like kit cause of the actor not the character itself… remove the rapping and school shooting part people would still romanticize the character cause he’s sad and attractive but the moment you take out the attractiveness off the character they won’t be romanticize him but rather see how much of a bad person he is I mean unless there’s some sick people out there that straight support his actions
"but hes such a soft and caring boy"
"he literally shot up a school and r*ped his girlfriends mom"
"yeah but hes cute and is nice to violet so it doesnt matter"
a real conversation i had with a friend who is a fan. i despise this show with a burning passion
I was definitely a teen/young adult 😂
"Why did I watch this?" well... to make another video and get a lot of views?... Werk dude u still got like 8 seasons
I see what you are saying about failing to give the heavy topics they’re talking about the gravity they deserve. I just don’t think AHS is even trying to have a voice. I’ve always seen it as pulp story, where those topics aren’t really messages but tropes. The whole thing with AHS in the first seasons is that in the first episodes there are always classic horror tropes with supernatural undertones like aliens, ghosts, witchcraft, etc. By the middle of the season however, it’s often revealed that those tropes are not really the most horrific thing that’s happening, that the humans and their actions and relationships are waaaayyy more terrifying. These are the horror tropes of today: not aliens, the racist; not witchcraft, patriarchy; not monsters, real life sociopaths in positions of power; not slashers, school shooters. I don’t think AHS is trying to comment on these topics by using tropes as a Trojan horse, I think AHS is saying that these topics are so common that they have themselves become tropes of American society and that that is horrifying because people just live with it.
Exactly. Humanity is more evil than anything else going on supernaturally. That's AHS.
@@TECfan1 I’m reading The Witcher and literally just read a thought on this.
“People like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering their cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.”
@@Alegend.91 It all goes back to the original big bad, a devil we created who makes us do evil things so we don't have to face how evil we truly are.
Well that's a pretty convenient way to excuse them out of doing it right
@@simongosimon oh yeah, because there’s only one way to do things. Gotcha 🙄
The word that comes to mind, when I think of AHS is "gimmick". Everything is just a pastiche of gimmicks, from 1980's slasher horror to gritty body horror. Though fun at first, this type of filmmaking gets old quick, because the gimmicks wears off and you're left with a subpar story cobbled together from said gimmicks. That's why they feel immature, because the subject matter isn't given any care outside of what the FX team can dream up. Murder House has a fairly simple premise, but Asylum had aliens, angels, demons, Frankenstein's monster, ghosts, psychopaths, etc. Which is like making a film solely based on the lobby scene from Cabin in the Woods. My biggest complaint is they never start with a compelling story and find ways of imbuing that into the genres, instead of letting genres, references & homages drive the narrative.
I highly recommend revisiting Coven. And that’s the only one left worth rewatching. A weird thing about s.3 is it for better or for worse boosted tourism in New Orleans so much that nearly 10 years later there are still lines of people waiting to tour the outside of the coven house and see the real Marie laveaus gravesite. It’s extremely nuanced because the impact of the show definitely helps the local economy but sadly brings in skews of disrespectful people who think the real people referred to in the show can be treated with so little respect, as well as trivializing the actual religion of Voodou. On the other hand as a college student living here in New Orleans I do think the depiction of (heavily implied) Tulane frat boys is absolutely spot on in the worst way possible. The people of the city have a very lovehate relationship with the show. I hope you can see this and consider making a video on season 3.
Coven is the one the LEAST worth rewatching. 99% of the season is useless by the end. Hell, even the whole 'who's the new Supreme' is spoiled by the opening credits.
I will admit that my morbid curiosity might get the better of me when it comes to Coven, especially given how divisive the season is amongst fans. I remember enjoying it when it released, but that means absolutely nothing to me now for obvious reasons lmao. I'm naturally pretty hesitant about Coven because of how my experiences with revisiting the first two seasons went (fool me once, fool me twice, and all that). I might check out a couple episodes, but I'll only make a video on it if I have something to say about it that I feel is important. Still, I appreciate the support, the cultural insight, and the recommendation!
Coven was garbage
I would just love to be like them girls. Witches. They have Magical powers. And they made a boyfriend up using their magic powers. Who wouldn't? Would you? ☺ ☺
Coven is the worst season dont do it
I think it's very telling that the two main ways people deflect the criticism of AHS are "it's not that deep" and "you just didn't get it". AHS is simultaneously trying to be deep while addressing deep topics in a very shallow manner, allowing these two mutually exclusive arguments to come from the same people.
Either way, they're flimsy responses that elect not to address the actual criticisms and just discount the person making them.
Ryan Murphy isn’t the best writer. If he were a student in English class he would get like a C or D on his essays…. He knows how to get a story started but doesn’t know how to properly close a story
i feel like through Asylum, the whole concept was to make you feel like you were losing your mind along with the characters. that's how it felt watching it at least. when you say that they don't use all of the concepts to the fullest i agree, but i also feel like that's also effective in making you feel confused with the characters as well. it is called Asylum, i feel like the chaos works. my opinion at least 🙂
My problem with AHS is that I consistently relies on violence against women as formative plot points as well as for tons of convoluted, unnecessary side plots. I'm tired of seeing women hurt and abused on screen under the guise of "horror" and drama
Well it's a fact of life, watch a different show maybe?
That side of horror is a reality for many women, or if it's not a reality, it's a fear many women have. I think it's justified in a horror story... using violence against women in other genres could more easily be argued against as unnecessary. However, when you're dealing with fear.... living as a woman?... yeah there are very real threats to you, and your body, that men don't face. And that's scary.
@@ethanbrock5453dude… empathy, maybe? all they said was they’re tired of constantly seeing violence against women on tv, that’s a valid concern. when it’s already happening out there u don’t wanna be always reminded that it’s there😭
1984 best season. " Montana, you are 80s forever !! "
I dont see that much in asylum or coven but I didn't watch past cult I think
To me Aslyum is a good season but I'm ngl it's one of those seasons wherre a lot does happen and nothing really circle to the aslyum fully and too many subtopics but overall it's way better then season 1
Asylum, along with Murder House, were the best seasons of AHS. Asylum was just the perfect kind of bat shit crazy that all AHS seasons should've strived for and didn't accomplish.
I think I agree with you. I remember in this season I thought a lot of it was just "horror porn." I think you are calling it "shock value." That was the season that turned me off the show. Though I enjoyed the one set in Roanoke a lot.
the target demo of horror has always been teenagers, how is that at all controversial?
I do agree that this season does throw a lot of small stories while focusing on like 2 big stories. I enjoyed this season a lot but it is refreshing to see some new takes on the season. You said in your video you are done with the AHS videos, but I thoroughly enjoyed your take and would love to see more of this content! Keep up the great work :D
Out of all the seasons this is the one u decided to make a video about? There’s way worse seasons this is one of the best
Please don't stop making this videos. I love the series but also know that it's full of flaws and inconsistancies and I would love to see a complete review of every season made by you, especially since my favorite seasons are 3 and 5.
No he should stop he is full of shit who is he to bash ahs where is his great masterpiece that everyone loves and is so successful
This video confuses me so much. If Asylum didn’t exist, then AHS would lose its best season.
This is much more thoughtful than my criticism, which was just that telling me aliens exist in episode 1, that Satan exists a couple later, and that the Angel of Death exists halfway through, just took me out of the experience a little
That’s literally every ahs season?
Agreed; I also think they asked us to sustain disbelief a little too much in some really bizarre ways. All aesthetic none with content or depth.
i agree... it throws way... WAY too much. Best horror is simple and quiet. Haunting of the Hillhouse is good example of this. It's so good and well... haunting. AHS especially in season 2 just throws stuff at you and hopes smth sticks
Asylum was my favorite AHS season
The SA scene in this season was the nail in the coffin for me. I think that’s one of the most clear examples of pointless use of something horrible just for the reaction.
There were multiple ones that season 😭
@@gracejordan110 oh, I remember. But that first one felt like it took 20 minutes and was just leering so hard.
there was a gangbang rape scene in coven and numerous other scenes like it throughout the show
@@wholethedogsout880 there were, yes.
@@wholethedogsout880 oh shit i totally forgot about that. That was literally like the first or second episode too.
You spent the entire video making comparisons than analyzing the actual show.
I feel this same way about the current seasons. Apocalypse and 1984 felt like a chore to watch and this last one I couldn't finish it. I feel like I've outgrown AHS, however those first 4 seasons will always have a special place in my heart.
26yo here, finally dove into it recently and can say those first 4 are easy to appreciate as an adult. They offer more than just shallow edge and style as some have said, even if it’s often a big mess. Hotel had its moments but was the most directionless narrative and caricaturized yet. On Roanoke currently. The framing of the story and history behind it are cool but I’m not sure about how successful the mockumentary approach will shake out. So there was definitely a pretty sharp dip in quality right after Freak Show. Which wasn’t like AHS firing on all cylinders but it at least kept me entertained and had Jessica Lange/an actually creepy clown. At this point I’m just waiting for Apocalypse as Coven has been by far my favorite and imo the most consistent season even if it’s not big on actual scares. Maybe 84 as an 80’s horror guy. Cult I am not looking forward to after seeing stuff about it. Just sounds kinda reactionary and sleazy.
@@JoshLeitzel apocalypse is pretty bad too ngl. I don’t even remotely remember anything about cult and I finished it. I just thought apocalypse was boring. The ending was an ending I guess. Meh I could never see it again and be fine. I think cult is unanimously the worst season in AHS tho so good luck 😂
@@littlepip4014 haha thanks for the perspective. All I’m really expecting out of Apocalypse is some decent fanservice tbh, if I at least get that I’ll be happy. My sister wants me to watch all of it to get to NYC as it airs so ima need that luck lol.
@@JoshLeitzel I loved Apocalypse and Cult! In the beginning I was super confused about the direction of Apocalypse but it has some great twists in my opinion and really made me feel dread as I was a Christian when I watched it.
Cult really lets Evan Peter’s acting skills shine and there’s a lot of awesome twists in it, too. I don’t know who is watching AHS for fantastic, deep storytelling. I enjoy it as a visually pleasing and campy experience. It reminds me of when I first started watching and how it felt so weird and disturbing.
1984 is just… campy. in more ways than one
This is silly, dude.
More to the point why does AHS still exist at all? I use to love this show but I can't deny how evident it is that they never have a concrete plot to start with and they just make it up as they go in each episode. It wouldn't be as noticable if they didn't put out episodes while still in the middle of shooting the season, they could at least edit around the inconsistencies in plots, characters, and motivations.
I'll say I think there's a difference between a target audience and then who it actually appeals too. AHS wasn't MADE for teens- but it largely appeals to teens. Like my little pony was MADE for girls ages 6-11 but it ended up largely appealing to adult dudes. It doesn't mean it was made them though.
I really like Asylum but the Aliens.. they should've kept that out bc It's so confusing
I was listening to this video in the car with my 3 year old daughter in the back seat. Everything was peaceful until you said “spongebob”. “DAD DID HE SAY SPONGEBOB?! HE SAID SPONGEBOB” had to turn the video off until she calmed down 😂. Great content as always!
This is one of those shows that you kinda just enjoy on the surface level and not look too deep imo I love these videos but I also rlly enjoy the show!
what a disaster of a video, i watched for 20 minutes and i still dont know what its main point is or why it exists
Asylum exists because of places like Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center. Working in the old 1800 built buildings was frightening.
I'm from there
I really liked this season back in the day for the exact reason that it's so out of place lmao. Other seasons felt like gory teen drama? But this season was more adult. It was disturbing but highly intriguing
I remember being 14 and watching AHS Asylum and being super confused about what was going on, in large part due to the editing. It felt like things were moving too fast while also not much was happening. In the end my friends and I dubbed it "American Horrible Story" since it wasn't scary just grotesque, and I never looked back until today
I am currently 14 and watching asylum for the first time
and you missed out on nothing, i wish my friends at 14 had such good taste
Agreed I’ve had to watch the season 6 times to understand everything and if I watched it again I’d still be figuring things out
Maybe you are just slow minded
exactly i remember being young and watching the show and being so confused I didn’t understand a single thing that was going on. I just remember seeing a bunch of people in nun uniforms and that was it. I was so confused.
As someone who doesn’t like horror , I love this season. It’s so weird and fast paced and twisty and actually kept my attention without horrifying me. I have pretty horrific hallucinations and this show was so weird it distracted me from them. Im glad it exists even if it’s weird and cheap
As per your description, I think the whole point of the show was to "loose your mind" like the characters in the show were.. at least that's what I took from it. My fiance's favorite season is Coven, she grew up into the occult and in an actual cult at one time, so I think it all depends on what you can relate to and immerse yourself in is what youll get from these shows.
I recall loving Asylum and loathing Murder House. I’m not a huge fan of AHS in general, and I stopped watching a long time ago, even when I was trying to really get into the show. That being said, your thoughts are solid and I don’t think there’s a truly “perfect” season of the series because they always get so weirdly messy.
Edit: I freaking ADORE Midnight Mass.
I have a love hate relationship with this show; it's entertaining as hell because I personally love shows that other people would say "try to be too many things at once" with too many tropes and genres, but on the other hand, it does feel shallow and a little trashy a lot of the time so I won't exactly shout from the roof tops how much I love it like I would with breaking bad. I do have nostalgia goggles for it, but some things I did go back to rewatch, specifically Asylum. It hasn't aged well, but personally I'm very hard to offend or shock so I just enjoy the unfilteredness of it all.
Idk. the other comments are so emotional and have some point or something. So im just going to say it.
Yes, Asylum was complete ass for exactly all the points you made.
no matter how badly i think the show has aged i will always have a respect for ryan murphy, watching his shows were the first time i had really felt seen as an lgbtq+ youth. He made shows that made me both laugh and feel exactly how i felt on a daily basis as a trans youth with hella mental issues and i will always appreciate that
Hey hey. Non-Binary they/them here.
Just curious as to how AHS deals with themes that are relevant to LGBTQ+.
I havent seen it in years so I may have missed something. Someone else mentioned it too, which is why I'm asking.
Me and you both I have this sentiment too. I can respect what they meant to me but at the same time can acknowledge years later I don’t look at them as greatly as I once did.
@@FictitiousCtrlGames the most explicit lgbtq content of AHS is featured in this video: the issue of conversion therapy in Asylum, pretty much the whole character of Lana and the plot surrounding her. But there were queer elements in almost every season - sometimes just on the side (wasn't there a gay couple of ghosts in Murder House?), sometimes it came off more as a quirky / fraky attraction though portraied with some kindness and humanity (I can't remember their name or proper pronouns but there was a very gender non conforming character in Hotel, right?) and sometimes it was taken more serious (like Lana's storyline in Asylum or later the lesbian main couple in Cult).
A lot of the time, the show's queerness comes off as very token-y or morbid to today's standards so you wouldn't exactly call it good representation but keep in mind that even though it's only been a decade, this was a different time. As a bi teenager, the only queer rep I'd seen when I watched AHS was Queer as Folk and The L Word, both of which were specifically made for lgbtq audiences. It's the same reason why Glee was so popular back then, we simply didn't get much queer rep in television and especially not in shows openly or quietly targeted at teenagers. Plus the whole outcast vibe that is discussed both in this video and the one on Murder House - man, we just ate that shit up as edgy teens trying to come to terms with our identity struggles and mental health issues.
I feel the same as OP: I know that the show isn't objectively good and is in fact really, reeeaaally problematic but I still hold it dear for making me feel somehow understood and less alone when I needed it.
Isnt that just kinda sad, considering how badly it was done? I remember that whole era of internet/tumblr, you guys were rightly starved of content with proper representation, and I get this would serve that purpose I guess
Ryan Murphy is going to the the new Harvey Weinstein in a few years
I'm the kind of person who will give a TV show or movie way too much of my time even when I'm not really enjoying it (especially horror because it's my favourite genre). I stopped watching Asylum about 3-4 episodes in. It was awful!
I did watch the whole of the first season but I didn't like it either. I haven't watched any season of AHS since.
My flaws with this season has to do with too many things going on. The commentary on social issues was meant to push the issues in a time a lot of people didn't think about it. With that said, in this season, Sarah Paulson hadn't got annoying in the series yet. (I'm referring to her coming out on top in every season she features in.) So I can admire her performance throughout. For parts of the story though, it feels like they added some things to explain other things. Aliens and super children I don't think were needed. Bloodyface could have just chosen Kit's wife and that would have been fine. The devil stuff never really pays off in my opinion. A lot of the season just felt like men vs women. There are legit reasons to dislike Asylum, but I don't think yours are valid.
Social issues raised a decade ago when no one was really having that conversation, you can't go in raw. You have to open those lines of conversation gently and that is why it seems so shallow. In 2022, you could dive further into any of these individual issues and it wouldn't seem as bad because Asylum made it acceptable to talk about. (Not that it was just Asylum but I don't remember anyone else pushing shows with themes like this as the time.)
Why do all these channels creators sound the exact same.
It exists to serve as a relic that carries this increasingly pathetic show. Nothing even comes close to comparing to it and some of us just continue to watch the show in hopes that maybe, just maybe, this next season will surpass it. But one can only dream.
For someone who isn't offended or trying to censor things you spend a lot of time saying said things shouldn't be in the show.
I'd rather ask why Cult, Apocalypse and Double Feature exist.
i loved cult 😭
That's hard, because I frequently forget that they exist. I don't even remember Cult's plot.
In Murder House, they wrote themselves into a bad show because they couldn't keep the rules straight. In Asylum, they somehow wrote themselves into a good show by accident. The writing on AHS has always resembled a cat chasing a laser pointer. It is all over the place and doesn't know what it is chasing or why, it just wants to get that little red dot. The only season I think I've enjoyed rewatching is Roannoke which a lot of people didn't like. But, it felt to me where they had a definite idea of what they wanted to do and followed through on it. Most AHS seasons start out interesting and then completely fall apart. Others just fall apart right away.
yall are deep in denial, every point he made was valid.
No you and him are just haters with bad taste
@@elvangulley3210 I literally thought I liked ahs asylum (at least from what I could remember) but the more he spoke, the more I realized how right he was about this season. It was a mess.
@@elvangulley3210 I'm a wanda maximoff stan, zzarling, it's impossible for me to have bad taste
as a person who had my edgy ahs teen phase, there is ltierally no doubt that majoirty of the show pandered exactly to that tumblr demographic
I agree with much of your points, and I found my favorite season to actually be Roanoke, which everyone seems to actually hate, for the reason it feels like it has an actual through-line thesis. But I do enjoy putting on the series as background noise. Nothing like sorting laundry while watching Santa and clowns murder people
what a whiny breakdown but everyone is entitled to their own opinions! an awesome absolutely genre bending first of it kind tv show I remember the first time I watched murder house it absolutely blew my mind everything I loved about horror in a binge format, i still love every season just for the fact it is so unique ! your going on and on about if you wanted to watch this then watch that blah blah but what if I wanted to watch the literal MVP of horror troops all in one!? that is precisely why it is so fabulous I appreciate your eloquent commentary but everything your complaining about is the exact reason why some of us love it lol ❤️❤️
I remember liking Asylum until that whole alien subplot for some reason that ruined it for me.
That’s like the first scene 💀
@@Xmasonfieldingx was it?? I don't even remember 😅 all I know is the alien thing just sort of didn't fit in with the rest.
Bruh it literally starts with aliens and is the reason Kit goes to the Asylum.
This is pretty trash criticism imo. We get it, left wing causes are sacred and can’t be a part of something that’s trashy and provocative for entertainment without a deeper meaning. Shit on the church all you want, but if conversion therapy is in the same episode as a joke of any kind it’s time to clutch some pearls.
It was entertaining and disturbing, and that’s pretty much all I wanted from it, and all anyone should have expected from it really.
One of my favorite seasons! A good mix of everything and the stories that he creates in here is overall amazing creativity.
something to critize about this video, is that is the 1st video I watch from u, and I already have to go throught hearing 10 minutes of you defending yourself, sorry I just got bored hahaha
My experience with AHS has rarely been actual horror and far more purely entertainment based. The only example I could really find comparability wise would be saying that The Room is trying to be a drama, but it ends up being hilarious. AHS makes active attempts at being a drama, horror, and ‘thought provoking’ television and it ends up being comedic at every turn despite its efforts. Coven is the only real season that’s cognizant of this, and that’s why it ends up being, at least in my view, the only season of the show that ends up being genuinely solid in its execution.
That show was fun in the beginning, went off the rails when they decided to make all seasons part of one story.
Glad I’m not the only one who thought this season wasn’t that great! Everyone says asylum is their fav season & I’ve never understood why it’s like you said it said a lot but really didn’t say anything
I really didn’t like it either personally
Bad taste looking for the few people that agree how sad
I know your comment is from a year ago, but I wanted to say I felt this season was the one that was the most horrifying. The other seasons seem to have more camp than horror, while this season felt like the horror element was the strongest. It's not my favorite since I enjoyed Coven the most. I just loved the characters and I love witches. But when I talk about AHS with people who have never seen it, I usually will tell them Asylum has the scariest elements and feels the most horrifying compared to the others.
@@elvangulley3210 lol looking for? It popped up on my feed just like yours 🤦🏾♀️🤣 nice try tho sheep always go with the flock
@@aroorooroo that’s cool for you I disagree I felt it was camp & tropy & the Anne frank thing & the Alien thing it was just too much. I think Roanoke was actual the most scary season & had the best horror elements. Coven is definitely my favorite & freak show is my least favorite
American Horror Story is like: "Throw 999 subplots against the wall, hope it sticky and make it lead nowhere, just for some more shoking scenes"
Your analysis is honestly why I have a 50/50 love hate relationship with AHS but specifically S1-S4
Ryan Murphy cannot write an ending. Every season of AHS and Scream Queens suffers from this curse.
I think people got mad at the "targeting teenagers" part because of the actual content in the show. The marketing may be targeted towards teenagers, yes, but if you're a fan of the show you would know how adult the content can get
Funny thing is, the actress @ 18:45 also played the woman Clarice saved in The Silence of the Lambs. The senator's daughter that Buffalo Bill pushed into the van. (She was also in Grey's Anatomy.) AHS: Asylum definitely had a lot of references to other media that were honesty better.
I like this review ‘cause many of the things you critize are exactly why I love the show; it’s camp horror. Over the top, gratuitous violence, constantly trying to shock you in different ways, soapy storylines mixed with actual queer/black themes (in horror!). The show could be technically better without a lot of these immoderate, tonally dissonant things but idk if I would have it any other way.
Yea he's essentially grading it with an incorrect rubric.
He isn't criticizing it for being those things, he obviously likes those things as well, he's criticizing it for only gesture to those things but having no follow through or payoff to the many , many themes it touches on.
No one should be mad at you for how you feel about something...I like to hear all views on things I enjoy watching! Good or bad,everyone has an opinion.
He is full of shit with bad takes just trying to be edgy insulting a successful beloved show some can get its fans to comment on his crappy videos
Before I even finish this video..... Asylum is by far the best AHS season. No debate. Best
Best season ever. Good video though, see your points def
The problem with AHS is they always have too many side storylines
I clenched my fist while reading the title but... the real question is why does AHS: Hotel exists? Apart from Gaga's glam looks, Sarah Paulson's "different" role and the pretty sets, everything else is mess. One thing I disliked about Asylym was the alien indications but nevertheless, it still is my fav season hand in hand with Coven. Really close comes Red Tide. Don't get me started on Death Valley...Ugh! Season 10 had so much potential and it was seperated in two parts.
All in all if we sit and watch and rewatch ofc we're going to find more flaws but to me Asylym is still one of the best seasons, if not the best.
Oh I actually prefer Hotel over Asylum lmao. But it could just be that I don't like when something bad happens to characters just for plot. Like for Lana and Kit, of course you feel bad for them, they did nothing from and were essentially tortured for it. Its really hard to see them as anything but victims of their circumstances, no matter what they do afterwards. And as a viewer I feel as helpless as them, there's no room for emotions. In Hotel on the other hand, I feel like no one was put into their situation just for the plot or for us to feel bad for them. I can see why and how they landed there and feel different emotion for each character and their actions.
Oh and I loved Red Tide, really surprisingly, I could have had a whole season just for that one.
"What happened to the vampire baby?"
I appreciated your take on Murder House not aging well, this is something I see in many shows I enjoyed when I was younger but now see the troubling side of through perspective I've gained with time. Although Murder House is my favorite AHS season I do see that, like most of Ryan Murphy's shows, it depends too heavily on shock value and exploitative material that doesn't hold up and the editing can be nauseating too. I always thought Asylum was a missed opportunity. Unlike Murder House which at least had a cohesive story that unfolded nicely with a great conclusion, Asylum started off with so much intrigue and potential but after a few episodes it lost momentum and became messy going in a direction that didn't end as satisfyingly as what was teased in the beginning. Too often opening doors on fascinating, though not fully thought out, possibilities just to end without getting the most out of them. This was a pattern I saw repeated in the future AHS seasons and I became accustomed to bracing myself for disappointment. I also realized after many seasons of a show called American Horror Story there was very little actual horror in it. Even though the actor's performances are admirable I eventually lost interest and gave up on AHS entirely not even finishing season 10. I relate a lot with you saying that 10 years ago I had a lot of love for the show but my nostalgia for it today is in very short supply because the majority of memories I have watching it aren't the most positive. You said it perfectly when you described it as juvenile, that's basically what Ryan's style of writing is. Often contrived and shallow, catering to his own preferences and unable to convey powerful messages without making it into a spectacle that comes off as tasteless. He also strikes me as someone with an ego problem and doesn't take criticism well so he surrounds himself with yesmen that don't challenge him to do better work. More often than not with his shows, you just get emotionally played with and have the rug pulled out from under you which is why I've stopped watching anything new he's attached to. Awesome job on this video!
I personally love AHS and Asylum is my favourite season. I rewatch it more than any of the other seasons. Instead of asking myself why did I watch Asylum I'm led to the question, why did I watch this video? It's 20 minutes of my life I won't be getting back. If you don't like something, don't watch it. I clicked on this bc it's about Asylum but I'm regretting it. And although perhaps they tied in teen grabs, everyone I know who watches and loves the shit out of it are in their 50's.
I love AHS, too, but "Don't watch it" is such a weak argument, lol. I mean, you didn't have to *watch this video* yet you did, and it wasn't titled: "Why Asylum is the bomb!", so those 20 minutes you lost are on you.🤷♀️ ~A fellow GenXer
@@heathernks8 Fair enough 👌. I considered that after making the post. However it's still my fav.
no but you're right. i remember being 14 when i watched american horror story- asylum a fuckton of years ago and when i finished it i asked myself what the actual fuck was going on. at least all of the other seasons have a cohesive themes, being it a haunted house, witches, freaks, a haunted hotel and vampires and shit like that. asylum literally threw in the mix multiple themes that could have been explored separately (you tell me how its possible to have in the same show aliens, demonic possessions, a twisted asylum, a serial killer, a NAZI for fuck's sake and idk what else) and the result is a complete mess. loved sarah paulson there, i really did, but it's so messy and not everything about it can be explained by the fact it's intentionally campy. i really don't understand how when i was younger ppl could say this was the best season of ahs
I haven't seen this season since becoming an adult, but this was one of the only seasons that really upset me, since I've been institutionalized before
Cult freaked me out bc at the time I had really bad agoraphobia, but it actually helped me get over it by the end!
So now that I'm fully invested in you tearing apart one of my favorite seasons if not /the/ favorite of AHS, I would LOVE to see how you react to the seasons that follow because, believe me, it just gets worse from here. I don't know if me being a teenager when I first watched this made me enjoy it or if it was more a show of the times, but this and the third season have the most cohesive plots in my opinion so if you found this to be filled with twists and drama then I can't imagine how undigestible the rest will be!
i mean he outright says he isn’t willing to make more ahs videos lol
Oh man oh man- when you mentioned Ratched I immediately thought “Man…if you haven’t seen it yet and feel this way about AHS, then I am BEGGING you to watch it to witness just how awful it is” and now all I want is to watch people pick Ratched apart so badly. As a mentally ill AND bisexual woman it pissed me off more than Asylum did; it was insultingly bad and I felt genuinely really upset by it. The only positive thing I can say is that visually it has some really striking moments. I used to like Ryan Murphy’s stuff when I was in high school but then I started to realize how messy, lazy, and genuinely problematic a lot of it is. I’m glad there are people out there willing to point these things out, mad props for being a lot less biased then I would’ve been in your deconstruction here.
@Christi Schmidt Oh absolutely; Charlotte’s story was probably the most poorly handled out of all of the narratives they presented in that show. Additionally, dissociative identity disorder doesn’t even work like how Murphy depicted it in the show- patients who experience significant trauma as adults typically don’t develop DID as it’s usually a result of childhood trauma specifically(I say almost bc I’m not an expert, so please take that with a grain of salt, I base this on reading I did in various places after watching the show as, while I suffer from mental illness myself, I do not suffer from DID). As an adult, Miss Wells wouldn’t typically have that sort of trauma response, developing a significant and debilitating case of PTSD would be a much more plausible and realistic response to write in as a response to trauma that horrific as an adult. I would love to see someone here on RUclips to do a full deconstruction and breakdown of everything wrong with the show. The only redeeming quality(which by no means redeems the show imo) is how stunning some of the shots and costumes are and how visually interesting it is. It’s candy for the eyes but, frankly, kind of toxic for the viewing audience. I was shocked to see so many reviewers giving the show like 5s out of 10s and incredibly average ratings across the board when it first came out bc the deeper one dives into an analytical breakdown of the show, the more clearly it becomes how truly horrendous it is on every level.
I think Ryan Murphy is generally careless with every single WLW arc ever. The way he touted Britana bordering on the male gaze for GLEE, the way he approached the lesbian couple for Cult about one being bitter and vengeful for not getting to carry their child(🙄), and the way PROM was more about the shallow adults than the teen lesbians (which the film is too afraid to even say the L word) that the movie's supposed to be about. He just doesn't seem to hold them to much regard at all😔
Someone said earlier, it was for teenagers, oop! Meeps just said it too.. so that explains it all..
This was one of the most unfocused reviews I have seen. I think he was trying to say that the season’s main theme was unclear or not well developed. But why does it need to be? Why can’t there just be a story? Why does it need to be compared to E.T.s theme when it is clearly a very different piece of entertainment? I have my problems with American Horror Story, especially the later seasons but I think Asylum is one of the series strong points in terms of storytelling. This video just left me confused on what he was trying to say.
Also just because many teens watch American Horror Story does not mean that they are the target audience. Sorry but that’s just not true and I don’t really understand why he spent like 2 minutes trying to argue otherwise. I really hate when people try to say “oh it’s just a kids show” or teen show whatever like that really makes a difference on the shows quality
i agree i put the video on 2x speed to see if he was just gonna keep with the unfocused rambling or actually make any coherent points.. waste of time lol
Look, if blood, gore, sexual assault, amongst other things are for kids...then I'm definitely living in the wrong timeline or something.
Teenagers, not "kids". Teens are also called "young adults". Kids implies the lower age range of youth, whereas teens involves the coming-of-age years. This is target audience and appeal, not what's necessarily best for them lmao. Teen slashers are aimed at teens as well, they often include all those things you listed.
Because there needs to be at least one good AHS season that’s why
I enjoyed the whole series. A show before its time.
best season, period.
AHS Asylum had convoluted storylines especially the Alien theme.
At the end of the series , I was like what!?!
But I still enjoyed it.
Just calm guys!
It’s his opinion.
It’s his channel.
😊✌️
The aliens were a major WTF moment for me 😂 I don’t know why they decided to make them “real” in the season. I think it would have worked great as a delusion
@@ellaelliott4415 my thoughts exactly!!
That storyline was the most disjointed one in the series.
Personally I don't really have much of an issue with most of criticisms, just his conclusion that this show has no reason to exist. I generally hate those kinds of overly dramatic and definitive statements, especially here where the answer to his question "why does this exist?" is so obvious. It exists because it combines all those types of horror he mentioned into one semi-anthology package. Like, that's why the show is called "American Horror Stories", its supposed to combine various types of horror stories into one connected package.
Whether you like or hate what the show is doing, it does fulfill a niche that people enjoy.
I remember watching this with my mom when I was about 15, the first season of AHS felt scary to me but also too long and convoluted, the Asylum just made me feel like I was doing something wrong just by watching it, almost like this gore websites you'd look at with your mates at school. Watching it made me feel miserable.
It blows my mind that AHS was aired in the first place too. It’s seriously twisted and triggering, but I also understand that it’s supposed to be that way. I’ve needed to skip episodes when I watch it so I don’t get triggered. Asylum is a solid season, much better than Coven (which is a fan favourite). Is it great? No, but it’s definitely not the worst
Completely on point. I felt all of this the first time I watched it and couldn't finish. The stuff about misogyny and homophobia felt like cheap exploitation posing as cultural criticism.
It exists because AHS has to have a best season.
I’m a big horror buff. I never liked ahs. I watched murder house and half of asylum and I said, nah, this shit sucks.
i agree with the fact that ahs hasn’t aged well, when i was 13 (in 2019) i watched it thinking it was the best thing i ever saw but i would try and go back to watch as i got older during the pandemic and after all the protests ( and after being assaulted in december of 2019) it changed the way i viewed the show, hotel will always be my favorite season bc it got me through a tuff time in my life but i don’t know if i could ever watch it again, i’d feel like i’d ruin its significance for me
AHS encapsulates different existential GenX fears every season. Having your kid turn into a school shooter is one of those. We were raised on stories of UFOs & Roanoke as school readers. Our teenage foibles made us the targets of movie slashers. Girls dreamed of exotic powers to fight the patriarchy, nuclear war was always around the corner, and cloud of death hung over love.
It's all a parable.
A fantastic and thought provoking review as always. Thank you for all the time and effort you put in to make such great content you really get me thinking. This season was as big a mess as I was on seeing the Evan Peters in a pair of tighty whities scene.
God Asylum had so much going on. I enjoyed watching it, but the cluttered chaos of themes made it hard to digest anything after I watched an episode.
Coven and Freak show are where it's at.