American Horror Story Coven S3, E12 Review: “Go To Hell”
After last week’s “Protect the Coven” fiasco, my expectations for American Horror Story: Coven were destroyed and basically reset to zero. I had to remind myself that it’s just a television show and that it’s certainly working within some strict limitations. I am not changing my mind about last week’s episode, but I am choosing to look at this episode in a different light. A better light, because in many ways this was a better episode.
American Horror Story Coven S3, E11 Review “Protect the Coven”
One of my favorite things about AHS in general has always been the pre-credit opening sequences. “Go To Hell” took it to a sweet new level by incorporating a silent black and white informational film about the Seven Wonders. Fans of the horror genre will certainly get a kick out of the old school homage and the almost comedic self-referencing this show has been known for. Of course the seven wonders won’t actually occur until the finale next week, but now we finally know what they are.
This week’s story wasn’t particularly interesting. Basically, we got the standard AHS plot endings. Leveau and LaLaurie end up tangoing with Papa Legba once more. Legba was a personal favorite character of mine from this season, and one I wish had gotten more exploration and screen time. As in the tradition of AHS, many of the deaths in “Go To Hell” felt completely random and underwhelming, but in many ways they brought the brutality most of the earlier episodes had been missing. I certainly was never bored, but we seemingly got some characters who won’t be returning next episode, and a lot of those characters could have gone out in a more interesting and convincing way. The Axeman is still the dumbest character this season has had, and his constant pops ups have become so obnoxious lately I was patiently awaiting his death. Which turned out to be pretty entertaining, but again, adds nothing to the actual story.
Therein lies the problem with Coven, and with American Horror Story as a whole. It comes off like they just write these episodes week to week without any actual plan set into place. The first episode of Coven gave us an almost demented Harry Potter by way of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. An intriguing set up with a group of strange young witches. Sadly, though, as the season went on, the focus shifted almost exclusively to the older generation, effectively making the show something of a soap opera in the process. Now we are left with 2 episodes and they have decided to switch our attention back to the young group of witches. You know, the ones who have been barely doing anything the whole season? It’s disappointing and annoying that these great set ups, old supreme vs new supreme, witch hunters, the voodoo women. Literally none of these initial problems ever became much more than an itch in the side for these ladies. The voodoos joined the witches, the witch hunters got killed in the most cowardly way possible, and the old supreme is now dead, but not by the hands of the new supreme. The worst part is that we know now none of these things will be brought back up, at least I hope they won’t. When it comes to AHS anything is possible, but that’s becoming more of a bad thing in recent episodes where it used to be a good one.
It’s not that this season is 100% terrible, but like Murder House and Asylum, Ryan and Brad just seem content to keep churning out the same mediocre story lines year after year sprinkled with bits of the unexpected and the sense of macabre. If AHS had actually tried to learn from its previous mistakes, it could be amazing, but until it learns to control the chaos, this show will continue to suffer in guilty pleasured obscurity.
Bring on the Seven Wonders…I guess.
