For a certain type of person, tonight is a big deal because it marks the return of American Horror Story. It remains the horror anthology series that could, setting a precedent that some would argue is better than the back half of any season. Even then, the marketing has been spot on in not giving anything away while managing to create a compelling interest in what each year will bring. In the case of season seven, or Cult, it focuses around the 2017 American presidential election, so expect there to be some politics with your scares. But until tonight when the curtains rise on the new season, here's a look back at what's come before with a ranking of each season from best to worst, showing just how diverse and odd things have been over the past seven years.
1. Asylum (Season Two)
If the entire series deserves to be remembered for one season, it has to be season two's Asylum. Having made a surprisingly effective debut with Murder House, the show introduced itself as an anthology show with one of TV's more sporadic, inexplicable seasons of TV ever. Whether it's Nazi doctors, a girl who claims to be Anne Frank, alien abductions, a homicidal Santa Claus, or "The Name Game" number; the show never lacks a moment that will either appall or horrify in ways that may hint at the campier seasons to come, but for now show a kind of horror that plays to Ryan Murphy's strengths. It isn't just one of the most gripping seasons because of how unpredictable it is. It's also one of the best because of how the finale manages to make bittersweet sense of it all, proving just how sympathetic Murphy is towards this genre.
2. Roanoke (Season Six)
Following the excessive nature of Hotel, season six decided to strip everything away (even an official credits sequence) to create a docu-drama meta commentary on the very idea of horror as a form of entertainment. It's a season that played up the deranged elements, returning to the baffling well at every turn, and officially proving what type of show it would decide to be in a post-Jessica Lange world. It's a show about haunted houses, demonic cults, and a history that is so perverse in its supernatural way that it's hard to explain. The finale tried, but its inability to make total sense is part of the reason that it is a return to form that plays with style and shows that American Horror Story isn't as out of ideas as some would think.
3. Coven (Season Three)
For some, this was the turning point between the show being strictly horror to something campier and less scary. It couldn't help but be, given that it took the idea of a sorority and turned them into witches dueling each other for supremacy. Add in a Stevie Nicks cameo, and you get one of the more creative seasons structurally, as it focuses more on a dynamic that Murphy and crew would explore less successfully on Scream Queens later on. Here, it was part of a richer tapestry that tried to pit sororities into the history of covens along with bizarre diatribes about race (lest we forget the bizarre ending of "Head"). It was the beginning of the self-mythologizing for the series, and it worked in large part because of its acid tongue. It had its flaws, but it at least knew how to be fun.
4. Murder House (Season One)
If nothing else, this is the season that started it all. Some would consider it the only "full horror" season of the show, but it clearly had campy elements in the background from burying someone under a gazebo to the strange history of Jessica Lange's child rearing. The show deserves credit for bringing together a lot of the central talent would return time and again to the series to try whatever silly nonsense that Murphy has cooked up for them. It may be sometimes limiting in its tone due to the kinks not quite being worked out, but it's not without its twists (including a creepy final minute). While the show has arguably done better and worse in the years since, it's interesting to watch this and see just how much crazier what is to come actually was, which is saying a lot for a series that began with a school shooting character.
5. Hotel (Season Five)
American Horror Story had a tough angle to achieve following Freak Show. Not only was it the most maligned season in the show's history, but it was the departure of the series' crown jewel Jessica Lange. What could the show be without her? On one hand, Lady GaGa tried her darnedest to fill in as a queen of the night vampire type character with so much softcore eroticism in the first few episodes. It was a lush show full of excess and beauty in ways that played to the show's strength. It was its most expansive year yet, and it worked both as an experiment and failed as a series wanting to have too heady of a concept. It's not a terrible season necessarily, but it's one that had so much going on that it was hard to keep everything straight, sometimes at the expense of the show's personal interests. Still, it got Lady GaGa a Golden Globe, so that's something.
6. Freak Show (Season Four)
In some ways, this season's failures are a bit ironic given that it was one of the most watched premieres in the series' history. It even had one of the series most iconic characters, Twisty the Clown, on full display for prominent portions of the episode. However, the show took its circus act plot and turned it into a vindictive story in which half the freaks were criminals and the rest were in a melodrama that didn't quite fit with the other tone. On one hand, it does have a wonderful send off of Jessica Lange, who got to also sing a great cover of Lana Del Rey's "Gods and Monsters" at one point. Still, those accusing the show of self-indulgence wouldn't be disappointed by the back half here. If the show has one major redemptive arc, it's that it began to explore the shared universe narrative that each progressing season has expanded upon. Still, it's an example of what the show gets mocked for: promising starts and incoherent ends. It's why it's the black sheep of the series.
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