Come one, come all to the new weekly TV Recap of American Horror Story: Freak Show in which every Thursday I take a look at the latest happenings in Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities. What will the fourth season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series bring and what will we remember from this delightfully oddball group of characters? Join me as I look at the Top 5 Characters of the week, recap important events, and share overall thoughts on the series as well as any other interesting tidbits worth of mention.
Top 5 Characters of the Week
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| Jessica Lange |
1. Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange)
Importance: Without Elsa, none of this season's plot would likely be put into place. She is the one who runs Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities and embraces the misfits in her troupe that feature bearded women, a two-headed woman, a lobster boy, and so many others. Without her and the big red-and-white tent, everyone would be forced to wander around as outcasts being yelled at by people passing by in their cars. As long as she has "freaks" that need her, she will fight to keep the show going.
Best Scene: It is time for the troupe to put on their first show to a whopping crowd of two people who are fascinated by every small deformity. After introducing her team, Elsa breaks out into a rendition of David Bowie's "Life on Mars." With Baz Luhrmann-level productions, the stage show slowly unravels from Elsa singing on a miniature rocket to confetti everywhere and her troupe performing alongside her. It may come late in the episode, but it still feels like the welcoming to the Freak Show season that is necessary. The appropriately used song doesn't hurt either, as it both implies the outcast nature and plays into Elsa's last name.
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| John Carroll Lynch |
2. Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch)
Importance: Before Freak Show dares to imply that all freaks are good people, it introduces Twisty the Clown. With a dirty outfit and a make-up job that suggests that his face was painfully removed, it is alarming to first meet Twisty. Is he just a misunderstood man with a grotesque face? It is quickly revealed that nope, he is a serial killer a'la John Wayne Gacy. Throughout the episode, he murders at least five people and captures two hostages for whom he makes balloon animals. It is unnerving and while it plays too much into the trope of "ugly clown is evil,' it is still an effective, enigmatic tool for this first episode. What does he want with Elsa and the troupe? So much to discover with this character.
Best Scene: It is a tough call, but the introduction may be the best choice here. As a couple randomly is enjoying their time out in a beautiful field, Twisty walks up and begins to woo the woman. He pulls out flowers and does the familiar clown gestures. It is disarming, considering that we've already met quite a few sympathetic "freaks." To watch him slowly turn evil as the boyfriend interferes suggests that something is afoul here. It only gets worse from here and that face will likely haunt you the further into the episode things get.
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| Evan Peters |
3. Jimmy "Lobster Boy" Darling" (Evan Peters)
Importance: It may seem like an overstatement at first to put him this high up. Compared to others, his webbed fingers that earned him the Lobster Boy moniker is rather tame. Still, as the episode goes and he slowly succumbs to the hatred that are thrown upon the freaks, he loses it. He becomes a monster of unruly proportions by killing a cop and declaring that the "freaks" bond together and kill anyone who stands against them. With Twisty the Clown overhearing this, it will make for an interesting season if Lobster Boy gets his way. Will Elsa's good will run out when the chaos starts? Will Lobster Boy turn into a down right psychopath? He only lets loose towards the end, so it's hard to tell. Nonetheless, he is mad and won't take it anymore.
Best Scene: With the show behind them, he talks to a police officer who wishes to shut down Elsa's show. This results in Lobster Boy stabbing him and leaving the corpse to rot. As the group decides to bury him, he forms a meeting that is clearly inspired by paranoia. When he accuses the cop of being a general representation of how society has let them down, he declares that they should kill anyone who stands in their way. With everyone raising shovels, it is a haunting declaration of psychopaths to come. As stated, Twisty the Clown is on the outskirts listening in, which may or may not cause the two forces to band together.
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| Sarah Paulson |
4. Bette and Dot Taylor (Sarah Paulson)
Importance: They're our entryway into Elsa's world. Well, actually a murdering of a milkman gets us to the Taylor sisters, but from there, it's all on for the two-headed woman. We meet them in the hospital and through a diary-like exposition, things slowly unravel and the revelation of them being new talent in Elsa's show allows for the reveals of a lot major events in the episode. They draw a new audience and create some new buzz. While they're still getting their footing, they seem to be quite the attraction, as they get the attention of half (read: one) of the audience members. Not bad for a pair who murdered their mother with scissors because she wouldn't take them to Singin' in the Rain.
Best Scene: The introduction to Elsa may be the best point. At this point in the episode, we have seen two deaths and are still being mislead through a series of events. We don't know what to expect. Along with an inventive use of split screen, the first meeting with Elsa opens up the possibilities that they can be accepted as real people. Elsa's involvement cannot be understated enough. Their ecstatic joy comes over their face as they find out about this mystical new place. And with that, it is the introduction to Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities through the head of a really creepy looking demon thingy.
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| Kathy Bates |
5. Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates)
Importance: It is actually a tough call, as most of the remaining characters were simply introduced this week. However, Ethel seems interesting because she is probably Elsa's biggest defender. She loves her and everything that has been done. As the mother of Lobster Boy, she understands what it's like to be a freak and wants to be kind and loving. She doesn't get to do much beyond provide a defensive exposition about Elsa, but she may come to be one of the more sympathetic characters in the series.
Best Scene: There is only one that stands out. As Bette and Dot are getting acquainted with their new environment, Ethel brings them food. Bette doesn't want to eat it, but Ethel insists that they're in a good place and that whatever bad notions they have are unwarranted. It is a wonderful place of acceptance and even if everyone looks strange, their hearts are in the right place and should be trusted.
Overall Thoughts
I have been putting off watching American Horror Story because I saw an advertisement for the first season and it didn't look interesting. From there, I chose to ignore it and have personally not seen a single episode up until this one. The reason that I chose to start a TV Recap series on Freak Show is because I have fallen for the hype. I have had friends tell me that it is better than I'm assuming it is. As someone who has a mixed relationship with Ryan Murphy's work (The New Normal - good, Glee - bad), I wasn't immediately ready to give this a shot despite countless Emmy nominations (as a "Miniseries"). Yet here I am because through my friends and a mixture of appealing advertisements, I am curious to see how this goes.
Going in, I assumed that it would be very much a campier version of Todd Browning's Freaks. For the most part, the creepy "One of us" scene is hard not to recall while watching the second act. It takes awhile to get used to the deformities and differences. Most of the characters aren't fully formed as personalities yet. In some cases, the campy sexuality overpowers some scenes for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Does Murphy just like exploring hormonal subjects? I'm more specifically talking about Lobster Boy's introduction being when he has sex with a woman (doing, as Nymphomaniac would call it, the quiet duck). I suppose it works to add a goofy tone to the show that much like the interesting opening credits sequence, paves the way for a creepy undertone.
In fact, it is hard for me to really praise much about this show without first directly discussing how I feel about the directing. Yes, Murphy is very campy, but where Glee felt annoyingly so, here he applies it in more nuanced fashion. Elsa singing "Life on Mars" is a rather striking scene of beauty. Other times two tones are applied side-by-side. In the case of Twisty's first murder, it is a horrific scene that immediately jumps to a doowop song at a diner. It is an amazing moment of tonal shifts that is so jarring that it couldn't have been unintentional. It was wonderful and I love the playfulness that comes with how the scenes are shot. Another instance is the split screen of Bette and Dot, whom in a conversation with Elsa, shows the screen moving constantly. It has been awhile since I have seen any split screen use that creative.
Most of all, I feel like Murphy's camerawork is underrated. Along with a rather queasy score, the scenes play like every over-the-top trope out there. Quick cuts, fast scenes, low camera angles, and everything that you associate with old school horror is present. Even the lighting feels a little forceful. It is the saving grace of the episode because while I come away totally enjoying the show in ways that I wasn't expecting, it has a lot to do with a director who clearly is having fun messing with the audience's head. Not to mention using "Life on Mars" felt like an out-of-left-field level of unexpectedness that totally paid off. It's experimental for sure, but it all comes together beautifully.
With that said, the story is pretty straightforward otherwise. Freaks come together and there's an uprising in effect. There are some surprises, as I feel like Twisty the Clown's make-up job adds to an otherwise cliche character. Still, it has been awhile since I have seen a horror show that is this playful and unexpected visually. Yes, having sat through Penny Dreadful and a quarter of The Strain, I can come away appreciating more how these series are formulated and what actually works. Don't let me "low" grade fool you. I was personally enthralled by the fact that something like this exists and looks so good. It's just that the story at times wasn't necessarily game changing. Bring on the next episode!
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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